> There is not enough funding or investment in longevity to consider it over-hyped. Compare it to, say, AI and VR. Or even meat substitutes.

You're very much mistaken.

The National Institute of Health gets $31B of government funds every year for research. The NSF gets $8B, NASA gets $20B, and DARPA gets around $3B. So healthcare research gets roughly 50% of the entire U.S. public research budget, and that's not including private investment.

It's difficult to pull accurate numbers, but meat substitutes, VR, and even super-hot AI get far less every year, it's nowhere near healthcare research.

Extending life has been a priority of the US government for many years, largely because it's politically popular. Everyone rich or poor wants to live longer.