How Long Could Science Increase Our Lifespan?

Uncover the truth behind the human lifespan. From Ancient Rome to modern America, discover the progress we've made in extending life expectancy and the flaws in measuring it. Join us as we explore the science of aging, the pursuit of immortality, and the ongoing debate on the limits of human longevity.

[@pucknorris3473]

Imagine how many channels simon is going to have in 158 years.

[@bateman2112]

All of them

[@ddanielsandberg]

KZbin + 158 years = SimonsTube

[@oldschoolman1444]

Simon says

[@psy-v]

His photograph is now in the dictionary under the definition of "n+1"

[@raynardhymen2139]

Still not enough

[@evo2542]

I feel like in order to bring out my full potential as a human, 80 years isn't enough. 200-300 years seems ideal. I doubt I'd wanna live for 1000 years but who knows.

[@joshgroft5682]

I agree with you on both points.

[@Ilyak1986]

Then I argue you should be the one with the agency to decide that, as opposed to say, aging.

[@RandomWandrer]

I wonder if 1000 year old humans will be mentally stable....

[@zzajizz]

Very important point. Most people will only fret over the possible effects of overpopulation, but I think extending human lifespans will have the opposite effect. In the long run human population would be likely to fall than to increased quality and quantity of life, and the ability to maximize human potential would lead to faster and greater technological progress and adaptations to solve the problems we face now.

[@reachthezora1912]

​​@@RandomWandrer 20 years humans right now are not so I don't think they would want to live 1000 years

[@jonathanpicket124]

As someone who studies aging in worms, I am completely convinced that we will cure aging. I am a huge fan of the approach that the SENS foundation and other research institutes are taking. Never before in human history have we had the tools necessary to put the puzzle pieces together like we do now. It's a very exciting time to be alive!

[@jonathanpicket124]

@Gonzalo De La Maza Mendizabal except that problematic mutations could theoretically be fixed with a combination of more advancements in sequencing technologies and targeted CRISPR delivery technologies (similar to the currently developed RNA delivery methods in RNA vaccines). These technologies are already here and being used, it's simply a matter of continued development. 😁

[@frojojo5717]

Yeah! I fully expect to be chillin during the heat death of the universe. Keep up the good work.

[@usern4metak3ns]

Worms basically recycle themselves. However I doubt they have much consciousness

[@jonathanpicket124]

@@usern4metak3ns all multicellular organisms basically recycle themselves. That's exactly why studying a much simpler organism like worms is useful for understanding how things work in humans. There are a lot of conserved mechanisms.

[@usern4metak3ns]

@@jonathanpicket124 well my frame of mind is maybe they are simple creatures, because they recycle themselves

[@stanleykachuik2589]

Just a couple months ago I read about the first successful use of crisper gene editing of disease in living patients. This could be used to reset hormonal production of the organs to allow ourselves to live youthful for longer. I'd take living like I'm 25 for 80 years over living for 150 years in a heartbeat.

[@victorvale1015]

Is that the same as somatic gene therapy?

[@michaelq92]

@@victorvale1015 no it uses RNA to target a specific region to deliver a cutting enzyme to remove the part of DNA causing disease in the mutation. Somatic therapy aims to activate somatic (sleeping) cells that don't have a mutation. Both techniques are likely to be ineffective as actual therapy the former being significantly more effective in terms of research. It's not unlikely that effective therapy would involve modified virus but we don't build computational systems to figure that out because REASONS. Binary analysis is completely ineffective in other words you can't simplify an electronegative system based on position with computer that can't determine positions with electronegativity (feel free to read that as electromagnetic interaction on a molecular level).

[@michaelq92]

You can also just buy those hormones and have a doctor inject them into you but it's unlikely your body naturally slows down hormone production for no reason so it's more like live like your 25 until your fifty and shits so worn down you can barely move or think then age rapidly as your immune system functions normally to remove the broken pieces that you've been patching with chewing gum for the last 25 years. Or you know massive cancer activated in your late 30s instead of 70s

[@ngantnier]

We've created mice which can be aged forward and backwards at will by giving them antibiotics. By reactivating the yamanaka factors and resetting the cells to a pluripotent state.

[@jebes909090]

What do you think the covid 'vaccinations' are. They are a world wide gene therapy test.

[@AddledMindInc]

I really want to be biologically immortal. I doubt I would kick around for more than a few thousand years at best, but I am so SO excited to see where our species is headed. We're on the edge of greatness and I want to know if we make it or break it.

[@justsomekidthatsinfinitely7090]

Same. I don’t know if this applies to you as well, but I’m not really afraid of death h, just disappointed about all the things I’ll miss out on

[@Azamat421]

Good joke we can't even save eearth

[@craigpierce7996]

Being a corporate slave for a thousand years doesn't sound too appealing to me. You can take my place...

[@craigpierce7996]

@@kevinkarlwurzelgaruti458 You truly have to be an "Earth Bound Soul" to wish that. Many are... Many more fear death. In any regard, as long as money is the world's governor, then it will be a hell hole. Your just describing temporary get-a-ways, but the majority of the time, you're working for the Man. I just wouldn't want to be negotiating, bartering or manipulating my way around the money maze for that time period. The normal lifespan is more than enough experience for me!

[@thuranz2773]

Me too mate. Me too. Though probably want to be around for as long as I possibly can to experience and see as much as possible.

[@felipefairbanks]

I was 11 minutes into the episode and was thinking "wasted the opportunity to talk about David Sinclair and the information theory of aging." Glad to be proven wrong. I'm really confident we will be able to be "amortals" (dying only if killed, not naturally). At least anyone below 40 should, because that gives at least another 30 years of scientific discoveries. and all that is really needed is to be able to turn aging back more than a year in the space of a year for eternal youth to be achievable.

[@ikkezelf599]

If your right about those 30 yrs and finding a anti die pill it absolutely wouldn't be beneficial for everybody under 40 it would be made so expensive that only a very small percentage would be able to pay for it. It would also be the end of mankind if 7 billion people all get to be a x amount years before being killed by murder or accident as i don't think people would all agree on not to have offspring. It would be even harder to find decent living space that is affordable (in the Netherlands you will be waiting if start looking today for ten years how would that look if this pill is realized? Am going to be extra careful with my flat from today i don't want to be looking 70 yrs for appartements 😉

[@felipefairbanks]

@@ikkezelf599 about it being expensive: it wouldn't the marginal cost decreases as more people use it. to make the first unaging human, billions will be spent. the second, way less, the 3rd, even less. and governments all around the world would probably pay for it, because if you are young forever, you don't need to retire, you probably will get less sick... so the public spending on those things will go down way more than the cost of the therapy. as for we being all doomed if we live forever, I don't think so. first because the population growth has been decreasing for a while and is predicted to stop before 2050. if that is the case, less people dying would just help maintain the population size. and second because we will at some point by the end of this century, have space colonies either on mars, the moon or both. so it is a lot more space for people to occupy.

[@ikkezelf599]

@@felipefairbanks like Lamborghini cars you mean, as those are so cheap all can afford them now with that logic. And even if it where like i said all the people not dying would have the world into food issues housing on and on it goes. No they would keep it in exclusive circles with a contract added that wen you talk you would not getting your refills (that would also be done for sure why selling it ones if you could have the one top percentage of rich folks as eternal costumers i am sure Bezos would work like that and God knows there are many more people like him sadly.

[@reinmarandi6174]

But.. Who wants to live forever? 😃

[@baz1184]

@@reinmarandi6174 many people. If you don't then don't get the treatment. Don't complain about other people who do want to live forever.

[@thewb8329]

My mother died at 95 with no diseases and was in fairly good health . She lost her appetite to eat and thirst to drink water or other fluids. She still had a strong will to live yet her body decided to slowly shut down. The hospice nurse said her circumstances were not uncommon.

[@povijestpovijest9569]

If she was healthy she wouldn't have died

[@thewb8329]

@@povijestpovijest9569 Actually probably died from old age if you count that as a disease. The doctor said there were no other causes for her loss of appetite and thirst. She was 95 after all.

[@majuscule8883]

@@thewb8329 was she mentally concious? Could she speak, smile, recognize people while slowly dieing.

[@thewb8329]

@@majuscule8883 yes

[@majuscule8883]

@@thewb8329 Seem like she lost the will to live. The brain is directly connected to the stomach, wish is considered a second brain, where gut bacterias thrive and take the role of neurones. At 95 you have a less thriving gut population and if you eat the wrong food, even less, therefore the gut abandon the brain. In the insect world, there are fungies that hijack the brain of insects, particularly ants. They manipulate and control the ant to give them a ride to a particular place where they can infect more ants. When they're done with the possessed ant, they make him bit hard on a leave until it die of starvation and dry. I believe that our gut bacterias are similar to the fungus, sometimes they want to leave the body and death of the host is the only door.

[@WolfCry791]

My issue with death isn't that it's inevitable; it's that we get a palty amount of time before that happens

[@apathyguy8338]

Personally I don't care how long I have to live as long as I get to take all of humanity with me when I go.

[@theorangeoof926]

@@apathyguy8338Ok little psychopath.

[@NightLordddd]

@@apathyguy8338 wtf

[@danielwells1734]

@@apathyguy8338 do you also not have a high opinion of the species?

[@lonnpton5239]

The mom : *"Don't worry drinking alcool wont affect my child🥴."* _The child few years later :_ @@apathyguy8338

[@leroyjenkins2639]

Thank you for explaining the life expectancy. I hate how some people actually think that most ancient people died in their 20s. It’s actually the insanely high infant mortality rate that skewed the average so much

[@pirateluffy01]

Same i actually thought our life expectancy is increasing (i know totally misleading)

[@blacklyfe5543]

What is infant high mortality?

[@pirateluffy01]

@@blacklyfe5543 Children who d*e under 1 year old

[@diysecuritygear9594]

Seriously, is the editing crew going for an award? I love it! I can't decide if your 155 beat per minute narration pace or the psychedelic imagery is better.

[@billhudson7286]

I didn't like the presentation; previously I've enjoyed a straight narration with RELEVANT video clips.

[@apathyguy8338]

I don't know the stock scientist videos that I've seen 5000 times in 5,000 other videos didn't really do a lot to impress me.

[@ignitionfrn2223]

2:35 - Chapter 1 - The inescapable clutches of death 7:40 - Chapter 2 - Methuselarity 12:45 - Wrap up

[@kieferclarkf1674]

Altered Carbon on Netflix had a good take on this. Being able to download your conscience into a new body when yours shuts down.

[@witext]

There’s nothing I would love more than to live to be 1000 years old I have a major case of fear of missing out, and while I should work on myself to get rid of my FOMO, I would still love to see mars be terraformed and the earth heal

[@NightBazaar]

I want to know what's going to happen in the future.

[@benheisenberg2633]

I would LOVE to live 1000 years, there's so much world out there

[@MuchCow9000]

Sounds like hell. If you need 1000 years to do stuff than you need to go out more lol. I'm 30 and I've done so much that I'm already bored with the same

[@sirclarkmarz]

and who's going to pay for those Thousand Years

[@AndrewManook]

@@MuchCow9000 That's bs

[@leroyjenkins0736]

@@sirclarkmarz urself you can stil work if you're alive and you will only become better at it

[@TheCasanovaPugilist147]

@@sirclarkmarz the middle class

[@dbadaddy7386]

I spoke to a couple of neuroscientists about a thought I had with the brain and long life spans. There was an episode of Dr Who in which a young woman was healed using an alien chip, but it inadvertently gave her immortality. However, her brain still had memory limits. After a few hundred years she started writing down her memories. She was still alive near the end of the universe, but of course all of her journals had long crumbled to dust. She remembered the Doctor because every day was a reminder of him, but she could really only keep a few hundred years of recent memory. Considering that every memory literally involves a change and growth in neurons, there's only so much room in the skull. Eventually the neuron density would be such that there would be crosstalk, creating what amounts to static in the brain, and after that brain damage because there's no more room. THe neuroscientists said that was basically correct, but it would take several hundred years. Also, much memory is stored in RNA, and again those molecules would break over time if not accessed regularly, plus there's only so much room. If we can't offload memories, then we're probably limited to several hundred years because the meat would have a problem.

[@OntologicalShock777]

I never saw this show, but I have also thought the same about memory limits in our brain.

[@cadenrolland5250]

So your first 100 years would be like your childhood, you'd have fond feelings but few concrete memories. Digitalizing them in videos would help, but 400 years later you'd still be like "Wow, I don't remember that, but I do remember that man, but I can't place the name or where from." It was your grandfather. "Oh yeah now I recall."

[@ComedorDelrico]

You'd just have to find a way to upload them to a computer. Could you imagine how weird it would be to not remember the first 100 years of your life but be able to look it up on a computer and read about your childhood as if it were someone else's biography?

[@bigwooly8014]

@Caden Rolland that is essentially how my brain works currently. Fond feelings, there are things I know but with zero detail. My recall on demand is broken. Only things I want to forget are stored in my brain. I can assure you, it's no way to live.

[@rhov-anion]

Brains are just like that, and I'm not sure it's important to remember everything. Would you WANT to remember million of years? Every humiliating moment, every trauma, every annoying next door neighbor? Recently I was trying to recall the last name of an old boyfriend. We dated when I was 15, then he moved way, and being before the internet, we simply lost touch. A friend mentioned him but couldn't recall his surname so she asked me, and I realized I had no idea anymore. I know it starts with an M, and it wasn't a weird last name (otherwise, I'd remember). This wasn't even that long ago, but two decades was enough time to erode the details from memories of someone I loved. Imagine all the random classmates I have literally no memory of now. (Now, if only I could completely forget my first boyfriend. He was abusive, so I'd love to block my memories of him!)

[@coppertopv365]

SIGN ME UP 1,000 years sounds good to me.

[@ASlickNamedPimpback]

"but what about when youre parents die" "what about all your family dying" "what about when all ur friends are gone" what do you think happens to seniors TODAY? sign me tf up for immortality cause nothin is changing otherwise

[@amazoring8269]

@@ASlickNamedPimpbackyeah I mean bringing out my full potential as a human seems good to me.

[@twinphalanx4465]

It cannot be overstated. The magnitude of an impact ceasing aging would be. It really should be our main goal as a species because if we can fundamentally stop aging we can keep our best minds for all of time. Imagine if we had Einstein hawking Neil deGrasse Tyson I don't know everyone everyone throughout modern history that we could keep forever until some disease that we haven't gotten rid of like Alzheimer's takes them. We would see a golden age unimaginable

[@dancegregorydance6933]

Sure. Of course it poses problems such as over population, inversion of the age pyramid. honestly I think finding better treatment or even possibly cures for Alzheimer's and cancer would go increase the average length of life.

[@twinphalanx4465]

@@dancegregorydance6933 yes but if the cure for aging is something we can create that eliminates humanitys largest issue, time. Think about where we'd be if all of the most intelligent people in our history were all still alive still in their respective fields, yes it causes new issues but we now have an indefinite amount of time together to work on a solution

[@moritakaishida7963]

It would be horrible

[@Jack-The-Gamer-]

⁠@@dancegregorydance6933 Overpopulation is a non-issue. Every scientist working on making life multi-planetary just became immortal. Problem solved.

[@Aconspiracyofravens1]

@@dancegregorydance6933inverting the age pyramid would not be an issue if old people where not dependent

[@SirAshford]

A new channel! I very much enjoy the theme on this one, and look forward to continuing to watch. Thanks Simon & crew!

[@joshgroft5682]

Agreed but needs more special effects and auditory stimuli 😃

[@marcusc9931]

My favourite SF approach to that was in Terry Pratchett's Strata - people could be de-aged through genetic engineering, so reliably in fact, that they based the value of their money on it, naming their currency "day" - but they didn't live forever because while a young person with centuries ahead of them would have all reasons to be careful, bored 300-year olds would inevitably start getting more reckless after some point.

[@Psychx_]

Reactive oxygen species and the associated damages to tissues are just a small puzzle piece when it comes to aging. There are other processes too, like telomer shortening, which leads to cell senescence (no more cell division). Pools of stem cells do also get exhausted, which reduces the body's healing abilities, haematopoiesis (formation of blood and immune cells), the ability to maintain bone density, etc. There is also an increasing loss of the epigenome, which reduces the relative amount of differenciation (and hence suitability to a certain task) of different tissues during one's lifespan (the cells become more generic/similar to the state during embryonal development, minus the properties of stem cells) -> skin becomes thinner, organ function and efficiency decreases, …

[@joshgroft5682]

Your comment is well informed. I was just thinking that the quickest way to immortality is in the preservation of consciousness capable of surval in unsurvivable environments and circumstances. It must be programmed to travel infinitely, take root and re-evolve in alien environments, and enter or create baby universes with favorable developmental physics across enormous spans of time. In a sense, it must extend beyond the capabilities of bodies, because long lived bodies will eventually be destroyed by entropy and environmental if not universal collapse. Even if we cannot ensure survival of present consciousness we must see that others in our likeness come about. These likenesses must carry inherent epigenetic trajectories adaptively slated to evolve sustainably in protected environments relevant to physiological and technological maturation and civil progression.

[@driftingdruid]

is your point that we still have a lot more to figure out before we can induce extended, or eternal youth, in people, even with the stem cell-injection research that is talked about at the end of the video?

[@Jack-The-Gamer-]

Yes, but it’s good that we are to the point that we are isolating and identifying the individual components that make up aging. You don’t need to solve it all, just each one individually, one step at a time.

[@Wreckz_Tea]

"Some think the first person to live to 1000 has already been born." Just goes to show not all scientists are created equal

[@CashelOConnolly]

Shouldn’t the discussion be how long can we increase quality of life not how long we live. My granny is 95 but for 15 years of those 95 years she gone through the hell of dementia. Sleeping nightmares,hallucinations when she was awake. Screaming in terror because she truly believes they are real. Not recognising her family,believing we’ve all been killed. I believe if you’d have asked my granny in her 70’s about quality of life or longevity she’d have chosen quality and happily died in her 70’s rather than face the horrors her 80’s and 90’s have brought her.

[@user-vt8uf5gy1g]

That's only a worry for the organ replacement route. With gene editing like what Dr. Sinclair is doing the whole reason you'd live longer is because you reverted to a younger state, meaning the same dementia risk as a 30 year old for example.

[@AngryReptileKeeper]

"I believe if you’d have asked my granny in her 70’s about quality of life or longevity she’d have chosen quality and happily died in her 70’s rather than face the horrors her 80’s and 90’s have brought her." Unfortunately, society has an obsession with quantity over quality, and is quite fond of ignoring the problems it causes.

[@CashelOConnolly]

@@AngryReptileKeeper you’re so right,it’s wrong and it’s heartbreaking 💔

[@beebah90]

@@CashelOConnolly I understand what you mean. But if we can cure let's say dementia, cancer and heart disease, which everyone is for, the byproduct will be a longer life with better quality, since those are the leading causes of death for humans everywhere on earth.

[@CashelOConnolly]

@@beebah90 who’ll finance all these longer lives?

[@JJ-si4qh]

Thank you for making this!

[@Novafro]

Ok, the thumbnail of Ocelot from the MGS series, rendered in high res from someone on art station is literally what got my attention for this video. So, well done.

[@erwinvb70]

1000 years.. as long as family and friends join.. I’m all for it. That would be enough to do and experience anything I would like to.

[@SilverFan21k]

Thanks for making this video! ❤ Love the Longevity topic

[@dudeatmenangle]

That is your best video yet, very funny and informative.

[@JasonSmith-jv7wl]

I just gotta point out that the naked mole rat and the galapagos tortoise are likely negligibly senescent, meaning that the tools via DNA is likely in our bodies already, we just have to find a way to activate them. It isn’t just jellyfish and hydras.

[@apathyguy8338]

Personally I hope they'll mess up and we all turn into cannibalistic monsters.

[@obiwanshinobi87]

@@apathyguy8338 so, zombies?

[@gnznroses]

Came here to say this

[@joshgroft5682]

@@Anonymous-ld7je Hasn't China already done this?

[@Robert-hz9bj]

This really is a fascinating field. I remember several years ago, learning about the Greenland Shark, a creature biologically as complex as other large organisms (like humans), but apparently capable of living around four centuries or more. It was particularly fascinating, since before that it was generally believed that the real limiting factor on biological age was organism complexity (i.e., why simple organisms like those freak jellyfish could potentially live so long, but creatures like humans and dogs couldn't), since more complex organisms have more "moving parts." These creatures seem to suggest otherwise (though I personally wouldn't want to live past like 200)...

[@crukih7527]

If memory serves, I believe the oldest greenland shark turned out to be 512. Although they have a much slower metabolism than we do, and that does seem to be linked to faster burnout

[@patrickbrumm4120]

production value has really made some amazing headway! The footage of the woman holding the mouse up by the tail and slowly bringing in the needle was funny

[@jacob8266]

Excellent video. Very enlightening when viewed through a different scope 🔆

[@boblangill6209]

The beginning discussion of the difference between life expectancy and life span was a good start, and one that is often overlooked. One thing your discussion overlooked was the Hayflick limit to the number of times cells can successfully divide. This has been consistently observed, not only in humans but other species. It varies for different species. Shortening of chromosome telomeres during normal cell division is the mechanism that produces the limit. One alternative to immortality that appears in science fiction is the ability to completely transfer a person's consciousness. This may be more likely than tweaking life's master blueprints. The probability I'll live to see either: I wont say it's zero, but it's mathematically next to nil.

[@user-jy5qm8nc9m]

How do whales, turtles and organisms that live for centuries manage the hayflick limit ?

[@boblangill6209]

@@user-jy5qm8nc9m Data shows different limits for different species. Also, animals with slower metabolisms have a generally lower rate of cell division. The case of Henrietta Lacks appears to be a human exception to the limit, but I have not seen it mentioned in any articles explaining the Hayflick limit

[@AngryReptileKeeper]

Honestly, I _hope_ to die before any of this happens (if it's possible at all), because I don't want to have to live in the dystopian hell that would follow.

[@boblangill6209]

@@AngryReptileKeeper Long life in a dystopian hell is unlikely. Futures portrayed with significant life extension usually show it as limited to the ultra-elite, who escape the other harshness of their society. That's all just guessing, at any rate.

[@jimwalshonline9346]

"Who wants to live forever? After the first hundred thousand years, you'd be climbing the walls..." - Isaac Asimov

[@apathyguy8338]

Unless you could do it in a torpor or sleep state. Wake up every decade check it out for a couple years and then go back down. It's pretty much the only way you would ever be able to encounter new things with enough frequency to make it worth sticking around.

[@jebes909090]

Clinical immortality doesnt mean living forever though, just that you wont die from getting old. You can still sneeze and have an aneurysm though. In fact, the longer you live, paradoxically, the more likely you are to die from some random cause.

[@littleredpony6868]

@@jebes909090 I did see the claim in another video (can’t remember which one) that if we were biologically immortal the average human lifespan would be around 6,000 years before we would die from some sort of accident

[@jebes909090]

@@littleredpony6868 I'd take it ;)

[@tubalord3693]

How would you ever get bored? There’s so much in the universe that we don’t know about maybe this is just my scientist brain going but even Albert Einstein still have plans of scientific research he wanted to do when he died. No true scientist is ever done. They are always curious.

[@LordofSyn]

5:50 Was not expecting that. Well done.

[@mrb8242]

That elderly woman's ability to focus and listen to both the doctor talking to her and you on the computer screen is blowing my mind

[@aidankelley2696]

a major issue with immortality is a lot of our internal body parts get damaged and wear out over time, and no longer work as they did before, like for example our heart and brain do not regenerate, its a reason why alzheimers and heart disease are such a major problem because these organs ware out, by getting strained/damaged and they can't repair themselves, if we want immortality, we need our body to constantly performing the same functions as it is in our 20s for the rest of our life, along with finding some way to stop organs from wearing out and being able to repensish damage organs back to their full ability, if we want this to be a reality

[@baz1184]

Did you even watch the video? If we achieve biological immortality then we would be able to repair our bodies as easily as we did as a child, but forever. Our bodies would have both the ability and the resources to remain at peak youth perpetually.

[@RandomWandrer]

The human body is incredible. With all our technology we cannot make a machine that will last more than 10 years (without part replacement). But the body keeps going and going. 100 years is a real gift. I would definitely go for quality years, over quantity.

[@vladtheinhaler8940]

​@@RandomWandrer We actually can make machines that last longer without needing replacement or repair. The saying "'they don't make things like they use to" has some merit.

[@FRuMMaGe]

The frustrating thing about this is that if one of these breakthroughs happens during our lifetime it will almost certainly be reserved only for the super rich. We are alive at the first time in history where biological immortality seems plausible, but too early to actually participate in it ourselves. Imagine what future generations who have never known biological death think about the idea of a body just degrading and dying? The concept would be alien to them

[@hollownation]

What you don’t think the government would want people going to work and paying taxes for 800 years?

[@AnimePlusUltrah]

It will just make them a target then. I think maybe it could be like Altered Carbon in the future, where their bodies are just sleeves they call them.

[@horrortackleharry]

There's been a million and one things that people claimed would 'only be reserved for the super-rich'. I assure you that if it happens, clinics in Vietnam and Bulgaria will clone the tech and offer it for a few hundred dollars within 5 years.

[@MentalBrothers]

@@hollownation Well, not when the goverment needs to wage wars to annihilate entire populations to get new aggriculture land to feed their population that wont die. Or I guess they would, But once they repopulate those lands, and still face the problem of sustaining an insane population, unless we also figure out how to travel to other solar systems and populate other plantes I dont see how Immortality will do more good then bad ^^

[@grantsigmon]

Lots of money would be saved keeping people out of assisted living/ hospitals, and like the other comment said, people would add labor for 100s of years, offsetting the cost.

[@JackMyersPhotography]

NMN as a precursor to NAD+ has helped me with energy levels. David Sinclair has some interesting things to say about it.

[@1984Phalanx]

I hope my year and a half old son will get to benefit from this.

[@clayongunzelle9555]

You have to do a video about the tractor beam, staple of science fiction but doesn't seem possible in any way

[@WingManFang1]

The problem with Biological immortality is that after approximately 500 years your mind would be maxed out on memories kinda like a computer running out of storage space and to unlock more you’d have to either have an accident…write down your memories and forget them, or go mentally insane and hope to eventually recover.

[@vennom14]

Your stock footage is amazing

[@madarchmage1151]

I like this. Thank you

[@red_adept]

My, albeit limited, understanding is that hard age limits are set by telomere lengths. That cells can only divide so many times, and once their telomeres run out, the cells can no longer undergo mitosis.

[@paulxaviercyr]

Exactly how I understand the process as well... "The Hayflick Limit" The copy machine basically runs out of toner.

[@Novastar.SaberCombat]

At a certain point, nearly every organic aspect of a human would need to be replaced with something else. Augmentations of mechanics, electronics, or a combination of the two. Even then, nothing lasts forever. Perhaps with exception to Diamond. 🐲✨🐲✨🐲✨

[@AngryReptileKeeper]

@@Novastar.SaberCombat "At a certain point, nearly every organic aspect of a human would need to be replaced with something else. " And at that point, you would cease to be you. You would cease to be _human._ You'd become just another product, an object.

[@miguelfonseca1104]

what about telomerase?

[@jim348]

watched the first 10 seconds multiple times because it was so funny. thanks for this!

[@bentuovila5296]

This is one of those fields were research is naturally limited in it's time horizon. It takes a very long time to find out if some therapy or supplements administered in say your 20s will have an effect in your 80s. This problem only gets worse the longer people live. The only fool proof way is to test everything early in life, see how each one turns out then go back in time and pick the right one. I'm still working on that last part.

[@elfymcelferton2187]

Kevin, have you written every episode on this channel? I'm pretty sure you have, just double checking. It's all been mad excellent. Fun topics.

[@MrMasterprocrastinat]

Credits say Kevin Jennings wrote this episode, and it was edited by Aspen Cho. With the sheer volume of videos we see Simon hosting, I would be very surprised if he even wrote a quarter of the content he's featured in. It seems to me to be a very efficient division of labor for the KZbin business model.

[@ThatWriterKevin]

Almost every episode. Universal translators was some sort of sponsored cross over and and learning Kung Fu like the matrix was someone else. I was the only writer on the channel until about a month ago or so, now it looks like there's two others though their stuff is still in the pipeline. I selfishly was hoping the channel would hit 100K subs while I was still the only writer.

[@elfymcelferton2187]

@@ThatWriterKevin Well, awesome work getting the channel on its feet. Simon owes it some promotion. And I'm with Brian May on immortality. Just sounds exhausting. 🤔

[@maximmura4234]

Simon, have you discovered by any chance a degree in mathematics with any of your writers? If so, a human approachable explanation of Lenia might be an interesting topic to cover for this channel

[@magdielpalomino1653]

TALKING ABOUT A longer life can be a little complicated, although today the formula has not yet been discovered, this fact could unleash collateral problems in our daily lives, I feel that the life we ​​lead now is the ideal one.

[@robsquared2]

We need to make Simon immortal, otherwise how will he be every channel on youtube?

[@aliahope-wilson4449]

And clone him 🧐

[@Not-Great-at-Gaming]

KZbin is immortal, therefore Simon is immortal.

[@buttsexandbananapeels]

As a Kevin, I respect the work you do, Kevin. Keep writing. Your work is outstanding.

[@ThatWriterKevin]

Thanks!

[@skyelerschmidt4236]

I’m 13 turning 14 on November 17 2023 so I don’t know how long I’ll live hopefully a king and fulfilling life

[@hertzwave8001]

This user was never seen again.

[@deezburr]

baby

[@bernieburton6520]

Biologically, at best probably no more than 150-200 years. Now, genetic modification and cybernetic implants could probably extend that quite a bit. If you replace all the mortal flesh with easily replaced and upgraded mechanical parts, well, the limit is unknown.

[@MyKharli]

I see no evidence for this .

[@AmazingStoryDewd]

Well it depends on the animal you are i suppose. Certain animals suck as tortoises, fish or some whales are already capable of living for centuries.

[@SilverFan21k]

Awesome video

[@BeeFilling-gx2hg]

Concept of living forever means that you can forget the terrifying definition of insanity. To hide the brutality truth behind “forever” but to also choose your own time or way out of that loop “forever” become nothing, feel nothing. Your world ends there. Emotion, sensation, thoughts, everything taken from what human brain can process. So either way we’re stuck in a state of infinity forever dead or alive. I’d choose to live even if black holes are what left of the universe. Another solar system made by man would be created. And I am all for it. For science.

[@LambentLark]

My grandma lived to be 100+ yo. At the end she said that death held no fear for her anymore. She said she felt like an old clock with a stretched spring that had been over wound too many times. The world no longer made much sense and she was looking forward to the peace. I think only the young want to live forever.

[@AngryReptileKeeper]

"I think only the young want to live forever." Bingo. I've never heard a single elderly person wish to live longer, nor for immortality. I've only ever heard it from the young and naïve.

[@stevefranklin9176]

The question is how is Rupert Murdoch still alive and when the hell will he pass on.

[@dh8203]

An interesting topic for sure, but I'm surprised it didn't really have anything to say on "Young Blood" transfusion since that had pretty big headlines in the anti-aging discussion only a few years ago.

[@hammeroferis9805]

Does anyone know if Aspen edited this? I need to know who created that Simon statue and the other wonderful graphics.

[@Paul-ou1rx]

The funny thing is, if humans lived on average 1000 years and aged appropriately, they would still say "Life is short, enjoy it while you can."

[@stellad7315]

It is short but life is really short at the moment.

[@deanpetersen859]

Epigenetics research has vast potential!!

[@wolfiemuse]

Wait what? ANOTHER Simon Whistler channel??? I didn’t even know this one existed!!

[@D_Chess]

"...or possibly a hydra." I love how Simon so casually threw that in and moved on lol

[@Graybeard_]

A primary question we should ask ourselves is: Is our life so incredibly fantastic that we would like to keep living it for another 200 years? I've had a blast, but I'm looking forward more to what comes after. I think it is likely that this is just a classroom. I have no desire to stay after class.

[@ProgrammedForDamage]

My dad is 73 and he said he could die tomorrow and would be perfectly happy. I was shocked, and asked him why, and he said "I've done everything I ever wanted to do."

[@juswolf22]

Amen brother.

[@aimilios439]

"What comes after." That's why we atheists are so miserable, this is all we have with no apparent motive...

[@Graybeard_]

@@aimilios439 Atheism is a belief system. There is no proof that there is nothing more than this reality. Anyone who claims to "know" that there is nothing more is holding onto a belief system, just like all the religions, but without all the symbolism, rituals and indoctrination. It still requires belief. For me personally, agnostic is more logical, no belief, but open to what may be out there that we don't know about. I have always led my life as an open-minded skeptic. I don't get caught up in things, and I don't feel miserable. In terms of "motive," I accept that there may be nothing beyond this life, but I live my life as though there is. I wake up each morning and recommit to being the best person that I can be. Each night I review and accept how my day went. I always seek out fun and laughter and don't take life or myself too seriously.

[@ultrafly100]

Another 200 years? Give me at least a full 2000 years and then we’ll talk.

[@drewrub7415]

The Netflix series Altered Carbon is a good insight alas to why I would never want immortality. Or even longevity.

[@mortophobegaming6454]

All the popular media depict grotesque distopia's involving immortality. It is as if living longer is such an unattainable goal. The very idea is vilified throughout history, to ease the mind off the fear of mortality. A psychological self help trick that used to make sense, but no more. Btw i love altered carbon :3

[@j.p.6932]

3:41 There has to be a way to reprogram the cells so they regenerate like they did at childhood or teen years

[@pr0xZen]

My impression is that to this date, much of our best and most successful work in combating complex challengers to our sustainment of life, has come through the form of vaccinations. Including examples like measles, polio, Tb, SARS' and several strains of HPVs. And I wonder therefore, if not further future successes in this will largely take similar form. And therefore, maybe even if we succeed in extending healthy human life by a lot, relatively soon - those of us whom are already adults may not individually benefit. Because most of us are already past the developmental and exposure stages where many of these precautionary preventives can perform their purpose.

[@PatternShift]

Cancer is at the root: the loss of cohesion between cells and purposes and disintegration or an organism into its constituent parts. Regrowth and regeneration would be the key to dramatic increases in longevity, but the more growth you have the more exposure to cancer risk you have - unless you can mitigate that risk significantly. Large organisms have more tumor suppressors and fewer oncogenes. If you can keep cancer in check indefinitely, then that could unlock extended rejuvenation. We can’t create real life from scratch yet, and we have a long way to go. But biological analysis and modeling has grown faster than Moore’s law for computation in the last two decades, it’s hard to predict what it will unlock, especially with machine learning and classic AI methods being pointed at this unprecedented volume of data.

[@red_adept]

Size seems to be the secret to conquering cancer. Whales for example seem to experience cancer at a similar rate to humans, but the sheer amount of their cells seems to be the reason they don't suffer from it, as given enough time, cancer sets into the cancerous regions and it essentially burns itself out.

[@PatternShift]

@@red_adept one path among many, though. Consider bats, which live more than 10x as long as mice. Because they don't have many predators, their genome has been selectively enriched for molecular mechanisms: dna damage repair, autophagy, altered immune responses and inflammation. And unlike humans or whales, no slowed metabolic activity, instead they've evolved to handle the oxidative stress of flying, which implies chronically high metabolic load. So "make humans bigger" is tough, but genetic modifications or medicines derived from understanding the molecular mechanisms of bat longevity could theoretically 10x human lifespan.

[@Psychx_]

@@PatternShift Bats have a crazy active immune system and a relatively high body temperature. IIRC the metabolic and oxidative stress stems from this, not the ability to fly. Btw, what you are referring to as "loss of cohesion between cells and purposes" is known and studied as "loss of cell differenciation" or the "loss of the epigenome". I.e. nerve cells and skin cells are have the same ancestorial line of cells (exoderm). During embryogenesis, the cells sense where they are in the body and which tissue to form according to their neighbours. Then, they differentiate into skin stem cells, nerve stem cells and these differenciate further into the cells that make up the bulk of a specific tissue. During normal aging, they kinda forget this (epi-)genetic imprint that tells them which tissue to be, leading to a slow decline of function and efficiency. Sometimes, shit hits the fan and they reacquire stem cell properties while deactivating their apoptosis pathways -> cancer.

[@PatternShift]

@@Psychx_ Re: bats, you've got causation backwards. Look at other high temp animals: mostly birds. The highest base body temp in the animal world is the hummingbird. Bats are a mammalian outlier. Once peak temperatures and metabolic stress can't be compromised b/c flying, other adaptations that accommodate this are selected along with it as a package. Adaptations that come later are against the combined package. Also, I work in cancer research. What you've outlined is not wrong, but one particular story, not the entire tumorigenesis path. DNA damage and somatic mutation is the most common shared feature among cancers, and most cancers have predictable somatic mutations and a population of cells that all descend from a single clonal line. This is why certain environmental factors (radiation is an obvious one) are carcinogens. But even that is not one path, it's multi-hit, usually factors combine: environmental stress, failure of dna repair mechanism, failure of immune system to infiltrate and kill tumor cells, etc.

[@uncletrashero]

cancer needs to be PREVENTED more than it needs to be cured. medicine is focusing too much on the wrong end of the problem

[@joemagnus5085]

I know this topic is dear to Simon lol. I was surprised that there was no mention of teleomeres or nanotechnology

[@bobpawtucket1336]

Well Simon consider this, "During an average human life span, the cells inside the body cumulatively pass through approximately 10^16 growth-and-division cycles and, in the case of most of us, provide excellent health-something that we take for granted." perhaps aging is in part due to genetic drift akin to replicative fading. A Sci-Fi term that has a real-life precedent DNA molecules have "tips" called telomeres which get shorter with each replication. Eventually they run out and the cells can't replicate anymore

[@MikeIsCannonFodder]

I've always thought it odd that child mortality were included in life expectancy numbers. When I think of life expectancy, I think it's how old adults are likely to get. Said another way, when I think life expectancy, I would expect there to be very few people, relatively speaking, older than that age. Feels like one of those things where the formal definition and the general understanding don't line up.

[@surferdude4487]

"Average" life expectancy, by definition, would have to include all people. Babies are people too.

[@tamsenmillerbaum]

I've always understood it. That is the way the taught it in school.

[@YourFuhrer1933]

Life expectancy is the most likely age by which most of the people will pass away.

[@DarkWarchieff]

Simon, how about an episode about a interface for your body? Just disable the adrenal glands for a bit if you got anxiety as if it were a computer process.

[@birdmonster115]

That technology already exists. It's called drugs

[@michaelq92]

Yeah because chemicals in your brain are so simple you can manipulate one for the exact result your expecting.

[@DarkWarchieff]

@@michaelq92 next to teleportation and mind upload it's a very tame one.

[@DarkWarchieff]

@@birdmonster115 got deadly side effects 0/10 would not recommend Krokodil.

[@michaelq92]

@@DarkWarchieff no it's not adrenaline is a hormone they have extremely complicated interaction we understand little about.

[@bluestrife28]

Death Becomes Her covers many of the ways immortality can go so horribly wrong. I recommend that 90’s gem. Great wild dark comedy acting by Streep, Hawn and Willis.

[@throttlejockey34]

look at the character Lazarus Long, from the novels by Robert A. Heinlein...through selective breeding, a lucky genetic strain and later, a process called rejuvenation, he managed to live to the age of about 3600 years old. I realize it's just a Sci fi story, but it's an interesting concept.

[@geodesicdeath6793]

It would have been neat to talk about the marriage between advancement in biological ability to live longer and the probabilities of unlikely things happening to end life. This would also put a limit on how long someone could live.

[@icecold9511]

My first thought. Every day is a game of Russian roulette with an accident or something. Grim Reaper only has to get one bang in that game.

[@renard6012]

I assume there is a certain number of airplane flights or car trips one must take in which there is a 100% probability of at least one fatal accident happening... What is that number? I want to do the math, but I am lazy, and failed statistics. Eyeballing it, I'd say... 500,000 flights? About 300,000 car trips? Point is, you are correct. With a long enough lifespan, a fatal accident of any kind is guaranteed to happen.

[@YourFuhrer1933]

​@@renard6012For sure

[@P_Mann]

The unfortunate thing about much of the genetic extension research, from what I understand, is that it would generally only apply to those who receive the treatment as embryos. There isn’t yet an effective way to send a DNA “patch/update” to every cell in a mature human body. I hope it comes around in my lifetime, however, because I’m excited to see how society deals with the consequences of functional immortality.

[@haydenscholze7452]

That is true for current technology, however, we are already researching vectors(e.g. viruses) that can be used as a medium for genomic-wide editing of the entire organism. Of course, there is more risk then embryo editing, but it is definitely a possibility in the future.

[@reeses712300]

My grandfather approaching 80 still working constantly and being told by his doctors that his health is perfect and he could easily live another 20-30 years gives me a great positive outlook on the possibility of the future. Who knows maybe 50 will be the next 20 very soon.

[@Klipschrf35]

Part of it too is the longer every individual lives the more the impact on the environment from human population will have. More pollution, less food to go around, less available housing, more pollution, potential war as we fight for resources

[@SSJfraz]

Depends what you regard as "life". We can continue to replace parts of ourselves with bionics, which keeps our body alive, along with a backup of all of our thoughts, memories, personality traits etc. But there must be a point where that inner sense of awareness or "soul", simply dies off. You become a walking, talking copy of yourself, but the real you is long dead.

[@HollieMoodie]

What would be the point at that point?

[@ifrit1937]

Eh the issue with your comment is you assume that the "Soul" is the thing that allows us to think/have the personality we have now...for all we know the "Soul" may be nothing more than energy that our body uses as a power source while our personality (basically what makes each individual who they are) could be a result based off how our individual brains are wired, which if so means the moment you die you're just gone plain and simple (well your personality anyway) and all that's left is the energy/soul that's left over. Ya you can hope there's a heaven or god after death but it could just as easily be a Santa Clause story in the end as well used to calm people down a the thought of ceasing to exist in any way once dead.

[@aimilios439]

There is no indication of a soul. Also, there is a point your past self is now dead, and you have replaced their body and have a copy of their memories. And in the future, you'll be long dead before your inherited body decays with the last copy of you inside. Not too different from the bionic perspective.

[@miguelfonseca1104]

why? if the soul is akin to a symphony, the replacing of all inddividual instruments over time does not make the music stop

[@raybod1775]

I’m an elderly retired person and alive thanks to modern medicine, along with most of my friends… organs fail, joints wear out, infections and diseases occur, as well as mental and general physical decline. There will be no single cure all for aging.

[@SavantApostle]

Yeah who wants to live for ever with dementia

[@Novastar.SaberCombat]

I've been hoping for death to come sooner rather than later. But not until EOY, 2026. 🐲✨🐲✨🐲✨

[@theorangeoof926]

@@Novastar.SaberCombatWhy hope for death after that date?

[@mangoesfly1594]

@@theorangeoof926 its probably best not to pursue that conversation lol

[@DayonBledsoe2000]

@@Novastar.SaberCombateoy?

[@phaetonrudegar5193]

I once read an actuarial estimate of maximum life expectancy, It might have been in Ringworld. The probability of accidental death is approx 100% in 600 years so a 1K year life span would be an achievement even if it is medically practicable.

[@Ubique2927]

We need to begin transferring older workers to tasks that they can do. If a person becomes unable to stand up all day or lift heavy weights etc. they can be given tools to help or different jobs.

[@moritakaishida7963]

Or just let them retire because people in their 70's shouldn't be performing labour

[@MentalBrothers]

I wonder what would happen if we became immortal. Or live 500% longer. Like, Resource wise. Pretty sure we need to expand our physical horizon alongside making this leap in technology. Not to mention the ethics around it. Who would be able and who would not if our horizon is not expanded, because there would have to be rules implemented to limit how many could live forever. Like China's 1 Child rule would probably not come near the reality of what would unfold if this happens ^^

[@fireking840]

When I think about long life...200+yrs, the first thing that comes to mind is...over population. Seems to me that would be the price to pay for long life or immortality for vast majority. Same concept with the whole religious deal of after armageddon and living forever on earth...like come on....the earth is but so big..and it can only sustain but so many people and other life. Could many cultures that believe in having having 2, 3, 4 or more kids is a must or normal be ok with being told....you can only have one and it must be approved? 3 people died in a car accident...so 3 families are allowed to have one child each. It would be interesting to see how all this would play out should longevity be achieved.

[@MentalBrothers]

@@fireking840 Indeed it would be really interesting to see how this turned out. I mean one obvious first wave thing would be limited to the richest of the rich. But what unfolds after is up for debate!

[@miguelfonseca1104]

as it is populatin growth has halted in the west, it woudnt be a major problem

[@vladtheinhaler8940]

​@@miguelfonseca1104 Population growth hasn't flat lined in the West. The county with the fastest decline in population is China, which is estimated to lose half a billion people by the end of this Century.

[@MC-gj8fg]

You can't live forever as a matter of statistical inevitability even if we became biologically immortal. Every day there is a very small but non negligible chance of meeting with misadventure. So, even if we never aged, on average, after 1000 years it's likely that at some point a piano would fall on your head or something. It's just a matter of time. Over a long enough period even very rare events become inevitable.

[@omarcomming722]

...of course you would die eventually from something, how is being killed by a falling piano relevant to extending the natural life expectancy?

[@ctakitimu]

@@omarcomming722 Seeing as you're being pedantic, it doesn't but the video is about life span, not expectancy. The average life span is effected by events too

[@glennmartin6492]

This is what I want to know. If you can eliminate disease, aging and cancer what is the statistically likely lifespan before an accident kills you?

[@omarcomming722]

@@ctakitimu I'm not being pendantic but no one can have any influence on life events so they aren't really relevant to the discussion because it's clearly centered on the medical aspect of extending our natural life span. Although I would say that just increasing our life span is pointless and even negative unless it implies extending our youth and staying young for most of our life. No one wants to live to 500 if they keep deteriorating physically and looking like shit.

[@ctakitimu]

@@omarcomming722 Yeah agreed. I wouldn't want to live as an old man for a really long time.

[@Orlyy]

The most amazing thing is the fact that David believes it's too late in his life to see extension, but he's doing the research regardless.

[@rgonzalo511]

Well that's not good, causs it means he isn't really going to try that hard

[@billyalarie929]

That Batman joke made me utterly burst into laughter

[@ERKNEES2]

I love how the doctor and the patient were watching fact boy on the laptop in the office

[@hightierplayers2454]

I see a ton of people who can't wrap their heads around what this actually is. If you think old decrepit and bed-ridden is how these extended lives will be, you didn't learn anything from this video or this field (epigenetics).

[@viperswhip]

What is life? If I get uploaded into a computer, I don't even care. Dr. Sinclair is pretty good at presentation as well, a great ambassador for this science.

[@Jean-ClaudeGodDamn]

I totally did not expect to see Revolver Ocelot on the thumbnail

[@KyleDB150]

I think you forgot though: that current life expectancy is defined for people born today, e.g. if its increased by 20 years it doesn't mean that currently old people are expected to live 20 years longer, there's a significant delay, which could be enough that improvement does need to be exponential to allow "immortality"

[@mortophobegaming6454]

Plottwist: those life extending therapies, even genetic modification ones, can be applied in living humans. Nit only can aging factors be eliminated "from design" in embryos, in existing humans aging can actually be reversed. That is the major difference between living longer by higher health and wealth standards, and anti aging technologies

[@QBCPerdition]

If people could live forever, and remain healthy, then it would have a huge impact on the workforce. We'd probably need to institute some sort of intermittent retirement. Someone works for 40 years and then gets 20 years of retirement, then works 40 years again. Otherwise, while I would absolutely be willing to work forever in order to love forever, my kids might find it hard to get a job, and the thought of working forever is not, exactly, my idea of the ideal life.

[@MrAndrew941]

What makes you think automation wouldn’t free people of work and then people can focus on things like deep thought and creativity and science, it’s the reason such great thinking came from Greece, most Greek citizens didn’t work back in the day, unfortunately they achieved it through slavery but it’s proof an economy could work and will be more productive if people didn’t have to focus on work and could focus on higher thinking instead.

[@ImTHECarlos98]

It really depends if this longevity would extend to our good/healthy years. If all we get is an extra 400 years of seniority and poor health, what’s the point?

[@TheInsaneupsdriver]

the opposite would happen, as the population numbers rise, so does the workforce and the need for experienced people. this would have the secondary effect of those with specialties in things like science and medical with 100+ years experience. people would be able to work on projects that would take a century or two, things like fusion would've happened allot sooner. teleportation, space fold technology, would all be within reach cause you would've have people required to hand off projects losing knowledge and expertise in the process. for example, the Apollo mission engines can't be remade cause all the people who made them are dead and no one knows how they did it, so they all had to start from scratch. that's by Boeing is having problems with their rocket to the moon. If "again" those behind that project were still working now, we would've colonized mars by now.

[@The1stDukeDroklar]

@@MrAndrew941 Same point I was going to make.

[@QBCPerdition]

@@ImTHECarlos98 Exactly. If it extends our lives but not quality life, then it's just a drain on resources for no real gain.

[@Jotizs]

Reminds me of those mythical ancient Japanese emperors like Jimmu, Suizei, Kohan, etc. who reached absolutely insane ages. However, correct me if I'm wrong, but I really do remember reading somewhere that at least one of them actually existed and reigned for 80 years.

[@Montie-Adkins]

Aubrey de Grey started a new foundation which is now performing a 1000 mice experiment using multiple items. Some mice will use one item, others will have combinations, others will be given everything, and there will be a control group. They will use rapamycin, mTERT, stem cells, and senolytics. And they will use older mice in part to shorten the experiment time.

[@user-jy5qm8nc9m]

That's a brilliant idea, I wonder if the mocr who use everything will get the longest lifespan

[@alistairgrey5089]

I've been looking into this subject for years now and there are so many theories about what actually causes aging it's staggering. I do agree though that aging should be treated as a disease rather than an inevitability. Though, if we actually achieved biological immortality we would need laws in place to prevent massive overcrowding. Personally, I think that the only way to do it would be that an individual can choose to have children or choose immortality, but not both.

[@ryanb9749]

Or... colonize mars

[@asitallfallsdown5914]

Anti-human and irrelevant. If we can live forever, the vast majority would not bother with having children electively, and with age solved and even with extreme population saturation- or even better off for it- We could far more easily colonize space. If you can live forever, then spending 10, 50, 100, or 1,000+ years on a space ship to another planet is not a big ask, specially with induced comas let alone means of stasis.

[@alistairgrey5089]

@@asitallfallsdown5914 I'm not sure you realize what 1000 years in space would do to the human body. Let's assume that the ship is spinning to create an artificial gravity of sorts just to eliminate that risk. The amount of radiation that would pass through that ship would be lethal in that much time. Long term space travel is a lot harder than people think.

[@matthewmillburg3933]

Many yearn for immortality who know not what to do with themselves on a rainy day

[@benjamindover2601]

I've only been alive for 26 years and I'm already over it, 1000 years sounds like hell.

[@mortophobegaming6454]

Indeed, way too short

[@insertoyouroemail]

I want this so much.

[@dbadaddy7386]

As to freezing someone, hibernation, even if frozen solid in a way that causes no damage, even at absolute zero, there is still a little movement. There's also cosmic rays, some of which are bound to get through shielding. This means there will be a limit to how long someone can be frozen and survive intact. Out in space without some way of mitigating cosmic rays, the number I saw was about 600 years. So I suppose that means thawing out every few hundred years for a year or so to allow any damage to be repaired. At absolute zero, nanites aren't going to be able to do anything.

[@scottwilson4149]

In an undergraduate genetics class in 1983, we were told that the cells of our organs are able to divide a predetermined number of times, depending on our heredity. As we age, our organs replenish their tissues more slowly and eventually stop. This is when our hair turns grey, our skin grows fragile, and our bodies wear out. I don't know if this is still considered a factor. I love all of your shows, Simon. Very informative and thought-provoking. You are especially engaging.

[@eds1445]

That is mostly correct. However, we also have a group of cells in every tissue that are known as stem cells which have the ability to divide a near infinite amount of times). These cells form the parenchymal (functional) cells and the structure of an organ (imagine it like the fundament of an organ). If we were able to promote more sustainable stem cell growth, they would be able to replenish the cells of a tissue, decreasing the possibility of disease, organ failure and senescence.