129. Immortality | THUNK

Coping with the knowledge of our own mortality is often tricky – what if we just tried a different angle? #YOLO

If you’re struggling with suicidal ideation or depression call the national suicide prevention hotline right now: 1-800-273-8255

-Links for the Curious-

[blake_ridarion]

When I first thought what I should do with my life as a teenager, this was my thought process:

What should I do with my life?
Whatever does the most good.
What is that? Well, what does the most bad?
Death.
Ok. So cure death?
Study telomeres? Become a genetic scientist?
OK.

lol. Well, I'm studying biochemistry right now at uni..

[reedlockwood]

I think you need to make a distinction between death-optional immortality and no-death-ever immortality. I don't want to be sitting around forever after all the stars go out; that's one of the most horrific things I can imagine. Being imprisoned/tortured by another immortal person who can keep you alive forever also sounds incredibly terrifying. The inevitability of death at least insures that the suffering one endures in life is finite.

[DanHowardMtl]

Accident or Suicide. Great vid. You deserve more subs!

[MetsuryuVids]

As always, a great video, I just have one thing to add:
Those people you mentioned that think death is somehow "desirable" are known as "deathists" in the transhumanist community, I thought I should mention it since the term is gaining popularity and it's relevant to the topic.
(Also it creates an us vs them mentality by labeling the "enemies" which is interesting)

[SuperLLL]

Very cool episode, but that is hardly news!

One of my favorite tales about immortality was written by Jorge Luis Borges: in it, the author describes the search for a fabled tribe of immortal men. When he finally finds this tribe, he is surprised by their lack of manner, culture, or even basic society.
Once one has lived for centuries, all the possible iterations of who one can be have been experienced: hence these human beings have little interest for any action whatsoever, given that it would just be a repetition.
(Your cheesecake sounds like a neat counterargument)

Also, I am not so certain about the whole ''transhumanist logevity escape velocity": for one thing, believing that the pace of medical discovery will keep accelerating at the same rate seems overly optimistic. Looking at the current antibiotic research, we are seriously struggling to come up with antibiotics at the same rate of bacterial resistance.

Anyways, food for thought. Thanks!

[brandonbrisbane]

Interesting topic. Another barrier I might pose to the idea of immortality is the human mind. Were have a concept of death and an innate scene of its approach. I'm not saying for this reason we SHOULD die, but that we expect to. Humans may not be able to grasp/processes the prospects of living 'forever'. We may find that the greatest killer of humans is our own mind; it be a disease that saps us of the will to live, rather than our ability to stay alive. Is there a point where you have seen it all or had enough?

Then there's the question of if we should attempt to live forever simply because we can. Would the quality of this life be equal to that of a shorter one, or does the impermanence make life all the better?

Anyway, thanks for the great vid.

[somecuriosities]

Fantastic video! Would Love to see more on the subject or issues surrounding anti-ageing. Eg is there not discussion at international level whether health organizations should treat ageing as a disease?

[jennystone]

Death and immortality both have the same problem: there's seemingly no choice involved.

[robertrowland]

Subjectively, it's our FoMO, suffering and the idea of entering the unknown that gives death a bad rap. Objectively, what plagues us about death is losing an asset and being left with a cold, foul smelling corpse in its place. If death was unknown and therefore unanticipated, arrived surreptitiously, asserted itself in an instant, resulted in non-existence and left no physical evidence or memory of the departed, it would be a non-issue. Ironically, as things stand, the pain and suffering of death is only experienced by the living.

If "life is but a dream", a thoroughly sophisticated VR or transcendental, then death here is an awakening somewhere else. Further still, what if we are sentient AI? Would our ultimate fate be the same as the aforementioned biological mechanism? Hell if I know. It's just food for THUNK.

[Faustobellissimo]

I want to be immortal like Apocalypse.
(provided there's no Jean Grey...)

[TacoDude]

I think the real problem with the argument that immortality might not be as good as it seems, is that immortality isn't just a permanent condition. You've got forever to be dead so why start now?

[DiscoStu]

Watched this while grabbing some food waiting for my flight....I may have just ordered a cheese cake

[MrAwombat]

I keep on hearing TMNT. I never knew turtles were that deep.

[IanMacLeansnv]

As you put the word up on the screen, I'm confused by the absence of Telomeres. This whole video can be tossed out when Crispr research could invent an immortality pill tomorrow. THAT's scary. And worth a video of its own. I hope to see it.

[LeeCarlson]

Unfortunately, I've actually done my own research (including harassing oncologists by asking them questions that they would rather not answer) and our body constantly produces cancerous cells (hello mutation) though this only becomes life-threatening when our autoimmune system can't recognize the mutations for what they are.

[NobleOne-cmlr]

I think you forgot the links in the description

[Nexnaught]

What inspired you to make a video on immortality? The reason I'm asking is because it seems like quite a striking coincidence that both Kurzgesagt and CGP Grey both just released videos on death, aging, and immortality (though you were the first one). Was there recently a big breakthrough in aging research? Or was this just a pleasant coincidence?

[daddyleon]

Cheese cake for a few hundred more years?
If it's vegan, I'm in!

[KynaTiona]

Would still rather be running off a server somewhere, but biological immortality is a pretty acceptable thing to tide me over with~

[tbrandonlane]

Uhhhh... "Total life expectancy for an 80-year-old is actually higher than for a younger person!" ... Had you found out that the average life expectancy for someone who had lived to 80 was below 80, that would be a statement worthy of an exclamation mark and special note. Though I suppose then we'd all have to figure out how we'd drastically misunderstood time... and math...

In fact, that's so painfully dumb, that I can't help but wonder if it was actually intended to be some really dry joke that I didn't get at first. Kind of like the reverse of an old mitch hedberg joke: "One time, this guy handed me a picture of him, he said 'Here's a picture of me when I was younger.' Every picture is of you when you were younger. 'Here's a picture of me when I'm older.' 'You son-of-a-bitch! How'd you pull that off? Lemme see that camera...'"

[in Mitch Hedberg stoned voice] "a statistician handed me a chart, that showed that people who live to be 80, on average live to be at least 80"... eh? :-P