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How to Live Forever

2010-05-07 · Hank · watch on YouTube · Science & nature · curiosity idea

Hank, just turned 30 and wishing to stay young, runs through ten proposed paths to immortality, from medicine, near-light-speed travel and telomerase to the singularity, ending with the trees Nerdfighteria planted for his birthday.

What is said

00:00:00 — Hank has just turned 30 and received the best birthday present; a little bitter about aging, he wouldn't mind being young forever

  • ★★ Hank says he just turned 30, realizes he is no longer young, and despite receiving the best birthday present ever feels a little bitter about it. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Hank says he wouldn't mind being young forever, and proposes ten paths people might take to immortality. (playful) — 00:00:00

00:00:29 — Paths 1-3 to immortality: hoping for good medicine, travelling near the speed of light, cryonics

  • ★★ Path one: hope medicine cures heart disease and cancer until life expectancy rises more than a year per year; then doctors can always fix you before you die. (playful) — 00:00:29
  • ★★ Path two: Hank says that, apparently, time passes more slowly for someone travelling near the speed of light, so a traveller could return to find cures developed. (hedged) — 00:00:58
  • ★ Path three: cryonics is basically the same as speed-of-light travel, except with freezing, which Hank calls less cool. (playful) — 00:00:58

00:01:27 — Paths 4-6: bathing in virgin blood (Elizabeth Bathory), the singularity (Kurzweil), being an immortal jellyfish

  • ★★ Path four: Hank says Elizabeth Bathory thought bathing in the blood of virgins restores youth; he doesn't know if it works but will steer clear. (playful) — 00:01:27
  • ★★ Path five: Hank says futurist Kurzweil believes machines will build smarter machines in an intelligence explosion that could, theoretically, help humans save themselves. — 00:01:27
  • ★ Hank finds this funny because in science fiction, once machines get smarter than us, they don't grant us immortality but see us as less useful than flies. (playful) — 00:01:27
  • ★★ Path six: Hank says the immortal jellyfish can shift back and forth between its polyp and adult forms perpetually, so it is literally immortal. — 00:01:56

00:02:26 — Paths 7-9: selective breeding under an evil dictator, telomeres and telomerase, being turned into a robot or uploaded

  • ★★ Path seven: an evil dictator could selectively breed for longevity by forbidding sex until ever-later ages over thousands of years; Hank says it would work but be really evil. (hypothetical) — 00:02:26
  • ★★★ Path eight: Hank says telomeres cap chromosomes, scientists think their breakdown causes aging, and mice engineered to make more telomerase live 50% longer. — 00:02:26
  • ★★ Path nine: futurists expect brains in robot bodies or minds downloaded into computers; Hank is happy he likely won't live to see it, as it doesn't sound like life. (hedged) — 00:02:55

00:03:25 — Path 10, trees: an awesome brother gets people to plant trees that outlive you; Hank thanks John and everyone for his birthday

  • ★★★ Path ten: when you turn 30, have an awesome enough brother to get people to plant trees, so that after you die the trees planted because of you live on. — 00:03:25 · John Green, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ Hank thanks John and everyone who helped with his amazing birthday. — 00:03:48 · John Green, Nerdfighteria

Humor (significant)

  • Cryonics is basically the same as near-light-speed travel to the future, except for the freezing. — 00:00:58 > «except that freezing, it's a little less cool, honestly.»
  • Path four is bathing in the blood of virgins, which Elizabeth Bathory thought restores youth. — 00:01:27 > «I'm not saying it doesn't work, but I'm probably going to steer clear of that one anyway.»
  • An evil dictator could breed for longevity by banning sex until 50, then 60, 70, 80 and 90. — 00:02:26 > «It would work, but it would be really evil.»
  • Mice engineered to make more telomerase, the enzyme that repairs telomeres, live 50% longer. — 00:02:55 > «Why aren't they putting that in vitamin water?»

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