Radical life extension could become a reality far faster than we think.
Here are some ways it would change the world.
1.
Humans Could Live For Centuries At A Time Thanks to a combination of genetic engineering
and nanobots, some of us could choose to reach the age of 30 and stay at that age for decades
at a time.
This would allow us to live long enough to use some of the coolest technologies to ever
exist.
• We could merge with super intelligent AIs and experience what it’s like to be
millions of times more intelligent.
• We could experience photorealistic, full-immersion VR that changes second-by-second based on
our desires.
• And we could upload our minds to new bodies and swap them out as needed.
We could watch governments rise and fall.
We could explore every country and city on planet earth.
And we could explore other planets in the far reaches of our solar system.
2.
We Could Vastly Outlive Our Grandchildren Most likely, only a fraction of the population
would want to live forever.
We would have to watch as many of our closest friends and relatives slowly age year after
year while our physical appearances remain largely the same every decade.
We could far outlive most of our best friends and siblings.
We could watch our children grow into an old age right before our eyes.
We could even vastly outlive our grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Some people would inevitably handle this paradox better than others.
3.
Immortal People Could Have Trouble Adjusting to Changes In Society
Many of the customs, beliefs, and values of people in the future could be totally weird
and outrageous to people living today.
For example, the customs and beliefs that we consider weird today could be magnified
by a hundred times a few centuries from now.
After hundreds of years, many of the laws that we deem crucial to a functional society
could be discontinued.
And new laws could exist that would seem completely ludicrous to us.
We would certainly enjoy many of the technologies in the future, assuming we can afford them.
But other aspects of living in the future may be too confusing and overwhelming to many
of us.
Over a period of centuries, the people staying alive for all of that time could start to
be perceived as too old-fashioned to younger people.
Immortal people could also harbor old beliefs, values, and preferences that wouldn’t make
sense in a futuristic world.
It’s kind of like someone from 1700s America living today.
If that person from the 1700s walked through Times Square in New York City, the kind of
people, outfits, and behaviors they would see would be totally unrelatable to them.
4.
We Would Need To Replace Body Parts On A Routine Basis
For example, the use of artificial hearts would be extremely common since biological
hearts are often among the first organs to fail in a human body.
An artificial heart could be engineered to operate twice as long as a regular heart and
endure considerably more stress regardless of a person’s lifestyle.
The longer we live, the more it would become necessary to replace other parts as well including
eyes, arms, legs, digestive systems, lungs, and blood vessels.
That’s because we could still get injured from time to time and because some body parts
will eventually wear out from decades of use.
Many of these body parts could be 3d printed in our homes or in facilities that specialize
in printing and harvesting synthetic body parts.
By the end of this century, we could skip all of that entirely and replace our entire
bodies from the neck down with robot bodies.
It could become commonplace to see humans walking around in public that are more machine
than human.
These robot bodies could also provide varying levels of superhuman strength, speed, and
durability
To take it a step further, we could also upload our consciousness to synthetic brains inside
entirely new robot and synthetic bodies.
As these bodies wear out, we could replace them with new bodies and continue doing so
over many centuries or perhaps much longer.
Some people could use this opportunity to conceal their identities and live multiple
lives.
In the far future, there may be no way of knowing whether someone is 200 years old or
10,000 years old.
5.
The Cores Of Our Personalities Could Completely Change
After living for hundreds or even thousands of years, and uploading our minds to countless
bodies and machines, some of us could start to lose aspects of our personality that most
define us.
We may forget about major events that happened earlier in our lives, and we could forget
things that we did.
After meeting more people in our lifetimes than humans were ever meant to come into contact
with, we may forget about close friends and relatives.
For that reason, we would likely need to store the memories from our minds onto storage devices.
Whenever we feel like it, we could experience those memories again using advanced brain
computer interfaces, holodecks, and virtual environments.
6.
Dictators Could Wreak Havoc On The World Some of the most notorious dictators in history
caused immense suffering to the world in only the span of 20 to 50 years.
But what would happen if rulers like this were allowed to live hundreds of years?
First of all, the people born into these societies would, unfortunately, be in an unwinnable
situation.
Unless they can find a way to escape to another country, they would have to endure some of
the worst aspects of living in a futuristic world.
This includes 24/7 surveillance of their thoughts, unforgiving social credit systems that negatively
impact how people treat each other, VR and brain computer interface devices used for
cruel and unusual punishment, and of course, military robots patrolling the streets.
And these dictators could have some of the most advanced technologies to protect themselves
including forcefields, bullet-proof armor under their skin, and AI-based threat-detection
systems embedded into their minds.
They would be practically untouchable in most situations.
And they would make sure that their civilians wouldn’t have access to those types of technologies.
And even if these dictators did lose their lives, they could have multiple backups of
their consciousness that could be uploaded to robot and synthetic bodies.
Getting rid of these people could be one of the most difficult achievements in human history.
On the same vein, eccentric billionaires, crime family bosses, cult leaders, and more
would have access to life extension treatments as well.
7.
Life Extension Treatment Would Become A Trillion Dollar Industry
When it comes to nanotechnology, we would need a steady supply of nanobots to consume
on a regular basis.
These nanobots would work together to combat a wide array of viruses and bacteria as they
enter our blood streams.
Over time, these nanobots could become exponentially more effective than our natural immune systems.
They could even completely repair cells, tissues, and organs.
When it comes to genetic engineering, we could consume medications that change the instructions
in our genetic code to prevent the aging process in multiple body systems.
The time interval for consuming these compounds could vary based on the manufacturer, the
person’s current biological age, and the tier of their overall life extension package.
We could consume this life extending medication every month, every year, or every few years.
In the distant future, one treatment session may prove to be enough.
One downside is, we would live in a world where people are continually being born into
it, but fewer people are leaving it.
This could lead to overpopulation.
8.
We Could Experience Massive Economic Growth As more and more people choose to live forever,
an increasingly high percentage of the population could be around the same indefinite age bracket.
More than likely, people would choose to stay at a working age of 25 to 35.
Presumably, these same people would choose to enhance their genetics so that they have
superhuman cognition and endurance.
This would allow them to become considerably more productive and give them a major advantage
in the job market.
The overall economy could experience a spike in growth as a result.
But, as a side effect, non-enhanced humans could be increasingly considered impractical
in the job market and experience continual unemployment.
However, here’s something else worth considering: in the first years that radical life extension
becomes possible, a large number of 50 to 90 years olds could choose to receive treatment
for it.
This would allow them to keep and accumulate massive amounts of wealth that would have
otherwise been used in other ways in the global economy.
This may lead to instability in many nations.
9.
We Could Grow Tremendous Life Fortunes The longer we live, the more that investments
in 401ks, index funds, cryptocurrencies, real estate, and digital assets could continue
to grow indefinitely.
Hypothetically, if we invested just $1,000 with a 5% annual return and then left it alone
for 300 years, we would end up with over $6.5 billion dollars.
In reality, this number might not be quite as high because of changes to investment and
banking rules over time.
Perhaps, governments would limit the number of years that we can invest in certain assets
as a response to so many people living for so long.
However, the size of our investments could still be quite significant in some scenarios.
But we should consider that the value of money could be significantly lower after that amount
of time as well.
During that time, replicators could become a mainstream technology.
Hypothetically, replicators could create any type of object imaginable using atoms and
molecules fed to them.
This invention alone would dramatically disrupt financial markets on a global scale and could
radically disrupt the entire capitalistic system.
10.
Journeys To Other Solar Systems Would Become More Viable
When it comes to long-distance space journeys that can take decades or centuries, cryogenic
preservation is often touted as a potential solution to make this physically possible.
But, most likely, we would need a rotating crew of a handful of people awake at all times
to ensure that unexpected problems with the spacecraft don’t occur.
Normally, those handful of people would still continue to age which could lead to a decent
percentage of passengers not making it to their destinations.
However, if humans can live forever, that would lower the overall risks associated with
these long journeys.
Thanks for watching.
Make sure to watch this next video about the future of humanity.