Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
4 HN recommenders · recommended in 4 months, 2018–2023
6:48 · 9M views · Oct 20, 2017
Kurzgesagt's short animated video asks whether humanity should try to end aging, and argues the case for curing age-related disease. It is part one of a pair, with a second part by CGP Grey.
HN commenters recommend it as a compelling, concise argument for longevity research and a rebuttal to common objections to ending aging.
4 comments from Hacker News
My opinion on the topic changed significantly after watching these great videos: - Why Age? Should We End Aging Forever? - Kurzgesagt - this video - How to Cure Aging – Kurzgesagt - [LINK] - Why Die? - CGP Grey - [LINK]
> It tries to address something that was always considered a hard limit and the perfectly natural thing Death being "perfectly natural" is not a good argument, having slaves, eating people, not allowing women to vote, all have been considered perfectly natural at various points in time, and some time soon accepting aging will be considered equally backwards, as these other things. > There are plenty of movies on this topic so no need to go into details I am asking because i have not seen a single pro-aging argument that had made any sense to me, in the best case they are about some people killing other people to get their stuff, which is not directly related to aging, in the worst they are "fox and the grapes" kind of rationalizations saying that the thing people want but can't get is probably not worth it. On the other hand i have seen many compelling arguments that curing aging is the _most important_ thing that we can do now. For instance: [LINK] [LINK] this video
Seems like many people are new to this concept and feel skeptical so here are some useful resources: * Kurzgesagt: How to Cure Aging – During Your Lifetime? (7:20) [LINK] * Kurzgesagt: Why Age? Should We End Aging Forever? (6:48) this video * Why we should cure ageing (11:30) - Heads up, it's a book intro [LINK] * Ageless: The New Science of Getting Older Without Getting Old (Book, not yet released in the US) [LINK] * Lifespan: Why we age and why we don't have to (book) [LINK] * Google talk: Why We Age and Why We Don't Have To (55:13) - By the author of the book [LINK] Edit: * If you wish to contribute to this kind of research make sure to check out SENS: [LINK]
A good counter-argument to commonly cited objections to biological immortality: this video Also, there are a myriad of ways to circumvent and/or dislodge the power of entrenched political leaders, like physical emigration, virtual emigration (cyberspace, cryptocurrency), and disruption (new technologies enabling commercial leaprogging, or political revolution).