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Unveiled
  • 10 months ago

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00:00Our own mortality can be difficult to come to terms with.
00:04It might be argued that without it, we wouldn't be inspired to live full lives.
00:09But nevertheless, it's an ever-present and unsettling truth for everyone.
00:13We won't live forever.
00:15Or at least, not until we solve this pesky business of dying.
00:20This is Unveiled, and today we're answering the extraordinary question,
00:23Are we near death's end?
00:27Do you need the big questions answered?
00:29Are you constantly curious?
00:31Then why not subscribe to Unveiled for more clips like this one?
00:34And ring the bell for more thought-provoking content.
00:37Today, with advancements in medicine and technology, humans are living longer than ever before.
00:43It's led some to wonder whether we could ever go beyond simply delaying death,
00:47to actually cure it once and for all.
00:49It's a goal that calls upon many, many fields of science, research, and philosophy.
00:54To begin, one of the biggest realizations is that biological immortality is not impossible.
01:00It already exists, to varying degrees, in the natural world,
01:03just not in relation to most living things, and certainly not with human beings.
01:08The main barrier to overcome is an effect called senescence, also known as biological aging.
01:13This is the process where cells age and die, due to a decrease in cell division.
01:18For most creatures, it's an inevitable process.
01:21While we can perhaps find ways to alter its rate, small tweaks to slow it down,
01:26senescence is generally inescapable for us.
01:29For a handful of animals, though, aging in this way isn't set in stone,
01:33and can not only be stopped, but can be reversed.
01:36One of the longest-lived of such creatures is the Turritopsis dorni, also known as the immortal jellyfish.
01:43As the name implies, these can potentially live forever.
01:46However, to do so, the immortal jellyfish will, when conditions demand it,
01:50reverse itself backward in its life cycle.
01:53Perhaps an external stress of some kind, or a physical injury, has become too much for it,
01:58and is life-threatening.
02:00The jellyfish can backtrack through its own life stages, to re-emerge as a polyp colony,
02:05to effectively begin its life again.
02:08In human terms, if we could do this, it could mean that we would, when conditions demand it,
02:13be able to cycle back to being a baby.
02:15If that wasn't already incredible enough, however,
02:17it's thought that the immortal jellyfish is able to do this infinitely,
02:21and therefore, it can be considered immortal.
02:24The immortal jellyfish can still die.
02:27It's biologically immortal, yes, but it isn't invincible,
02:30and a severe enough injury, or more likely a predator, can still kill it.
02:34But nevertheless, it's no surprise that in the quest to stop aging,
02:38these creatures are heavily studied.
02:41Scientists have been watching them closely since the 1980s, so the data is growing,
02:45and they're thought to have existed since at least the time of the dinosaurs,
02:49so they've certainly had a good run as a species on Earth.
02:52The billion-dollar question?
02:54How to convert what they do into something humans can do?
02:57As part of a multi-authored research paper in 2022,
03:00a team has already managed to map the immortal jellyfish's genetic information.
03:04It's a vital first step, but at present,
03:07it's still unclear exactly how the data can be used in the future.
03:11There are other routes that science is heading down, however.
03:14One is senolytics.
03:16These are cutting-edge drugs that target and eliminate senescent cells,
03:19the primary contributors to aging and to age-related illness.
03:23Senolytics clear those cells from our body to improve health and extend lifespans.
03:28Again, so far, we're still at the very early stages,
03:31but there have already been some reported experiments
03:34during which senolytics were used on mice,
03:36which majorly reduced their chances of developing tumours.
03:39In this way, it's implied that senolytics will be specifically useful for cancer research, too.
03:44Alzheimer's disease is another widespread condition
03:47that researchers believe can be deliberately targeted.
03:50For many, senolytics could well be the wonder drug for the next generation.
03:54For all the hope that senolytics offer, though, will they ever fully eliminate death?
03:59At this early stage, it's possible, but perhaps unlikely.
04:03Another active area of research is in telomere extension.
04:06Telomeres are described as being protective caps for chromosomes.
04:10They shorten as cells divide, and therefore, as a body grows older.
04:14In theory, longer telomeres should enable a person to live longer,
04:18and we already know that telomere length can be improved by various positive lifestyle choices,
04:23including eating well and exercising regularly.
04:26That said, long telomeres being healthy is a contentious idea.
04:30There are studies to indicate that longer-than-average telomeres
04:33can actually be linked to an increase in the chances of some diseases,
04:37and most notably in the chances of developing cancerous mutations.
04:40This, then, is an area into which science treads with caution.
04:44It's believed that there are answers to be found here, but also there's potential for problems.
04:49One final approach on the biological front is known as epigenetic reprogramming.
04:54Epigenetic marks are chemical modifications to DNA made throughout a lifetime
04:59which influence cellular function, development, and yes, aging.
05:03In 2024, a flurry of new research centered on scientists attempting to reverse epigenetic marks,
05:09otherwise known as reprogramming them, so that wherever they were linked to aging,
05:14they might work in the opposite direction.
05:16They might turn their host young again, rather than old.
05:19In experiments conducted on mice, there does appear to have been some success.
05:23In one case, researchers focused specifically on vision,
05:27and were seemingly able to restore a subject's sight to a better, younger state.
05:31In general, epigenetic reprogramming can be thought of as rewinding DNA and the wider genetic makeup.
05:38Again, there's hope and excitement around this new approach,
05:41but time will tell whether it will truly deliver death's end, or just another false dawn.
05:47Of course, and as science fiction so often tells us,
05:50there is another non-biological method that might yet prove to be key.
05:54Digital immortality is the concept of preserving an individual's consciousness digitally.
05:59In this case, there's arguably no need to slow down or battle against biological aging,
06:04because biological death just isn't the end.
06:07There are overlaps here with various other increasingly significant technological fields,
06:12including neuroscience and artificial intelligence.
06:15Broadly, mind uploading involves the transfer of a person's mental state into a digital vessel,
06:21including all their memories, emotions, and personality.
06:24Hypothetically, it allows for a brain to exist independently of its biological body.
06:29One specific approach is known as whole-brain emulation, or WBE.
06:34It's the most comprehensive proposed approach,
06:37since it aims to scan, map, and completely recreate any individual brain as a digital entity.
06:43A powerful enough computer then runs the brain,
06:46and then, so the theory goes, the individual lives forever.
06:50No body, no biology, but a conscious being, powered for eternity.
06:55Another close but alternative option is digital cloning.
06:58Here, it's a person's online activity, photos, and data that's used to create another digital version of them.
07:04Artificial intelligence is front and centre, employed to analyse everything that that person has ever done.
07:10The difference is clear, however, in that digital cloning, as with biological cloning,
07:14is not a continuation of the previous person directly.
07:17Rather, it's a recreation.
07:19But it does still face many of the same technical hurdles,
07:22with the main one being the sheer complexity of the human brain.
07:26There are 86 billion neurons in our brains,
07:29with it commonly said that the brain is the single most complicated structure in the entire universe.
07:34No matter how advanced artificial intelligence becomes,
07:37it will be a monumental task to authentically recreate that.
07:40With the pursuit for both biological and digital immortality,
07:44there are countless philosophical and ethical questions in need of answers.
07:48If it were possible, how would de-aging technologies be distributed?
07:52Does there remain a right to die?
07:54And how is it governed?
07:56Can a digital rebuild ever truly be considered life everlasting?
08:00Clearly, there is still a long road ahead.
08:02It's not as though chasing after the fountain of youth is a new obsession for our species.
08:07Stories, legends and historical records of the past all show just how determined our kind has always been
08:13to at least try to live forever.
08:15But perhaps now all the pieces really are starting to fall into place,
08:18and that line between life and death might finally be on the brink of being removed.
08:23We haven't reached death's end yet, but we could well be getting very close.
08:28What do you think? Is there anything we missed?
08:31Let us know in the comments, check out these other clips from Unveiled,
08:34and make sure you subscribe and ring the bell for our latest content.
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