Episode: 53 Xenogenesis - Ageing and Immortality Special

Posted on Sunday, May 15, 2022
In episode 53 (Special Episode 3), Richard and Michael discuss Ageing and Immortality, from a biological and Ethical prespectives.

Show Notes

In episode 53 (Special Episode 3), Richard and Michael discuss Ageing and Immortality, from a biological and Ethical prespectives.

Timestamps

00:00:00 - Start
00:31:00 - Intro
00:03:22 - Historical Lifespan Trends [1,2]
00:08:36 - Definitions: Ageing, Immortality
00:11:54 - Aging as increasing risk of death with time [3,4], Negligible senescence [5] constant (low) risk of death
00:13:30 - how immortal is immortal?
00:15:52 - Mortal Individuals, immortal populations
00:17:16 - Individuals are energetically open but informationally closed
00:20:30 - The environment cannot update an individual’s genome
00:21:10 - Individuals are robust populations are antifragile [6]
00:23:20 - T/Memetic feedback on genetic information [7]
00:24:16 - the ‘immortal’ jellyfish? - blurring individual/population boundaries [8]
00:25:40 - Soma Vs Germline [9,10]
00:32:07 - Hurdles to Achieving more robust ageing
00:33:30 - Senescence [11]
00:37:18 - Antagonistic Pleiotropy [12]
00:41:40 - Descriptive frameworks: The Hallmarks of ageing [13, 14]
00:42:26 - primary hallmarks
00:42:30 - Genomic Instability
00:42:48 - Telomeres [15,16]
00:45:10 - Hayflick limit [17]
00:47:30 - DNA Repair and Ageing as signal transmission problem [18,19]
00:50:16 - Game theory of robustness & reproductive speed trade-offs [20]
00:54:51 - DNA fidelity and Repair genes often mutated in progeriod (accelerated ageing) diseases. [21]
00:56:38 - Organisms have similar mutation densities at end of life [22]
00:57:10 - Error Catastrophe theory of ageing [23]
00:58:02 - Cause of Damage Hallmarks, epigenetics
00:59:40 - DNA methylation
01:00:07 - Histone modifications
01:02:40 - Epigenetics and Development
01:03:45 - Digital vs analog computation in biology
01:06:02 - Epigenetic age clocks [24]
01:08:27 - Predicting when you will die
01:14:40 - Integrative hallmarks: Stem Cells
01:18:38 - Waddington’s Epigenetic landscape [25,26]
01:25:24 - Induced Stem cells and cellular reprogramming [27]
01:29:20 - rejuvenation through epigenetic reprogramming [28]
01:37:00 - How cells know what type of cell to be
01:44:00 - Rolling the ball up the hill and ensuring it lands in the right groove.
01:46:30 - Antagonistic hallmarks
01:47:30 - Getting rid of scenescent cells - Senolytic Drugs
01:49:35 - Dietary restriction [29]
01:50:20 - Hormesis - what doesn’t kill you make you stronger [30]
01:51:51 - Intermittent fasting [31]
01:59:10 - Mitochondria and ROS [32]
02:03:00 - The challenge of Neurons
02:07:00 - The importance of change, earthseed
02:10:00 - Extending the female fertility window, ageing Oocytes
02:12:40 - structrutal mutations from mum and point mutations from dad
02:15:35 - Socio-economics of longer life
02:18:50 - MORE POWER!!! == MORE BETTER
02:23:18 - Mind Uploading & Cryonics [33-35]
02:24:10 - Technical challenges of mind uploading
02:25:50 - ‘Upload’ TV series [36,37]
02:27:20 - Bobiverse [38]
02:27:40 - Permutation City [39]
02:28:10 - Age of Em [40]
02:30:38 - Ethical Questions
02:31:40 - The Immortal dictator problem
02:32:20 - To what problem is mortality an acceptable solution?
02:34:40 - learn, work, retire, (repeat)?
02:39:05 - Transhumanism, i’ll take a better brain please
02:40:20 - Richard’s (Supervillan?) Origin Story
02:41:26 - I should not wish to outlive my friends
02:45:00 - I am a Strange loop, loss and conciousness [41]
02:46:50 - Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (chapter 39) [42]
02:52:50 - Surface Detail [43]
02:53:24 - Richard on The Bayesian Conspiracy [44]
02:53:00 - Outro

References

Differences between not ageing and being immortal:

Immortality and the Individual:

Cellular Senescence:

The Hallmarks of ageing:

Telomeres:

Ageing as signal transmission problem:

Epigenetics of Ageing and biological clocks:

Dietary restriction:

Mind Uploading & Cryonics:

Further Reading/listening:

Podcasts:

Books

Longevity

Fundamentals / books that influence my thinking on this subject

Fiction


Intro: L’Etoile danse (Pt. 1) by Meydan Outro: Long Way Home by Spinning Ratio

Hosts

Richard J. Acton

Richard J. Acton

A Human - for now.

Michael Glinka

Michael Glinka

A Human