The Immortals - Ep 7. Vitalik

Intrigue

BBC

True Crime, Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.6 • 4.6K Ratings

🗓️ 25 September 2023

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Vitalek Buterin is the billionaire founder of Ethereum, one of the most successful blockchains and cryptocurrencies in the world. With his fortune, he is attempting to solve the problem of death by creating a longevity state - which will fast track life everlasting, without the need for regulation.

They will crowdsource their longevity solutions and organise them through the blockchain. His north star is the Fable of the Dragon Tyrant.

In this series, technology reporter and psychologist Aleks Krotoski explores the frontiers of the extreme longevity pioneers. They've made their money in Silicon Valley. And with their technology solutions - PayPal, Facebook, cryptocurrencies - they've ushered in the world that we live in today, with all its unintended consequences. Some of them now want to solve the "problem" of aging, or even death, and they are making bigger strides than we may think.

Can they? Should they?

A Pillowfort production for BBC Radio 4

New episodes released Mondays. If you're in the UK, listen to the full series of Intrigue: The Immortals first on BBC Sounds: bbc.in/3WEQS5W

Transcript

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0:00.0	Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless
0:06.8	searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the
0:11.8	telly we share what we've been watching
0:14.0	Fladiated.
0:16.0	Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming.
0:19.0	Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige.
0:21.0	And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less
0:25.0	searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC Sounds.
0:29.0	BBC Sounds.
0:30.0	BBC Sounds Music music, radio podcasts.
0:35.8	The Fable of the Dragon Tyrant, a parable where the dragon represents aging, didn't always
0:41.1	have the influence in Silicon Valley it does now.
0:44.0	Entrepreneurs like Brian Johnson, who we heard from in the last episode,
0:48.0	keeping himself young with high-tech rejuvenation therapies.
0:52.0	When it was written, defeating aging... with high-tech rejuvenation therapies.
0:52.8	When it was written, defeating aging seemed like a crazy idea,
0:57.2	one for the distant future.
0:59.2	Priests and magicians call down curses to no avail.
1:05.0	Warriors, armed with roaring courage and the best weapons the Smiths could produce, attacked it,
1:11.0	but were incinerated by its fire before coming close enough to strike.
1:15.5	It was first published in 2005 in the academic Journal of Medical Ethics.
1:20.9	Its author was Professor Nick Bostrom of the University of Oxford. The fable probably got 20,000 views.
	...

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