What if Death Isn’t the End? The Science of Forever
The Michael Shermer Show
Michael Shermer
4.4 • 921 Ratings
🗓️ 21 January 2025
⏱️ 92 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Just as surgeons once believed pain was good for their patients, some argue today that death brings meaning to life. But given humans rarely live beyond a century (while certain whales can thrive for over two hundred years) it’s hard not to see our biological limits as profoundly unfair. No wonder then that most people nearing death wish they still had more time.
Yet, with ever-advancing science, will the ends of our lives always loom so close?
Ariel Zeleznikow-Johnston is a neuroscientist at Monash University, Australia, where he investigates methods for characterizing the nature of conscious experiences. His research interests range from the decline, preservation and rescue of cognitive function at different stages of the lifespan.
Transcript
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| 0:59.4 | You're listening to The Michael Shermer Show. |
| 1:17.0 | I have to say, I know this literature quite well, but all your discussions of the different theories of consciousness, the different theories of the self, mind uploading, all that stuff |
| 1:22.3 | is so good. |
| 1:23.6 | It's really the best kind of one package summary I've read anywhere. |
| 1:27.6 | So well done. Very kind of you to say. Thanks for the kind words one package summary I've read anywhere. So well done. |
| 1:27.9 | Very kind of you to say. |
| 1:28.8 | Thanks for the kind words about the book. |
| 1:30.5 | Yeah. |
| 1:31.4 | So, but before we get in all the details, what's your story? |
| 1:34.4 | How did you get into, well, just in general, neuroscience and psychology and all that? |
| 1:38.5 | And then how did you get taken down this path? |
| 1:41.1 | Yeah, I think basically for as long as I can remember, I've always been fascinated by |
| 1:45.8 | science and technology and philosophy and sort of where we've come from in terms of technological |
| 1:51.4 | development and where we're going. When I was a really little kid, I wanted to be an astronaut. |
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