Elon Musk's Fears of Longevity (& What It Means for the Future)
Channel: Lifespan News
Date: 2021-12-16

Elon Musk has been named Time Magazine’s person of the year for 2021. Musk is always looking ahead, and has big plans for the future - both for himself, and more importantly, for humanity. But does Musk want to live to realize that long term vision for humanity’s future? The answer is possibly “No.”

Musk raised some eyebrows recently when discussing the idea of increasing human lifespans. The exchange in question took place at the Wall Street Journal's CEO Council Summit during a virtual interview between Musk and Joanna Stern.

This is not the first time that Musk has addressed longevity and life extension science, and it does seem like his views on the subject are slowly evolving. In 2013 Musk seemed to say that he doesn’t think that extreme life extension is even possible through means such as diet, exercise, or even curing diseases, given what he sees as limits of biology that cannot be overcome in this way. However, he sees potential to bypass those biological limits with gene editing technology, though he understands that this is a controversial topic and many will oppose this type of work. He expressed a similar sentiment during a 2015 conversation with Tim Urbran of Wait But Why.

During a Vanity Fair event with journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin, Musk revealed how long he’d like to live: about 100 years. In 2021, during the Everyday Astronaut tour of Starbase, Musk, who is known for optimistic timelines, seemed to suggest that he didn’t see himself living much beyond a typical human lifespan of today. So Musk perhaps hopes to die around age 100, which would be the year 2071.

Musk believes that using gene editing, it would not be particularly difficult to stop and even reverse aging. He must foresee some possibility that these age reversal technologies are developed while he’s still alive, but he’s already made clear that he doesn’t want to live forever and isn’t really interested in longevity. So what happens when these technologies are developed? Does Elon Musk not make use of them, and instead choose to age and die?

Musk has a fear that more people living longer could stifle innovation and stagnate our culture, but even if it is the case that a 90 year old of today is more stuck in their ways than a 30 year old, who is to say that rejuvenating the body and brain of that 90 year old back to the body and brain of a 30 year old wouldn’t also give them the neuroplasticity and mental outlook of a biologically younger person? After all - at this point they are that biologically younger person. I think this is quite possible, and I find it hard to accept that someone who believes we can turn a human into a butterfly struggles to also see that it’s possible to make it so that chronological age doesn’t affect the human brain in the way that he fears it will.

I don’t expect Musk to get deeply involved with the longevity movement. I also expect him to not be a barrier to it, and I’d love for him to financially support the development of this technology.

As Elon Musk approaches age 100, he might be far less interested in dying than he seems to be today.

SOURCES AND FURTHER READING
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Musk on Longevity:
Business Insider - https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-believes-it-is-important-for-us-to-die-2021-12
Futurism - https://futurism.com/elon-musk-immortality-tech-dangerous
2015 Vanity Fair Event - https://youtu.be/SqEo107j-uw
2015 Wait But Why - https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/05/elon-musk-the-worlds-raddest-man.html
2013 Los Angeles World Affairs Council - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODpuYSG4eQc
2020 Axel Springer Award - https://youtu.be/AF2HXId2Xhg
2021 Starbase Tour - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Zlnbs-NBUI

Sources:
Boring Company - https://youtu.be/WQn-D-i5lyM
Neuralink Progress Update - https://youtu.be/DVvmgjBL74w
SpaceX Gateway to Mars - https://youtu.be/TeVbYCIFVa8
SpaceX Mission Recap - https://youtu.be/Hb5ZXUeGPHc

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#ElonMusk #Longevity #Immortality #SpaceX #Neuralink

The opinions of the hosts and subjects of this video do not necessarily reflect the view of lifespan.io.