Who Wants to Live Forever?

FromPhysical Attraction

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Who Wants to Live Forever?

FromPhysical Attraction

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25 minutes

Released:

Nov 7, 2019

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Podcast episode

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On this episode of Physical Attraction, we take a massively tangential dive into wild philosophical speculation. If I offered you the choice of immortality - but with no possibility of reversing the decision once you made it - would you? Answers on a postcard to www.physicspodcast.com

Released:

Nov 7, 2019

Format:

Podcast episode

Titles in the series (100)

Physical Attraction is the show that explores topics in science, technology, and the future - from a physicist's perspective. From the birth of stars to the end of the world, from interviews with experts to meticulously-researched deep dives, we'll explore the topics that shape our world.

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Bonus: AI Shakespeare vs. AI Trump, call for Listener Questions: Bonus midweek edition, coming to you as close to LIVE as is humanly possible... Inspired by last week's episode, Seduced By A Robot, I downloaded a neural network and started to play around with it. See what happens when I feed it: The works of... by Physical Attraction
16 min listen
TEOTWAWKI 10: Earthquakes: Let’s talk about earthquakes. As we know, the Earth’s crust is made up of tectonic plates – vast plates of rock that shift around due to convection and the motion of fluid in Earth’s mantle. They, roughly speaking “join together” at... by Physical Attraction
25 min listen
Physics Gets Hot and Heavy I: Our inaugural episode! Explaining physics, one chat-up line at a time. This episode, I'm going to explain some of my motivations behind creating the show, and then we're going to be looking at how stars are born, how they're formed, and how... by Physical Attraction
23 min listen
TEOTWAWKI 9: It Came From Outer Space: It's easy to forget that we are on a pale, blue dot - the one habitable place we know of in the whole, wide, Universe. Fragile. Perhaps too fragile. It's not that the Universe wants to kill us; it's just that astrophysics doesn't care too much... by Physical Attraction
31 min listen
Fermi and Drake: Are we alone in the Universe? Or are there alien civilisations out there? And if there are, where are they, and why aren't they talking to us? We'll explore the Fermi paradox, the Drake equation, and, of course... the simple fact that we're all... by Physical Attraction
32 min listen
Physics Gets Hot and Heavy II: Physics gets hot and heavy, part two. This episode we'll be looking at what happens to stars after they join the main sequence - one of the most beautiful theories in astrophysics. Neutron stars, black holes, supernovae... Things are only going to get... by Physical Attraction
20 min listen
Unusually Hot: The Radiation Episode: What is radiation, and why won't it give you superpowers? How can we shield future generations from nuclear waste? What's the Oh-My-God particle? And, most crucially of all, how many bananas does it take to crush a person to death? ... by Physical Attraction
23 min listen
TEOTWAWKI 8: Cyberwarfare: We know that a great deal of our critical national infrastructure depends on complex cyber-systems; but in the fast-changing world of the internet and computer systems, it's become impossible for slow-moving legislators to catch up to the shifting... by Physical Attraction
28 min listen
Get Ready for the Apocalypse: We're going to be presenting a very special series of episodes over the next few months. The end of the world. Is it going to end in fire, or ice? And is there anything we can do about it? Get ready for the apocalypse. by Physical Attraction
2 min listen
TEOTWAWKI 4, Supervirus Part I: Nature: Human beings have been facing apocalyptic circumstances for thousands of years. Our competitors, our nemesis have been pathogens like malaria, Yersinia Pestis, smallpox... every few generations, a cataclysmic plague would tear through human... by Physical Attraction
33 min listen
Seduced By A Robot: OK Computer, seduce me. What happens when Japanese scientists try to programme an AI to give love advice? Are we going to be able to talk to robots in our lifetimes and have them say anything that makes an earthly lick of sense? Should you stop... by Physical Attraction
31 min listen
2017 Nobel Prize Special: Gravitational Waves: As you may already know, yesterday, the Nobel Prize in Physics, 2017 was announced: it went to Kip Thorne, Barry Barish, and Rainer Weiss for their contributions towards the LIGO collaboration that detected gravitational waves. In this special... by Physical Attraction
33 min listen
Physical Attraction: Trailer: The show that explains physics, one chat-up line at a time. Coming soon to an internet near you. by Physical Attraction
1 min listen
TEOTWAWKI 7 - Supervolcanoes: 75,000 years ago, the human race was on the brink of extinction. The cause was the Toba supervolcanic eruption, which had plunged the earth into a volcanic winter and killed all but a few thousand remaining humans. This moment was the closest we have... by Physical Attraction
23 min listen
TEOTWAWKI, Climate Change - Part II: In this second part of the climate change episode, I will talk about what climate change is going to do to us - what the worst case scenarios are - and what we can do, as individuals and as a collective, to stop it. Remember; if you enjoy the... by Physical Attraction
34 min listen
TEOTWAWKI 4, Supervirus II: The Human Factor: Earlier this year, a couple of scientists in a laboratory did something incredible. Using nothing but the genetic code and a well-equipped lab, they raised the dead. Specifically, the extinct horsepox virus was brought back to life. The... by Physical Attraction
36 min listen
XRiskology: Existential Risks with Phil Torres, Part I: We have a guest on the show today – Phil Torres. Phil Torres is an author, Affiliate Scholar at the , former contributor at the , and founding Director of the . He has published in Bulletin of the Atomic... by Physical Attraction
47 min listen
TEOTWAWKI 5: Peak Oil: This episode of the TEOTWAWKI specials, we're focusing on every crazed doom-prepper's favourite scenario for the end of the world - Peak Oil. Our society runs on oil and petroleum products (sadly, still). These fossil fuels are the fossilised remains... by Physical Attraction
30 min listen
News: Neutron Star Merger, Yay Science!: LIGO hold a big press conference and announce the merger of Neutron Stars detected via gravitational waves and optical instruments for the first time. We now know about types of gamma ray burst, and where gold and platinum come from. Since we... by Physical Attraction
16 min listen
Climate Change and the Ozone Layer: Lessons from Montreal: You may remember not so long ago the hole in the ozone layer was the major scientific apocalypse story out there in the world. It could have proved devastating for society, but - after the Montreal protocol banned and heavily regulated the substances... by Physical Attraction
39 min listen
TEOTWAWKI 6: Malthus' Revenge: The human population has been growing exponentially for a long time. It’s been continuously growing since the Black Death in the 1300s – and although wars, famines, and plagues cause occasional blips in the growth since, it’s been pretty close... by Physical Attraction
28 min listen
Announcing Patreon and how to Support the Show: www.patreon.com/PhysicalAttraction, that's www.patreon.com/PhysicalAttraction . If you go there, and subscribe selecting the $3/episode option, the RSS feed and access to all of the online bonus episodes will be yours. I want to make the subscription... by Physical Attraction
5 min listen
Good Vibrations: Can you really explain a huge chunk of what we know about physics with a single equation? What does this equation look like, and how does it behave? And - most importantly - what happens when a platoon of soldiers try to flirt with a bridge? ... by Physical Attraction
19 min listen
Climate Change - Mitigation and Controversies: In this episode, I try to explore a little more the politics behind the simple question: why is it that virtually every other proclamation of physicists is accepted, but the consensus around anthropogenic climate change has been so difficult for... by Physical Attraction
27 min listen
Bonus Episode: Solar Panels + Splitting Sunbeams: Occasionally, in the world, we observe empirical laws – the laws of experiment - that seem to be spookily accurate. There’s no theoretical reason why they should be obeyed, but they just happen to describe the world remarkably well. Perhaps the... by Physical Attraction
21 min listen
TEOTWAWKI Bonus: Alien Attack (Free Episode): Things have been very serious and very depressing on our TEOTWAWKI specials; so I thought it was about time to do a little bit of light-hearted debunking, rather than ranting about the genuine dangers of apocalypse that might await us in the future. ... by Physical Attraction
24 min listen
TEOTWAWKI 2.2, Climate Change - Part I: Our environment links us all: and we know that we are doing immense harm to that natural environment with our human activities. But where are the weak links? What are the potential pitfalls for the natural world, and for civilisation? In other words -... by Physical Attraction
31 min listen
TEOTWAWKI: The Singularity, Part II: Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, Martin Rees... all have warned about the risk from Artificial Intelligence. Centres like the Future of Humanity Institute in Oxford, and the Centre for Existential Risk at Cambridge, rate the risk from artificial... by Physical Attraction
46 min listen
TEOTWAWKI: The Psychology of the End: Why are we so fascinated with the end of the world? How do we think about it? How do cognitive biases impact how we conceive of it? How can we account for existential risks to humanity? What is millenial thinking, and why do we fall into it? All this... by Physical Attraction
38 min listen
Stuart Armstrong - AI and the Future of Humanity: We have a guest on the show today! His name is Stuart Armstrong, and he works at the Future of Humanity Institute that we’ve mentioned several times over the course of the TEOTWAWKI specials who are looking at big-picture existential risks. Stuart... by Physical Attraction
54 min listen

More Episodes from Physical Attraction

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Climate 201: Climate Doomism (II): In the last episode, we briefly introduced "climate change doomers" and some of their misleading claims. In this episode, I talk about despair, and why we cannot give in to it. by Physical Attraction
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UNLOCKED: Book Club: Tim Wu's The Attention Merchants: A new episode released from behind the Patreon paywall. This episode, we'll review and discuss some of the issues raised by Tim Wu's The Attention Merchants, a book that details the history of the advertising industry. by Physical Attraction
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Climate 201 NETS XI: Direct Air Capture, p2 and NETS conclusion: In this episode, we will continue our analysis of Direct Air Capture and conclude the series on negative emissions - crucial component of decarbonisation, or a techno-utopian distraction from the real problems we face? [Don't expect an actual answer] by Physical Attraction
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Climate 201 NETS X: Direct Air Capture, part 1: Direct Air Capture - machines that suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Could this be the solution to a scaleable negative emissions industry? We'll discuss the pros and cons of the technology in this episode. by Physical Attraction
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BONUS: Black Mirror IRL pilot - Be Right Back: Hi all! This is a slightly special bonus episode. Some years ago I had plans for another series "Black Mirror IRL", which was going to be a series of episodes looking into the technologies mentioned and featured in the Netflix Series Black Mirror. Is... by Physical Attraction
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Climate 201: NETS VII: Ecosystem Restoration and Mangroves: What are "nature-based solutions" to climate change? Can we restore the ecosystems that we've destroyed? And how can restoring mangroves help us to suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere? by Physical Attraction
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Climate 201, NETS IX: Ocean Iron Fertilization: "Give me a tanker full of iron, and I'll give you a new Ice Age." It might sound like something Hank Scorpio would say, but this episode will deal with the very real idea of stimulating plankton blooms to remove CO2 from the atmosphere - ocean iron... by Physical Attraction
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Climate 201: NETS VIII: Enhanced Weathering: How could grinding up rocks and sprinkling the dust over vast areas help to combat climate change? In this episode, we deal with "enhanced weathering" as a potential source of negative emissions. by Physical Attraction
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Climate201 NETS VI: Planting Trees and Afforestation: Mention carbon capture, and the refrain you'll often hear is "why invent a machine that captures CO2? We already have one - it's called a tree." But is large-scale afforestation as a negative emissions solution so simple? We dig into its potential in... by Physical Attraction
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Climate 201: NETS V: Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage: N/B: Owing to a ridiculously hectic schedule until the end of the year, episodes will continue to be released on a fortnightly basis until further notice - thanks for understanding. We hear an awful lot about carbon capture, utilisation, and... by Physical Attraction
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Climate 201: Negative Emissions IV: Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS): In this episode, we get into some of the specific technologies that might be called upon to deliver negative emissions at scale. Specifically, we're looking at the advantages, disadvantages, and concerns surrounding BECCS (Bioenergy with Carbon... by Physical Attraction
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Climate 201, Negative Emissions III: Technological Promises, or Prevarications: In this episode, we discuss whether the promises that some new technology - like negative emissions - will come along and "solve climate change" for us are genuine, or if they have instead shaped climate policy into prevarication and procrastination. by Physical Attraction
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Climate 201: Negative Emissions (II): We'll Always Have Paris?: Increasing levels of negative emissions are envisioned by models in climate-change scenarios that are compatible with the Paris Agreements. In this episode, we talk about some of the geopolitical implications for trying to deliver this, and the... by Physical Attraction
44 min listen
Climate 201: Negative Emissions I: The Last Thing We Should Be Talking About?: Negative emissions technologies (NETs), also called carbon dioxide removal (CDR), are seen by many as an increasingly essential part of climate change mitigation. Many of the scenarios that the IPCC suggests for meeting the Paris Agreement goals... by Physical Attraction
44 min listen
Book Club: Jason Hickel's The Divide, Part II: The book club returns, with a two-part review and overview of anthropologist Jason Hickel's book "The Divide", about global inequality, its historical origins, and possible solutions in the future. by Physical Attraction
50 min listen
Book Club: Jason Hickel's The Divide, Part I: The Origins of Global Inequality: The book club returns, with a two-part review and overview of anthropologist Jason Hickel's book "The Divide", about global inequality, its historical origins, and possible solutions in the future. by Physical Attraction
60 min listen
Cosmology, VII: Cosmological Contradictions: In this episode, we discuss the ongoing battle throughout the 1930s and 1940s between those who believed in a steady-state Universe, and those who thought it was expanding - and how it took more observations to overcome these cosmological contradictions. by Physical Attraction
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TT: Climate, CCS Struggles as Adaptation Stalls: To close out this series of news episodes, we discuss the depressing failure of carbon capture and storage projects in Australia, as well as the far-too-slow approach to climate change adaptation across the world. by Physical Attraction
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Thermonuclear Takes: Amazon Carbon Stocks and Global Green Recovery Progress Update: In this episode of Thermonuclear Takes, we tackle a couple of recent climate-related news stories - the "tipping point" carbon flux measurements from the Amazon rainforest, and the IEA's progress report on a global green recovery. by Physical Attraction
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Thermonuclear Takes: The Little Robot That Couldn't: Updates on the Softbank Vision Fund and the sad fate of Pepper the robot. by Physical Attraction
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Thermonuclear Takes: Muon Madness Melting Models... Maybe?: In this news episode, I discuss recent anomalies around the muon - B-particles decaying into muons, and the muon's anomalous magnetic moment - and whether they herald the glorious dawn of a new era of physics, or are just a mistake. by Physical Attraction
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Thermonuclear Takes: Show updates, cosmology feedback, particle physics: In this news-y episode, I will give you some updates on how the show is progressing, share some listener emails on our cosmology series, and set up next episode's discussion of some recent results in high-energy physics. by Physical Attraction
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Cosmology VI: Cosmic Eggs and the Edge of the Universe: In this episode, we cover the different kinds of universal horizon, whether the Universe has an edge, and talk about how theoretical physicists pondered how it all might've began. by Physical Attraction
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Cosmology, Episode V: Einstein's Mistake: At the dawn of theoretical cosmology, Einstein introduced the so-called "Cosmological Constant" into his equations to explain how the Universe could be static and unchanging in time. He would later say that it was his greatest mistake. by Physical Attraction
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Cosmology IV: Einstein's Cosmos: In this episode, we look at how Einstein's theory of general relativity gave rise to a theoretical framework for examining cosmology - the evolution of space, time, and the Universe in general - as a whole. by Physical Attraction
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Cosmology III: Hubble's Law: In 1929, Edwin Hubble published his findings. The redshifts from distant galaxies were proportional to their distance away from us. Theoretical cosmologists would pounce on them as evidence that the Universe must be expanding. by Physical Attraction
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Cosmology II: Starting From Nothing: Everything we have been able to infer about the Universe began in total ignorance. Many early theories about how the Universe was structured were wildly incorrect - but astronomers were building up the toolkits that would later allow us to understand. by Physical Attraction
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Cosmology, Episode I: In The Beginning: When you're trying to narrate the history of the entire Universe, where do you begin? I decided to start in a radio studio in London in March 1949, when the term "Big Bang" was first coined, in the first on our series on cosmology. by Physical Attraction
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Who Wants to Live Forever?

Who Wants to Live Forever?

Description

Titles in the series (100)

More Episodes from Physical Attraction

Related podcast episodes