Silicon Valley, dreamland, a futuristic utopia,
and the new home of the age-old quest for immortality.
Dying from aging is simply not natural. Aging is a disease.
Zoltan Istvan feels so strongly about curing death that he ran for president
as the first ever trans-humanist cadidate.
His ideas may seem unconventional but the rich founders of companies like Paypal and Google
are pouring millions of dollars into life extension research.
And since billionaires seem to find a way of getting what they want,
it's worth asking, should we die?
And how would immortality change the way we live?
Zoltan drove this RV around the country during his presidential campaign.
It's supposed to look like a giant coffin and help spread the main idea of trans-humanism
that technology will soon overcome death.
he even got some votes.
Basically, we're all just going to vote for me?
And we have to write in Zoltan-
And mom, what does it feel like to vote for you son for president?
I'm proud of him, I hope one day he'll make it.
And I think he would make a good person.
I like your last name.
You like my last name?
But alas, he didn't win.
Instead, we have the oldest president ever.
Who Zoltan says probably won't live long enough to see infinity.
Younger people though, have a better chance.
Because I actually don't think I will die.
I think anyone that is under age 50 and in relatively good health, and barring a tragedy
you have a very good chance to live indefinitely.
Because immortality is still in the future though, trans-humanist are taking steps now
to live long enough for new technology to be invented.
As a techno-optomistic futurist,
I believe in the technology to solve the problems faster than we’ve created them.
And one of those problems is death, aging, and the decline of our brains.
He takes dozens of supplements a day.
[Matzner naming the different supplements]
They all have different purposes.
Some are called ‘nootropics,’ and they’re basically supposed to make you smarter.
47 minute work out.
Great let's begin.
Along with immortality, optomizing the brain is big for trans-humanist.
That's a 7 minute work out.
Raise your heart rate up.
I know that here I have a limited amount of time
The faster I talk, the faster I read, the more information in my life that I can learn.
His morning routine ends with computer-assisted meditation.
66 percent calm.
Most Americans are opposed to extending life indefinitely.
Fifty-six percent said they wouldn’t want to live decades longer,
and more than half said that radical life extension is a bad thing for society.
But there is a possibility that eliminating death would make people less fearful and more open-minded.
The psychologist Sheldon Solomon has found that making people afraid of death changes their behavior.
In one study, when researchers reminded judges of death, they handed out much harsher punishments.
From these kinds of studies, Solomon came up with what he calls Terror Management Theory.
It's this idea that whenever you remind someone of dying,
they manage their fear by trying to regain a sense of control.
You talk to me about trying to control death so that I don't have to die, of course!
Of course it's something that I want to control.
Our purpose now in the 21st century is to become god-like and overcome death.
During his campaign, Zoltan visited this cryonics facility in Arizona.
The corpses frozen in these aluminum tanks are waiting to be awoken from death in the future.
If you only freeze your head, you get a discount.
Using a model tank, the company president shows where they store these budget customers,
which he calls “neuro patients.”
Inside, there are four whole-body patients. You can also get five neuro patients in the center columns.
Yep, each tank holds 4 bodies and 5 heads
While they wait to be thawed out, the thinking goes,
technology will evolve to solve other problems created by life extension.
Like what happens to the environment with so many excess centenarians running around?
Will the divide between the rich and the poor become mortal and immortal?
Will aging dictators just be able to stay in power forever?
Those are just the practical problems.
Some philosophers point out that life is like a party:
it's exciting because it has a beginning and an end.
Death’s deadline for many is motivation to use the time wisely.
Maybe the best we can hope for is that all the medical research, technology,
and robotics developed for life extension will have some spillover benefits for the rest of us.
The trans-humanist candidate recently took a step toward, well, transcending his humanity.
He got a chip implanted into his hand that he uses to unlock his front door.
So, I just touch it.