"Do You Want To Live Forever?" Documentary, Channel 4, UK

Scheduled for the evening of February 3rd, Channel 4 in the UK will be airing Christopher Sykes' documentary on biomedical gerontologist Aubrey de Grey, the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) and the scientific goal of radical life extension. Aging is damage, damage can be repaired, and SENS is a first, coherent stab at outlining exactly - to the best of our knowledge today - how the biotechnology and research communities could accomplish this goal. From the Channel 4 website:

Computer scientist turned biologist Dr Aubrey de Grey is on a mission to end 'the scandal of death. Award-winning filmmaker Christopher Sykes goes on the road with de Grey to find out whether old age and death could soon be a thing of the past.

I believe it should be possible to watch this online on the 3rd via the simulcast section of the website, though I haven't given this functionality a road test myself.

From Christopher Sykes' website:

Investigating the revolutionary life-extension ideas of AUBREY de GREY, immortalist and biogerontologist extraordinary, architect of the SENS programme to defeat old age and conquer death within his own lifetime.

Here are the Radio Times details:

Award-winning director Christopher Sykes follows computer scientist turned renowned biologist Dr Aubrey de Grey on the road as he investigates the possibilites of immortality. Hailed as a genius by some experts and publicly denounced by other scientists, de Grey expands on his theory of immortal life by identifying the 'Seven Deadly Things' that cause ageing and proposes solutions for them all. Will this lead to indefinite life extension in the future and is it something we really want?

As I've said a number of times in the past, the word "immortality" seems to be acquiring a common meaning of "greatly extending healthy life span," at least in the media. The shorthand of journalism, to convey much in title and snippet by the use of few words - or less charitably, to make every word pull its weight in the act of attracting fleeting attention, any attention, in a Darwinian struggle for survival - but it would have been nice had the community settled on a word less loaded with pre-existing meaning.

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Comments

"it would have been nice had the community settled on a word less loaded with pre-existing meaning" - no, I don't think so. It's the only word that captures the scope of the vision, in a single conceptual snap that can break through even the cynicism of the ordinary public.

Posted by: Julian Morrison at February 2nd, 2007 1:35 PM

Is there a way to view this documentary if I am in the United States? It says on the broadcast website that one needs to be a UK resident to watch Channel 4 online.
Thanks

Posted by: Shannon at February 2nd, 2007 10:59 PM

I saw the documentary and I heard a church choir singing as background music, can anybody tell me the title and which choir was singing. the music touched me and it was so beautiful. please if anybody knows the title, please post here or write to lianx@web.de, thanks

Posted by: brian at February 3rd, 2007 5:28 PM

I am in Los Angeles. I was interviewed last year in Tucson by Chris Sykes who planned to put my interview on the show. He was supposed to contact me, and send me a copy but never did. I would like to see the video especially if I am still in it. I just found out today, Feb 5, that it viewed 2 days ago, Feb 3.
How can I download or see the show?
Thanks,
Val Stansfield

Posted by: Val Stansfield at February 5th, 2007 10:51 AM

READ THIS AND PLZ COMMENT TO MODIFY THIS IDEA TO A PERFECT ONE
I believe we can conquer death but in a different manner.Think ,for instance, of a computer. We have CDs which store data in them. CDs can be read by CD ROMs..Data on a CD can be transferred to computer and that to another CD through CD Writer.Now think of BRAIN.For an old man 'ABC' to be reborn, all is required is his memory(brain) or infact the matter/signals in the brain.These can be stored on a computer and then may be transferred to another young person(may be a child)'XYZ''s brain such that the man ABC is reborn.THUS ABC HAS NOT DIED and he has reborn.

Posted by: mohit gupta at August 1st, 2008 12:19 AM
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