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00:00Throughout history, the quest for immortal life has been long, and so far, fruitless.
00:05The fact remains that no one can live forever.
00:09But actually, is that true?
00:11For our physical bodies, it undoubtedly is.
00:14But theories abound for our metaphysical selves.
00:18What do you think happens when our bodies give out?
00:25What if you knew that you were never going to die?
00:27Of all the what-if scenarios out there, it's one of the most popular.
00:31And it's never quite as easy as it first appears.
00:33Yes, never dying means you can pretty much do anything you want, forever and ever.
00:38But also, if you never die, then really, what's the point in living?
00:42We've focused more on the moral dilemmas in past videos, so be sure to check them out
00:47after this.
00:48But today, it's all about making immortality actually happen.
00:53Over the last decade or so, interest in quantum physics has skyrocketed.
00:58Scientists have unlocked the world of the very, very small… and with it, have ushered
01:02in a new age for things like energy, computing, and medicine.
01:06More than all of that, however, our growing quantum knowledge has fundamentally reshaped
01:10what we think life is.
01:13The theory of biocentrism, proposed by the US scientist Robert Lanza, principally argues
01:18that rather than the universe creating life, it's actually life that creates the universe.
01:24What we, in ourselves, call consciousness was actually there at the beginning of everything.
01:29And it's just that now, almost 14 billion years later, consciousness channels itself
01:34through us, human beings.
01:36As such, we've come to view life, the universe, and everything through our bodies, processed
01:41by our brains… but really, to some degree, none of that is necessary.
01:46In this model, then, our brains and bodies might be viewed more like sophisticated modems,
01:52catching and translating signals, and converting those into our own life experiences.
01:57But if the brain and body dies, if the modem is destroyed, then the signals don't just
02:02disappear as well.
02:03They remain, and might well be rerouted or recycled into some other host.
02:08In a biocentric reality, life is the signal.
02:12And while we may think that it's so reliant on our bodies for communication, it actually
02:16carries on regardless.
02:18It's life as we don't know it, but it's life all the same.
02:21So, the theory goes.
02:23Lanza's ideas have divided opinion since they were first put forward in the late 2000s.
02:29For some, biocentrism offers a bridge between the philosophical concepts of life and death,
02:34and the physicality of it all.
02:36For others, the theory is still far too vague, with little to no evidence as to what consciousness
02:42really is.
02:43In subsequent discussions and interviews, Lanza has highlighted the famed Double Slit
02:47experiment to back biocentrism up.
02:50Via the experiment, scientists can show that light and matter can either be wave or particle
02:56depending upon whether they are observed.
02:59Consciousness creates the universe, not the other way around.
03:02Supporters also draw on the fine-tuning problem for further reasons as to why biocentrism
03:07makes sense.
03:08The fine-tuning problem shows that there are so many physical conditions to the universe
03:12that make it just right for life, that it seems impossibly unlikely that we should be
03:17here in a universe that's so suited to us.
03:21When viewed biocentrically, though, there is no fine-tuning problem, because consciousness
03:26obviously would aim for a reality that works.
03:29According to some, all of this inevitably leads to so-called life after death.
03:34To death being an illusion, because life and consciousness no longer end with our bodies
03:39and brains.
03:40Instead, it dissipates out of us, like a kind of energy, into the rest of the universe,
03:45of its own making, once the vehicle of a body is no more.
03:49Again, biocentrism is sometimes criticised for the vagueness of this aspect.
03:53Although it's not as though this is the first attempt to place consciousness, or a
03:57soul, beyond our physical means.
04:00Discussions of that sort go all the way back to René Descartes, at least, in the seventeenth
04:04century and the Age of Enlightenment.
04:06More broadly, still, biocentrism suggests that even the underlying principle of time
04:11is merely the product of consciousness inside our current bodies, creating a means through
04:16which to understand and remember.
04:19Time, and specifically the arrow of time, is then explained as a tool of our minds,
04:25rather than some kind of higher, immovable quality of the universe.
04:29And finally, Lanza's biocentrism isn't the only such idea towards living forever,
04:33either.
04:34The succinctly named Quantum Immortality Model relies on that other underpinning central
04:39concept of modern theoretical science… the multiverse.
04:44Developed out of Hugh Everett's Many Worlds interpretation, the idea is that for every
04:48choice or split that's ever made, a new branch of reality is formed.
04:53These branches never cross over, but run closely alongside one another, reflecting minor to
04:58major differences as a direct result of whatever caused the split in the first place.
05:03Over the years, science fiction writers have had a lot of fun with the story potential
05:08here, suggesting that huge events could well be determined upon a person's fleeting decision
05:13to buy an apple or a banana, for example.
05:16But what the multiverse could mean for life after death is something that science fact
05:20has pondered, too.
05:21The basic premise of quantum immortality is that, in a multiverse, there should always
05:27be a split possible through which a person survives.
05:31A rerouting through reality, which means that again and again and again, they live rather
05:36than die.
05:38The idea can once more be linked back to key studies like the Double Slit Experiment, which
05:42apparently suggests that all options are always possible, until they're observed and then
05:47are not.
05:49Death is still death.
05:50It's still final, and it's not as though, even in the multiverse, you could rewind time
05:54to make it not happen.
05:56But after death, and if you follow the multiverse, it could be that on another level of the model,
06:02in another version of the endless realities, that particular death didn't happen, and
06:07life still wins out.
06:08The question to combine both biocentrism and quantum immortality is, could consciousness
06:13create not just the universe, but the multiverse as well?
06:17Can life move between multiverse strands, even if physical bodies cannot?
06:22When we're gone, will some kind of awareness, a soul by some definitions, still remain?
06:29And if that were to be the case, then could we, as we are, ever hope to know or understand
06:34what was happening?
06:35Physically speaking, death is the end of our bodies and brains.
06:39Our vehicles for life are no more, and so perhaps we could never hope to understand
06:44life in quite the same way again.
06:46Not unless our consciousness were to end up in another human being… but that's a theory
06:51for another video.
06:52What's clear is that still, nothing is certain.
06:56Biocentrism has divided opinion in recent times, yes, but it cannot truly claim to have
07:01cracked the mystery of life and death just yet.
07:04The same for quantum immortality, which is much more of a thought experiment than a physical
07:09surety.
07:10Again, for modern-day humanity, it can feel as though the search for eternal life is an
07:15everlasting quest.
07:16And that's good and encouraging in some ways, but not so much in others.
07:21With or without a meaning or explanation for life, we do all at least have a life to
07:26lead.
07:27With emotions to feel, roles to fulfil, and experiences to share.
07:31There are some massive and fundamental unknowns still outstanding, but until that fog eventually
07:37lifts, we can all spend our lives looking out for each other, enjoying the good times,
07:42and savouring the things that make us happy.
07:45We might well ponder our quantum condition, but life's still what we make of it.
07:50And remember, it could yet be that our consciousness created the universe.
07:55And that's pretty special, don't you think?
07:57What do you think?
07:58Is there anything we missed?
08:00Let us know in the comments, check out these other clips from Unveiled, and make sure you
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