We need to develop some kind of institution that helps us as a society make these kinds of choices rather than just stumbling into them haphazardly. I think it maybe has to be an extra government, not federal bureaucracy that helps innovate and help make these things happen. It's crazy to think we could be protected from a really bad disease, but we're not because it's not in the economic interest of the people who make those things. Antibiotics, it's the same story, right? We're developing these superbugs,. arguably the most important breakthrough of the last 70 years, penicillin and its descendants.
Last month, longtime New Yorker staff writer Michael Specter released a brand new audiobook with our friends at Pushkin. It’s called “Higher Animals: Vaccines, Synthetic Biology, and the Future of Life,” and it’s an inspiring account of the emerging field of synthetic biology — a field where scientists combine chemistry, engineering, and computer science to develop new drugs and therapies for treating diseases of all sorts.
This month, Steven Johnson, a frequent guest on this show and a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, is publishing a brand new audiobook of his own. It’s called “Immortality: A User’s Guide,” and it was produced by ... us! (You can get a copy here.) The premise is this: we might well be on the cusp of a revolution in the science of aging and we are not prepared for the consequences.
You can see the overlaps, right?
So we decided to get Steven and Michael on the horn to talk about breakthrough technologies, radical life extension, and the future of our species.