The Interview Stephen Cave: Should we want to live forever?
18 snips
Jan 8, 2024 Stephen Cave, philosopher and director of the University of Cambridge Institute for Technology and Humanity, discusses the dangers of extending human longevity, the concept of immortality and afterlife, the fear of mortality, cryogenic freezing and digitizing consciousness as paths to immortality, the philosophical and practical implications of transferring psychological data, and managing AI and its potential impacts on healthcare and society.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Mortality Shapes Human Culture
- Human awareness of mortality shaped religion, culture, and creative drives across history.
- Stephen Cave argues this awareness is rare in animals and central to human meaning-making.
Father's Illness Shaped Cave's View
- Stephen Cave recounts his father's brain cancer to explain how mind and brain are entwined.
- That experience led him to reject dualist ideas of an immaterial soul surviving bodily death.
Wisdom Narratives Embrace Finitude
- Humans use narratives and philosophies to come to terms with mortality and extract value from finite life.
- Cave describes 'wisdom narratives' across religions and philosophies that embrace mortality's benefits.