What if you lived

For the foreseeable future, life extension will be just a wonderfully shiny bauble of luxury far beyond most of our reach. And how could we ethically pursue such an end—dedicating resources and time—when those in the developing world on average die a full 30 years before those in the West? Technology advances first for those who have the money, then moves forward for the rest.

At the dawn of the cell phone, many people in Africa still lacked landlines—but by the time the continent had advanced far enough to address that problem, portable phone tech had become so cheap that it allowed Africa to bypass those legacy systems entirely , leapfrog landlines, and go straight to mobiles. Disparity of access is a valid concern, especially when lack of access means death.

However, as we probe the edges of our limits, we must remain dedicated to eventually making any discoveries available to all. And besides, limited access may be necessary, at least at first. The world has only so many resources, and our booming population is already stressing what we have available.

If we were to add another 20 to 40 years to the lifespans of every person on Earth, it could have cataclysmic global consequence. At the end of the 18th century, English cleric, scholar, and demographer Thomas Malthus postulated that death is the best check against a famine induced global cataclysmic tragedy. In other words: Unless enough of us bow out early on account of stupidity, violence, or health, homo sapiens is screwed.

Of all the arguments against life extension, the Malthusian catastrophe is the one that worries Davis the most. Rather than think about the problem in the abstract, he teamed up with a demographer to find out what would happen to the world if we were to live to be , or even 1, years old. What they found was that sustainable life extension may come with some pretty tough decisions. In the first set of numbers they ran, everyone in his hypothetical population of a billion people are on some form life-extension therapy that allows them to live to which is a number bandied about as possible within our lifetimes.

In the second set, the life-extension tech is way better, and everyone lives to 1, which Davis believes would be the median life expectancy if we could remove all age-related diseases. But if we tighten our belts a little—say one child per every two women—things start to level out at a one-third increase after a couple of decades, then starts to decline.

The same happens in the second scenario after years. But Davis proposes that only those who opt-in to life extension would need to be restricted. We should prepare ourselves to make this decision—or at least prepare our children to ponder. Even the most interesting person can only fill so many hours of days.

John K. Davis admits we have no frame of reference to postulate how living into a fifth century will affect our mental health, but he feels that negative outcomes could be mitigated through life changes and medication, much like they are now.

But beyond all the arguments of extending our lives on Earth, one day our planet too will die. These babies can be completely customized from simply what they look like; to things like their behaviour and intelligence. Expect them to be working with us, while humans have more advanced roles in our jobs. So, are you ready for all the good and bad that comes with the future?

Just live in the present, and slowly grow into it over the next 50 years. Season 2 of "What If" takes you to an imaginary world where the laws of nature have been altered People on Earth talk a lot about colonizing Mars. But What If it had already happened and the first Imagine how fast we could exchange information if we could just transmit our thoughts directly to Some Are you one of those people who hate these little crawling things?

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Once we make it to Mars, what comes next? What would it take to settle the Red Planet? Artificial leaves designed by scientists at Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands December 16, Growth Keeping the food and medicine supplies stocked on Mars is the best way to make a habitat self-sustaining, but with a thin atmosphere and reduced sunlight, it can be difficult to get anything to grow.

Artificial leaves, designed to work in harsh conditions , could offer a solution for first aid. These leaves, made of silicone rubber, can take a little bit of sunlight and turn it into enough power to fuel the necessary chemical reactions to make medicine and other compounds.

The channels inside the leaf are protected because your device can re-emit the energy it collects at a safer wavelength, which allows any chemical processes to take place. Tim and his team are working hard now to make a diverse set of reactors. They hope to have the device onboard for the trip to Mars. Nature has given us the perfect tools to survive nearly anywhere.

They just need a little bit of tweaking to survive off Earth. A visualization of an Earth-like Mars, be it ancient or a future of terraforming. Time Will Tell Mars has captured the imagination of humans for decades. Are you ready to take a closer look at Mars?

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