stephen cave, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for having me. it s a great pleasure. you believe that our human awareness of our own mortality is absolutely central to the human story. why? well, all creatures strive to live on, to keep going. they would not be around us any more if they did not. they wouldn t be around us any more if they didn t. the mouse that didn t care about surviving wouldn t pass on its genes. so we come for from a long line of creatures that are determined to keep going, but we have these big brains that s part of our survival mechanism, if you like that allow us to see the future, to generalise and we re conscious of ourselves as individuals, and that means we re conscious of our own deaths. and out of all the billions of creatures on earth, very few creatures have to live with that terrible awareness that one day, all of their efforts will come to nothing. and so, if we look back through human history, what we see is humanity struggling to make se
which is straight after this programme. welcome to hardtalk. i m stephen sackur. one of the key drivers of human thought and behaviour throughout history has been knowledge of our own mortality. from childhood each of us knows we will die. religion, philosophy and science all wrestle with that fact and have in different ways embraced the quest for immortality. my guess today, stephen cave, director of the cambridge institute for technology and humanity is at the centre of a growing debate about the merits of extending human longevity. is it wise to seek to live forever? stephen cave, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for having me. it is a great pleasure. you believe that our human awareness of our own mortality is absolutely central to the human story. why? well, all creatures strive to live on, to keep going. they would not be around us any more if they did not. the mouse that did not care about surviving would not pass on its genes. so we come for from a long line of creature
stephen cave, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for having me. it s a great pleasure. you believe that our human awareness of our own mortality is absolutely central to the human story. why? well, all creatures strive to live on, to keep going. they wouldn t be around us any more if they didn t. the mouse that didn t care about surviving wouldn t pass on its genes. so we come from a long line of creatures that are determined to keep going. but we have these big brains, that s part of our survival mechanism, if you like, that allow us to see the future, to generalise. and we re conscious of ourselves as individuals, and that means we re conscious of our own deaths. and of all the billions of creatures on earth, very few creatures have to live with that terrible awareness that, one day, all of their efforts will come to nothing. and so, if we look back through human history, what we see is humanity struggling to make sense of this. some of the earliest archaeological evidence we f
of our own mortality is absolutely central to the human story. why? well, all creatures strive to live on, to keep going. they wouldn t be around us any more if they didn t. the mouse that didn t care about surviving wouldn t pass on its genes. so we come from a long line of creatures that are determined to keep going. but we have these big brains, that s part of our survival mechanism, if you like, that allow us to see the future, to generalise. and we re conscious of ourselves as individuals, and that means we re conscious of our own deaths. and of all the billions of creatures on earth, very few creatures have to live with that terrible awareness that, one day, all of their efforts will come to nothing. and so, if we look back through human history, what we see is humanity struggling to make sense of this. some of the earliest archaeological evidence we find of human development is grave goods, for example, suggesting people very early believed in an afterlife. the oldest
is it wise to seek to live forever? stephen cave, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for having me. it is a great pleasure. you believe our human awareness of our own mortality is absolutely central to the human story. why? well, all creatures strive to live on, to keep going. they would not be around as if they did not. the mountain did not care about surviving would not pass on genes. we come for from a long line of creatures that determined to keep going but we have these big brands that is part of our survival mechanism allow us to see the future, to generalise and we are conscious of ourselves as individuals and that means we are conscious of our own death and out of all the billions of creatures on earth, very few creatures have to live with that terrible awareness that all of their efforts will come to nothing safe we look back to human history, we see humanity struggling to make sense of this. some of the earliest archaeological evidence we find of human development is su