HackerTube.dev

David Sinclair | Why We Age and Why We Don't Have To | Talks at Google

Talks at Google · 2.2M views · 2019-10-10 · 55:14

Open on YouTube ↗

If playback is restricted in your region, try opening the original video. Use Mark watched to add it to your marked videos.

Overview

Harvard geneticist David Sinclair discusses his book Lifespan at Google. He covers the biology of aging, lifestyle interventions and possible future ways to slow or reverse it.

On Hacker News

Shared as the author's own hour-long overview of his aging research, though some commenters doubt that the book's claims hold up.

Recommended by 2 HN people across 2 months · HN mentions 2020–2021

Topics

Search by tags

What people said

DrRobinson · 2020-12 · Recommendation

Seems like many people are new to this concept and feel skeptical so here are some useful resources: * Kurzgesagt: How to Cure Aging – During Your Lifetime? (7:20) [LINK] * Kurzgesagt: Why Age? Should We End Aging Forever? (6:48) [LINK] * Why we should cure ageing (11:30) - Heads up, it's a book intro [LINK] * Ageless: The New Science of Getting Older Without Getting Old (Book, not yet released in the US) [LINK] * Lifespan: Why we age and why we don't have to (book) [LINK] * Google talk: Why We Age and Why We Don't Have To (55:13) - By the author of the book [VIDEO] Edit: * If you wish to contribute to this kind of research make sure to check out SENS: [LINK]

Read the original HN comment ↗
LinuxBender · 2020-11 · Recommendation

This is not a great article. It leaves out Dr. Sinclairs work, further developing discoveries by Dr. Yamanaka specifically around the four transcription factors (Oct3/4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-myc), turning any cells back into pluripotent stem cells. More important, leaving c-myc disabled, the cell reverts to a younger age. This is what Dr. Sinclair has been working on recently, to completely reverse macular degeneration. He has been able to regrow damaged optic nerves all the way from the eye back to the brain. Here is a talk he did at Google [1] He briefly talks about the ethics of this here [2]. [1] - [VIDEO] [2] - [LINK]

Read the original HN comment ↗
fossuser · 2021-08 · Reference

"At another point in the discussion, a man spoke of some benefit X of death, I don't recall exactly what. And I said: "You know, given human nature, if people got hit on the head by a baseball bat every week, pretty soon they would invent reasons why getting hit on the head with a baseball bat was a good thing. But if you took someone who wasn't being hit on the head with a baseball bat, and you asked them if they wanted it, they would say no. I think that if you took someone who was immortal, and asked them if they wanted to die for benefit X, they would say no."" [0] [0]: [LINK] There's no (physics based) reason we have to die, just like there was no reason for all the deaths in child birth in early human history. It's a failure of our current capabilities. I don't know if any of the claims in Lifespan [1] hold up, but if they do stopping aging may be easier than people previously thought. Either way - I'm hoping we figure it out sooner rather than later. [1]: [VIDEO]

Read the original HN comment ↗

Sources

Video by Talks at Google, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

HN summaries and labels may contain AI errors. HN dates refer to discussions, not video publication.

HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

Views, duration and playback status refresh separately from the published catalog. When an update fails, existing data remains visible.

Selection checks
  • SaaS & AI candidates: Topic keywords do not match
  • Editor-approved picks: Editorial review is required

Rule matches identify candidates. They do not guarantee video quality or financial results.

About the library and its sources