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What will happen if we cure aging?

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On July 30th, 2016, Cracked.com released a

short animation on its Youtube channel explaining why space travel is one of the worst things that can happen to the human body. Though Star Trek calls it the final frontier, it is not a frontier that is begging to be travelled. Space is hard. Unlike going out on a hike, when something goes wrong for an astronaut, it goes deadly wrong. There is no army to send for back up, it is not a wave pool that one can just walk out of. If there’s a crack in the ship, the human body is in for it.

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BILL NYE:

Bill Nye, scientist, engineer, comedian, author, and inventor, is a man with a mission: to help foster a scientifically literate society, to help people everywhere understand and appreciate the science that makes our world work. Making science entertaining and accessible is something Bill has been doing most of his life.

In Seattle Nye began to combine his love of science with his flair for comedy, when he won the Steve Martin look-alike contest and developed dual careers as an engineer by day and a stand-up comic by night. Nye then quit his day engineering day job and made the transition to a night job as a comedy writer and performer on Seattle’s home-grown ensemble comedy show “Almost Live.” This is where “Bill Nye the Science Guy®” was born. The show appeared before Saturday Night Live and later on Comedy Central, originating at KING-TV, Seattle’s NBC affiliate.

While working on the Science Guy show, Nye won seven national Emmy Awards for writing, performing, and producing. The show won 18 Emmys in five years. In between creating the shows, he wrote five children’s books about science, including his latest title, “Bill Nye’s Great Big Book of Tiny Germs.”

Nye is the host of three currently-running television series. “The 100 Greatest Discoveries” airs on the Science Channel. “The Eyes of Nye” airs on PBS stations across the country.

Bill’s latest project is hosting a show on Planet Green called “Stuff Happens.” It’s about environmentally responsible choices that consumers can make as they go about their day and their shopping. Also, you’ll see Nye in his good-natured rivalry with his neighbor Ed Begley. They compete to see who can save the most energy and produce the smallest carbon footprint. Nye has 4,000 watts of solar power and a solar-boosted hot water system. There’s also the low water use garden and underground watering system. It’s fun for him; he’s an engineer with an energy conservation hobby.

Nye is currently the Executive Director of The Planetary Society, the world’s largest space interest organization.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Victor: Hey Bill. My name is Victor and I’m from Markham, Ontario. The question I have for you this Tuesday pertains to human evolution and space colonization. I understand that humans are constantly evolving to adapt to the environment around us. For instance astronauts who have gone on long expeditions need to be carried out of their spacecraft after returning back to Earth. So what kind of evolutions do you think we might see in humans if we colonize a planet with lower gravity like Mars? Thank you.

Bill Nye: Victor, Victor, Victor. This is an excellent question and I appreciate you asking it. Notice that it is my strong belief that we will not colonize Mars. It’s a very romantic notion. You live in Ontario. I don’t know but it looks like your ancestors came from the west, the left coast of Canada and a lot of people who first colonized Canada were from Europe. And we have this vision that you leave your native country because you’re getting religiously persecuted or someone is making you a good deal on going to a new world where you can start a new life. And the people that came to North America from Europe thought this was great. They were going across North America eating everything, foraging in the forest, cutting down trees, making farms, finding all these remarkable natural resources, especially in Canada all these wonderful mineral resources.

And they had a fabulous life. But everywhere they went there was water and most especially they could breathe. That is huge. And I say to everybody who thinks that everybody, he or she who wants to colonize Mars, colonize Antarctica. See what you think. No, no, no, no. None of this going to the seashore where the penguins are swimming and the orca are eating the seals and there’s kr...

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