 The government has an aging epidemic and a cure for aging could have a radical ripple effect for how governments function. Would age and wisdom be more valuable if they weren't attached to frailty and dementia? Would government officials never leave office? Would they ever evolve their political ideas? What about immortal dictators? How long should term limits be? What new laws will be enacted as a result of immortality? And could government corruption actually decrease in a world where saving for retirement is less of a priority? And would you want nuclear codes in the hands of someone with the hormones of an 18-year-old? Welcome to Lifespan News. I'm Emma Short. This is part three in our series on how a cure for aging is going to affect the world. The previous two on the environment and the economic impacts are linked in the description. Because the science of aging is progressing just so fast and is going to continue accelerating in tandem with artificial intelligence, it's now become really important that we as a species begin to prepare for the changes that age control are going to cause and government changes are today's focus. Politics seems to have become the reality show version of grumpy old men and women. Joe Biden even agrees this is getting out of hand. I think that the seniority system has many more drawbacks and it has merits. I clearly would vote to eliminate the seniority system. Okay he used to agree. The interesting thing to me about these ancient options for presidents are that nobody seems to be happy with the choices that they literally chose. Like the people said no to younger candidates in the primary and yes to these two long-in-the-tooth dudes. This seems to suggest that as much as society complains about these options, society as a whole values them more than youth. Youth bad, age good. And age does have benefits like track record, trust, traditional values, perspective, wisdom, a finely tuned bullshit detector, the ability to nap anywhere and predict the weather based on how bad your back hurts. It's an impressive list is the point. Okay of course the trade-offs are over a billion three hundred million trillion three hundred million dollars. And and Joan, Shingang, Shingam, Shinga, Fifty thousand four hundred fifty nine thousand billion dollars led. America is a nation that can be defined in a single word. I was in the foot him. Yikes! Yeah and also they might die and nobody wants that. The thing about youth is that that's when you experiment, right? Make mistakes and you're poor so it's way easier to convince you that the government should support you. There's a reason for the phrase if you're not a liberal when you're young you have no heart and if you're not a conservative when you're older you have no brains. Hopefully an aging cure could bring all the heart of youth and all the brains of age to government. Now they've obviously got a function, right? That's the whole point. So already some have suggested implementing basic cognitive tests for government leaders. And there are plenty of cognitive tests to choose from and I say yes. Why not? Anyone arguing against this should be first in line to take the test. And if you'd like to take the test just for some fun so you can understand firsthand what level of cognition is required to pass the test I've linked a bunch in the description. It's things like being able to recall a number of words after a certain period of time or reproduce a pattern or draw simple things. It's definitely not rocket science and anyone should be able to pass. But it shouldn't just be old people who take these tests. I mean how many young congresspeople might flunk out? Hey anyway you know maybe basic cognitive impairment tests isn't going far enough because in a future with age reversal technology cognitive impairment would presumably be cured right? So but what about stupidity? Naivety or just bad vibes? There's an idea. Sorry senator we can't swear you in you actually failed the vibe check. And hey even if they function what if they never change their mind? That's what Elon Musk thinks is going to happen. I don't think we should try to have people live for a very long time for a very long time. It would cause ossification of society because the truth is most people don't change their mind they just die. And so if they don't die they will be stuck with old ideas and society won't advance. Okay so neuroplasticity is a term for your brain adapting to the environment. Younger brains have greater neuroplasticity so I mean it stands to reason that the rejuvenated government officials would regain their ability to adjust to a changing world. Not to mention the company they keep may change actually you know if you're going through a second youth you're going to start hanging out with people at places that are much younger than you and have some fresh perspectives and those might rub off on you. So I just think evolving one's mind is absolutely a possibility post-aging. But even if not let's say it's not could Elon's fear be more of a feature and not a bug in an ageless future? Think about how AI is causing increasingly rapid technological changes and how this could cause societal change to also become increasingly volatile. And in Stormy C's I want the most experienced captain I can find not some kid that's going to be like let's try this crazy new thing. Like I said do you want the nuclear codes in the hands of a hormonal teenager? So I think in this way an aging cure could be an extremely beneficial thing for government in a volatile future and perhaps it's even crucial for us to survive any AI induced upheavals that we may face in the next few decades. But even if rejuvenated people can evolve their positions and they have wisdom and them and vigor there should probably still be term limits. So without turnover in government it's easy to imagine that the same people with name recognition and constant donations from lobby groups having an advantage and continuing to get voted in because let's face it voters are lazy. So I think term limits could be even more important after aging is cured. Now what about dictators? If they become immortal they may never leave their dictatorship. That right that's going to last forever. Surely this is a reason we should just not cure aging. No, no our founder and president Keith Kamito wrote an article on this which pokes holes in all the fear-based logic. For instance as far as dictators ruling forever as a direct result of not aging actually history shows that dictatorships often end through external intervention or internal collapse not actually the death of the dictators. Nothing not the natural death anyway right. Which would suggest that extending lifespans are not really going to have an effect on oppressive regimes. Definitely not prolong them and could in fact make them shorter because people are going to be like if we don't kill this guy it's going to last forever. So and then people say well the dictators are going to have way more access to this aging treatment in the first place and increasing the likelihood that they'll keep it for themselves and keep everyone away from it. Actually the global trend is toward a democratization and the eventual widespread accessibility of anti-aging technologies. Okay that's just the trend but as I mentioned in the previous video on economic impact a country's GDP actually increases dramatically with each year of healthy life added to its population indicating there's going to be a life extension arms race once the technology is available. The dictators are not going to be able to keep it for themselves they won't even want to they'll want to get rich or and yes there are people that believe that the money that's being spent on aging research should not go there and it should go to fight the tyranny and the dictatorships so that people can live free. But what then definitely die as opposed to maybe not die and then also maybe not live under a dictatorship you know because who knows what might happen to the government. Again Keith goes into more detail in his article which you can find at lifespan.io and in the description. Let me know in the comments what new laws you think could be enacted after people stop aging. Of course people could still die from other things but right like what happens to homeless people if perfect health is possible. Is there going to be more of them since they won't die or or less because they can you know integrate into society easier. And what do you think about government corruption. Of course you know it's not going to be solved but maybe if these politicians weren't so worried about saving for retirement they might be less inclined to use their political status to get rich. I don't know maybe maybe not. What do you think. Let me know in the comments let's talk about it and speaking of how our perspectives may change after aging is cured. You should definitely check out the next video and that's going to be right here then it's all about our different perspective our mental shift that may happen. Until then the previous video on the economy will be right here after that it'll be yeah you got it. Hit that like button if you made it this far and to stay up to date on cutting-edge longevity science visit lifespan.io subscribe to the channel and I'll see you in the future. Cheers.