Science & Technology

Steven Johnson: How humanity doubled life expectancy in a century | TED

Doubling human life expectancy in a century is our greatest achievement, says author Steven Johnson. How did we make it happen — and can we keep it going? Backed by fascinating historical anecdotes, he shares some life-lengthening innovations and reminds us of three key things needed to make sure all of humanity enjoys these advancements…

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Doubling human life expectancy in a century is our greatest achievement, says author Steven Johnson. How did we make it happen — and can we keep it going? Backed by fascinating historical anecdotes, he shares some life-lengthening innovations and reminds us of three key things needed to make sure all of humanity enjoys these advancements in health.

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77 Comments

  1. Kenneth

    December 9, 2021 at 5:56 pm

    Calling for more centralised authorities and lobbying. What world are we living in…

  2. plant Family

    December 9, 2021 at 6:01 pm

    I’m 45 and never had a vaccine I guess I’m going to die

    • glamdrag

      December 9, 2021 at 6:16 pm

      100% chance

    • HexaRecter

      December 9, 2021 at 8:27 pm

      Your expected lifespan sure took a shot.

  3. Thomas Gronek

    December 9, 2021 at 6:02 pm

    Where did you get your data, , ,my parents, and their siblings were born between 1915, and 1925. THEY ALL LIVED INTO THEIR 90s I have MANY family photos with 5 or 6 generations

    • Michelle Clark

      December 9, 2021 at 6:10 pm

      My grandmother lived to 93. My grandfather into his late 80’s My mother into her late 70’s and my father to 82.

    • Thomas Gronek

      December 9, 2021 at 6:48 pm

      @Michelle Clark Happy to hear that. This video is the same old stuff , biased sample spaces ,fake date, slanted arithmetic,

    • Michelle Clark

      December 9, 2021 at 7:00 pm

      @Thomas Gronek
      Sounds like WEC Klaus Schwab Lite.

  4. Zechariah Brown

    December 9, 2021 at 6:03 pm

    Anyone else picturing our heads in a jar like Futurama?

  5. glamdrag

    December 9, 2021 at 6:14 pm

    you can skip the first 5 minutes because he says nothing

  6. Wagwanbennydj

    December 9, 2021 at 6:14 pm

    Madness isn’t it the human body

  7. Andrejs BOKA

    December 9, 2021 at 6:27 pm

    the story of milk pasteurization brings about sad reflections on the modern attitude of people to science.

    • Nataraja1

      December 9, 2021 at 8:13 pm

      you woldnt see it if it wouldnt fit into the recent times

  8. Michelle Clark

    December 9, 2021 at 6:34 pm

    Hal speaking: 2021.

  9. Jason Haggar

    December 9, 2021 at 7:03 pm

    I’d rather live in a world where a poor person lives a healthy life until age 250 with a rich person living to 300 than a world where we all die at 70 (gap closed).

    • KenworthW900HG

      December 9, 2021 at 10:00 pm

      I’m alright Jack

  10. Leonardo Cecchini

    December 9, 2021 at 7:09 pm

    Shame that health ‘expectancy’ is down though.

    • HexaRecter

      December 9, 2021 at 8:24 pm

      Maybe in USA.
      but not globally, it keep increasing.

  11. Home Wall

    December 9, 2021 at 7:18 pm

    Not dying while young a great achievement. Longer lives when you are old and infirm is far less good for society when the common resources are used to make it happen by centrally planned force. Turns out more free people likely matches this trend of longer lives. If you want to give credit to big government, then you need to subtract out the death, injuries, property destruction, mental disorders and mal-directed dollars for their wars. And of course for not following the prior FDA food pyramids.

  12. English IELTS

    December 9, 2021 at 7:38 pm

    👍❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

  13. Peteyz Zed

    December 9, 2021 at 8:34 pm

    What about southside Chicago?

  14. David Hedges

    December 9, 2021 at 8:39 pm

    Whilst life expectancy has increased … remember that if childhood disease did not kill you, then you could expect to live to 40+, and if adult disease, childbirth, war, or work accident did not kill you then you could expect to live to 75 easily … the oldest person in 1900 was over 110, the oldest people today are also just over 110 … there are just more of them

    • Barry Young

      December 9, 2021 at 11:42 pm

      So what you are saying is… if nothing kills you, you can live forever?

  15. ytubeanon

    December 9, 2021 at 9:15 pm

    I think the opioid crisis was reducing the average lifespan before Covid

  16. yes i will help stop patriarchy

    December 9, 2021 at 9:50 pm

    Let me guess. By first reducing it to half? … Are we counting the life expectancy of collonialised indigenous people who we westeners violate to create our super civilized high life expectancy states? I guess theirs hasn’t changed much in that time. Are we counting the life expectancy of sentient life which has feelings? As far as i know we kill billions of animals similar to us at an age equivalent to a child or a teenager. Sure. Let’s reduce our sample set and perspective to a tiny narcissistic point and have party for how cool we are. Sorry, but F that.

  17. haku4207

    December 9, 2021 at 10:00 pm

    please enable the automatic english subtitles

  18. Imran Nazir

    December 9, 2021 at 10:21 pm

    Part two should be titled “Why has sperm dropped by more than half in the last 40 years”

  19. Matt Foulger

    December 9, 2021 at 10:23 pm

    “It’s ok to put antifreeze in your medicine as long as you list the ingredients on the label”. Libertarianism in one sentence.

  20. VeniVidi Vici

    December 9, 2021 at 10:31 pm

    And the majority of those over 80 are unable to do anything by their selves.
    Come on, stop this bullshit on Ted

  21. Brett Anon

    December 9, 2021 at 10:35 pm

    That London mortality chart from the 1840s at 2:39 is pretty harrowing. Over one-third dead by the age of 5, another 10% dead by 20 – only 3 out of 5 people in that generation made it to adulthood. Only half of the generation makes it to age 40.

  22. J Leo

    December 9, 2021 at 10:57 pm

    I was wondering when the bullshit left agenda would surface…right around the 5:45 minute marker.

  23. Lagituaiva Flinders

    December 9, 2021 at 10:57 pm

    The domino effect of share, keeps me focused. Thanks

  24. Rebecca Sydney

    December 10, 2021 at 12:58 am

    >

  25. Super Heroes

    December 10, 2021 at 1:36 am

    On the topic of aging, I was inspired to take my own journey from podcasts of Dr. David Sinclair who is a world-renounced Biologist of Aging Research at Harvard Medical School:

    *My NAD+ experience*

    Some quick background: NAD+ is is a form of vitamin B3 and naturally produced naturally in the body either by fasting or by exercising. NAD+ helps maintain cellular health against everyday stressors, it improves cellular function and metabolism, and a lot more. Wtf does this have to do with TELEMERES? NAD+ is required for functioning of the sirtuin proteins that help maintain the length of telomeres!

    Here’s my personal experience taking it for 18+ months.

    I know my evidence might be just anecdotal, but I’ve been taking a precursor to NAD+ called Nicotinamide Riboside at a 300mg daily dose orally for 3 months (I started May 9th 2020 and these were my benefits 3 months later and onwards). My current biological age is 20 years old but after the 3 month period I was 19. Here’s my timeline so far in terms of benefits:

    Since my start, it took my body 2 and a half weeks to adapt to the change and feel any benefits but then I woke up one day roughly 2 weeks later and had plenty of energy. This baffled me since that night I only got 5 hours of sleep. With all of this energy, I wasn’t hyper but more clearer-minded and restful. I would go as far as to say I felt like I had the same energy as I did when I was 12.

    After those 2 and a half weeks, the next big change for me was constantly dreaming. For 9 straight days, I had at least 2 dreams per night which was unheard of for me and I was low key excited for what would happen next. During this time, I noticed how after lunchtime around midday, I didn’t have a drop in energy. Previously, I had attended school and as soon as my lunch break had ended and I made it to the next period, I used to get a wave of lethargy and often dozed off to sleep for a quick power nap. What happened next really changed me. Due to my sleep schedule fixing itself gradually, my circadian rhythm was fixing itself and I had begun to feel tired earlier which took me by surprise.

    Following this abundant change, about a week later I noticed that I would watch Netflix shows and YouTube in a whole different way. Before this experiment for myself, I would most of the time watch a show and remember some details unless something drastic happened in what I was watching or doing in general but something changed. My memory of recollecting what had happened was so much better as now I wouldn’t just remember minor details but I would be able to remember the characters names even a couple months after watching the show. In my day-to-day life, my improved memory helped me remember orders I would write down since I’m the “Uber Eats” for the family, driving to and from restaurants and picking up food for us.

    I know this is all anecdotal evidence and it’s not concrete evidence but these have been the benefits 18 months into taking this NAD+ booster as supplementation. Since the start, these benefits felt like they have compounded as I feel incredible! Anyways, I’ve been taking this supplement which is a form of vitamin B3 (Nicotinamide Riboside: NR) ever since and it’s been well over a year and a half nonstop and I have no long term side effects.

    Feel free to ask me any questions at all about anything I mentioned or if you’re curious about anything! Since the start, these benefits felt like they have compounded as I feel incredible! Thanks for reading the script for my YouTube comment Ted Talk 🙂

  26. Bernard Lease

    December 10, 2021 at 1:45 am

    What this fella meant to say was free market capitalism…

  27. Christian Williams

    December 10, 2021 at 2:11 am

    Wow the arrogance of so called science. We don’t have longer lifespan because of modern medicine. It’s weird how he never adresses the causes of what he is explaining. First off vaccines do not address the root cause of the outbreak, as most if not all of our pandemics in all of human history have been created by our bad habits, mainly thru animals farming, or thru the animal trade, or hunting them and destroying their habitat. The reason milk from a cow killed so many infants was not because of a lack of pasteurization, it is because it is not their milk, it wasn’t designed for humans, it was designed for ta baby calf that the cow just gave birth to Humans are the only animal on this planet who drinks milk after they been weened from their mother, that is just weird. A lot of our outbreaks also came from bad sanitation, like polio, colora, and malaria, the more you soil your environment, the more illness you have. Right now what is ailing people are chemicals that are put in the food supply like pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and added chemicals in their pre-made foods. They are also suffering from all of the chemicals and microplastics that industry is spewing out into the environment. Also one of the reason we die later in life is that we do patch work for our biggest killer of human being called heart disease which is mainly caused by ingesting animal products with saturated fats and cholesterol. If we want to live healthy until old age we need to clean up our habits that are destroying this planet.

  28. King Slayer

    December 10, 2021 at 2:31 am

    develop the immortality pill already because we need that indefinite time to find our true soulmates, get rich and build our dream mansions, eradicate pain and suffering from humanity, create tech to achieve superpowers like flying and finally love and be loved forever

  29. This isn't allowed

    December 10, 2021 at 3:04 am

    We finish studying and start having income at the age people used to die

  30. Bauhaus bauhaus

    December 10, 2021 at 3:52 am

    Man made global warming is a %100 scientific proven hoax.None of the claim is based off science and is exclusively political.Carbon dioxide never has nor ever will be a pollutant.Climate Marxists find this fact an abomination to their cause.

  31. 🇬█ 𝔎𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑚 𝔎alisari│

    December 10, 2021 at 6:07 am

    Thank you TED Channel.

    Blessed Friday | Jumuuat Mubarakah!

    On the Occasion of International Human Rights Day
    (December 10, 2021)


    We must say openly
    to each other the things we hold in our hearts and that too often are
    said only behind closed doors. 

    There must be a sustained effort

    to
    listen to each other;

    to learn from each other;

    to respect one another;

    and to seek common ground. 

    As the Holy Koran tells us, “Be conscious
    of God and speak always the truth.” 

    That is what I will try
    to do today — to speak the truth as best I can,

    humbled by the task
    before us,

    and firm in my belief that the interests we share as human
    beings are far more powerful than the forces that drive us apart.

    These are not just
    United Nations | الأمـــــمُ المتّـحــــدَة
    ideas,
    they are human rights. 

    And that is why we will support them everywhere.

    Thank you.
    And May God’s peace 🌏 be upon you all.

    Thank you.
    🌎

    ###

    .

  32. Losszt. YT

    December 10, 2021 at 7:10 am

    This is one of the benefits and costs of long-term economic growth and societal progression. As a group, we just need to negotiate other factors so we aren’t overwhelmed by the health system we created. Specifically, each and every one of us can help by reducing our individual waste and not taking more food than we need, and we can start on the climate by picking one piece of trash we see per day. Your conscience will do the rest. Wish you all luck,

    -S

    • Yijuwarp

      December 12, 2021 at 4:09 am

      The main contributors to climate change where regular humans play a part are power generation, agriculture(particularly livestock) & transport. Of these realistically the only thing we can really make a meaningful difference to is agriculture, by changing our diets.

  33. freesk8

    December 10, 2021 at 7:42 am

    This video is biased in favor of statism.

  34. Weekend Fisherman

    December 10, 2021 at 8:44 am

    ibuprofen

  35. Jimmy Zoom

    December 10, 2021 at 9:20 am

    It wasnt difficult once babies stopped dying, the average shot up huge amounts

  36. Jimmy Zoom

    December 10, 2021 at 9:22 am

    A big shout out to the pioneers to medical research and what drove it even more – technology from the industrial revolution. THE BRITISH. 🇬🇧

  37. BeagleBrains 1

    December 10, 2021 at 10:20 am

    Without watching: Technology

  38. MA Raza

    December 10, 2021 at 10:32 am

    According to me that life expectancy is affected by ; poor health system education and food quality

  39. Set India 1

    December 10, 2021 at 10:32 am

    According to me that life expectancy is affected by ; poor health system education and food quality

  40. Reema Gul Sha Ali khan

    December 10, 2021 at 1:22 pm

    Knowledge is power.
    Thanks for information 💕👍💕💙

  41. existncDOTcom

    December 10, 2021 at 4:45 pm

    Uber “woke” preso: vax, big pharma, big government, climate change, inequality … And yet, ignores human iv erm ectin which could have saved 5 million COVID deaths (and related reduction in life expectancies that Johnson mentions) and enormous suffering in the past two years … due to big government and big pharma unsubstantiated opposition to the 40 year old, 4 Billion doses to humans, safer than aspirin, WHO “Essential Drug”, US NIH listed COVID treatment, Nobel Prize winning … ive rm ectin.

  42. Antonio Dones

    December 10, 2021 at 7:14 pm

    i enjoyed the talk a lot but i believe it was fragmented, a lot of ideas were exposed but it did not reach any conclusion.

  43. TheUnderSun

    December 10, 2021 at 7:15 pm

    Нихуя не понятно… Но очень интересно

  44. Noukz

    December 10, 2021 at 7:42 pm

    It’s sad (almost depressing) what shambles of an “institution” FDA is today… Basically a puppet of the pharmaceutical conglomerates that STILL make drugs that hurt and sometimes kill people.

  45. T Marq

    December 11, 2021 at 12:04 am

    However, it also divided in half, their intelligence. It has loss all its humanity, killing without remorese. Destroying itslef and the planet without empathy, etc. Human life has become a complete waste of time and space. So much for having a extended life if it also planning to reduce humankind into extinction.

  46. freedomgeek2

    December 11, 2021 at 8:55 am

    I’m strongly on the pro-indefinite lifespans train. If we get some regulatory framework that stops indefinite lifespans from occurring or even intentionally slows their development then that government is murdering its citizens.

    We do need institutional innovation but it should be focused on how to spread indefinite lifespans to everyone who wants them and how to manage the changes in society it causes, not some awful system where there’s a vote on whether researchers are allowed to develop a drug to help treat grampa’s age related heart disease.

  47. Invox

    December 12, 2021 at 10:17 am

    Peniciline was probably one major factor too.
    That said, this talk spirals a bit off the mark at the end.

  48. Curious বাঙালি

    December 12, 2021 at 11:22 am

    Just what I need to hear!🙏

  49. Stefan Nikola

    December 13, 2021 at 7:32 am

    He didn’t stay on topic well enough.

  50. Tyranus421

    December 13, 2021 at 5:07 pm

    Ever since 2020, Humanity as a species has failed to honor every social contract ever concocted. It’s about time we embraces the idea that “the purpose of life is to end”.

    • Andromax BSE

      December 25, 2021 at 9:27 pm

      To end for one, to survive for another, it’s continuum process.

  51. Mike Jones

    December 14, 2021 at 4:19 am

    Fauci is controlling population. Also called mass murder.

  52. Next Inline

    December 14, 2021 at 7:20 am

    Sorry.. I call bs. IMO, It’s pretty much opposite. They probably do use antifreeze, and in food, water, air…

  53. nitemare khawk

    December 14, 2021 at 12:24 pm

    Sounds very interesting I really enjoy tedtalk

  54. Gaasuba Meskhenet

    December 15, 2021 at 3:00 am

    look up unlearning economics and we’re in hell’s videos on steven pinker

  55. worldz playground

    December 15, 2021 at 7:32 am

    Imagine if the reason we live 200 years is because we choose to eat fruits and vegetables, and other plants, and boost the immune systems through eating habits alone. Imagine people waking up to go on a walk, instead of a cup of coffee, and we can walk away from toxic materials and products we use in today’s standards.

    Be great to institutionalize health habits throughout life.

    • Maya Mokal

      December 19, 2021 at 9:01 pm

      How many people do you think have the chance of breathing some fresh air?in my counrty there is about 3 million litre of Mazot burning everyday to provide needed energy just for one city. a substatute extremely dangrous with high cancer potential. One of the solutions for population problame throughout non industrialised countries like mine, is to get rid of non working part of population. a sad truth a person like me with old parents should try to get along with everyday

  56. Quest4Content

    December 15, 2021 at 7:25 pm

    if we as a human race went from 6 to 4 and eliminated competition, we could focus so much more on extending life (just by going from 6 to 4 you will increase lifetimes to well over 100 IMHO)

  57. ConscientiousContent

    December 15, 2021 at 7:25 pm

    if we as a human race went from 6 to 4 and eliminated competition, we could focus so much more on extending life (just by going from 6 to 4 you will increase lifetimes to well over 100 IMHO)

  58. Sam Cooper

    December 29, 2021 at 11:04 am

    Really liked this video but it’s a shame that access to cheap energy (ie. Fossil fuel burning) was missed out as it underlies all these other changes and has an almost 1:1 mapping onto life expectancy. It allowed us to outsource most grinding labour to machines, bought us time to work in scientific and bureaucratic institutions (as opposed to most people working in subsistence agriculture) and powered industries such as manufacturing, vaccine production milk pasteurization. It also improved food security (through fertilizers) and resilience to natural / climate disasters. Of course we all know that fossil fuels come with their own problems, but let’s not pretend that we’d have any of the amazing breakthroughs you mentioned in this video without them.

  59. Mace Windu

    January 8, 2022 at 3:17 pm

    london used to be so filthy, its not a surpirse

  60. Nicky Mitchell

    January 10, 2022 at 10:44 pm

    So are vaccines 💉 then causing us to overpopulate our planet 🌍?

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