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00:00There's been life on Earth for at least 3.5 billion years, but alongside all of that life,
00:06there's always been death. The natural cycle for all living things has always,
00:10apparently, inevitably ended with that one cosmic certainty. However, it could finally be that now
00:16is when everything will change. This is Unveiled, and today we're answering the extraordinary
00:21question, will we be brought back to life after we die? Do you need the big questions answered?
00:28Are you constantly curious? Then why not subscribe to Unveiled for more clips like
00:32this one? And ring the bell for more thought-provoking content!
00:36For all of history, humans have grappled with the concept of death. Most religions and cultures
00:41have offered up their own unique ideas and promises as to what lies beyond the grave,
00:46ranging from resurrection to living out eternity in infinite paradise or everlasting hell. In
00:52almost all cases, there is some form of life after death. There is some way in which death
00:58isn't the end that scientifically and physically speaking, it clearly seems to be. In Christianity,
01:03for example, resurrection is a central belief, with Jesus Christ being resurrected three days
01:09after his crucifixion for what's arguably the most important event in Christian lore.
01:14Christians additionally believe that at the end of time, all the dead will be resurrected and
01:19face final judgment, and that this will coincide with the second coming of Christ. At which point,
01:25all of those the Lord deems faithful will be granted eternal life in heaven.
01:29Other Abrahamic religions hold similar beliefs around the themes of, again, resurrection,
01:34judgment, and eternity. The most widely followed Eastern religions, Hinduism and Buddhism,
01:40offer different takes on what's awaiting us all. Here, reincarnation is the key term. Rather than
01:46one singular grand resurrection, Hindus and Buddhists believe that the soul is reborn into
01:51a new body after every single death. This process is guided by karma, the idea that good moral
01:57actions will provide favorable outcomes for those who perform them, including that people who are
02:02good in this life should be granted a better fate in their next and future lives. On the flip side,
02:08immoral actions generate bad karma, which means that those who are immoral are more likely to
02:13reincarnate into a bad and less favorable life next time. Liberation from this continuous cycle
02:19can be achieved, however, and is in fact an ultimate goal. In Hinduism, it's called moksha.
02:25In Buddhism, it's nirvana. For those who achieve either, they're able to break free from the
02:30suffering of reincarnation in order to reach enlightenment. In ancient times, the Egyptians
02:35placed huge emphasis on life after death, arguably even more so than any major religion does today.
02:42The Egyptians believed that there was a physical afterlife, and so they would host elaborate burial
02:47rituals which sought to perfectly preserve a body for its next step. The most famous aspect of the
02:52Egyptian perspective is mummification, where the body itself was literally preserved as much as
02:57possible. Meanwhile, major organs were often removed and kept separately, and the richest
03:02and most powerful, including the pharaohs, were buried in often vast tombs, along with provisions
03:08for the afterlife, such as food, tools, and their favorite belongings. In some cases,
03:14high-ranking figures were even buried with their slaves, servants, and closest companions, all so
03:20that those unfortunate people could continue to serve their master in the afterlife. Of course,
03:25be it an ancient Egyptian temple or a modern-day church, science is by nature uninterested in the
03:31fates that various faiths claim to have in store for us. Across all fields, from biology to chemistry
03:38to engineering, the goal is to deliver undeniable proof of, or control of, what happens after we're
03:43gone. And, clearly, there has been progress made, especially in the last century or so.
03:49Human life expectancy is currently at an all-time high across the globe. There are far fewer people
03:55who are dying notably young, and there are far more people who are living long into old age.
04:00Clearly, this isn't yet bringing people back from the dead, but it is pushing the boundaries of
04:05death back further than they've ever been before. In terms of plain immortality, science, and
04:11science fiction, of course, offers multiple options. Cryonics is when someone allows for
04:16their body to be frozen indefinitely, in the hope that future medical advancements can bring them
04:21back to life, and cure whatever it was that ailed them in the here and now. Unfortunately, it isn't
04:26quite so reliable as it's usually portrayed in film and TV, and it remains extremely unlikely
04:31that you will ever face a situation similar to Fry from Futurama. The first significant
04:36cryonics case was that of the American psychologist James Bedford, who was frozen in 1967,
04:42and his remains are still frozen to this day. Later, beginning in the 1980s, some companies
04:48stopped freezing whole bodies and instead only preserved their customers' heads,
04:53believing that our brains could be supported by machines and or digitized in the future.
04:58So, the majority of a human's biological bulk actually won't be necessary, but while this first
05:04step is doable, anything beyond the initial cryonically freezing process at the beginning
05:09is still pure speculation. So far, no one has ever been revived from their cryonic state,
05:15and actually, in some cases, frozen bodies have been lost due to complications,
05:20poor maintenance, or simply because the cryonics company that was storing them shut down. An
05:25adjacent field that is increasingly less science fiction, however, is that of genetic engineering.
05:31The headlines relating to gene editing and CRISPR-Cas9 technology have become common in
05:36recent times, with mounting hopes that science will soon be able to specifically eliminate
05:41disease at the genetic level. Alongside the positivity, there are some very real concerns
05:46regarding so-called designer babies, where the same technology is used to alter all aspects of
05:53the human body, from eye, hair, and skin colour to muscle mass and brain size. But, in general,
05:59the practical applications of genetic engineering certainly appear to be huge. So huge, in fact,
06:04that it's perhaps here that we will properly reverse the pesky business of dying.
06:09As a starting point, we have the emerging bid to de-extinct certain species, including,
06:15most famously, the woolly mammoth. There are a number of proposed methods to do this,
06:20but in general, they involve retrieving even a tiny amount of genetic material relating to the
06:25mammoth, perhaps from a recently unearthed, well-preserved bone, and working upwards from
06:30there. That material could then be implanted into a suitable host, in the mammoth's case,
06:34an elephant, or it could be incubated within a wholly artificial womb. So, the theory goes,
06:40it will then be monitored throughout its growth, all the way up until its rebirth as a genuine,
06:45fully-fledged mammoth. And, while the mammoth perhaps unsurprisingly gets all the headlines
06:50and mainstream attention, there's seemingly no reason why the idea should stop there.
06:55Everything from the dodo bird to the Tasmanian tiger could well be resurrected in the same or
07:00similar way. With the focus zooming into the genetic level of life, it's a little like building
07:06the house again so long as you have the bricks. At this stage, the mammoth hasn't been successfully
07:11brought back to life yet, and no single species has been fully de-extincted yet. There have been
07:17many, many cases of successfully cloning something else, but not yet in quite the same way as
07:22bringing it back from the dead. For example, the singer and actor Barbara Streisand sparked
07:27controversy in 2018 when it was reported that she had had her recently-passed pet dog cloned twice,
07:34into two new puppies. It was and is true, although Streisand had arranged for the procedure before
07:40her original dog died, with the cloned animals originating from cells deliberately taken from
07:45the original's mouth. In contrast, it's not like anyone arranged for the mammoth's return
07:50when it breathed its last on an ancient tundra thousands of years ago. And yet, if reports are
07:55to be believed, then we could well see mammoths within the next generation. So, how does it all
08:01relate to humankind? Ultimately, the next and perhaps most unsettling stage is easy to see.
08:07Because if and when the process does work for long-dead animals, then it should be technically
08:12much easier to make it work for recently-passed animals, including human beings, as well.
08:17There will be no need to freeze the entire body, or even the entire head, if you want to rise again.
08:23All that will really be required is a tiny amount of your genetic base. That, plus access to a
08:28willing host for your growth, and or a technologically capable vessel to nurture your returning cells.
08:34Before long, perhaps anyone could be born again. Which, on the face of it, sounds great. But
08:40there's also the disquieting prospect of consent. If genetic resurrection is ever possible, and it
08:45is still a huge if, then what's to stop anyone bringing anyone else back to life? Could death
08:51ever really feel like a final chapter, if the dying knew it were possible for their genes to
08:56be extracted, preserved, and one day reanimated? How surprising and unsettling would it be for
09:02someone who died, say, 100 years ago, to find themselves brought back via the miracles of near
09:07future science? Because if it ever can be done for the mammoth or the dodo, then it'll also be
09:13possible for humans. How do you think we should feel about that? What do you think? Is there
09:18anything we missed? Let us know in the comments, check out these other clips from Unveiled,
09:23and make sure you subscribe and ring the bell for our latest content.