Based Camp - Based Camp： Life Extension vs Experience Extension

00:00:00.000 And when you are doing a task that you've done over and over and over again, your brain

00:00:03.820 will erase that and begin to, so suppose on a weekend, right?

00:00:08.300 If I'm always watching movies and drinking and doing about the same thing over a weekend,

00:00:12.680 my brain compresses all those experiences together.

00:00:14.760 But if one weekend I do something different, like go to a petting zoo with my kids, my

00:00:19.420 brain will distinctly remember that more than if I had done the same thing I'd been doing

00:00:26.860 over and over again.

00:00:27.560 And through this knowledge, you can actually expand your remembered life or experienced

00:00:34.820 life more than you can than through traditional life extension.

00:00:40.640 So if through traditional life extension today, like being healthy in many ways and stuff like

00:00:44.600 that, you're increasing your lifespan by like 25%, you can easily get your memories up 50

00:00:49.040 to 100%.

00:00:50.260 Would you like to know more?

00:00:52.660 Hello, Malcolm.

00:00:54.060 Hello, Simone. 0.69

00:00:55.100 It is wonderful to be here with you today.

00:00:56.580 What are we talking about?

00:00:57.940 We're going to do a lightning round on life extension versus experience extension.

00:01:03.980 So it's something we talk about a lot, and I figured it might be fun to chat about it

00:01:07.080 again.

00:01:07.560 I really like this topic.

00:01:09.060 So when people often meet us, they go, oh my gosh, it's like you guys have lived 20 lifetimes.

00:01:13.700 How have you done all of this and still be so young?

00:01:16.200 Or I always expect to meet someone older.

00:01:19.340 And we look at all the things that we've done in our life.

00:01:22.340 And it's like, yeah, it is true.

00:01:23.660 We have done a lot more than a lot of other people.

00:01:26.280 And it's because of the way we compact and manage our time.

00:01:29.600 But it also means to a very meaningful extent that we have more memories.

00:01:36.140 So when I look at the different chunks of my life, I remember them as chunks.

00:01:41.740 And they do feel like full and separate lives.

00:01:46.200 So a lot of people, they might think of their time in college, for example.

00:01:50.920 And it can feel like a full and separate life, even though it's only four years.

00:01:55.520 I mean, if you're an adult, think about what you were doing four years ago.

00:01:58.760 That was like nothing ago.

00:02:00.540 If you're not constantly changing where you live, changing the jobs you're in, et cetera.

00:02:04.960 But in addition to that, there's also a biological and measurable part of this.

00:02:09.180 So let's talk about reminiscence bumps really quickly.

00:02:12.160 A reminiscence bump is a tendency to remember more during your late adolescence,

00:02:16.000 often when you're in college.

00:02:17.640 And people have like a much clearer memory of these things.

00:02:20.200 However, reminiscence bumps can be created at different times of your life

00:02:23.380 when a person really changes their environment.

00:02:26.380 So you also see reminiscence bumps after immigration to new countries and stuff like that.

00:02:31.560 People are literally remembering more because they recently went through a major change.

00:02:36.920 You also see this happen with memories.

00:02:39.640 When a person is experiencing something new or different, they will record it more.

00:02:46.780 And when somebody is experiencing something they've done a hundred times,

00:02:49.180 again, road hypnosis, something we brought up on the podcast before,

00:02:52.860 road hypnosis is a phenomenon where when you drive,

00:02:55.460 especially this route you've done a bunch of times,

00:02:57.460 your brain will actually just completely erase that entire thing as if you were asleep or something.

00:03:02.560 And when you are doing a task that you've done over and over and over again,

00:03:05.980 your brain will erase that and begin to, so suppose on a weekend, right?

00:03:10.900 If I'm always watching movies and drinking and doing about the same thing over a weekend,

00:03:15.280 my brain compresses all those experiences together.

00:03:17.640 But if one weekend I do something different, like go to a petting zoo with my kids,

00:03:21.780 my brain will distinctly remember that more than if I had done the same thing I'd been doing over and over again.

00:03:30.160 And through this knowledge, you can actually expand your remembered life or experience the life

00:03:37.960 more than you can than through traditional life extension.

00:03:43.340 So if through traditional life extension today, like being healthy in many ways and stuff like that,

00:03:47.460 you're increasing your lifespan by like 25%.

00:03:49.360 You can easily get your memories up 50 to 100%.

00:03:52.840 But Simone, I want to hear your takes on this.

00:03:54.820 Yeah, no, I mean, I totally agree with you.

00:03:58.180 I think for older adults now, there's still now this really easy way to kind of sanity test this

00:04:04.860 concept with the pandemic, because all of us just recently experienced a year in which life was

00:04:11.260 violently different, no matter how old or like entrenched your habits were suddenly non-consensually,

00:04:17.260 everyone's habits, pretty much everyone's habits were really significantly changed.

00:04:21.980 And it, I mean, to a certain extent, added more life to a lot of people, ironically,

00:04:28.840 because it broke their routine.

00:04:31.380 And I think it's really interesting.

00:04:33.640 We were just reading an article on life extension by Susie Weiss,

00:04:38.060 and one of the life extensionists quoted at the beginning of the article,

00:04:41.800 she describes him as having this unhurried way that he's not like in a rush to get things done.

00:04:47.000 And I see that and I'm like, yeah, I mean, it doesn't matter how many eons you live.

00:04:53.360 If you're going to be slow about things, you're going to wait to work on something.

00:04:57.380 It doesn't matter how many years you live, you're going to have a lot less life.

00:05:02.480 I think there's another benefit to the concept of living many different lives.

00:05:08.520 And I think the way that you maximize this is you don't necessarily have to move.

00:05:11.880 You don't necessarily have to change jobs.

00:05:13.560 There are many different ways that people extend lives by, for example,

00:05:17.120 taking vacations to really, really different places.

00:05:19.520 So I would argue that all of our vacations, for example,

00:05:21.820 we really love going to Edinburgh, right?

00:05:23.320 We got married there.

00:05:24.660 I would say that like most of our Edinburgh vacations kind of blend together.

00:05:30.300 Most of our visits to New York City kind of blend together

00:05:33.640 because we go a lot to entertain friends and stuff.

00:05:36.580 But every time we go somewhere violently new,

00:05:38.760 like when we went to Morocco, when we went to Africa,

00:05:40.880 when we went to South Korea together.

00:05:42.620 Or we just got off a cruise.

00:05:44.040 That was definitely different.

00:05:45.580 Yeah.

00:05:45.900 Like, yeah, these violently different experiences.

00:05:49.580 Like, yeah.

00:05:50.000 I mean, so anyone can travel somewhere new.

00:05:52.320 Anyone can do that.

00:05:53.160 But also anyone could like change the bedroom they sleep in,

00:05:56.820 totally change their schedule.

00:05:58.620 But things like having kids,

00:06:00.380 I think an underrated benefit to these that shows up in two different areas

00:06:05.540 is the ability to change your behavior and use these as what we would call

00:06:10.560 in the privateist guide to life, flux periods.

00:06:13.360 So one thing that I read in this book called Inside the Nudge Unit,

00:06:17.000 which was this office, the United Kingdom government,

00:06:20.960 designed to implement small policy changes that could change behavior in a significant way

00:06:26.700 at a low cost.

00:06:28.560 They realized that, for example, in intervening with parenting methods,

00:06:33.760 it really only made sense to reach out to first-time mothers

00:06:37.040 because they were completely changing their lives, totally changing their identities.

00:06:40.400 This is their time becoming a first-time mother.

00:06:42.620 They could actually really significantly change their behavior for the better

00:06:45.660 by utilizing that life change.

00:06:47.780 And they discovered that along some other lines.

00:06:49.740 And then you also hear about people, for example,

00:06:51.540 when they need to quit smoking or something else,

00:06:53.560 that they might like go to Japan, like go somewhere else to be in a totally different area.

00:06:58.520 And in the Pragmatist Guide to Life, we talk about using these flux periods

00:07:01.840 to reinvent your internal model of self, to reinvent your public identity,

00:07:06.500 to really, really retool who you are.

00:07:09.380 So by living all these violently different periods,

00:07:12.500 either through travel or moving or changing careers

00:07:14.840 or changing your social network or whatever it might be,

00:07:17.440 you also have the ability to genuinely change yourself,

00:07:21.640 not just experience more lived experience, but fix major problems.

00:07:27.420 Yeah.

00:07:28.180 No, I think you're right.

00:07:29.920 And I think that that's a very astute point.

00:07:33.280 It's also interesting to think about how you optimize for this, right?

00:07:36.060 So we're not really vacation people,

00:07:38.080 but occasionally we'll do one because we're like,

00:07:40.400 well, we should, right?

00:07:41.780 We're supposed to do vacations.

00:07:43.720 Well, it's not fun.

00:07:44.820 I think what we always talk about is like,

00:07:46.860 I would be happier,

00:07:49.060 it would be healthier and it would be more comfortable.

00:07:52.020 And obviously it would cost a lot less if we were just at home doing work,

00:07:55.280 doing what we love.

00:07:55.980 Because like every day,

00:07:57.640 our life is like, we love work.

00:07:58.880 No, so don't do that many vacations.

00:07:59.600 Yeah.

00:07:59.800 We did decide, okay, let's try a cruise.

00:08:02.200 If the system's going to collapse,

00:08:04.500 we may as well do this sort of peak capitalism things while we can,

00:08:08.700 this dystopian WALL-E-like environment.

00:08:12.200 And it was funny, when I went on the cruise ship,

00:08:13.640 the first thing I was reminded of is the last time I was on a cruise ship,

00:08:17.480 I was in my teen year around college or something like that.

00:08:21.140 And my entire optimization function on the cruise ship was basically sleep with people.

00:08:26.060 Like, okay, I'm sectioning my time.

00:08:28.120 I'm managing my time around meeting people who I can sleep with

00:08:31.840 and then executing on the seduction pathway

00:08:34.680 and then getting that done

00:08:35.760 because I've got four or five days to execute on this, right?

00:08:38.860 And God, cruises were great for that.

00:08:40.400 You could just plow through people on a cruise.

00:08:41.880 When you're a young guy and you're really horny all the time.

00:08:45.720 But then I got there now and it was so interesting to be like,

00:08:48.940 oh, I don't care about that at all anymore.

00:08:51.480 I don't want that.

00:08:52.700 I don't want to.

00:08:53.500 So then what am I optimizing for?

00:08:55.760 And so we went into this sort of moment where it's like,

00:08:58.780 I guess we're optimizing for unique memories

00:09:01.100 because those are the memories that we'll remember.

00:09:03.680 So let's section the cruise experience into individual unique memories

00:09:07.860 and capture and fully experience as many of those with each other

00:09:12.160 and with our kids as possible,

00:09:14.080 while also taking advantage of all the stuff

00:09:16.740 that can be done less expensively on a cruise ship

00:09:18.860 because you get all these all-expense-paid things on cruise ships.

00:09:22.260 So it's like, okay, we have access to pools.

00:09:24.040 Let's try to teach our kids to swim.

00:09:25.780 Okay, we have just going from thing to thing.

00:09:28.420 We cast upon it, as we said.

00:09:30.460 We cast upon it is what we called it in terms of unique memories,

00:09:33.800 just running from experience to experience.

00:09:35.680 Like, oh, Black Park Cave.

00:09:37.080 Oh, so scary.

00:09:38.140 Ah, to the next thing.

00:09:40.900 It wasn't always fun.

00:09:42.440 Like, there were definitely,

00:09:42.980 there were times where we really didn't want to do something,

00:09:45.360 but we did it anyway because we knew it would create a memory.

00:09:48.160 For example, there was one morning where it was an ocean day on the cruise.

00:09:51.840 We were going up to Canada, to Nova Scotia.

00:09:54.180 It was like 49 degrees outside.

00:09:56.360 It was freezing.

00:09:56.960 It was really windy.

00:09:58.240 However, the water slides were open and there were no lines.

00:10:01.060 And so we got in our swimsuits and screamed very loudly in pain

00:10:06.780 while doing all of the water slides multiple times.

00:10:10.760 But it was, I will never forget that.

00:10:12.880 And I think that, the interesting thing is,

00:10:15.280 I think a lot of people do travel for that reason.

00:10:18.000 And maybe they're even more self-aware about it now.

00:10:20.520 You see all this Instagram versus reality nonsense,

00:10:22.980 you know, where people are clearly going to these locations

00:10:25.540 just to get the photo, right?

00:10:27.880 So they understand.

00:10:28.620 I was actually making a problem with some sites now.

00:10:29.960 I was watching a video at Windover Production did

00:10:31.880 when we were, a lot of these outdoor monuments

00:10:34.060 are becoming overcrowded now

00:10:35.240 because people are going to them just to do these Instagrams.

00:10:37.560 But continue.

00:10:38.360 Well, but I think people have come to understand

00:10:40.480 that this isn't about fun.

00:10:42.460 It is about getting the photo.

00:10:43.920 It is about getting the memory.

00:10:45.440 I mean, we'd argue that like,

00:10:46.860 just getting kind of lame photos is not the,

00:10:49.520 and also that would start to blend together, right?

00:10:51.580 If every trip you take is about getting photos,

00:10:53.480 all of your memories are going to be about getting the right shot

00:10:55.520 and taking tons of photos.

00:10:56.440 But like, still, I think people are aware.

00:10:58.800 And you see this also, like when you go on a vacation,

00:11:01.020 in most environments where I see travelers,

00:11:05.400 they look hot, they look tired, they look bored,

00:11:07.880 they're staring into like mid space.

00:11:10.080 They have that convention.

00:11:10.720 Oh my God, a beach?

00:11:12.060 I can't even imagine.

00:11:13.340 Like, I look at people on beaches,

00:11:15.360 like in the sand, covered in sun and clearly like drunk.

00:11:19.820 Being drunk and in the heat on a...

00:11:23.440 Yeah, well, I mean, so I don't think people

00:11:27.340 are actually having fun on these vacations either.

00:11:30.820 I think you're wrong.

00:11:32.440 Because when I was younger,

00:11:34.620 I gained genuine enjoyment and happiness from exploration.

00:11:39.120 When I went out and I was like,

00:11:40.400 and it makes sense from an evolutionary perspective

00:11:41.860 that you would have this gated period of like happiness

00:11:45.340 and fulfillment that could be gained from exploration.

00:11:47.740 But this would turn off as you get older.

00:11:50.680 I think a lot of people in life,

00:11:52.320 for many of the things that they're doing,

00:11:53.600 they are doing things that they used to gain happiness from

00:11:57.160 or that they used to gain meaning from

00:11:59.020 or fulfillment from.

00:12:00.560 And that's no longer outputting that

00:12:02.240 or no longer outputting that at significant volumes.

00:12:04.540 And so they're just spamming the button,

00:12:06.760 hopefully hoping to get the reward.

00:12:08.500 In the same way that I could have gone on a cruise

00:12:10.860 and been, I suppose I wasn't married or something

00:12:12.420 and been like, okay,

00:12:13.240 I'm just going to sleep with as many people as possible

00:12:15.220 because that's what made me happy

00:12:16.440 when I was younger on cruises.

00:12:17.760 No, I think there's some cruises

00:12:18.720 kind of optimized around that.

00:12:20.700 Oh, yeah, but that would take out all the fun.

00:12:23.900 Oh my God.

00:12:24.720 It's about the challenge for you.

00:12:26.020 It's not about the actual-

00:12:26.840 Yes, yes.

00:12:28.620 I didn't want to sleep with- 0.50

00:12:31.540 So you don't want to go on an orgy cruise.

00:12:32.980 You want to go on a, it's a hard to get cruise.

00:12:36.100 Yes.

00:12:37.360 Yes.

00:12:37.720 I like it.

00:12:37.980 Okay.

00:12:38.320 That's the point.

00:12:39.260 Anyway, so, sorry.

00:12:44.140 Here's the worst.

00:12:45.220 So I could have done that

00:12:46.300 and I just wouldn't have gained much happiness from it

00:12:47.920 because men at my age,

00:12:49.260 they're just not going to gain the same level of happiness

00:12:51.620 as they do when they're a younger person sleeping around

00:12:54.260 as they do when they're an older person sleeping around.

00:12:56.180 Yeah.

00:12:56.360 But it's the same as exploration.

00:12:57.660 It's the same as new experiences.

00:12:59.540 It's the same, I think, even with aping lifestyles

00:13:03.380 that you associate with luxury.

00:13:05.680 I think that when you're younger,

00:13:07.280 you can cosplay luxury

00:13:08.680 and sitting on a beach drinking up,

00:13:11.240 I don't know, whatever the fancy drinks are.

00:13:13.560 And you'll get this form of happiness

00:13:15.260 that your brain just doesn't release when you're older.

00:13:16.780 And people are trying to get happiness from things

00:13:19.980 that they just, their biology has moved past them.

00:13:24.160 Like, if you look at me,

00:13:24.920 what do I gain genuine happiness from?

00:13:26.260 Like, what am I gaining genuine happiness from on the cruise?

00:13:27.920 It's playing with my kids.

00:13:28.880 It's putting my kids in environments

00:13:30.460 where they are experiencing new things

00:13:32.760 and watching them experiencing new things

00:13:34.300 and learning and being excited.

00:13:35.780 That's what I would get, you know,

00:13:37.020 genuine happiness from on the cruise.

00:13:38.820 And so I wondered, if we didn't have kids,

00:13:41.880 would I still be trying to milk happiness

00:13:44.840 from that old stone,

00:13:46.120 those old things like exploration

00:13:48.560 and not understand why I wasn't getting it?

00:13:51.280 Why life had just become this sort of monotonous on rail thing

00:13:55.040 where I am chasing consumerism and exploration

00:13:59.100 and other vapid things

00:14:00.940 that no longer give me genuine meaning?

00:14:03.500 Or could it be that a huge portion of the population

00:14:05.420 still has this exploration drive turned on

00:14:07.940 and they're still getting genuine happiness

00:14:10.120 from this sort of exploration thing?

00:14:12.120 And they're not.

00:14:12.980 It's that we're the weird ones that it turned off in us.

00:14:16.200 And now it's just completely focused around our kids.

00:14:19.260 Their faces don't indicate that,

00:14:21.420 though maybe everyone has like irritable resting faces.

00:14:25.300 I don't know.

00:14:27.680 I don't know.

00:14:28.880 I don't understand people.

00:14:30.320 But I also don't I don't know if I experience happiness

00:14:33.980 the way people do.

00:14:37.020 So whatever.

00:14:38.920 Still, I really appreciate the experiences. 0.96

00:14:41.660 What do you mean to say is you're an evil sociopath?

00:14:44.580 Don't sociopaths have fun? 0.97

00:14:46.740 They do, though, right?

00:14:49.180 Honestly, though, I don't know.

00:14:51.260 But presumably.

00:14:54.540 Someone can let us know in the comments.

00:14:57.860 Well, my source of happiness.

00:14:59.360 Not really, though.

00:15:00.320 It's the kids.

00:15:01.440 Simone, you created the thing that's my source of happiness.

00:15:04.060 I remember before we had kids,

00:15:05.220 you were afraid that I would like start loving you less

00:15:07.400 and start to love the kids more now.

00:15:10.020 And now that seems like such an insane thing to fear.

00:15:12.940 Right.

00:15:13.160 Oh, my gosh.

00:15:13.720 Yeah.

00:15:13.980 I mean, the horror of having a spouse

00:15:16.140 who doesn't love their kids more.

00:15:18.340 Like that would be kind of heartbreaking.

00:15:21.240 Like one of my happiest feelings are a great.

00:15:24.260 I feel very satisfied when I see you loving on our kids

00:15:28.940 and I think most parents feel that.

00:15:31.000 And you probably feel something similar with me and our kids.

00:15:34.100 So maybe.

00:15:35.960 Yeah.

00:15:36.180 No, you're a great mom.

00:15:37.540 I always comment on it.

00:15:38.540 You're like really good at momming.

00:15:40.120 Like she is professional tier magazine mom.

00:15:44.420 No one is going to believe that ever.

00:15:46.260 People will see inside videos and stuff like that.

00:15:50.080 I got to get more videos of you doing it.

00:15:51.760 But always, always little things.

00:15:53.340 Anyway.

00:15:54.920 Speaking of which, we better go pick them up.

00:15:57.400 We're going to get in trouble with daycare.

00:15:58.440 And I will start pasta fest tonight.

00:16:00.440 So I will get some water boiling.

00:16:02.760 Have a good one.

00:16:03.380 I love you very much.

00:16:04.000 Looking forward to dinner.

00:16:04.660 Thank you.

00:16:04.720 Thank you.

00:16:04.740 Thank you.

00:16:04.760 Thank you.

00:16:04.780 Thank you.

00:16:04.800 Thank you.

00:16:04.840 Thank you.

00:16:04.860 Thank you.

00:16:05.020 Thank you.

00:16:05.040 Thank you.

00:16:05.200 Thank you.

00:16:05.380 Thank you.

00:16:05.680 Thank you.

00:16:05.880 Thank you.

00:16:06.900 Thank you.

00:16:06.940 Thank you.

00:16:07.820 Thank you.

00:16:07.880 Thank you.

00:16:08.320 Thank you.

00:16:08.860 Thank you.

Based Camp - June 09, 2023

Based Camp： Life Extension vs Experience Extension

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