Oct. 7, 2026

What If the Biggest Breakthroughs in Longevity Are Already Here? A Conversation on the Future of Agi

Show Notes
Transcript

What if the best years of your life are still ahead — medically speaking? Rabbi Michael "Moshe" Rothschild has spent years studying the intersection of technology, data, and human life, and he says the medical breakthroughs already in motion could change how long, and how well, we live. In this episode, Bonita sits down with Rabbi Rothschild to explore what's really on the horizon for aging, health, and longevity — and what it might mean for your own plans for the years ahead.

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Welcome to the Ask Good Questions podcast, broadcasting live every Wednesday,

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6 p.m. Eastern Time on W4CY Radio at W4CY. com. This

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week and every week, we will reach for a higher

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purpose in money and life, as well as a focus

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on health and wellness. Now, let's join your host, Benita

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Bell Anderson, as together we start with Asking Good Questions.

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Hey, welcome to the Ask Good Questions podcast. I am

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your host, Benita Bell Anderson, and boy, do we have

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a topic for you today. We are going to talk

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about some things that just might blow your mind a

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little bit. And so with that, I'd like to invite

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my guest, Rabbi Rothschild, to the podcast stage.

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Thank you for having me.

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Yes, welcome, welcome.

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Let me tell people a little bit about you.

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Tell our listeners who you are.

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So this is Rabbi Michael Moshe Rothschild, and he is basically,

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for the last four years, he has been operating a 24-7,

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365 live stream, creating a continuous archive of human behavior, conversations,

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and online community. So he's been inspired by the idea

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that data has become one of the world's most valuable resources.

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And his work explores how persistent longitudinal human data may

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help future AI systems, researchers, historians, social scientists to better

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understand authentic human behavior over time. So he feels this

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is like a real life Truman show. archive for future

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generations to study. So among his topics are AI, life logging,

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digital anthropology, live stream culture, human AI collaboration, ethics, computational

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social science, attention economics, and the future relationship between humans

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and intelligent machines. You know, when I first saw this,

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I was like, well, this is going to put me

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a little bit on the edge of my comfort zone.

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But I thought this is something, you know, this stuff

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is happening all around us. And so let's explore a

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little bit.

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So welcome.

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And is there anything you'd like to add to that intro?

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No, that's precisely what I do. I am approaching the

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five-year anniversary of this project next month. which is really

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exciting to have documented essentially a half decade worth of footage,

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not just from my life, but world history events.

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Boy, I guess, yeah, you would be able to say that,

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wouldn't you?

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Yeah, absolutely.

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Well, you've built a really unusual career. Rabbinical work, project management,

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now full-time futurist and live streamer. So how in the world...

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Did those different streams come together for you?

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Well, it started during the pandemic. In addition to being

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an Orthodox rabbi, I am a certified project management professional.

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I am an app developer, scrum master. And my position

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as such went from going into the office every day

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to going remote during the pandemic. And many of the

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events that I had associated with work became remote. remote,

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as well as many of the classes that I would

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take and even services within my community. And I had

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to become very comfortable being on camera, going from someone

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who really was never on camera to someone who was

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on camera anywhere between 8 and 12 hours a day.

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And I would say that the anxiety that I have

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or anyone would have of being on camera so much

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really was reduced the more that I did it. And

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I really started to recognize that the things that I

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do are really linked with humans, people in general, knowledge, technology,

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and really the future. And so being a rabbi, a

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project management professional, and now a futurist and live streamer

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really aren't that different. I really am focused from all

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of those different positions on where's technology taking us and

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what is that going to mean in terms of our

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being humans and in what ways is that changing? Wow.

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Well, what first drew you into studying AI and data?

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And I'm seeing you as being really focused on the

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future of human life. And so what drew you into

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taking this so seriously?

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Certainly. Well, I can say that when I was a

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young person, my family would have a camcorder, like I'm

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sure many people out there, and we would record different events.

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And I always thought that this was interesting, that we

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would perhaps record the event, and maybe we'd watch it

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years later or whatever, but we ended the recording. And

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I would ask, why don't we just continue the cameras

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all the time? And I would explain that that wasn't

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really practical enough. and that no one really does that.

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But even as a young person, I thought it would

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be really interesting to record a human life. And it

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was during the late 1990s, the movie The Truman Show

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came out. And this movie was very interesting to me,

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the idea of the entire human life being on camera.

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And many people correlate my project with The Truman Show

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or a television show like Big Brother. The The major

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difference is that we have my consent to do this.

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No one's forcing me to stream my life. And as

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we moved into the pandemic, I began recognizing that being

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on camera for so long, for so many hours, was

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really somewhat a waste if I can't share that with

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the world. And so it was approximately in fall of

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2021 that that I began to purchase many different devices,

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including Chromebooks and laptops, tablets, iPhones, Android devices, you name it,

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and started signing up for social media sites and really

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putting these devices around myself in 360 degrees. At that time,

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I was not as focused on AI as I am today,

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simply from the fact that AI and large language models

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would take another year to really be launched into the forefront.

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And so it was in November of 2022 that I

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had learned that I could be an early adopter of

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something called ChatGPT. And I would experiment with this over

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the course of the month of November and was really

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pretty unimpressed. However, that would quickly change. It was in

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November 30th, 2022, when ChatGPT was launched to the public

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en masse. And very quickly did I see the developments

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that were made and how it was changing society and

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how it just so happened to be serendipitous that I'd

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already been livestreaming my life for over a year, and

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I basically could tell a story of what life was

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like before AI had been launched into our lives, what

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life was like at the launch, and now what life

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is like with all the developments and the replacement of

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many people's positions, AI's role with robotics, and really how

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AI can be used as a tool to improve people's

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lives in the future. And so it was over the

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course of my life that different developments would happen that

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began for me to really start studying AI data and

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its role in the future of human society. Wow.

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So I'm just thinking, I know that somebody's going to

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be wondering about this.

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Do you have a family?

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Do you have other people who live in your household

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where all these cameras and everything are?

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I have roommates. I have certainly family throughout the world.

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I have roommates who generally are not on camera. We

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keep each other's privacy or I keep their privacy just

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that private. But they have been on camera during the

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course of the last almost five years. But that was

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with their own consent. And I've had other people who

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have come and visited me in Irvine, California, which is

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where I'm based. Basically, people have traveled from as far

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away as 10 hours away just to. see what I'm doing,

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and I've given them tours of where I live. We've

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gone on picnics. I do do IRL live streaming as well.

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So I've streamed as far north as Santa Barbara, as

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far south as San Diego, really everywhere within Southern California.

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And because of that, there have been other people who

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have been on my stream in the public, certainly. But

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with the people with whom I live, I respect their privacy,

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as I would hope they would do if the shoe

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was on the other foot.

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Right, right.

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So doing this, is there anything in particular that you

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can think of that you've learned from it?

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That we're all, as humans, not that different. I interact

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with people on every continent just about every single day,

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and we all have the same desires. We all want

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to live healthy, long, really... happy lives, that we all,

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no matter what your background is, your socioeconomic background, your creed,

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your race, your culture, that there are just commonalities that

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being comfortable is very important to individuals, that we all

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love to learn, generally, that we have many of the

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same needs and desires across the globe. And really, this

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project has made me recognize even more so to understand

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that we humans are 99.9% the same DNA. We're not

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that different. And so I focus, and I have my

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project focus, on the things that unite people, like world peace,

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ending world hunger, ending world thirst, as opposed to that

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which divides us.

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Awesome.

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So you have said that data is becoming the world's

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most valuable resource.

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So why do you believe that?

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And, you know, I'm always going to be trying to

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figure out what does this mean for everyday people that

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are listening to this podcast?

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Most certainly. Well, the first time I ever heard that

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was in 2017. When I was in a meeting as

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an app developer and I had heard that the Economist

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magazine had stated that data had recently overtaken petroleum as

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Earth's most valuable resource. And this at the time was

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in 2017. And this was quite interesting to me to

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think that data, this invisible thing, was more valuable.

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And that's before all the AI stuff.

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Most certainly, yes. And it was actually during an SEO discussion,

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search engine optimization. The person with whom I was having

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the conversation was saying that data at the time was

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really the next frontier. And we didn't quite understand where

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that was taking us. But they were most certainly right.

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And it seems as if The Economist has been correct

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in predicting this. And at the time, it made me

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start to realize that the data that I was organizing

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as an app developer, may have some major possibilities in

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the future. But over the course of the decade or

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so that has occurred since then, I've really recognized that

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we're living in a world where almost everything is running

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on data, whether it's AI, medicine, science, finance, transportation, business,

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and of course, social media. All of this is heavily

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dependent on data. And something with my project, a photograph

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might tell you something. A thousand photographs over decades tell

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you something completely different. And certainly video, over the course

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of that amount of time, could tell you something even more. Basically,

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what I'm doing is building a longitudinal picture of an individual.

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And I think that this could be very helpful to

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people in the future, especially in terms of biology and ageing.

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And to be able to watch someone's life, not just

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in snippets or one picture a day, but a complete

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continuous view of an individual and how aging affects them

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may be very important for people of the future to

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be able to study. And really, it made me recognize

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that we're not just consumers of data anymore. We're also

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constantly producing it. And if that's true, why not do

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my best to be able to publish it?

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Well, we are going to heavily get into the medical

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technologies and everything. But first, I want to ask you about,

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you know, basically when I first saw your name and

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I went, he's a rabbi and he's also like a

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tech guy. It's basically the ideas of faith and futurism.

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It seems like they're on different ends of the spectrum.

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How do you hold those two worldviews together?

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Well, being someone who's science-based and rabbinical is not that unique.

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It goes back for thousands of years, including some of

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my greatest inspirations. One within the Jewish community is known

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as Rambam, also known as Machmanides, Rabbi Moshe ben Machman,

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who was a doctor as well as a rabbi. And

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this has been something that really has been consistent over

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the course of centuries that many rabbis were multiple hats.

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And I personally don't necessarily see my religious understanding, my

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faith and futurism as being in conflict. I think they

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really ask different questions. Science certainly asks, how does something work?

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And religion and philosophy many times ask, what does this mean?

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And ethics, of course, ask, what should I do with it?

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And technology gives us these new capabilities. AI is a medicine, education, science,

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and of course work. But we still have to ask

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what kind of society we want to create with it.

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And so I'm able to wear both hats and understand,

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I feel, from a unique point of view, the ways

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in which AI and science in general is shaping humanity.

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I really feel that the future isn't just a technology problem,

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but it's a human problem. And thus, both a faith-based

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and a future-based view on the future, I feel, are

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extremely important and valuable as I attempt to solve many

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of these challenges.

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Wow. There's just so many different, you know, you're just

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making me think of all kinds of things. But before

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we get into the medical issues, what's the biggest misconception

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that you think people have?

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I mean, somebody listening and going, what in the heck?

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What's the biggest misconception that you people have about technology,

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and where in the world are we headed as a

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human race?

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Well, I think there are two potentially opposite misconceptions. One

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is that technology is going to change everything overnight, and

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the other is that it is not going to fundamentally

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change anything, and really the reality is somewhere in between.

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The world is not black, nor is it white. It's

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a field of grays, essentially. And some technologies take decades

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to mature while others suddenly accelerate. And AI is really

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a good example of this. I think another misconception is

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that technology progress automatically means human progress. And I don't

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think that's necessarily always true. Technology is a tool, and

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it can solve problems, but it can also create new ones.

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I feel that automation can increase efficiency, but it can

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also disrupt jobs. Data can improve medicine, but it can

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also cause privacy concerns. So what I try to do

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is approach the future with evidence-based curiosity. I look at science,

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I look at what's actually happening, and I look at

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what's working and what's not. I don't think the future

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necessarily arrives as one giant event. It is usually thousands

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of small changes, and eventually we look around and we

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realize what has fundamentally changed.

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Well, let's get into this medical part of this because

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I wanted to have a focus today for this episode

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on the medical longevity issues. So what developments in longevity

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science are you most excited about right now? Certainly.

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I think that we should first discuss the distinction between

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lifespan and healthspan. So lifespan being how long we live.

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the traditional lifespan that we think of a human. But

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there's an emerging phrase as healthspan is how long we

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remain healthy, functional, independent, and cognitively capable. And I just

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don't want people to live longer. I want people to

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have more healthy and meaningful years.

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Absolutely.

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I'm in that camp. I want to live long and healthy.

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Excellent.

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So I have really, I think, some interesting types of technologies.

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that we will review. Starting with the hallmarks of aging,

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really understanding the fundamental biological processes that drive aging, and

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there are different tools that are helping us to do that.

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There's cellular senescence, which is studying cells that stop dividing

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but remain biologically active and can contribute to aging. There's senolytics,

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which are experimental therapies designed to eliminate certain senescent or

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zombie cells. There's autophagy, which is the cellular recycling process

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that helps remove damaged or unnecessary cellular components. There's proteostasis,

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which is maintaining healthy proteins and preventing the accumulation of

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damaged or misfolded proteins. Of course, there are emerging medicines

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like mitochondrial medicines, anti-inflammatory therapies, informaging, which is many times

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associated with aging and disease. But there are other emerging

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technologies like stem cell therapy or regenerative medicine that are

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evolving that many people have within their own communities, clinics

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that will assist with these types of technologies. There's tissue engineering,

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3D bioprinting, which I find to be very interesting. This

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is constructing biological strategies. layer by layer using cells and materials.

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And this moves into engineered organs, developing replacement organs outside

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the body. I'm sure there are people who are listening

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to this who know of someone who is on the

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organ donor list or is waiting for some type of organ.

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And wouldn't it be nice if that list no longer

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had to exist because we could utilize 3D bioprinting and

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engineered organs to overcome many of these challenges. There are

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certainly moving into the future with artificial organs, gene therapy

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and gene editing. CRISPR, this is really a hot topic,

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but basically it's an important gene editing technology. which has

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the enormous potential for treating genetic diseases and potentially influencing

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biological pathways involved in aging. And many people hear CRISPR

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and they think of designer babies. That's many times two

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phrases that are used with that discussion. But CRISPR can

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be used to help people who are already adults, including

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people moving into their senior years. It isn't limited to

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just people before birth. We have things like reverse aging technologies,

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longevity drugs, longevity peptides, nootropics, and cognitive enhancement. We have

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things like Alzheimer's and neurodegeneration research that are going on

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that are really exciting. It's really a collection of technologies

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that we're starting to move, that many people might say,

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into what would have been considered science fiction, but is

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really becoming science fact. Things like AI-powered medicine, AI drug discovery,

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things like what I'm doing with life logging to allow

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people to be able to study continuously recorded information about

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a person's life. We have things like neural mapping technology, memory,

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engram research, brain-computer interfaces, which are already making major impacts.

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The first successful brain-computer interface through Neuralink occurred in 2023.

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And there are already a half dozen or so people

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who have had these types of brain-computer interfaces implanted in them.

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And this gives people who may be quadriplegic or paraplegic

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the ability to move a mouse cursor using their mind.

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And what a beautiful gift that is to have that ability.

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And really, with the plan of being able to bridge

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the gap between wherever the break is in their spinal cord, usually,

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so that they might be able to use their legs

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again or their arms or whatever it may be. These

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types of technologies, I feel, are very exciting and moving

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more into the future. Things like cryonics, certainly using cold

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to perhaps be able to extend life. Things like brain preservation,

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even things like digital brain reconstruction, biological reconstruction, revivification. This

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is the idea of using perhaps, it's a speculative possibility,

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but being able to restore biological function after a condition

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that today would be considered irreversible death. And then finally,

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digital resurrection. It's a hypothetical reconstruction of an individual through

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computational models rather than rebuilding the biological body. Yes, these

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do sound quite science fiction-y. They sound perhaps in many

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ways like we'll never experience them, but even some of

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them that I read, like brain-computer interfaces and Neuralink, are

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already a reality today. So what may seem like science

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fiction today may be science fact tomorrow.

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Wow.

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Well, basically what you're saying is that aging, the idea

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that we have some hard limits on aging, it's just

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not true anymore, right? You just listed a whole plethora

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of different technologies and ideas and science, you know, just

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everything that's being researched. So, you know, and you went

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on to talk about different things that could be possibilities

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in the future. What do you see being realistic in

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the next 10 years? Certainly.

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And that's really probably more relevant. Things that I find

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to be perhaps on the improvements that we'll see are

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better diagnostics and earlier disease detection, biomarkers and biological age research.

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perhaps certainly AI-assisted drug discovery that we're already seeing. I

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would also say things like continuous health monitoring using wearables.

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We're really in the primitive time of that, but people

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certainly have been emitting a lot of data with their

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wearable technology, and we'll be able to learn a lot

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from that. Certainly cellular reprogramming has a lot of potential

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within the next decade or so. Tissue and organ replacement

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and regenerative stem cell medicine, I feel, is a really

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great summary of things that we're going to be seeing

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before perhaps 2040, if not earlier, and are relevant to

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the audience because these will become realistic possibilities for their

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health care in the future.

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So, I mean, so, you know, a lot of the.

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Not everyone listening to this, but a lot of people

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that are listening to this podcast are in their 60s

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or beyond.

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And they may be thinking.

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Oh, there's no way that I'm going to be extending life.

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Is there practical things that might be smaller little baby

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steps for someone to be able to, you know, have more.

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Years that are healthy. Absolutely.

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Better years, you know, that are instead of, you know,

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saying it's going to be a foregone conclusion that you're

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going to decline.

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Absolutely. Staying mobile is of extreme importance, independent, being cognitively

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capable and really engaged with life. Longevity is really about

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health span more than it is just the amount of

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years that you are on this earth. And we want people,

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especially those listening, to know that you are in control

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of many of these opportunities. So certainly being able to

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stay active, making sure that you are staying engaged, being

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around people with whom you love, making sure that you're

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not just taking care of yourself physically but mentally as well.

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having friends, developing relationships, loving your family. These are all

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really important opportunities for people to have a beneficial life

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and improve their health span in addition to their lifespan.

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What If the Biggest Breakthroughs in Longevity Are Already Here? A Conversation on the Future of Agi

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