Imagine living for almost 4 trillion years, experiencing the lives of every single human that has ever walked the Earth. This is the concept of reincarnation, where one's soul is believed to travel through time and be reborn in a new body. Each lifetime has a profound impact on the future selves, with actions affecting subsequent lives. Though memories from previous lives are not carried forward, their influence remains.

Living Through Time: An Exploration of Reincarnation

The majority of one's existence is spent living ordinary lives, filled with everyday tasks like eating, laughing, working, and worrying. These tasks vary across lifetimes, with a hunter-gatherer lifestyle for one-tenth of the time, and an agriculturalist lifestyle for 60% of the time, developing techniques employed over 800 billion years. The significance of child-rearing is also prominent, taking up 20% of one's existence, imparting cultural values to influence the trajectory of generations.

Ordinary Lives Filled with Extraordinary Impact

After living for over 100 billion lives, one is reborn as the youngest person alive today. Despite living through 300,000 years of human history, one's impact today is more significant than 99% of past lives. With high-speed air travel and the internet, personal influence is global, and inventions have the power to permanently alter future generations. However, the potential for catastrophe is equally significant, with the risk of inducing humanity's own extinction being higher than ever.

The Present: Making a Difference Today

While the future is uncertain, one thing is clear, and that is the limitless potential of every individual. Every action can have a profound impact on the future. As such, it's vital to consider how we spend this life and what we can do to work towards a better future for all lives to come. The power of individual impact is immense, and it's up to us to ensure that our actions make a positive difference in shaping our future.

An Uncertain Future: The Limitless Potential

As humans survive longer and the Earth's population grows, the pace of existence accelerates, and lives become more impactful. The latter years are filled with action-packed events, including technological advancements and revolutions, wars, and environmental destruction. With advancements in technology, luxuries become more accessible, and conversations that previously took months to unfold now happen in minutes.

Impactful Lives in Times of Change

How will you spend this life? And what can you do to work towards a better future for all your lives to come?

So, I want to ask You...

Imagine that your life began as one of the planet's first humans. After dying, you're reincarnated as the second human ever to live. You then return as the third person, the fourth, the fifth, and so on – living the lives of every human that's ever walked the Earth. How will your actions in one life impact your future selves? Explore the ethics of the philosophy known as longtermism.

Examine the ethical stance known as longtermism, which is the idea that we should be doing more to protect future generations. -- Imagine that your life began as one of the planet’s first humans. After dying, you're reincarnated as the second human ever to live. You then return as the third person, the fourth, the fifth, and so on – living the lives of every human that’s ever walked the Earth. How will your actions in one life impact your future selves? Explore the ethics of the philosophy known as longtermism. Directed by Jay Septimo, Khoo Siew May, AIM Creative Studios. Learn more about the long-term thinking required for humanity to thrive: https://ed.ted.com/everyhumanlife This video made possible in collaboration with the Forethought Foundation Learn more about how TED-Ed partnerships work: https://bit.ly/TEDEdPartners Support Our Non-Profit Mission ---------------------------------------------- Support us on Patreon: http://bit.ly/TEDEdPatreon Check out our merch: http://bit.ly/TEDEDShop ---------------------------------------------- Connect With Us ---------------------------------------------- Sign up for our newsletter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdNewsletter Follow us on Facebook: http://bit.ly/TEDEdFacebook Find us on Twitter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdTwitter Peep us on Instagram: http://bit.ly/TEDEdInstagram ---------------------------------------------- Keep Learning ---------------------------------------------- View full lesson: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/what-if-you-experienced-every-human-life Dig deeper with additional resources: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/what-if-you-experienced-every-human-life#digdeeper Animator's website: https://aimcreativestudios.com Music: https://soundcloud.com/aim-music ---------------------------------------------- Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Igor Stavchanskiy, James R DeVries, Grace Huo, Diana Huang, Chau Hong Diem, Orlellys Torre, Corheu, Thomas Mee, Maryann H McCrory, Blas Borde, John Hellmann, Poompak Meephian, Chuck Wofford, Adam Pagan, Wes Winn, Conder Shou, ntiger, Noname, Hansan Hu, David D, Mac Hyney, Keith Ellison, robin valero walters, Lynne Truesdale, Gatsby Dkdc, Matthew Neal, Denis Chon, Julian Oberhofer, Monte Carroll, Eddy, Jay M, Constantino Victor Delgado, Andrea Galvagni, Andrew Tweddle, Laurel-Ann Rice, Fernando A. Endo, Helen Lee, pam morgan, sarim haq, Gerardo Castro, Michel-Ange Hortegat, Enes Kirimi, Amaury BISIAUX, ND, Samyogita Hardikar, Vanessa Graulich, Vandana Gunwani, Abdulmohsin Almadi, AJ Lyon and Geoffrey Bultitude.

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Examine the ethical stance known as longtermism, which is the idea that we should be doing more to protect future generations.

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Imagine that your life began as one of the planet’s first humans. After dying, you're reincarnated as the second human ever to live. You then return as the third person, the fourth, the fifth, and so on – living the lives of every human that’s ever walked the Earth. How will your actions in one life impact your future selves? Explore the ethics of the philosophy known as longtermism.

Directed by Jay Septimo, Khoo Siew May, AIM Creative Studios.

Learn more about the long-term thinking required for humanity to thrive: https://ed.ted.com/everyhumanlife

This video made possible in collaboration with the Forethought Foundation
Learn more about how TED-Ed partnerships work: https://bit.ly/TEDEdPartners

Support Our Non-Profit Mission
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Support us on Patreon: http://bit.ly/TEDEdPatreon
Check out our merch: http://bit.ly/TEDEDShop
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Connect With Us
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Sign up for our newsletter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdNewsletter
Follow us on Facebook: http://bit.ly/TEDEdFacebook
Find us on Twitter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdTwitter
Peep us on Instagram: http://bit.ly/TEDEdInstagram
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Keep Learning
----------------------------------------------
View full lesson: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/what-if-you-experienced-every-human-life
Dig deeper with additional resources: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/what-if-you-experienced-every-human-life#digdeeper

Animator's website: https://aimcreativestudios.com
Music: https://soundcloud.com/aim-music
----------------------------------------------

Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Igor Stavchanskiy, James R DeVries, Grace Huo, Diana Huang, Chau Hong Diem, Orlellys Torre, Corheu, Thomas Mee, Maryann H McCrory, Blas Borde, John Hellmann, Poompak Meephian, Chuck Wofford, Adam Pagan, Wes Winn, Conder Shou, ntiger, Noname, Hansan Hu, David D, Mac Hyney, Keith Ellison, robin valero walters, Lynne Truesdale, Gatsby Dkdc, Matthew Neal, Denis Chon, Julian Oberhofer, Monte Carroll, Eddy, Jay M, Constantino Victor Delgado, Andrea Galvagni, Andrew Tweddle, Laurel-Ann Rice, Fernando A. Endo, Helen Lee, pam morgan, sarim haq, Gerardo Castro, Michel-Ange Hortegat, Enes Kirimi, Amaury BISIAUX, ND, Samyogita Hardikar, Vanessa Graulich, Vandana Gunwani, Abdulmohsin Almadi, AJ Lyon and Geoffrey Bultitude.

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