Max Lugavere and Jason Silva (see maxandjason.org) are popular hosts on Current TV, the Emmy-winning cable network founded by Al Gore, known best for alternative media and citizen journalism. Dubbed the network's "Party Philosophers" by Angeleno Magazine, the two have covered everything from director Darren Aronofsky to illegal immigration (see a taste of their late show Still Up).

While Lugavere and Silva are best know as a team - they hosted Pangea Day back in 2008 (read Jawbone.tv's 'Pangea Day: World Peace Through Film ... Sort Of'), and you might recognize their mugs from GAP's Fall 2008 campaign "ICONS" - Silva's latest side project, an eight-minute documentary entitled 'The Immortalists', is a solo effort.

Venezuelan born Silva earned a degree in film and philosophy at the University of Miami, which might explain the themes of this recent project, one which he describes as "a love letter to science and philosophy ... that explores the idea of engineered life extension and biological immortality." In other words, how can science help us live forever?

For more insight, we Q-ed and Silva A-ed. See below.

Jawbone.tv: What was the motivation/inspiration and back-story behind creating “The Immortalists”?

Jason Silva: I wanted the film to be a love letter to scientific boldness: to the idea of rising up against an indifferent universe where everyone dies, and say, "this is unacceptable." People rationalize death as a good thing in a poetic sense because there's been no other option (and we're clever creatures). We have an ability to take even the most absurd tragedies and make poetry out of them. 

Ernest Becker talks about our death repression and rationalization in his book The Denial of Death. He talks about the religious impulse, the romantic impulse and ultimately the creative impulse ... all ways of dealing with, and masking, the true horror of our mortality. 

I wanted to make a film about standing up to mortality.  I wanted to stare the human condition in the face and say: "We will overcome you." [It's] a call to such action; a challenge to claim our lust for the infinite without apology.

Jawbone.tv: How do you approach a project like this, from a conceptual and practical point of view?

Jason Silva: One of the things I enjoy about shooting on video is the immediacy of getting out there and shooting the content. I took off to track down Ray Kurzweil and others with a minimal crew ... the idea was to capture real conversations about overcoming limitations.

I wanted to approach the film like an art-film that happens to be about science.  I wanted it to be a philosophical discussion you could continue to have late into the night ... I also had just read Alan Harrington's magnificent book, The Immortalist, which is out of print. There were so many inspiring quotes in that book, and I knew my film could be a vehicle to disseminate Alan Harrington's words, so I included lots of quotes from his book to anchor the film philosophically.

Jawbone.tv: Scientific immortality brings with it new sets of problems and limitations ... How would you deal with them?

Jason Silva: We would deal with a host of new issues and challenges the same way we always have ... we'll develop a new set of definitions and expectations about life. We'll EVOLVE. We'll tap into our uncanny ingenuity and make it work. Many feared and resisted man's longing to fly like a bird, today millions of people travel safely in machines through the air (that weigh half a million tons and have a million moving parts). Things at first seem impossible, then improbable, then unusual and then we take them for granted.

Jawbone.tv: What about the cross-faith argument that this sort of thing interferes with 'Gods Will'?

Jason Silva: People are afraid of change, and they resist the unfamiliar. There are famous anecdotes where clergy have resisted science and progress claiming we were "playing God." Religion has a dark stain in its history for stifling progress. The reality is that technology is the ONLY endeavor that has ever helped us overcome problems. This is data-driven fact. We are the only species that constantly overcomes its limitations; we reach for the stars. As Alan Harrington said: "We are cosmic revolutionaries, not stooges conscripted to advance a natural order that kills everybody."

Jawbone.tv: There are many ways to approach the topics discussed in your film. Scientists could attempt to stop aging, slow the aging process, extend life, etc. What do you feel at this point is the most feasible approach according to the research you’ve come across?

Jason Silva: Ray Kurzweil talks about three bridges. My understanding is as follows: The first bridge is biotechnology which includes reprogramming our biochemistry towards longevity and away from disease and aging. This will allow us to live much longer, until the nanotech revolution arrives. Nanotechnology will then usher in an age of nano-sized robots that will fix us from inside, buying us more time, until we completely merge with our technology, transcend our biology and become mindfiles. We will be consciousness-as-information, existing everywhere at once, in the all-encompassing technosphere. We will be as gods.

Jawbone.tv: Some ask: Why would anyone want to live forever? How would that look?

Jason Silva: We would have the freedom to grow and evolve in the direction of greater complexity and organization; we will acquire sublime, ever-increasing knowledge and self-awareness. We will infuse ourselves with other intellects, explore the entire universe; taste the wine of centuries unborn ... We will live in a world, to quote Wildcat, "of interweaved sensation and co-opted dreams."

Jawbone.tv: What's the future of storytelling?

Jason Silva: I think storytelling will evolve exponentially, just as technology is evolving exponentially ... I envision fully immersive virtual reality, indistinguishable from the real world, where Jose Campbell-esque hero journeys can be experienced by users ... the future stories will be interactive, they will revolve around us. We will all be protagonists in stories sculpted by the iconography of our minds ... unknown textures of phantasmagoria await ... co-opted dreams and interweaved sensations ... We will interface with our stories using all of our senses and have the freedom to merge our senses. We will be everywhere at once without ever leaving home. I personally am very excited for all of this.

For more info, visit maxandjason.org or follow them on Facebook.