Hell yeah immortality is desirable, if I could have any kind of "supernatural" ability that would be it. I could travel the world, learn all of the arts and cultures, and take my time with everything.

Dorian Grey FTW.

Who knows what will be possible in 20 years?

Canada4732 Posts

September 29 2009 18:16 GMT

#105

He is, sadly, completely wrong.

We might complete a workable method of gene therapy in 20 years and boost levels of a number of anti-aging compounds, but without body-wide genetic replenishment and epi-genetic 'reformating' of a certain type, we can't really wind the clock back. Additionally, there's the issue of immunological complications coming along with any genetic therapy, which add a rather obtuse obstacle for us.

Generally speaking, the more pro-'immortality' genetics we insert into a cell, the more likely it is that it will develop into cancer, which kills. When we've removed 'aging' genes in mice, they died very early with multiple, massive tumors dotting all of their organs.

So what's the magic bullet here? We can barely develop effective defenses against pandemic level viruses, yet he believes we can conquer varied, time dependant genetics which we have near zero epigenetic information on?

LOL TO YOU, MY GOOD SIR.

DrTJEckleburg

United States1080 Posts

September 29 2009 18:18 GMT

#106

Figures, I've been planning to live past 500 for a while now.

Probe.

United States877 Posts

September 29 2009 18:30 GMT

#107

Fuck that the world already has enough people. This should only be used for like genius' or someone who can actually make good of immortality. Imagine if anyone could buy it. We would have the same stupid actors, musicians, and supreme court justices living forever.

{CC}StealthBlue

United States41117 Posts

September 29 2009 18:31 GMT

#108

Why would anyone want to be immortal, I mean sure I want to see other planets and all sorts of crazy shit, but people have to die.

Osmoses

Sweden5302 Posts

September 29 2009 18:40 GMT

#109

Guy has been reading Battle Angel Alita, where they achieve immortality in flesh bodies by using something called Methuselatech, which I believe was based on nanomachines.

Edit: And I wanna be immortal so I can slack off and read comicbooks for a couple decades without getting stressed out. After that I'm gonna study, curiosity is the human condition.

chobopeon

United States7342 Posts

September 29 2009 18:43 GMT

#110

On September 30 2009 03:31 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
Why would anyone want to be immortal, I mean sure I want to see other planets and all sorts of crazy shit, but people have to die.

eh, if the aging process were made null and void and we were able to colonize off-earth, i'd be interested for sure.

Equaoh

Canada427 Posts

September 29 2009 18:50 GMT

#111

I do believe people have a tendency to hide in the soon-to-be-wonderful world of nanotechnology when it comes to this sort of thing. DNA proofreading nanomachines, telomere-restoring processes, artificial catalases and general protein/lipid upkeep nanobots could be hypothetical possibilities to counter aging, but should be met with extreme skepticism. Especially from a futurist/transhumanist.

That being said, I hope we finally do overpopulate earth so we can get off this rock

{CC}StealthBlue

United States41117 Posts

September 29 2009 18:53 GMT

#112

Were also forgetting the religious zealots that will try and prevent such a thing.

Also Humanity has to leave Earth anyways in order to survive.

druj

137 Posts

September 29 2009 18:53 GMT

#113

I do not want this happen, mostly because of the political problems that would arise from it, scary, scary thought.

D10

Brazil3409 Posts

September 29 2009 19:07 GMT

#114

On September 30 2009 03:53 Atk wrote:
I do not want this happen, mostly because of the political problems that would arise from it, scary, scary thought.

From that analogy, you could say you dont want nothing to be done.

Purind

Canada3562 Posts

September 29 2009 19:38 GMT

#115

On September 30 2009 01:13 noddyz wrote:

Show nested quote +

Practice for SC2

I'm hoping SC2 comes out before I hit 150

earlyzerg

24 Posts

September 29 2009 19:40 GMT

#116

HIGHLANDERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

BeJe77

United States377 Posts

September 29 2009 19:41 GMT

#117

Well, while immortality sounds pretty awesome, I would not mind it, there are a whole heap of problems to consider.

For one, we might over-populate, resources might dwindle down faster, how are we gonna feed more people? Who can say you can't have so and so kinds in a democratic system (China has tho but they are communist)

The thing is, aging might be there for a reason along with disease and what not.

Maybe it's just natures way to keep us in control and from destroying the entire eco system. Remember, whenever you have an over-abundant amount of x a certain y will be depleted. Same thing when an unknown animal gets introduced to a different eco-system it will totally mess it up.

Short Version: We age, die from disease or natural phenomenon because that is how nature wants it to keep us in check along with the eco-system..

At least that is what my thought about this was....

KwarK

United States43331 Posts

September 29 2009 19:41 GMT

#118

On September 30 2009 03:53 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
Were also forgetting the religious zealots that will try and prevent such a thing.

Also Humanity has to leave Earth anyways in order to survive.

Is there any reason for this or do you just mean in the super long term? Because while all our eggs are in one basket mass extinctions don't happen too often. We'll likely to get a fairly decent lifespan for a species.