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I don't think we will ever be immortal.
The truth is, aging is not so simple, and taking a magic pill will not stop your body from deteriorating, working less efficiently as time goes on. The longer you live, the more damage your cells take, and the bigger the chance of a life threatening issue (cancer).
From a realistic point of view there is absolutely 100% nothing in the field of medicine that can turn back the wear and tear your cells accrue over time. The only thing one can do is live a healthy lifestyle to slow this passage of time. The more our standard of living increases, and the more optimal our lives become (in terms of nutrition and living space, etc.) the higher our life expectancy becomes. A telling fact though, is that people even hundreds of years ago, could become as old as people today. This shows that the maximum life span has not even gone up, despite our technological advances, only our average life expectancy, due to better living conditions.
Though you never know what people could discover in the future, it seems almost contradictory that we could be immortal.
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On March 31 2013 16:56 NonFactor wrote:Show nested quote +On March 31 2013 15:54 Aterons_toss wrote:
As someone who very recently started studying a bit of robotic and is looking forward to ( hopefully ) work in the field of bionics ( hence i read a few things about it ) id say no... it won't be possible.
Let's consider you live to be 80 ( so it's year 2073 ) and you are relatively healthy... you might have a chance to see the people that are "starting" to become "immortal" but unless you are a billionaire you won't be able to have a go at it. I believe the most positive point of view I ever read about having a completely robotic body estimated it would take at least until 2060 and that brain transfer will likely only be possible 10-20 years later.
But you have to also take in consideration that the estimations we have now could be the equivalent of Space odyssey in the 50s, so although people approximate this things now based on the fact that the brain connected prosthesis industry is growing very fast and it's looking very promising in 20 years people might just loss interest and research founding from states could drop up until the point where it would take hundreds of years more to achieve what you want.
And last when you see this "industry" hit its prime you will likely have each and every church goer out on the streets protesting about it, so you could go as far as to say that it might get banned/frowned upon by the state in countries like America, Russia, Polland, Mecix, Argentina, Brazil and even England,France or Spain.
So if we are to be pessimistic you will have only a handful of European countries, China and Japan with private developers that research the things you need for "cyborgs" and do so mostly for immediate commercial purposes and a handful of universities that get state founds to study the field. So even if you are Warren Buffet , one of the Waltons or a king in one of the Arab emirates you will still have to hang in til about 2080-2100 to become (relatively) "immortal". Your failing to consider the advancements in general medicine. Chances are, if your below 30 (especially if your a young child) you will live at least to be 100 years old. And this is simply due to better treatments and so on. Also, unless some drastic happens, I seriously doubt religion will have much say in matters like these in 80 years. Especially in European countries like UK and France. (They are pretty much secular in most issues already.) And those who say they wouldn't want to live forever, you're missing the point. While immortality does by definition say that you can't die, what we are really talking about here is freeing us from the shackles of our biological clock. (Be it through reversing aging, transplants or us becoming one with machines.) I fully agree - living for ever does sound dull. But what we are offered here is immortality - until we choose to end our lives. And for me, that sounds just fine. And I can't see why anyone would not want that. But then again, most TLers are young and don't really understand what it is to be like 80. (Myself included.)
Even with advancements in medicine you will die at around 100-120 simply because you body cells aren't made to "reproduce" for much more than that, cells can't produce a 100% accurate replica of themselves when they divide and with time that means your body is getting overall worse as you age ( in some areas ) despite you living "healthily".
The current advancements in medicine are will likely increase the average lifespawn of this generation by a lot but that is mainly due to stopping people from dying young from a variety of things that range from cancer to infections.
So while you will have a huge load of people reaching 80 and reaching 100 might be seen as normal you will still have a 1 in a million chance to live past 110-120 and your body (likely )won't be fit enough to undergo long and stressful surgeries.
And also, while religion might not have as much of a say as they have today they will still have a say and you can't forget the people that will oppose this simply due to fear of change. Just imagine the fact that most college/high school teachers would likely not agree with a student having and eye/glasses implant that allows him to use google during an exam. And those are the relatively smart people in our society.
The fact that someone could become smarter, faster, healthier... basically a few times better than you due to implants is something most people aren't comfortable with. You would also have to rewrite the basic definitions of freedom and existence. So if now you are still having arguments over man fucking each other in the ass and a few months old baby being aborted imagine having those arguments over the fact that a computer with the similar brain functions o you is as much a citizen of a country as you are even tho he is not a human.
So while "religion" as it is today might not come into play as much, I can assure you there will be an outlet for the people that are afraid of changing our whole civilization and perception of what a human is to complain and delay the process.
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On March 31 2013 13:56 ElvisWayCool wrote:Show nested quote +On March 31 2013 13:53 Vallz wrote:
Certainly not for atleast 100-300 years, so no we won't be alive.
But why is immortality good when we can't even live on other planets? If everyone was immortal, the earth would be overpopulated very very fast and resources, food, rain forest and such would get ruined pretty quickly.
Just hope you won't be alive. Make everyone immortal, then make them sterile, then kill 1/3 of population. Problem solved?
Sounds fine. But having a child is the closest a human can get to create something completly new.
Livling longery (healthy) would be okay, living forever; sounds kinda boring.
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If humans would get immortal, they will stop evolving at this early stage of their development, which is rather unfortunate.
And if they discover it, costs will be so high that only the top 0,1 % of population would be able to acquire it.
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It would be nice. Just think of all the other ways to die. The chances of you dying to something horrible like say, your house goes up in flames or you get hit by a truck just goes up a ton by every year. Or getting stabbed 10 times during a robbery. Better yet, if you're a woman.. just think of how long they can keep you in trafficking if you cant die and you don't age.. that would be fun ..
No I would like to live a long time and then die.
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On March 31 2013 16:14 Raggamuffinoo wrote:Show nested quote +On March 31 2013 16:00 FSUrequiem wrote:
I'm sorry in advance for anybody who is religious.
IMO (please keep this in mind) religion has caused so many problems in the world that as soon as everyone realizes it, they will stop being religious. Just think what would have happened if we all devoted our lives to science instead of gods. This could already be accomplished by now, and war would probably be non existant under the right circumstances.
Again, I'm sorry to all those who are religious, this is just my experience. Is this idealogy yours or have you been initiated into it? To think that it is the belief in a creator that has caused these troubles is naive and dangerous. If you spend some time researching history, you will see that it is the manipulation behind the church/organized religions that is to blame. Orchestrating wars is only the tip of the iceberg with these people, mass manipulation is the true crime you should be upset out. For more information or for an overview of what the future might be , your search words are: Novus ordo seclorum
As to the first guy apologizing to religious people, your apology is just because religion barely caused anything, it is the people causing problems, ordinary people like you and me cause the major problems.
Then to the second guy..
God..... you come up with "Researching history" and then post such nonsense?
That's disgusting. It still angers me to see so many people claiming history for arguments while they have zero knowledge of actual scientific history, tell me how much you read on for example the dark ages, and what the different historiographic discussions were.... i highly doubt you know any. So stop saying u spend time researching history, since even if you did read up on all the historiographic discussions it could still not be considered actual research, besides that even if you only read the basic historical knowledge in the basic studybooks for example you wouldnt have said what you did.
I really don't even feel like explaining because of the last sentence.... come on you are just some guy who probably believes in illuminati and free mason conspiracy kind of stuff..... so your "Researched History" is nothing but made up stuff.
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Being inmortal would be nice, but kinda pointless when you are killed because your super advanced GPS system has a hiccup and you are sent off flying with your car over a cliff.
I wouldn't mind becoming a robot, or my mind inplanted in a pc. I like myself, would be a waste to not be anymore.
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Immortality, such a bullshit.
I would already be happy if science found solutions to a few more illnesses like the one I am suffering from.
Or solutions to our energy and other resource problems, which are already affecting many and will affect much more. We have much bigger problems than immortality for a select few.
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My knowledge on this kind of a subject is very lacking but i heard something about research at 'zebrafish' which can eat parts of themselves and then grow them back. It was linked to all the dna material in humans that is not used. Couldn't there be a solution? i mean there is so much in nature, if science could somehow copy it....
Please tell me if this thought makes absolutely zero fucking sense :D
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Prolonging live expectancy will lead to huge problems if we not at the same time slow the aging process (these are 2 different things)
Who is going to pay for all thoose people plugged in to machines to keep them alive?
As a socieity we are much better off with people dying to be replaced by new borns then to keep the elders alive forever,untill off course we have made enough robots and improved productivity so that we dont need to work at all annymore. The biggest problem with prolonging live is not medical, its social economic.
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There is no business in making everyone immortal. Sell it to a few for let's say 500million usd and you'll do great. Then you can help a select few getting immortal and call yourself humane.
Actually you could do even better business by selling it in 100year packages. 500m/100years is probably the best way to milk that cow and not destroy earth with trillions of people.
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Knowing life and considering my luck, immortality will be ready and available for everyone 2 to 3 days after I die.
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Immortality poses some problems and even if it will be discovered the general public will not know about it. Just think about the problems created by the increasing demand in food, living space, healthcare and other.
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I highly doubt it. But if it was the case, I hope it doesn't come true.  Think of all the overpopulation and lack of resources we (and other animals and plants) would have. I damn well wish I'd die in that age.
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Well the question of the op is, will science be able to stop the aging process in his lifetime.
In theory i say, yes. With the ability of better and better computer systems, calculating power for gen models and knowledge of genetics scientist will find out how aging and reparing mechanisms of the human genom work. Gen-Therapys in form of viruses or nanobots are absolutly possible. Those technologys are already used today.
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No, because it'll never happen, because it's impossible to be immortal. Maybe in the future people will live till they're 150, maybe but we'll never be immortal.
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I'm planning on it working out. Worst case scenario is that I stop caring when I die, but I imagine it's quite probable.
I have to say though, one of the objections brought up here a few times bugs me.
"But, we'll run out of space!"
That is such a selfish response, in my opinion. First, you're suggesting we should condemn literally billions of people to death, because it's logistically challenging? Second is the presumption that you should be able to fill the world up with new lives and those who don't have to die to make up for your decision, that's not fair either.
If you want to have kids then immortality might be problematic (in the short term) but you certainly shouldn't deny it to everyone else because you wanted to have a kid. Not everyone is filling the world up with more people.
I don't know if I've just been overthinking this for too long, but I just can't comprehend that position. I plan to see the universe end and if I don't, I tried.
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Dying isn't fair, are you joking, its the single most fair thing that can happen to a living thing.
Everybody, everything dies, no exceptions
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EPT
