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Immortality?

Gaz_hmmmm

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Nov 27, 2002
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It seems that nowadays people are living longer.
What I want to know is if people ate right and exercised abit could we live forever?
Or do you think we need stem cell, nano and cloning etc technology to be able to live forever? :\
 
People age an die no matter what they eat or how much they exercise, in a way you start dying soon after puberty.

It's definitely going to require some very advanced technology to reach anything even remotely approaching immortality.

The most feasible way at the moment would be to develop a computer system capable of mimmicking the functions of a human brain, then somehow upload your neurological activities to an electronic but otherwise exact copy of your brain.

That way you wouldn't die untill the power went out.

--- G.
 
Gaz_hmmmm said:
What I want to know is if people ate right and exercised abit could we live forever?
No, the bodies ability to stave off the natural degeneration of our cells declines over time, irrelevent of our diet and exercise. Such things as oxidation or free radical attack on our DNA or cell machinary. National Geographic put it rather well, "The price of breathing is we rust".

With advanced technology we could extend life, replace majorly damaged organs, but unless we invented a technology which could repair DNA throughout our body continously its not possible to live forever.
alasdairm said:
i can not imagine anything more terrifying than the idea of living forever.
I agree. Thats part of my gripe with religion. People say "Don't you want to live forever?" and my reply is "No". No matter how wonderful the place you live forever in is, eventually it would become hell.
 
Also, at the end of our chromosomes (and those of most if not all animals) are long chains of junk DNA called telomeres. Every time a cell divides, the telomere gets a bit shorter. It's been ages since I've taken biochem, but this has something to do with the specifics of how the DNA replication enzyme works. The upshot is that after a certain number of replications, the telomere is gone and then actual gene-carrying DNA is lost.

As one would guess, this causes a whole host of problems eventually leading to death. Basically, the telomere acts as a sort of death switch to make sure that old organisms that can no longer produce offspring do not steal valuable resources from the next generation. While excersize, healthy diet and a slow metabolism combined with lots of anti-oxidants can extend life, telomeric degredation will still get you in the end.

Personally, I wouldn't mind living to a ripe old age of 250. That is, as long as my friends and loved ones could too. However, humans tend to reproduce way too often for that to be feasible. If a life-extension therapy that could give people life spans of that length (assuming extension of youth or middle age), IMO it should only be given to those who have agreed to have vas- or tubectomies.
 
>>I agree. Thats part of my gripe with religion. People say "Don't you want to live forever?" and my reply is "No". No matter how wonderful the place you live forever in is, eventually it would become hell.>>

I think this is predicated on the anthropomorphic idea of eternal selfhood.

ebola
 
^^Which is an illusion at best bourne of abstract self referential language.

First of all, no one could live forever- the universe will end and collapse in on itself if you didn't get hit by an asteroid or nuclear warhead.

What could be wrong with the choice of extending healthy life? The universe is 14 billion years old, whats wrong with living 1000 years if we can swing it?
 
SonOF said:
How about dying?:|
I'd rather die after 100 years (though I'd prefer 500) than live forever.

I don't think some people realise how long forever is, or at least don't attempt to grasp it. How long before you get bored of your favourite hobby? How long before you get bored of your home? How long before you've seen and done all there is to do? Eventually you'd go insane with boredom.

"Hell is eternity stuck in a room with your friends". I don't know who said it, Holly can't remember in the book "Red Dwarf" (that being the joke, he's a computer with an IQ of 6000), but the point has merit.
 
i'd like to live forever :)

dude, if you got REALLY bored you could always kill yourself...

also...if you think that you will EVER find "all there is to do/know" you are wrong. there is a LOT of shit to be done, man.
 
AlphaNumeric said:
I'd rather die after 100 years (though I'd prefer 500) than live forever.

I don't think some people realise how long forever is, or at least don't attempt to grasp it. How long before you get bored of your favourite hobby? How long before you get bored of your home? How long before you've seen and done all there is to do? Eventually you'd go insane with boredom.

"Hell is eternity stuck in a room with your friends". I don't know who said it, Holly can't remember in the book "Red Dwarf" (that being the joke, he's a computer with an IQ of 6000), but the point has merit.

first, eternal life in heaven (if it exists :) lol) wouldnt be anything like earth... youd leave your physical brain behind... your physical brain gets tired of things

second, forever isnt possible... theres always some chance (maybe miniscule) that youll die, i think the odds would be against people living too long, there are many of ways of dying besides aging and in an infinite amount of time one of them would have to happen sometime)

when he says live forever, i think he means live as long as you want, with an almost insignificant chance of death until you feel like stopping the regeneration of yourself and letting yourself die

and... 500 or 1000 years in the future, will our brains be like they are now? i think many people will utilise technology (maybe chemical?) that increases empathy, intelligence, motivation, curiosity, etc... and new technological inventions would probably keep us entertained until our creativity stops (is that even possible)

so... id like to live as long as i want. maybe in a few hundred, or thousand years, i would want to stop whatever technology is keeping me alive, maybe i wouldnt. but id like the choice to remain alive as long as i wish
 
Leg said:
also...if you think that you will EVER find "all there is to do/know" you are wrong. there is a LOT of shit to be done, man.
And there is a LOT of time in eternity. Consider trillions of trillions of trillions of trillions of years. And even that amount of time is just a drop in the ocean compared to eternity.

How long could you stay interested in doing and seeing new things? How long could you stand to continue to exist?
qwe said:
first, eternal life in heaven (if it exists :) lol) wouldnt be anything like earth... youd leave your physical brain behind... your physical brain gets tired of things
Even without the physical constraints of our brains, our personalities (souls, whatever) are geared to living a finite life. To stretch that out would almost certainly be something we couldn't handle and wouldn't want in the end.
qwe said:
second, forever isnt possible... theres always some chance (maybe miniscule) that youll die, i think the odds would be against people living too long, there are many of ways of dying besides aging and in an infinite amount of time one of them would have to happen sometime)
Religious viewpoints put it as forever.
qwe said:
i think he means live as long as you want, with an almost insignificant chance of death until you feel like stopping the regeneration of yourself and letting yourself die
Well if you redefine "eternity" to "a large finite time of your choosing" then thats fine, I wouldn't mind living a couple of centuries or millenia to experience different parts of life, see many places, learn many things, but that isn't technically eternity.
 
Kind of meaningless if you really think about it....

Existence exists necessarily.

There is no such thing as "nonexistence" or "nothingness"

The nature of reality transcends the duality of the subjective and objective, IMO. There is no Oblivion, just the Stuff that Exists constantly changing its Forms :)
 
Are we arguing to live forever or for a LONG time. Because I'd choose to live forever hands down. Eternity is just the perfect time to live - not too much, not too little. Just right. :)

But AN is right about the technology. Just wait 70-100 years - it'll be here if science is continuing at this speed.
 
^With the rate science is advancing, extremely long life (200+ years) or even immortality (barring accidents of course) will be entirely possible within the next fifty years. My dad always says to me, "I'm so jealous. Yours could be the first generation to live forever."

He's definitely right. I'm studying biochemistry for just that reason! I want to be the first one to inject myself with a serum and get cat eyes and naturally pink hair and live for an extra 150 years. :)
 
Here's a link to the most kick ass article related to the genetics of aging and death ever:

http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/02/issue/feature_aging.asp

When you really break down the mechanics of aging and death, you realize that ehse are things that can theoretically be fixed relatively easily with the technology and genetic knowledge we are accumlating. I'd say if we dont end up killing ourselves over oil and global warming and such, we should be close to this technology within the next 50-70 years. The problem is that this kind of technology requires genetic alterations of the human genome, which means that all of us won't be eligible for treatment. It could only be implemented before birth.
 
AlphaNumeric said:
I'd rather die after 100 years (though I'd prefer 500) than live forever.

I don't think some people realise how long forever is, or at least don't attempt to grasp it. How long before you get bored of your favourite hobby? How long before you get bored of your home? How long before you've seen and done all there is to do? Eventually you'd go insane with boredom.

"Hell is eternity stuck in a room with your friends". I don't know who said it, Holly can't remember in the book "Red Dwarf" (that being the joke, he's a computer with an IQ of 6000), but the point has merit.

I don't think I'll ever live long enough to accomplish 1/100 of what I would like to. I could use an extra few hundred years to learn about 10 more languages, visit as many places on the planet, write a dozen or so novels, earn about 10 PhD's. I don't think I'd mind the extra time. :D
 
¡YA BASTA! said:
Kind of meaningless if you really think about it....

Existence exists necessarily.

There is no such thing as "nonexistence" or "nothingness"

The nature of reality transcends the duality of the subjective and objective, IMO. There is no Oblivion, just the Stuff that Exists constantly changing its Forms :)

JESUS H CHRIST :X

Did any of you even *READ* what I wrote???
 
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