Immortality

Yamori · Post by **Yamori** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 6:26 pm

I'm convinced that within my lifetime the technology will exist to make people immortal (by ceasing aging). You could still die from disease or accidents, but if you were really careful you could theoretically live forever.

If you're still around when that happens, and you had the money for it, would you want to become immortal?

Tikker · Post by **Tikker** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 6:45 pm

won't happen

you'd need an infinite supply of energy to make that work

Harrison · Post by **Harrison** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 6:46 pm

No.

My time is my time.

When I am supposed to die, I will do so. I just hope that it wasn't meaningless. (my life)

Phlegm · Post by **Phlegm** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 7:04 pm

Harrison wrote:No.

My time is my time.

When I am supposed to die, I will do so. I just hope that it wasn't meaningless. (my life)

Then why do you go to the hospital to prolong your life when your time is your time?

mappatazee · Post by **mappatazee** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 7:06 pm

Tikker wrote:won't happen

you'd need an infinite supply of energy to make that work

?

Wrath Child · Post by **Wrath Child** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 7:44 pm

It'll happen due to something along the lines of discovering that you can:

A- inject freshly grown cells into the body to maintain youth

B- slow down or freeze the aging process(the eternal kitten theory)

C- transplant our brains into freshly cloned bodies

D- transfer our memories into freshly cloned bodies of ourselves

E- digitalize our thought process and download it into an android body.

Tikker · Post by **Tikker** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 7:51 pm

mappatazee wrote:
Tikker wrote:won't happen

you'd need an infinite supply of energy to make that work

?

To live you consume energy

if everyone had the ability to live forever, you'd draw more and more energy (as a populace)

you'd need an infinite supply of energy to keep man alive for eternity

Post by **Lyion** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 8:07 pm

Except you'd be mortal, you just wouldn't age. That indeed is in our grasp, but it certainly does raise a lot of moral and other ethical questions.

I think we will unlock the aging gene in the near future, and I also believe we will unleash a host of other problems as nature looks to right herself.

Samboa · Post by **Samboa** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 9:19 pm

Isn't there a 'law of conservation of energy' stating that energy is neither created nor destroyed?

**edit** Or is there just one for matter? I know there is one stating that matter is neither created nor destroyed. . .<shrug>

Yamori · Post by **Yamori** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 9:35 pm

Im not refering to making people superhumans Tikker, as I said - stopping aging is something that will most likely happen within my lifetime.

Bodies will of course still consume energy, but they won't die from age.

mappatazee · Post by **mappatazee** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 12:27 am

Tikker wrote:
mappatazee wrote:
Tikker wrote:won't happen

you'd need an infinite supply of energy to make that work

?

To live you consume energy

if everyone had the ability to live forever, you'd draw more and more energy (as a populace)

you'd need an infinite supply of energy to keep man alive for eternity

I don't think he's talking about making someone be able to live infinitely. Just so they don't age or die of natural causes.

brinstar · Post by **brinstar** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 1:43 am

tigerbot hesh

Darcler · Post by **Darcler** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 2:31 am

No.
I would imagine this would be costly, something that not everybody can do. If *I* had the money to do this for myself, I would not have it for my husband, daughter, BabyX, mother or father. I do not want to watch my children die while I am still 22.
If, before my time is up, it becomes as common cost-wise as getting a flu shot, to where I can get it for everyone around me, I still wouldnt. To mess with something like that, the natural order of things, there has to be some kind of consequence.
No thank you.

Witty · Post by **Witty** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 2:39 am

I would make my kitty immortal. She's too cute to die =(

Darcler · Post by **Darcler** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 2:44 am

I had a chuckle that God posted in a thread called Immortality.

veeneedefeesh · Post by **veeneedefeesh** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 9:09 am

I would and I would spend eternity racking up on long term investments and insulting everyone on the planet alphabetecally.

Post by **Lyion** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 9:36 am

Why does that remind me of my Lineage character named Wowbagger.... :lol:

Post by **Gidan** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 11:16 am

Now just think, a world inwhich no one ages. Popilation growth would increase at an alarming rate. We already have people with 10+ children. The only thing that usualy stops them from having more is time. Given an unlimited amount of time, how many children would these people have.

Laws would need to be created to limit the number of children, just think about the human rights issues that would cause. Recorces would be depleated at alarming speeds. In general, you would probably be seeing the end of the human race simply because there isn't room them. To counter this, we would have to look to space for our answers for more room and recources. Of cource for this to happen, humanity would have to unite as a whole for this to really be possible. No could afford to do it while still trying to fund it nations defences.

So basicly before you decide to stop aging, first you must unite the populous of the world in peace. I for one dont see this happening because I just dont think people can get over their differences.

Eziekial · Post by **Eziekial** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 11:24 am

lyion wrote:I think we will unlock the aging gene in the near future, and I also believe we will unleash a host of other problems as nature looks to right herself.

Man is his only true predator. So my guess if this were to ever happen, people would lose the value of life and we would have more killers in our population.

10sun · Post by **10sun** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 11:57 am

Sure, I'd do it.

I would have no qualms with not procreating as a consequence.

-Adam

Ironfang · Post by **Ironfang** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 1:32 pm

Not ever going to happen in our lifetime.

The largest part of the ageing process that cannot be stopped is that the brain ceases to regenerate cells when the old ones die off. Hence why we have such alarming increases in diseases that strike primarily older people such as Parkinsons and Alzheimers.

The body does a significant form of regeneration of tissue as time goes by. Being able to make an infinite regeneration, thus allowing us to not age, would be a pretty massive change in our knowledge of genetics. Even if we could get the body to regenerate, the mind collapsing would kill off most of us before any indefinite life.

Post by **Gidan** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 2:09 pm

Ironfang wrote:Not ever going to happen in our lifetime.

The largest part of the ageing process that cannot be stopped is that the brain ceases to regenerate cells when the old ones die off. Hence why we have such alarming increases in diseases that strike primarily older people such as Parkinsons and Alzheimers.

The body does a significant form of regeneration of tissue as time goes by. Being able to make an infinite regeneration, thus allowing us to not age, would be a pretty massive change in our knowledge of genetics. Even if we could get the body to regenerate, the mind collapsing would kill off most of us before any indefinite life.

To continue on this line of thinking.

The only way to prevent this from happening would be to make it so that brain cells continued to regenerate. The question this causes would be, if we could do that, what would happen to people heads. If their brains continued to grow, their heads would also need to continue to grow or their brain would contact the skull and eventually kill you. If at the same time they genetically alter your head so that it also continues to grow, we then have huge heads on proportionally small bodies. Your head would continue to grow your entire life. To stop that, they would have to make it so that human skeletons never stopped growing and their organs. Overall you would have to turn humans into a species that never stops growing and can live infinately. For obvious reasons, this will not happen.

So basically the result of stopping ageing is to kill you or make you into a evergrowing species.

Darcler · Post by **Darcler** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 2:14 pm

lol awesome

xaoshaen · Post by **xaoshaen** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 3:05 pm

Gidan wrote:
Ironfang wrote:Not ever going to happen in our lifetime.

The largest part of the ageing process that cannot be stopped is that the brain ceases to regenerate cells when the old ones die off. Hence why we have such alarming increases in diseases that strike primarily older people such as Parkinsons and Alzheimers.

The body does a significant form of regeneration of tissue as time goes by. Being able to make an infinite regeneration, thus allowing us to not age, would be a pretty massive change in our knowledge of genetics. Even if we could get the body to regenerate, the mind collapsing would kill off most of us before any indefinite life.

To continue on this line of thinking.

The only way to prevent this from happening would be to make it so that brain cells continued to regenerate. The question this causes would be, if we could do that, what would happen to people heads. If their brains continued to grow, their heads would also need to continue to grow or their brain would contact the skull and eventually kill you. If at the same time they genetically alter your head so that it also continues to grow, we then have huge heads on proportionally small bodies. Your head would continue to grow your entire life. To stop that, they would have to make it so that human skeletons never stopped growing and their organs. Overall you would have to turn humans into a species that never stops growing and can live infinately. For obvious reasons, this will not happen.

So basically the result of stopping ageing is to kill you or make you into a evergrowing species.

Regeneration does not necessarily imply expansion.

Work has been done indicating that the regrowth of neural tissue is in fact posible. Whether or not it'll happen in our lifetime? Doubtful.

Treehorn · Post by **Treehorn** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 6:49 pm

D-cups of Justice!