How long till immortality?

mrk said:
Not in the same body. While ageing can be slowed down I have my doubts about total immortality but what I do envision is when people will be able to pay to clone their bodies and quite possibly their memories as well. Kind of like a Windows System Image backup and then contact their lawyers to set in motion that if "they" die one day that their Clone should be unfrozen and then that takes over o.0

The scary thing is that something like that isn't Science Fiction any more.

Living things are meant to age anyway.
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I've just seen something that I wish I didn't - system restore pls :D
 
mrk said:
Not in the same body. While ageing can be slowed down I have my doubts about total immortality but what I do envision is when people will be able to pay to clone their bodies and quite possibly their memories as well. Kind of like a Windows System Image backup and then contact their lawyers to set in motion that if "they" die one day that their Clone should be unfrozen and then that takes over o.0

The scary thing is that something like that isn't Science Fiction any more.

Living things are meant to age anyway.
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a clone is jsut another person that looks (and possibly) thinks like you
 
A better argument against Immortality is (assuming you mean the true definition of immortality & these beings retained the ability to reproduce) - that if it was real, the universe should (in theory) be ram-packed full of immortal beings & should have visited us by now.
 
I would like to see humans colonize space and things, but even if I could live for another 200 years, we aren't going to reach Star Trek levels for a long, long time. The threat of our economic and social system collapsing has been talked about for decades but something like that happening would a be a hellish time for the surviviors who would eventually have to rebuild and start with technology further back than they were before.

World wide war is a strong possibility as the population increases and resources are running out. I don't want to be around when the nukes start flying back and forth, the aftermath of this will be terrible.

Even if these disaster scenarios don't happen, our economy in the next 30 years or so is looking grim, we will slowly not be able to afford anything but a bed and food. The best time to live would be after a nuclear war/economic meltdown when the infrastructure is rebuilt and things are starting to be back to normal. The population would be drastically reduced at this point and life would likely be harder but rewarding. So in about 70-100 years time..

What would be better is like Futurama, freezing yourself for 300 years and seeing what things are like :D
 
Eternity.

That is what I am bound to.

Nothing more. Nothing less.

Never changing. Everything the same.

Of course the world around me changes. But I never do.

Mortals dream of immortality, and how "cool" it would be never to age. To stay the same forever. Take it from someone who has been the same forever, it's not all its cracked up to be.

For nearly fifteen millenia I have wandered the vast expanse of this earth, never changing, watching everything everything around me change and alter with regards to the planets needs. Let me tell you something, the planet isn't as big as people like to believe it is.

Everything that has come and gone in this world I have seen.

I have been there for everything.
 
Will Gill said:
telomerase gets my money, my rough understanding is it essentially adds additional divisions (telomeres) to our DNA telling it to carry on doubling after it would normal stop.

interested me enough to read about it at work the other day for 10 mins :)
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This.

Lobsters already do this. They can effectively live forever, but due to their environment most are killed before becoming truly old.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobsters#Longevity
 
Unless we manage to colonize other planets an increase in average lifespan would be a disaster. We live in a closed ecosystem, which will remain in balance, that kind of scale of overpopulation would result in massive disease outbreaks that would bring the population back under control.
 
TV''s secret millonare yesterday was from the east end of glasgow, they said the age expetincy for a male was 54 years. If they moved to a ''better' area and lived to 80 or 90 that must be part way to imortality for them.
 
edscdk said:
I recoganise will's reference to telomeres, and am aware of their inferal in the aging process... however "just the way biology works" is not an argument for anything...
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It's pretty much correct though.

There's a thousand different ways in which immortality won't work. Telomerase, for example: one small part of the ageing process is that the DNA in your somatic cells (that is, everything except your sperm or egg making bits) steadily loses its telomeres (protective bits on the end) and once they run out they can't divide anymore. Switch on telomerase in every cell and, woosh, that don't happen anymore.

Of course, you're now that much more likely to develop cancer, and once you do develop cancer its that much more likely to go malignate. But, hey, who cares about a little thing like cancer?

But let's say we solve the cancer problem. Now your cells don't obey the Hayflick limit. Big woo. Cell division isn't a particularly big limiting factor in ageing anyway; the biggies are a general failure to completely repair damage and the accumulation of misfolded proteins. And don't forget about cute side issues like the way your nose and ears just keep on growing - think what they'll look like when you're 300!
 
Body lasting that long I can see, however people minds already fail before their body, so it all depends if we can stop the halt of dementia and other mental issues.
 
Glaucus said:
Body lasting that long I can see, however people minds already fail before their body, so it all depends if we can stop the halt of dementia and other mental issues.
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dementia is a biological process largely resulting from the effects (or side effects) of ageing.... that in time will be cured (in all its forms)

I would assume EVERYTHING has a cure and will be cured unless given a good reason why not...
 
McGraw said:
Exactly, it would just be like Boba and Jango Fett...you wouldn't live on in another body.
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I know this, hence why I mentioned memories further on.

Imagine putting your Windows HDD in a new PC, Windows knows it's been put into new hardware and adjusts itself, like that. Doesn't seem as far fetched as it might have done 10 years ago.
 
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