Think about it. If our bodies stayed in prime, like a 25 year old person, but we lived forever. Imagine 300, 400, 500 years of age. Do you know how much knowledge, wisdom, and experience you'd have? I think within all those years a person will do more then just be lazy as fuck for all those years. Maybe the first 100. But I doubt it'd be fucking Wall-E style civilization with fat people floating around. Not saying a decent amount of people would be lazy and over weight as shit. Guess there will be. But I doubt everyone will.
Hey yinz, interesting thread. There's some really cool stuff happening with aging research currently. Besides some of the links already put up Google things like the FOXO gene, Valter Longo (researcher in California whose had some neat results), and the hydra (has an ability to reverse aging back to the polyp stage with the right stimuli). Aubrey de Grey, Ray Kurzweil, and Through the Wormhole (the tv show) all have interesting things to say about it too. Personally, I think as long as we don't destroy ourselves via global warming or some other such calamity then we'll get there eventually. Obesity can also be controlled and eliminated hypothetically via gene manipulation. Fat retention by cells is just an outdated aspect of evolution lingering from when we were still hunter-gathers and didn't know when or where our next meal was coming from. Death is the ultimate waste too-think how specialized and focused (or multi-faceted) people could get with a significantly extended life. Nowadays for the most advanced things people take approx 10 years of higher learning to work maybe 30 and retire- with longer lives we as a species would spend less time training the younger replacements and individuals could continue to advance in their fields exponentially further and our overall progression as humanity would then also be expedited. Just sayin' Sent from my Nexus 7 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
haven't you ever seen elves in a movie? that's exactly what happens when you live for a very long time or close to immortality then... 1. you'll become really good with bow and arrow 2. you'll have solid hunting experience 3. you may or may not decide to learn how to ride a horse, but if you do, you'll get really good at it 4. you'll say fuck this capitalism b.s., i'm going to build my own place in a forest. (nobody can really say "no", because of point 1.) 5. you'll fuck with others by inventing your own language. 6. you'll get all the hot chicks p.s. i don't know what's up with the ears.
I don't know if anyone mentioned this yet, but bacteria evolve quickly, and if we don't die then disease will catch up with us
I'm in a biotech internship right now and we're primarily using bacteria. Definitely a formidable force they are but not invincible. If we figure out how to kill cancer cells universally (nanobots, chemical reactions, etc) then bacteria would likely be no problem to control. Sent from my Nexus 7 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
If you choose immortality you must give up your right to breed. To be considered for immortality you must not have any children. It would have to be that way to avoid over population. You would also most likely have to go through an intense back round checks,and obviously you would have to have incredible amounts of money.
if my body remained young i would take immortality even if i had to give up my nuts. Imagine if you had infinite time. You could do almost anything. You could be everything a doctor.lawyer,war hero,astronaut,general,president,dictator,and of course genius and that's just your first century if your ambitious .
Does immortality mean that you cant get sick? What happens when you sustain permanent brain damage. What happens to your sperm? Can you even mate after 200 years. What happens if you go somewhere you cant be? Can immortality remove your brains oxygen cost? Like what happens if someone decides to drop you off in the middle of the ocean, do your muscles get tired? And then what, you sink...but do you drown? If not, why? Do you require food, drink? What happens if your leg is removed via an accident, or your head is separated from your body? Can immortality REALLY exist in a non-technological (Via your mind being uploaded to a computer) way? What happens in the arctic, or the desert? Can your body be crushed under enourmous weight? Im sure there are 1000 different, better examples as to why immortality isn't going to happen any time soon.
From my angle I don't think that it inherently will be a very expensive process or treatment; if it happens at all it will likely be a pill to take with breakfast or something like that. Breeding/overpopulation issues- won't be nearly as big of a deal if you can get families to conscientiously reproduce and not have more than a couple of kids. Huge masses of kids are unnecessary and tactics Mormons use to spread the church (literally). Even if we slow and/or counter aging we'll likely still get colds and other illnesses brought by viruses and bacteria until we learn to fully counter them but they'll probably lose their lethality more and more as time goes by. Sperm/eggs- if the body is kept in a prime condition then so will those cells be continuously produced without mutations and flaws (these are why birth defects become more of a risk the older you are when you try to have a kid). I just read an article on the Guardian website where a clinical trial is set to start next year on a drug treatment for this that centers on the compound NAD (involved in communication between the nucleus and mitochondria)- pretty exciting! Sent from my Nexus 7 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
I love the idea. And i agree with you on naturalness of it. It wouldn't be the same with artificial parts, having all kinds of terminators walking around, shortages, and bugs in technology. Being immortal without artificial parts would let you cintinue living as you've always have. And having new experiences and staying with the people you love forever. Sent from my LG-MS770 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
I think the rich and important people will keep it to themselves. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
My opinion: Don't fuck with the natural order...Nature takes care of itself. I don't understand the need for immortality...Is this some fear of not existing that is producing this effort..? It'd actually be interesting to die..either seeing what comes next....or not. .........unless you believe in Hell
It's a for real thing in biology / life And of course if it's for real, it doesn't mean invincible. lol http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_immortality - SPECIFICALLY THE BIOLOGY ENTRY http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turritopsis_dohrnii cancer would fall into that catagory. The average age of the cells in your body is about 7-10 yrs...so how old are you, or how many "cycles" have you been through? Why does cell division sometimes produce mutations? How could that be improved / stopped / reversed? Is it possible?....The jelly fish can! http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/198208.article
I think you're right. But lets say it was possible for everyone to live longer due to modern medicine and science, one must take into account the repercussions this can have on society. Our resources are limited and people living longer would increase the population and consequently increase hunger.