Immortality in 25 years?

[Provost Harrison]

How would the 'PUNKS' get to heaven eh?

[Az]

I feel everyone needs to die. Jesus died

I don't think you come to the level of teh Jeebus. How dare you to have the GAUL to claim this?

[Provost Harrison]

See, you're making Az very cross

[Pekka]

Of course I never become to the level of Jesus. That's just silly. But, comparing to normal breahting organism sack of wasted skin, like .. well all the people except me, I'm on a very different platform. Besides, he died at the age of what.. 28? What did he accomplish by then? What have I accomplished after next 4 years? You know, we don't even compare the same day. But if it came down to a straight up street fight, I'd kick his ass IF I had to, and he didn't use any superforce on me but fought straight.

So there.

[DanS]

Our lifespans are becoming longer and longer -- almost 3x as long as somebody a couple hundred years ago. From experience, I can say that all-in-all longevity is pretty swell and the downsides are manageable.

By the way, longer lives will accrue to those among us who are happy by nature.

[Jon Miller]

no

wthi a caveat that that is how I am right now

if I was different.. than I could imagine answering yes

Jon Miller
(I do beleive in heaven and wish to go there...)

[Dinner]

It's bound to be super expensive so the poor will keep dying while the rich will live on and on.

[Geronimo]

This isn't new, it's just that as we gain a better and better understanding of the aging process it will generate more and more speculation about how long it will be before we can increase the human 'youthspan' to the same degree or greater that we have in the past increased the average human lifespan.

A microbe that reproduces asexually has no dead ancestors. It has lived for billions of years mutating now and then along the way. Biological systems unlike all of the other machines we encounter are fundamentally built to last forever. There was never any profound obstacle to finding a way to keep the human soma from succumbing to the aging process. We only needed to discover the mechanisms beneath that aging process and from there learn how to work around them in a way that would allow the soma to demonstrate the same longevity that the germ line already does.

[DeathByTheSword]

any one ever read the book steel beach...is exactly like everybodies sees the future in this thread

[DAVOUT]

Dont forget that the lifespan of Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld will be dramatically extended too. Consequently the maximum age in the Army will be 139 instead of 39.

[DeathByTheSword]

hmy...then we just have to make sure this stuff wont get on the market for some extra years...

[The Mad Monk]

Originally posted by DanS
Our lifespans are becoming longer and longer -- almost 3x as long as somebody a couple hundred years ago. From experience, I can say that all-in-all longevity is pretty swell and the downsides are manageable.

By the way, longer lives will accrue to those among us who are happy by nature.

How true is that, really?

I mean, sure, life expectancy at birth has about tripled, but how much of that figure is tied into infant mortaliity, as opposed to old people being older?

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by DAVOUT
Dont forget that the lifespan of Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld will be dramatically extended too. Consequently the maximum age in the Army will be 139 instead of 39.

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by Az
Who needs civ when you can lead a tribe of your own kin in an outer space adventure?

Thinking small

We're making much more progress at understanding the human genome than we are at developing interstellar travel. Just because we can extend life doesn't mean we'll ever see another star system, though if astronauts could live together I guess you could put them into a ship and let them make a hundred years journey to another star. They'd be awfully bored though.

One of the problems with life extension is that what researchers geberally mean is that it may be possible to nullify the natural mechanism through which cell lines automatically die. Once that's done then it would also be necessary to find some way to counteract the effects of a lifetime of accumulated mutations, which may be one of the causes of cancer or as the population ages the rate of cancer would also probably increase. The population which had their biological clock removed would not be immortal, they just live a few more years. In order to make "immortality" worthwhile we'd also have to conquer the diseases of aging, including arthritis. Some of these diseases may simply be the result of accumulated wear and tear, so there may not be a way of eliminating them via manipulation of the genetic code. Would you like to live for hundreds of years crippled by arthritis?

Even if it is possible to turn off the biological clock, eliminate the diseases of aging, prevent accumulated wear and tear damage, and prevent the accumulation of pro-carcinogenic mutations what would you do with the extra time? Do you relish the idea of going to the same old job for eternity?

[The Mad Monk]

People change jobs all the time.

Bored?

Use your century's worth of modest savings, "retire" for a decade, go back to school, and start a brand new career.