I was watching a talk show and some scientist was on talking about that. He thinks within a few hundred years, we will have the ability to cure everything, including aging. If you eventually wanted to die, all it would take would be to stop taking the meds. Of course, the meds wouldnt protect against accidental deaths, so people would still die... But talk about over population.
There would be breeding laws no doubt. And beyond that, our civilization would probably stop advancing so fast technologically and evolving genetically.
we'll all be living in the matrix by then born -> upload conscience -> kills body ... forever living in the cyber world
2 things are certain in life... Death and Taxes. But apparently nobody ever bothered to tell Willie Nelson.
Just imagine all the horrible criminals that are going to rot in prison for hundreds and hundreds of years. This makes these long sentences actually account for something.
No, death and Texas. Willie wouldn't listen, being busy with construction work. (and consumption work)
I have always thought that the people who wouldn't want to live forever either have a pessimistic outlook or no imagination. Hell, it would probably take me 100 years just to write down all the things I would want to do if I could live forever.
What if you could age over 180 years like you do over 90. Let's say they gave you that option after you hit puberty. Would you take it if such a thing was possible?
On similar lines. If your body begins to betray you, just chop it off and grow a new one: (source) [rquoter] 1 gene lost = 1 limb regained? Scientists demonstrate mammalian regeneration through single gene deletion A quest that began over a decade ago with a chance observation has reached a milestone: the identification of a gene that may regulate regeneration in mammals. The absence of this single gene, called p21, confers a healing potential in mice long thought to have been lost through evolution and reserved for creatures like flatworms, sponges, and some species of salamander. In a report published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from The Wistar Institute demonstrate that mice that lack the p21 gene gain the ability to regenerate lost or damaged tissue. Unlike typical mammals, which heal wounds by forming a scar, these mice begin by forming a blastema, a structure associated with rapid cell growth and de-differentiation as seen in amphibians. According to the Wistar researchers, the loss of p21 causes the cells of these mice to behave more like embryonic stem cells than adult mammalian cells, and their findings provide solid evidence to link tissue regeneration to the control of cell division. "Much like a newt that has lost a limb, these mice will replace missing or damaged tissue with healthy tissue that lacks any sign of scarring," said the project's lead scientist Ellen Heber-Katz, Ph.D., a professor in Wistar's Molecular and Cellular Oncogenesis program. "While we are just beginning to understand the repercussions of these findings, perhaps, one day we'll be able to accelerate healing in humans by temporarily inactivating the p21 gene." Heber-Katz and her colleagues used a p21 knockout mouse to help solve a mystery first encountered in 1996 regarding another mouse strain in her laboratory. MRL mice, which were being tested in an autoimmunity experiment, had holes pierced in their ears to create a commonly used life-long identification marker. A few weeks later, investigators discovered that the earholes had closed without a trace. While the experiment was ruined, it left the researchers with a new question: Was the MRL mouse a window into mammalian regeneration? The discovery set the Heber-Katz laboratory off on two parallel paths. Working with geneticists Elizabeth Blankenhorn, Ph.D., at Drexel University, and James Cheverud, Ph.D., at Washington University, the laboratory focused on mapping the critical genes that turn MRL mice into healers. Meanwhile, cellular studies ongoing at Wistar revealed that MRL cells behaved very differently than cells from "non-healer" mouse strains in culture. Khamilia Bedebaeva, M.D., Ph.D., having studied genetic effects following the Chernobyl reactor radiation accident, noticed immediately that these cells were atypical, showing profound differences in cell cycle characteristics and DNA damage. This led Andrew Snyder, Ph.D., to explore the DNA damage pathway and its effects on cell cycle control. Snyder found that p21, a cell cycle regulator, was consistently inactive in cells from the MRL mouse ear. P21 expression is tightly controlled by the tumor suppressor p53, another regulator of cell division and a known factor in many forms of cancer. The ultimate experiment was to show that a mouse lacking p21 would demonstrate a regenerative response similar to that seen in the MRL mouse. And this indeed was the case. As it turned out, p21 knockout mice had already been created, were readily available, and widely used in many studies. What had not been noted was that these mice could heal their ears. "In normal cells, p21 acts like a brake to block cell cycle progression in the event of DNA damage, preventing the cells from dividing and potentially becoming cancerous," Heber-Katz said. "In these mice without p21, we do see the expected increase in DNA damage, but surprisingly no increase in cancer has been reported." In fact, the researchers saw an increase in apoptosis in MRL mice - also known as programmed cell death - the cell's self-destruct mechanism that is often switched on when DNA has been damaged. According to Heber-Katz, this is exactly the sort of behavior seen in naturally regenerative creatures. "The combined effects of an increase in highly regenerative cells and apoptosis may allow the cells of these organisms to divide rapidly without going out of control and becoming cancerous," Heber-Katz said. "In fact, it is similar to what is seen in mammalian embryos, where p21 also happens to be inactive after DNA damage. The down regulation of p21 promotes the induced pluripotent state in mammalian cells, highlighting a correlation between stem cells, tissue regeneration, and the cell cycle." [/rquoter]
You guys need to think about something else. Like boobs.. Seriously though I used to worry about death, still do every now and then, but these days its not something that occupies my mind that much. In the end our nature is to be mortal and if we weren't I think we would come to devalue the importance of life since we wouldn't have the knowledge that our experience is unique. If you are find yourself worrying about death my advice is go out and live.
There was a famous sci-fi short story about that very thing, where a man becomes immortal and lives through repeated cycles of the rise and fall of human civilzation. I think the story was called 'The Phoenix' but I can't remember the author. A lot of these issues about immortality have been hashed out by sci-fi. Aasimov has a pretty good take on it in The Robots of Dawn set on a planet of humans who live for about 300 years and have every need taken care of by robots. He basically states that while for the residents life is practically a paradise it becomes a dead end for human development as people with long lives and few challenges don't feel the need to innovate or share their knowledge.
I have no doubt that one day the technology for immortality could be developed. But that is probably centuries in the future and we will either blow ourselves up, a virus and or bacteria will kill us, or an asteroid or other cosmic phenomena will get to us first.
