Living Forever (1 Viewer)

[(HULK)]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2013/07/24/you-can-live-forever-is-immortality-plausible-or-is-it-quack-science.html

I was happy to see an article on this in a place as mainstream as Newsweek. I've been aware of de Grey and his research for a couple of years now and I'm definitely rooting for him. I do think, eventually, what he wants to do is possible. I hope that happens in my lifetime but I'm not convinced it will. I'm 36.

Enjoy.

 

[Fennis]

Nope, I'm fine with the current life/death cycle

 

[Man of Zen]

World's a #### hole with 7 billion people. Can you imagine if we just kept adding to that? Death is the only thing that keeps life from being hell.

 

[jamny]

Who would pick #1 over #3? I doubt anyone would want to live in a 300 year old body.

 

[Horses Mouth]

don't like the choices. i would like to live longer but not forever.

 

[Parrothead]

living forever sounds like a lonely existance- you keep on outliving everyone you know.. I'll take a solid healthy 90 years..

 

[Yankee23Fan]

That's an interesting take. The reporter specifically says that he is envisioning this dystopian future with too many people and not enough resources and the scientist tells him he's seen too many movies.

It's an interesting take. It is certainly possible that with the science and knowledge that cheats death comes the ability to feed all those people and not destroy the planet and its resources. I don't know if the entirety of human history proves that to be true or not as it usually seems that resources go down as populations and the ability to use those resources increases, but still. Fascinating discussion.

I specifically liked the reasoning at the end. It's not so much to cheat deaht because we don't want to die. It's because we don't want to die of cancer, or Altzheimer's or the other massively painful and horrible ways that people die. And I think that is true. I'd be willing to be that most people would trade a certain amount of years to know for sure that they never have to deal with those horribles in their own life.

Cool story.

 

[Leroy Hoard]

"Yes, but only if I can live in the body of a fit 20 year old"

Does not sound like a bad way to die either.

 

[(HULK)]

That's an interesting take. The reporter specifically says that he is envisioning this dystopian future with too many people and not enough resources and the scientist tells him he's seen too many movies.

It's an interesting take. It is certainly possible that with the science and knowledge that cheats death comes the ability to feed all those people and not destroy the planet and its resources. I don't know if the entirety of human history proves that to be true or not as it usually seems that resources go down as populations and the ability to use those resources increases, but still. Fascinating discussion.

I specifically liked the reasoning at the end. It's not so much to cheat deaht because we don't want to die. It's because we don't want to die of cancer, or Altzheimer's or the other massively painful and horrible ways that people die. And I think that is true. I'd be willing to be that most people would trade a certain amount of years to know for sure that they never have to deal with those horribles in their own life.

Cool story.

I'm a bit of a techno optimist. I think we can solve all of these problems. Some of the bigger ones, fresh water and energy, are pretty much on the cusp of being solved. That said, there may be a stage in the future where we limit procreation to prevent overpopulation.

 

[ncc2]

Well death certainly sucks. And death by cancer sucks way worse than just death. One of the things people always point out about space travel is the incredibly long time it takes to get somewhere. What if we were living this incredibly long life? Wouldn't it make exploration more feasible? If I am going to live to be 300 and be in good physical shape I'm in. Put me on a rocket to somewhere with the appropriate treatments and I'd be pretty happy.

 

[17seconds]

Inclined to vote option three but I'd go a little higher than 20yo. As long as I'm not elderly forever I'd do it.

 

[ncc2]

Inclined to vote option three but I'd go a little higher than 20yo. As long as I'm not elderly forever I'd do it.

Yeah I think 30 is a better number. Heck at 20 your brain is still developing.

 

[T Bell]

Nope, I'm fine with the current life/death cycle

We're not psychologically equipped to live forever. Our memory, for example, isn't made to handle that.

Besides, I procrastinate enough as it is.

 

[mr roboto]

Religious belief would greatly impact a persons answer to this. Many theistic religions, for example, teach that the afterlife is perfection forever (as long as you make the grade I suppose).

 

[jamny]

Inclined to vote option three but I'd go a little higher than 20yo. As long as I'm not elderly forever I'd do it.

Yeah I think 30 is a better number. Heck at 20 your brain is still developing.

well, it did just mention body of a 20 year old. I'm guessing your brain will be at your current age.

 

[Ilov80s]

Religious belief would greatly impact a persons answer to this. Many theistic religions, for example, teach that the afterlife is perfection forever (as long as you make the grade I suppose).

That solves the supposed overpopulation issue for enough time for everyone else to develop a plan. Also, it would interesting to see how many religious people put their money where their mouth is when they are actually dying.

 

[(HULK)]

Nope, I'm fine with the current life/death cycle

We're not psychologically equipped to live forever. Our memory, for example, isn't made to handle that.

Besides, I procrastinate enough as it is.

My impression is that we'd be able to adapt. How much memory have you offloaded to google and siri already?

 

[ncc2]

Inclined to vote option three but I'd go a little higher than 20yo. As long as I'm not elderly forever I'd do it.

Yeah I think 30 is a better number. Heck at 20 your brain is still developing.

well, it did just mention body of a 20 year old. I'm guessing your brain will be at your current age.

Better not be. Why be 20 physically and have a brain age over 100? You'd eventually lose cognitive function due to plaque buildup and neural pathway breakdown.Old brain in a young body isn't really an improvement.

 

[McGarnicle]

I've always been curious to know what this planet will be like in 1000 years. Would I want to actually want to live that long to find out? Probably not.

 

[St. Louis Bob]

I want to kill right now.

 

[McGarnicle]

Inclined to vote option three but I'd go a little higher than 20yo. As long as I'm not elderly forever I'd do it.

Yeah I think 30 is a better number. Heck at 20 your brain is still developing.

well, it did just mention body of a 20 year old. I'm guessing your brain will be at your current age.

Better not be. Why be 20 physically and have a brain age over 100? You'd eventually lose cognitive function due to plaque buildup and neural pathway breakdown.Old brain in a young body isn't really an improvement.

Brain is part of the body, guy.

 

[Ilov80s]

Inclined to vote option three but I'd go a little higher than 20yo. As long as I'm not elderly forever I'd do it.

Yeah I think 30 is a better number. Heck at 20 your brain is still developing.

well, it did just mention body of a 20 year old. I'm guessing your brain will be at your current age.

Better not be. Why be 20 physically and have a brain age over 100? You'd eventually lose cognitive function due to plaque buildup and neural pathway breakdown.Old brain in a young body isn't really an improvement.

Brain is part of the body, guy.

No, I think the brain is part of the mind.

 

[Kal El]

I feel immortality is overrated, especially if my loved ones aren't going to be there with me. I read in an article that at some point, relationships would become impossible for immortal beings that live among mortals, because of the differing perceptions of the passage of time (Example: a year of time to a 1000 year old being is going to go by much quicker than a year for a 45 year old person).

 

[(HULK)]

Inclined to vote option three but I'd go a little higher than 20yo. As long as I'm not elderly forever I'd do it.

Yeah I think 30 is a better number. Heck at 20 your brain is still developing.

well, it did just mention body of a 20 year old. I'm guessing your brain will be at your current age.

Better not be. Why be 20 physically and have a brain age over 100? You'd eventually lose cognitive function due to plaque buildup and neural pathway breakdown.Old brain in a young body isn't really an improvement.

Brain is part of the body, guy.

No, I think the brain is part of the mind.

Lets call it a 20 something brain but a 100 year old mind. Or however old you are at any point in time.

 

[(HULK)]

I feel immortality is overrated, especially if my loved ones aren't going to be there with me. I read in an article that at some point, relationships would become impossible for immortal beings that live among mortals, because of the differing perceptions of the passage of time (Example: a year of time to a 1000 year old being is going to go by much quicker than a year for a 45 year old person).

Who said your loved ones couldn't benefit from the same technology as you are. Did you not read the article?

 

[Long Ball Larry]

I feel immortality is overrated, especially if my loved ones aren't going to be there with me. I read in an article that at some point, relationships would become impossible for immortal beings that live among mortals, because of the differing perceptions of the passage of time (Example: a year of time to a 1000 year old being is going to go by much quicker than a year for a 45 year old person).

Who said your loved ones couldn't benefit from the same technology as you are. Did you not read the article?

Judging by the posts, I don't think that most people read the article.

 

[Long Ball Larry]

That's an interesting take. The reporter specifically says that he is envisioning this dystopian future with too many people and not enough resources and the scientist tells him he's seen too many movies.

It's an interesting take. It is certainly possible that with the science and knowledge that cheats death comes the ability to feed all those people and not destroy the planet and its resources. I don't know if the entirety of human history proves that to be true or not as it usually seems that resources go down as populations and the ability to use those resources increases, but still. Fascinating discussion.

I specifically liked the reasoning at the end. It's not so much to cheat deaht because we don't want to die. It's because we don't want to die of cancer, or Altzheimer's or the other massively painful and horrible ways that people die. And I think that is true. I'd be willing to be that most people would trade a certain amount of years to know for sure that they never have to deal with those horribles in their own life.

Cool story.

I'm a bit of a techno optimist. I think we can solve all of these problems. Some of the bigger ones, fresh water and energy, are pretty much on the cusp of being solved. That said, there may be a stage in the future where we limit procreation to prevent overpopulation.

ON your side.

 

[McGarnicle]

I feel immortality is overrated, especially if my loved ones aren't going to be there with me. I read in an article that at some point, relationships would become impossible for immortal beings that live among mortals, because of the differing perceptions of the passage of time (Example: a year of time to a 1000 year old being is going to go by much quicker than a year for a 45 year old person).

It would be pretty cool to say you've nailed a couple trillion girls though.

 

[Long Ball Larry]

There was a TED talk about Telomeres last year, which may be one of the genetic keys to aging: http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/traits/telomeres/

 

[Ilov80s]

Inclined to vote option three but I'd go a little higher than 20yo. As long as I'm not elderly forever I'd do it.

Yeah I think 30 is a better number. Heck at 20 your brain is still developing.

well, it did just mention body of a 20 year old. I'm guessing your brain will be at your current age.

Better not be. Why be 20 physically and have a brain age over 100? You'd eventually lose cognitive function due to plaque buildup and neural pathway breakdown.Old brain in a young body isn't really an improvement.

Brain is part of the body, guy.

No, I think the brain is part of the mind.

Lets call it a 20 something brain but a 100 year old mind. Or however old you are at any point in time.

I was being a bit sarcastic. If you are going to live forever, it is irrelevant how old your "mind" is. The 10-70 years it will take to make up for any lost "mental ground" is a drop in the bucket compared to the eternity you are about to live through.

 

[Kal El]

I feel immortality is overrated, especially if my loved ones aren't going to be there with me. I read in an article that at some point, relationships would become impossible for immortal beings that live among mortals, because of the differing perceptions of the passage of time (Example: a year of time to a 1000 year old being is going to go by much quicker than a year for a 45 year old person).

It would be pretty cool to say you've nailed a couple trillion girls though.

But at some point, those girls are going to share genetic material that you've likely passed on. Besides, I would think quality beats quantity.

 

[Guest]

Give me 75 healthy years then put me down Logan's Run style.

 

[(HULK)]

There was a TED talk about Telomeres last year, which may be one of the genetic keys to aging: http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/traits/telomeres/

Yeah. Every time a cell is copied the telomere shrinks. I think they've ID'd the genetic fix for that though, found it somewhere in nature if I recall.

There are lots of things that age us. I'm hoping we can solve them all though.

 

[(HULK)]

I feel immortality is overrated, especially if my loved ones aren't going to be there with me. I read in an article that at some point, relationships would become impossible for immortal beings that live among mortals, because of the differing perceptions of the passage of time (Example: a year of time to a 1000 year old being is going to go by much quicker than a year for a 45 year old person).

It would be pretty cool to say you've nailed a couple trillion girls though.

But at some point, those girls are going to share genetic material that you've likely passed on. Besides, I would think quality beats quantity.

If people are living forever in fit 20 year old bodies, the quality is going to trend upwards fast. No fatties (sorry Christo), no acne/scarring, no glasses (kinda a shame that one), no braces, etc etc

 

[Wrigley]

NW: Is there anything we can we do, in the short term, to live longer?

Bortz: Change behavior. Exercise is the current anti-aging process. The most powerful thing we can do today is to get people to take a walk. How do you do that? That’s the frontier. I want a biomarker for fitness. I think that America is a whorehouse. It does what pays. So if we could reward someone like me, an 83-year-old marathoner, with a lower premium—that’s the single biggest public-health opportunity in front of us today. I’m focused on, how do I get America to walk? To me that’s a tangible, proven thing.

 

[Long Ball Larry]

There was a TED talk about Telomeres last year, which may be one of the genetic keys to aging: http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/traits/telomeres/

Yeah. Every time a cell is copied the telomere shrinks. I think they've ID'd the genetic fix for that though, found it somewhere in nature if I recall.

There are lots of things that age us. I'm hoping we can solve them all though.

I should have been more clear. This to me is one of the type of key breakthroughs that De Grey speaks of that suggest that we can counteract the cellular causes of aging. When I first heard about the telomeres, the first thing that I thought was that there must be a way to control them.

 

[Henry Ford]

I said yes with the 20-year-old clause, but I really would prefer around 30.

 

[Ilov80s]

I said yes with the 20-year-old clause, but I really would prefer around 30.

The girls will be in much better shape at 20 than 30, don't be selfish and just think of yourself.

 

[McGarnicle]

You should consider that at some point, life on Earth is going to cease to exist. Maybe there's a meteor or supervolcano eruption in a mere 1000 years or so, or the inevitable expansion of our sun which will first make the planet uninhabitable, then consume it completely. Will man find a way to another inhabitable planet before then? If not, do you really want to live through those events?

 

[Ilov80s]

You should consider that at some point, life on Earth is going to cease to exist. Maybe there's a meteor or supervolcano eruption in a mere 1000 years or so, or the inevitable expansion of our sun which will first make the planet uninhabitable, then consume it completely. Will man find a way to another inhabitable planet before then? If not, do you really want to live through those events?

Conversely, before then, man will create and experience some mind blowingly awesome technologies and moments. Do you want to miss those events?

 

[ncc2]

You should consider that at some point, life on Earth is going to cease to exist. Maybe there's a meteor or supervolcano eruption in a mere 1000 years or so, or the inevitable expansion of our sun which will first make the planet uninhabitable, then consume it completely. Will man find a way to another inhabitable planet before then? If not, do you really want to live through those events?

It's 7 billion years give or take before our Sun engulfs us. I could do a lot of stuff in 7 billion years. Of course I'd probably put it off until right at the end but still I could've done lots of stuff.

 

[McGarnicle]

You should consider that at some point, life on Earth is going to cease to exist. Maybe there's a meteor or supervolcano eruption in a mere 1000 years or so, or the inevitable expansion of our sun which will first make the planet uninhabitable, then consume it completely. Will man find a way to another inhabitable planet before then? If not, do you really want to live through those events?

Conversely, before then, man will create and experience some mind blowingly awesome technologies and moments. Do you want to miss those events?

Would be cool for sure, but dwarfed by the prospect of living in an inferno that somehow doesn't kill me for millions of years, then a frozen void FOR ALL OF ETERNITY. Seems like the definition of hell to me.

 

[T Bell]

I said yes with the 20-year-old clause, but I really would prefer around 30.

The girls will be in much better shape at 20 than 30, don't be selfish and just think of yourself.

Where are you slumming that the 30 year olds are such a giant step down from the 20's?

Besides, there are still going to be real 20-year olds for you to aim for assuming people are still getting born.

 

[Fat Nick]

As an agnostic, I'm terrified of death because, to me, it's nothingness. I'm terrified that what I enjoy now will eventually just stop...not stop and I'll be aware of it, but just stop. End. Nothing. If I think about it, it can literally make me sick.

I'll take more life any way I can get it.

 

[Ilov80s]

You should consider that at some point, life on Earth is going to cease to exist. Maybe there's a meteor or supervolcano eruption in a mere 1000 years or so, or the inevitable expansion of our sun which will first make the planet uninhabitable, then consume it completely. Will man find a way to another inhabitable planet before then? If not, do you really want to live through those events?

Conversely, before then, man will create and experience some mind blowingly awesome technologies and moments. Do you want to miss those events?

Would be cool for sure, but dwarfed by the prospect of living in an inferno that somehow doesn't kill me for millions of years, then a frozen void FOR ALL OF ETERNITY. Seems like the definition of hell to me.

Ok, I guess I am imagining that the end of the world does kill you...I am not imagining myself as a god that is indestructible even in an earthly apocalypse.

 

[Ilov80s]

I said yes with the 20-year-old clause, but I really would prefer around 30.

The girls will be in much better shape at 20 than 30, don't be selfish and just think of yourself.

Where are you slumming that the 30 year olds are such a giant step down from the 20's?

Besides, there are still going to be real 20-year olds for you to aim for assuming people are still getting born.

If you lined up 500 random twenty year olds and 500 random thirty year olds and rated average hottness, the younger girls would win in a landslide. 10 years makes a major difference in perkiness, tautness, cellulite, impact of children, natural metabolism, etc.

 

[McGarnicle]

I said yes with the 20-year-old clause, but I really would prefer around 30.

The girls will be in much better shape at 20 than 30, don't be selfish and just think of yourself.

Where are you slumming that the 30 year olds are such a giant step down from the 20's?

Besides, there are still going to be real 20-year olds for you to aim for assuming people are still getting born.

If you lined up 500 random twenty year olds and 500 random thirty year olds and rated average hottness, the younger girls would win in a landslide. 10 years makes a major difference in perkiness, tautness, cellulite, impact of children, natural metabolism, etc.

Hell yes.

 

[Jim11]

As an agnostic, I'm terrified of death because, to me, it's nothingness. I'm terrified that what I enjoy now will eventually just stop...not stop and I'll be aware of it, but just stop. End. Nothing. If I think about it, it can literally make me sick.

I'll take more life any way I can get it.

Dittto. I don't understand at all those who have no problem with their ultimate demise...unless they think there's an afterlife coming...which is delusional.

 

[McGarnicle]

As an agnostic, I'm terrified of death because, to me, it's nothingness. I'm terrified that what I enjoy now will eventually just stop...not stop and I'll be aware of it, but just stop. End. Nothing. If I think about it, it can literally make me sick.

I'll take more life any way I can get it.

Dittto. I don't understand at all those who have no problem with their ultimate demise...unless they think there's an afterlife coming...which is delusional.

If it all ends and your consciousness ceases to exist, then who cares? Certainly not you. Nothing you can do to prevent it, so fearing it is pointless.

 

[Juxtatarot]

As an agnostic, I'm terrified of death because, to me, it's nothingness. I'm terrified that what I enjoy now will eventually just stop...not stop and I'll be aware of it, but just stop. End. Nothing. If I think about it, it can literally make me sick.

I'll take more life any way I can get it.

Dittto. I don't understand at all those who have no problem with their ultimate demise...unless they think there's an afterlife coming...which is delusional.

If it all ends and your consciousness ceases to exist, then who cares? Certainly not you. Nothing you can do to prevent it, so fearing it is pointless.

Then one shouldn't care if he dies tomorrow or not?