Do you think it will be possible to live forever in the near future?

[Arkitech]

So do you think it's possible that one day humans might be able to live forever or at least signficantly longer than what we're used to (more than 80-100 years)?

It seems that people who exercise on a regular basis and maintain healthy habits (diet, hygeine, etc..) can prolong their lives a bit longer. And now with the emergence of cloning procedures and the mapping of the human dna it might be possible to extend life even longer.

So what's your thoughts on this?

 

[Brainonska511]

I wouldn't think so (at least not near future). I remember in the NYTimes, they published an article about how some scientist prolonged the life of fruitflies by selective breeding. He would only let the longer living fruitflies lay their eggs, so after a few generations, he had fruit files that were living twice as long as the first generation. Though, with humans, this process may be a bit more challenging and Hitleresque.

 

[SokaMoka]

With this fvked up situation in the world ATM, the right question is would there be a near future at all ?

 

[FoBoT]

no

 

[TBone48]

No.

 

[JDrake]

Negative.

 

[BigJ]

I think it'll be possible, but it would be absolutely disastrous to the world.

Death, disease, genetic defects, etc are natural population controls. Eliminate them, and we will have huge problems.

 

[Squisher]

Yeah, but I wanna walk around like Darth Vader and General Greavious a bionic shadow of my former self.

 

[dighn]

I don't know about "near future", but in the long term I think it's really inevitable. Maybe not live forever, that's statistically impossible for a person, but signifcantly longer yes. A human being is really just a very complex machine, there's no reason why theoretically it cannot be modified to be "better". Sooner or later we will reach a level of understanding and technology required to manipulate it freely. I mean look at how far we've come already. But of course that's just looking it from a biological point of view, whether or not the environment/social forces can allow it is another matter...

 

[Kadarin]

Originally posted by: BigJ
I think it'll be possible, but it would be absolutely disastrous to the world.

Death, disease, genetic defects, etc are natural population controls. Eliminate them, and we will have huge problems.

There will always be population controls, like war over resources and famine. We need to figure out how to get off the planet and make space useful.

 

[BrianH1]

Originally posted by: Brainonska511
I wouldn't think so (at least not near future). I remember in the NYTimes, they published an article about how some scientist prolonged the life of fruitflies by selective breeding. He would only let the longer living fruitflies lay their eggs, so after a few generations, he had fruit files that were living twice as long as the first generation. Though, with humans, this process may be a bit more challenging and Hitleresque.

I too found that article very interesting. We debated it in our sociolgy class, the whole deal with eugenics. I believe the article went out and said they are furthering their study with rats as well.

I have known certain families tend to have very old members of their family. Perhaps, it is genetic that they do share a long life span.

 

[SVT Cobra]

I remember reading an article about this and it is quite intriguing. Scientists were trying to find away to allow telomeres to last longer, telomeres (if that is exactly what they are called it has been a while since I have read the article) are caps on the ends of our DNA that keep them together when duplicating, and eventually these wear out causing more and more DNA defects (analogous to the plastic caps on our shoe laces).

 

[PowerMacG5]

Originally posted by: Squisher
Yeah, but I wanna walk around like Darth Vader and General Greavious a bionic shadow of my former self.

Me too, that would be sweet.

 

[Arkitech]

Originally posted by: BigJ
I think it'll be possible, but it would be absolutely disastrous to the world.

Death, disease, genetic defects, etc are natural population controls. Eliminate them, and we will have huge problems.

Is death really natural? I kinda think it's actually un-natural or else people would'nt have such a hard time dealing with it. Even animals and insects have strong survival instincts, I really beleive death is the most un-natural thing on the planet.

 

[dighn]

Originally posted by: Arkitech

Originally posted by: BigJ
I think it'll be possible, but it would be absolutely disastrous to the world.

Death, disease, genetic defects, etc are natural population controls. Eliminate them, and we will have huge problems.

Is death really natural? I kinda think it's actually un-natural or else people would'nt have such a hard time dealing with it. Even animals and insects have strong survival instincts, I really beleive death is the most un-natural thing on the planet.

without death life would be stagnant, we wouldn't have evolved to have this discussion.

 

[Arkitech]

Originally posted by: dighn
A human being is really just a very complex machine, there's no reason why theoretically it cannot be modified to be "better".

That's a really interesting thought, I agree with that theory. It should be possible that the human can be improved to perform better and survive longer.

 

[CFster]

There was recently an episode of Nova on PBS where they talked about this. They had a fairly well respected scientist on that is researching this.

He said it would be very possible for people to live not only way over a hundred (far fetched, but not outside the realm of imagination I guess), but as much as several thousand years! What amazed me is that his opinion was well respected, and that he was taken seriously on a program like Nova.

I wish I could remember his name.

 

[OrganizedChaos]

not without digitalizing the human brain. and then you find yourself in a scary scary world.

 

[evetstech]

The real question is would you want everyone to live forever. If no one died, this world would be more populated than it already is, and all of earth's resources would be dried up in an instant.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: evetstech
The real question is would you want everyone to live forever. If no one died, this world would be more populated than it already is, and all of earth's resources would be dried up in an instant.

Maybe not an instant, but yes.. that is the problem.

Obviously births already outpace deaths, but just imagine if deaths from natural causes suddenly ceased.. :Q

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Considering how health alone extended the life of the average human by quite a bit, it wouldn't surprise me if scientists manage to prolong the human life to maybe two hundred years, although I don't believe that immortality will ever happen.

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: evetstech
The real question is would you want everyone to live forever. If no one died, this world would be more populated than it already is, and all of earth's resources would be dried up in an instant.

*queues up the Lost in Space remake soundtrack*

 

[Goosemaster]

Doomsday scenario $3qw4t#$G$gh5 - Section B. :


With a seemingly eternal existance people will finally be made aware of the meaning of life...continuity. It will finally make them realize that the only reason that they procreate is instinctual in nature, and that having, invallidated it, they have no reason to contnue living.

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: OrganizedChaos
not without digitalizing the human brain. and then you find yourself in a scary scary world.

GiTS-esque...I like

 

[piasabird]

You cant beat Genetics.