Have the first immortal, or long-term humans been born?

[Jeff7]

I see you've been reading some comments from Aubrey de Grey or have watched his TED talk. I enjoy his talks and insights, but I am skeptical. Humans will definitely be technologically capable of being biologically immortal at some point and quite possibly this century. I'm just not sure it will arrive in time to save most of us.

What de Grey says is that he believes within 20 years, anyone alive will be effectively immortal (or more specifically, will not age; accidents and disease will still be able to kill). He believes it will be achieved in stages and that every few years, lifespan will be extended by incredible amounts and at some point, they'll achieve complete biological immortality. It sounds nice but again, I'll believe it when I see it. At any rate, the societal implications will be huge and I am not sure we can adapt quickly enough.
...

Once someone demonstrates and effectively proves out that they can attain biological immortality, there will be riots. Some people will go absolutely nuts to get it.

Assuming that this kind of advance would keep your body and mind "young" (ie, you're 120 but have the body and mind of a 30 year-old), I'd imagine you'd work one career, "retire" for 20 years or so, and then maybe go back to school and work another career or update your skills for your previous career. Or, maybe by that point, automation and AI will reach the point where people will no longer have to work due to machines producing all our food, clothing, and manufactured goods. You could therefore engage in activities that interest you -- art, history, etc.

:hmm:

" Some people think I'm robbing the cradle, but I say she's robbing the grave."



It's an interesting idea for a future though. For so long, we've tried to reduce the demand for difficult physical labor, as well as a way of staving off death.
Automation has greatly changed how our society works. In the past, manufacturing was a big deal because a person would hand-craft a thing, and that made it valuable. Now, a group of machines can do the work of thousands of people. The field of computing has also accelerated to an absolutely absurd level. Early electronic computers replaced engineers and people working as computers. A low-end consumer-level processor can easily do several billion operations per second. So what have we done, added the automated equivalent of few more planet's-worth of people to do calculations for us?
And we're now also making AIs that are capable of learning.

So what do we do when or if we do end up creating the conditions of a utopia? I don't think we'll have any idea how to live with it. We evolved in a planet that's got a ton of ways to kill us, and this was also constantly the case with our distant ancestors. We've got many adaptations focused on just being able to remain alive in this hostile environment. (Unused muscles atrophy to save energy, fat is stored to help get through famine, immune system fights off some toxins and pathogens, healing capability to resist some types of damage, and so on.)
We've already seen obesity as a problem when food is cheaply and easily and continuously available, and when physical labor is no longer a necessary constant of life for some people. Our biology has never encountered this situation, and we are left with a runaway effect. (For electronics people, think about an op-amp circuit where the negative feedback loop has been broken.)



Maybe super-intelligent AIs will be able to figure it out and explain it to us.

 

[irishScott]

Sadly.


It has nothing to do with that. It has to do with the body getting old.

My GF's father just turned 72, he went out and played kickball with the family for easter. Worst he had was a mildly sore back.

Plenty of people live into their 80s or even 90s with good vitality. The people who waste away are those who never took care of themselves, have no interest in maintaining their physical shape, and a small percentage of just plain unlucky who do everything right but get struck by some medical condition.

 

[mmntech]

Can I still yell at young people on my lawn and complain about politics and not have to work?

Thanks to welfare, it's not only allowed but encouraged.

 

[disappoint]

The next solar roadways: Tree beard's Anti-aging Hothouse Botanical Solution. aka AHBS!

 

[WelshBloke]

So I'm guessing that moondogg just contemplated his mortality and didn't like what he thought.

 

[IronWing]

People mention Keith and Mick but it is Ronnie Wood who hasn't changed a bit in 40 years. He looked like hell back then and has grown into it.

 

[MongGrel]

If people stop dying, where do we put the new ones?

That is a question I've actually brought up lately.

No one seems to interested in a real answer to that one these days, other than blowing them up.

 

[glenn1]

Once someone demonstrates and effectively proves out that they can attain biological immortality, there will be riots. Some people will go absolutely nuts to get it.

Depends on how it's achieved. If it's immortality of a digitalized consciousness, then a biological body might be redundant. If it's "immortality" in a physical body, then it may not be a seamless eternal youth but rather something more like the world of Altered Carbon where you can rent a body "sleeve" if you can afford it.

 

[WHAMPOM]

I say yes. If you have 50 years left in you, it just might end up being 1,000.

After all the shit I've been through, all those eons that passed away. Finally I made it here, the generation that's here to stay.

Really? Fraid not! Actuary science shows no immortal lives much past nine hundred due to death by accident. A fall in the bathroom is what kills you.

 

[Jaskalas]

Imagine a stem cell virus that replicates healthy cells, without the damage of aging.

I do believe age can be cured, and that it may happen relatively shortly (30-50 years) after the cure for cancer.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Doesn't matter. I'm having my head cryoed. Be back in A.D. 2500, if not sooner.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Once someone demonstrates and effectively proves out that they can attain biological immortality, there will be riots. Some people will go absolutely nuts to get it.





:hmm:

" Some people think I'm robbing the cradle, but I say she's robbing the grave."



It's an interesting idea for a future though. For so long, we've tried to reduce the demand for difficult physical labor, as well as a way of staving off death.
Automation has greatly changed how our society works. In the past, manufacturing was a big deal because a person would hand-craft a thing, and that made it valuable. Now, a group of machines can do the work of thousands of people. The field of computing has also accelerated to an absolutely absurd level. Early electronic computers replaced engineers and people working as computers. A low-end consumer-level processor can easily do several billion operations per second. So what have we done, added the automated equivalent of few more planet's-worth of people to do calculations for us?
And we're now also making AIs that are capable of learning.

So what do we do when or if we do end up creating the conditions of a utopia? I don't think we'll have any idea how to live with it. We evolved in a planet that's got a ton of ways to kill us, and this was also constantly the case with our distant ancestors. We've got many adaptations focused on just being able to remain alive in this hostile environment. (Unused muscles atrophy to save energy, fat is stored to help get through famine, immune system fights off some toxins and pathogens, healing capability to resist some types of damage, and so on.)
We've already seen obesity as a problem when food is cheaply and easily and continuously available, and when physical labor is no longer a necessary constant of life for some people. Our biology has never encountered this situation, and we are left with a runaway effect. (For electronics people, think about an op-amp circuit where the negative feedback loop has been broken.)

Maybe super-intelligent AIs will be able to figure it out and explain it to us.

IMO, it isn't an IF, but a WHEN regarding when machines replace the need for human labor. You're right that it would be a massive shift in the way our society is structured and survives. I don't think we'll reach that point in my lifetime (assuming the extreme life extension/"immortality" doesn't appear first, that is), but I bet there is a reasonable chance of it happening before the turn of the century.

Star Trek portrays such a society, but they have space travel and have taken up exploration and discovery as their new purposes in life. IMO, we'll reach the point of complete automation well before we're capable of that kind of interstellar travel, so it would be interesting to see what people do with their lives given that we'll still be likely bound to earth or the inner solar system.

 

[TheSlamma]

Oh this poor planet better hope not

 

[SMOGZINN]

That is a question I've actually brought up lately.

No one seems to interested in a real answer to that one these days, other than blowing them up.

As of right now there is plenty of room for more people. We only use a small percent of the landmass, much less the ocean. Even the United States is mostly empty land. If our population continues to grow we will need to get more efficient in food production, waste management, and energy production, but that is not beyond our current technology we just don't care enough to inconvenience ourselves with it.
Really, the human population could probably quadruple before we had any real problems.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

My ancestral Anunnaki blood coursing through my veins means I get a minimum of 100 years. If I visit a doctor I could easily double that.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Immortal formed in 1990 in bergen Norway. Since then, they have release several of the best black metal albums ever released in world history.