Imortality

[RyeN]

As inspiered by IHP

Due to my strong belifes in no after life and comming to the conclusion I might die I started to think of ways to cheat death. The best idea I have come up with thus far Includes many experimental sciences right now. I will admit that the given research and time hasn't been spent in the fields required yet. However taken into the account that I am young and the increase of our technologie has been growing exponetialy for the last 150 years i figure it could plausably be ready in 15 years or so, given the right amount of funding and co-operation.

The basic prncipales of this have to to with the fact that realisticaly everything we know and do is in the brain. Also that the body is just a vesel that keeps our brain alive. So in order to stay in the game our body can not die. Right now my Human body is a prety good container for my brain, but it eventualy grows old and detireorates. This has to do with the aging proccess of living cells.

First I thought that I would need a much better vessel though as per the limitations with ours. Cloning could be a good step, but then i figured why not throw in Genetic mutation as well. Some of my coherts thought that it would be better to have a mechanical body, and others a manupulatied organic one. Still others though why not combine both. Its not that important at this stage either way. The important thing to focus on is that we need a new body to keep our mind alive.

One of the logical arguments brought up about a new body was how your brain wouldn't know how to control the new body. So I thought that I would need to creat some sort of interface to conect the brain to the new body.but how was I going to get my brain into a new body and this puzzeled me for quite some time. Until I started learning about the advancements in maping the brain. This combined with the obvious Enormus leap in technologie to store digital information. I though why not create a new brain capable of storing me and plenty of space for back up and Upgrades.

Each body could have its own OS and the Interface could interpret this to the brain. This new body would also Eliminate the problem of Brains actualy dieing themselves, and if you had a mental problem programers could debug it and make you better.

You could bring up the point that even with a highly advaced body there is a posibility of something destroying it, so I would deffinatley have a "life monitor" telling my backup brain to come to life in a new body somewhere else. I would back up as often as posible. Even if it was only once a month if i died i would only really lose a month.

Now keep in mind this is the theory board. This is just a "theory". Before you oppose it compare it to christianity, and see which one is more fesablie. Im open to sugestions and ideas. Please bring your critisim as well. It will help me think of hurdels I have to over come.

[apathy maybe]

Do you really want to live forever? Think about it for a minute before you answer. Think about these questions "what will I do tomorrow?" and "do I want everyone else to live for ever too? Or am I going to be a capitilist?", "If I do want everyone to live forever, do I really care about the environment?"
If you can confidantly answer those questions and still say yes to the first then I guess you should look into immortality. Else forget it.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

I have thought of something. If a dying soldier's brain were to be caught and kept alive, what's to stop them from installing the brain in a vessel far superior to a human one, a 'super-soldier'? Something that could handle a heavy machine gun/minigun as easily as a normal human would handle a pistol? Something that could rip men apart and punch through brick walls?
Tanks of course can do all this, but imagine a tank that's a quarter of it's original size, can leap over tank traps, and empty out trenches and bunkers? not to mention the brute's gonna look pretty scary!
Consider also that 'stripped-down' human brains can be fitted to cruise missiles to identify targets, or installed in automatic sentry guns etc.
Also this stinks of 'technomancy': the dark and sinister use of technology.
I am no way a Luddite, Just remember that almost any technology has a military application

[redstar2000]

An interesting speculation with many ramifications, one of the grimmer ones correctly pointed out by NoXion.

I don't think people would actually want to live "forever"...but a vigorous life-span of 500 to 5,000 years might be quite appealing.

As apathy maybe pointed out, you couldn't do it on the surface of a single planet--at least not one with six or seven billion people still having kids.

One obvious solution is to "upload" your entire personality into a 5th or 10th generation super-computer...complete with all the necessary sub-routines to supply the virtual experience of living in the flesh, etc.

This is wildly beyond current technology, of course. But I recall reading that there have been recent experiments in brain-computer-body interfaces that show promise.

Check back with this thread around October 2503, and we'll see how we're doing.

http://anarchist-action.org/forums/images/smiles/redstar.gif

The RedStar2000 Papers (http://www.anarchist-action.org/marxists/redstar2000/)
A site about communist ideas

[Pete]

Faith in science is just as damning as faith in religion... noooo the controversy.

[IHP]

The technology required for such is, from what I can figure, is beyond our capabilities for far longer than 15 years. If we can even understand the brain in that time I would be amazed.

Why not give it a bash, I however don't think this kind of thing could happen for many, many years to come. Good luck.

[Iepilei]

There is a thing known as the agnostic afterlife.

You live forever...
...through your genetics : your children, and your body (which gives back to the earth)
...through your teachings: what you tell others, how you live, passing down of tradition
...through your actions : what you've accomplished, notable causes, and who you've influenced

as far as I'm concerned, one life-time is long enough for me.

[RyeN]

I totaly belive in an agnostic style of belif. Knowing that even if I dont go the human Race will go on. This isnt enough for me though. I actually want to live forever. The universe is infinite so how could I ever get board. Same ting with everyone being able to live forever and not running out of room. The Universe is Infinite. I do feel though that there deffinatly are some people who would use such technologie for a bad use. I really belive that the world is going to change dramaticaly soon. The first person to unlock Nano technologie will have the power to change everything we know.

[Dhul Fiqar]

It is generally accepted in computer technology circles that we cannot continue on the current path of exponential growth of silicone computing power for much more than a decade or two. The reason is that computers in ten to fifteen years will begin to push the boundaries of the laws of physics - because modern computers are so incredibly inefficient at actually using the immense computing power they theoretically have.

The problem is this - we are firing 01010101010101 type codes through conductors at ever increasing speeds - but it won't be long untill we hit the physical barriers of the universe - such as the fact that anything accelerated beyond the speed of light will... well.... we don't know - which is kind of the point :)

So whatever the technology of the future will be - it certainly won't be based on silicone chips in the way we understand them today - and binary has severe restrictions because it causes computers to view the world in black and white. Either it is a 0 or a 1 - there is no grey area like in real life. Thus translating something as complex as human emotion and thought into a strict "Yes or No" matrix is not going to work...

Still, interesting thoughts :)

--- G.

[Invader Zim]

No you dont want to live for ever you want to be young forever, no good living for ever you will just be an old cripple with little mobility etc.

I would rather die than spend my days shitting into a bag etc.