As long as space exploration and colonisation keeps up then absolutely it would be a good thing, otherwise we would risk 'running out of space'.
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Medical science is rapidly discovering the causes of aging, and it doesn't seem wildly improbable that within a generation or two, we will be able to halt or even reverse those causes along with most other major diseases like heart attacks and cancer. The effect would be that a person could live indefinitely, until killed by something other than disease or old age.
What's your opinion? Would this be a good development or bad development for the human race?
You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We'd all love to see the plan
# # #
Je suis Marxiste, tendance Groucho
As long as space exploration and colonisation keeps up then absolutely it would be a good thing, otherwise we would risk 'running out of space'.
Might be interesting for psychologists/neurologists/etc to see how much "diskspace" a human brain has, I mean if we could live forever, would there be a limit on how much the brain could remember.
@Mods/etc: please keep this thread here and dont move it out of this place since...well us restricted members can join in this little discussion here
<span style=\'color:green\'>"Protest is when I say this does not please me.
Resistance is when I ensure what does not please me occurs no more."
-Ulrike Meinhof
"If one sets a car on fire, that is a criminal offence. If one sets hundreds of cars on fire, that is political action."
-Ulrike Meinhof</span>
True - the alternative would be strict reproduction controls or strict controls on who can receive the treatment.
Quite so - I believe that research suggests that older memories gradually fade away, though their impacts on your personality and other learning do not. I would suppose that the longer you go without reinforcing those neural pathways, the greater the fade effect.
You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We'd all love to see the plan
# # #
Je suis Marxiste, tendance Groucho
I'd love to be young forever. Of course, we'd have to be careful with the population, at least until we advance enough in space exploration to colonise other planets.
But it would be great. No more fear of getting old!
"El ideal del P.S.O.E. es la completa emancipación de la clase trabajadora; Es decir, la abolición de todas las clases sociales y su declaración y conversión en una sola clase de trabajadores, dueños del fruto de su trabajo, libres, iguales, honrados e inteligentes." -Pablo Iglesias (founder of PSOE and UGT)
"Quienes contraponen liberalismo y socialismo, o no conocen el primero o no saben los verdaderos objetivos del segundo." -Pablo Iglesias
Art. 1.º España es una República democrática de trabajadores de toda clase, que se
organiza en régimen de Libertad y de Justicia.
Yeah, this is sweet. I fear looking like Marx.
If this research becomes practiced and public then we could all be buried or embalmed looking like Lenin for centuries.
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Who would qualify for the treatment though? Those with most genetic merit? I would have a big problem with that, since it would effectively be an application of fascist eugenics. Either all should recieve it, or none should.
The way forward IMO would be colonisation and terraforming of the Moon and Mars, and later on the Galilean system (moons of Jupiter) which would avoid this moral quandry.
Interesting question. Personally I hate the idea of living forever (or much longer than expected) and want my youth to be something special - even if it is short-lived I want those years to be face-paced and enjoyable. I don't want to be too grumpy in middle-age, or too scary in old age :P . I want to die at the end of a reasonably long life having enjoyed myself than drag out my youth so that it becomes ruined. Personally I think youth is so special because you have to enjoy almost every moment of it. Then again this is a personal opinion - I would not oppose scientists making it possible for those who want to be forever young. However I find such Romance in the nostalgia people display for their lost youth - part of me wants the satisfaction of longing for it when it's gone.
P.S. I am perfectly aware I probably sound very weird.
"Ensanguining the skies,
How heavily it dies,
Into the west away.
Past touch and sight and sound,
Not further to be found,
How hopeless underground
Falls the remorseful day" A.E. Housman
I HATE the Chinese state, it does more damage to Leftism than Nazism and Fascism combined.
Who wants to die though? Dying sucks. Given the choice, I'd much rather see the wonders of the future, with Teleporters, holodecks, and doors that make that 'swishy' sound!
I totally understand your point. I think that one of the major impacts on human civilization would be a massive increase in risk avoidance. Currently a person's life is known to be limited. It's "use it or lose it." As a result, people can rationalize a certain level of risk-taking because the maximum loss is a finite number of years from the end of your life.
If you could live indefinitely, the maximum loss from a risk of death is a nearly infinite number of years! I think this would lead to a much more risk-averse species.
You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We'd all love to see the plan
# # #
Je suis Marxiste, tendance Groucho
The best thing which could happen, but only as long as humanity as a whole eventually could transcend.
It would be nice and all, but it ain't going to happen. As best as we know our bodies seem to know to just give up after eighty years or so (longer in some people's case). Of course we can certainly continue to extend our lifespans but mark my words, nobody will ever find a way to put off death entirely. We just don't work that way.
That kind of development could be good or bad, depending on the context. Monarchs and dictators would live for a long time, which would be bad... "unless I'm the dictator". The other problem is that the recources and technology needed to do what you're talking about would be available predominantly to people who can afford it. Additionaly, that could have adverse affects on overpopulation. Still, it could help bring technological breakthroughs closer, like sleeper ships.
The title of this thread could also get a song stuck in my head. -_-
"I want to be forever young...
Forever, Forever, Forever young..."
Discuss.
That's just superstition talking.
Nothing happens without a reason. That is the nature of the universe. Cause...effect. The fundamental particles of the universe do not grow old and die. Aging is an effect, and like any effect, it has a cause. Remove the cause, and you remove the effect.
This technology is under development, and personally, I think it will arrive much sooner than most people realize.
You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We'd all love to see the plan
# # #
Je suis Marxiste, tendance Groucho
I would like to live for a lot longer than 80 years, personally.
Does anyone think that the majority of people on this board (who were born in the mid 70's to mid 90's) will live to see technology expanding human life past the current record of 122?
It is not superstition talking. Our bodies ag. It is not just individual cells aging as they are constantly being replaced anyway. Quite simply life doesn't go on forever. it can be extended yes, but it will never be made indefinite. This is just more techno-utopian nonsense, no ifferent from the other rubbish that has been floating around for the last hundred years or so.
what if the technology existed to replace and even rejuvenate existing cells? I think that is the concept pusher robot means. Sure it sounds far fetched now, but so did manned flight 200 years ago.
I'm just worried about the political implications, unless other fields of science and technology find more places to live for all these people living into their 500's and 1000's.
Are we going to be doing that to our brains though? I eman theoretically it is possible to keep replacing organs, but that isnt going to keep people going forever as the brain itself won't last forever.
And if we are able to do things to our brains that opens up a whole new can of worms such as will we even be the same person?
At any rate I don't view the likelihood of this as being particularly high.
Einstein once said ''the ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are usually the ones who do''.
First of all, there's good reason to believe that it will be possible to stimulate the body to grow additional brain cells which can replace those that die over time. Secondly, there's no theoretical reason why current living cells cannot be maintained indefinitely or even replaced completely with cybernetic substitutes. Thirdly, there is no theoretical reason why the brain couldn't be entirely replaced with an electronic substitute.
I view the likelihood of these technologies as inevitable.
You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We'd all love to see the plan
# # #
Je suis Marxiste, tendance Groucho
