Is Indefinite Lifespan or Immortality possible?

This basically means if we can havve prolonged lifespanwthan we currently do or life forever without ever dying but still be prone to physical harm. It isn't the same as immortality. Please Discuss and present your points of views.

 

I dont think its possible to live forever, although, one day scientists will probably find a way to make the average human live 10-20 years longer.

Really good question though, I often think of this myself.

 

Even if it's possible, I don't want to live for ever.... That is, if I don't age in skin. The only thing that has me worried about getting old is my skin haha.

 

+1. I wouldn't like to live forever either. Whats the point of life when your over 500 years old, cant walk, and have been in a hospital bed for over 400 years. Not fun Also, the world would become too over-populated, and who knows what will happen when theres about 1 Trillion people on this planet.>_<

 

Ummm.......No.

 

I really doubt our planet can sustain that much human life.
It's more likely man will go into space. And if one really wants to be immortal he would get off his human body and put this brain somehow in a virtual environment.

And I really think life wouldn't be the same if you would be immortal. Kind of boring. Especially because I really don't know what the meaning of my life exactly is.

 

Why would you even want to imagine such a thing? (living forever)

 

You guys might be interested in this story about a potentially immortal jellyfish: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/4357829/Immortal-jellyfish-swarming-across-the-world.html

And I would love to live as long as I liked.

 

No one should be able to live forever. It's just wrong... to prolong what we humans know WILL happen to us, death. To make it so one can't die is wrong and on top of that, the surplus population would be way to high. We reproduce very often and to have us live forever would actually kill the world.

Think about it.

 

"On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for humans drops to 0." Could this not be applied to a single person?

 

in theory if you replace stem cells your body would never get old

 

Definitely. The reason our bodies age is because at a certain point our cells just stop replicating. I honestly believe that once we cure cancer, we can unlock the ability to keep the cell's mitotic cycle intact. Death is because our cells don't reproduce enough. Cancer is because they reproduce out of control. We need to find the middle ground.

 

No... It doesn't... Not necessarily anyway. Look at this take on the future of civilization. Like the good doctor says, a type2 civilization is essentially immortal. We will have escaped naturally selection completely. There is nothing know to modern science that could destroy such a civilization.

Yes, immortality is most certainly possible, but I don't think humans would chose it. Death and reincarnation is a built-in drive of the soul. Infinity is a horrific concept, but there's nothing that can be done to escape it. Death gives the soul the illusion of release and escape. All science would need to do is to be able to keep progressing faster than people can age. We're on the verge of "synthetic" organ tissue and bionic appendages. You get a lung disease, get new lungs. You get your arm chopped off, but another. I foresee brain tissue being able to be regenerated in the future sometime. Keep your brain healthy for the next 100 years or so and perhaps you'll get to see these new technologies come out.


This all begs the question, what does it mean to be human anyway? If I replace an arm, am I human? Two arms? A torso? Part of my brain? Eventually all of my brain?


P.S. I forgot to post the link to the video I was talking about in paragraph 1.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7FVjATcqvc

 

ok well right now biochemist can mix genes all together and if they can get ahold of the gene in the jellyfish(i found that article interesting) that someone posted before then whats from stoping them from putting that inside a humans cell?

 

Forgot link, spam for the lulz.

 

Because, A, jellyfish can't live forever. B, putting it in one human cell won't make a difference. You'd have to do it from the embryonic stage.


And C, genetical engineering on an embryo is both illegal and unethical. So it'll never happen.

There's a fine line between what we CAN do and what we SHOULD do.

 

How is that unethical?

 

Wow. I like this to be immortal in the sense of which you speak for there is much to learn and much that hasn't been discovered and i'd choose to die when i get bored because i know everything

 

yea even though theres that line it dosent meen no one will cross it, people have crossed that line in the past im sure

 

Yes, I guess it might be possible with all the research into stem cells and what not going on. But you have to ask yourself, are you still the same person with a liver you weren't born with, a heart?, even a brain?? (if they ever work out how to do that) =p