Immortality Institute - Advocacy & Research for Unlimited Lifespans

Hey guys!

I wanted to make a post here specifically dedicated to http://www.imminst.org.


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The immortality institute is basically a place where thousands of people gather together to discuss the future of life extension, and potential ways that we can overcome involuntary aging and death.:love:

No, this stuff is NOT science fiction.


Many scientists are beginning to think that aging will be voluntary within our lifetimes. Two such people are Dr. Aubrey de Grey and Ray Kurzweil, who are two of the leading visionaries behind this research. By joining imminst, you can also be part of the movement to help stop aging once and for all!

Do you like biology, nanotechnology, robotics, physics, or computer science? If so, Imminst is for you.

We are extraordinarily lucky to be living in such exciting times. The next 30 to 40 years will be some of the most revolutionary years in human history. The future is wild - be part of it by joining Immortality Institute .

Also, be sure to join our forums, where most of the discussion about life extension takes place.

Cheers,
E.

 

Scientists are doing studies on this girl

http://www.mahalo.com/child-frozen-in-time

It may be possible that she holds the aging gene.

 

Haha, yeah, I know of that case! In fact, we have an entire thread about it at the forums, lol:

http://www.imminst.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=6376&hl

 

Is only the muscular and skeletal not growing? Or is it also her brain not developing?

Also, was there anything during the pregnancy that could have contributed to this? Why has she even grown when in the uterus?

 

Her neural development has also stagnated. It may not be that the aging process has slowed, but rather that her development has. Then again, it may be both.

It's an interesting case, but I'm not sure whether or not it will help us with life extension in the long run.

 

Posted new video for you guys to watch if you want

 

Ive read quite a bit about this last year, and all they have is concepts and ideas. The video is well...doesnt really help people support the idea. His logic is well very childish and the only thing solid in the video is probably the RMR. Even then stopping aging seems highly doubtful to be discovered within our life time. I enjoyed looking over the forums, lots of optimism there.

 

It's hardly just abstract concepts and ideas. Have you read about SENS? (Strategies for engineered negligible senescence). I wouldn't call his logic childish at all - that's a little insulting to someone with a PhD in the very field of gerontology, is it not? Here's the link to more information about SENS (Yes, concrete information), and please don't criticize before you know what this is all about: http://www.sens.org/index.php?pagename=mj_sens_repairing

I'm not saying that SENS will work for sure - please, don't take it that way. However, it is a lot more than just abstract and silly ideas devoid of logic. This guy know wtf he's talking about, and his ideas are reasonable given the biological evidence put forth.

The more people work on aging research, and the more funding it receives from being widespread, the faster we can make advances which will help slow aging. It's important to get the message out that we might be able to finally do something about aging other than sitting on our asses and waiting for our bodies to decay. Be proactive is what I say

 

Immortality sounds... stupid.
I wouldn't want immortality in all honesty, guys. Who REALLY would?

Let's think about this:
Being immortal means you would have to endure a millennium of the same shit every day.
Once you hit a certain point, you can't get any higher.
Not to mention overpopulation; lots of sex is going to happen in those.. infinite years.
We'd end up killing ourselves due to starvation or dehydration or something basic.

 

^ This ^

The problems we'd face if we extended our lifetimes indefinitely are numerous.

1. Unless we found a way to counter the degeneration our brain undergoes, we'd be pseudo-comatose.
2. Without people dieing, there would be immense overpopulation, as people would be able to have children constantly (if we do find a way to perpetuate our life, it would most likely occur during our prime), as will their children, etc. We'd have to have a major major limit placed on reproduction, which would cause some major issues for our species. We'd go millions of years without evolving.
3. Cultural evolution would also be sparse. If you look closely, you'll notice a trend towards religious fundamentalism in the baby boomer generation up until generation Y, but it's tapered off drastically. This is just one example of generational differences. If everyone is of one or maybe up to three generations, considering the sanctions that would be placed on reproduction as a result of the threat of overpopulation, the same cultural ideals would persist with us, for good OR for bad.
4. If we lived forever, we would eventually run out of food or water unless we A. Found a way to efficiently feed 7 billion people (assuming we stop reproducing) or B. If we do reproduce, find another planet that is hospitable and contains food/water (the likelihood of the former occuring is astoundingly unlikely, considering we evolved to digest and get energy from food that existed here on Earth).
5. If anything, we wouldn't live forever. The Earth would end or the Sun would die, or some other giant natural disaster would occur to end us all.

If there were something designed to postpone our death indeffinitely, it would most likely be something that we'd have to maintain. As such, it would most likely be extremely difficult to keep production of the medical drug/procedure high enough for billions of people to constantly rely on.


Some pro's for extended life:
1. Our scientists would be able to continue their research. However, this is mundane because there are always smart people in every generation.
2. As stated before, cultural ideals would persist. Though this would normally create drastically terrible results, it may also provide some (though menial in amount) stability.
3. You'd have time to get to know every fish in the sea, if you catch my drift.

Overall, however, there is some disparity between the pros and cons, and even if it does become possible, whether we should or shouldn't is a tough decision to make, and no one man should make it.

 

Imagine the possibilities. I wish I could live forever, my views on how I would live my life would change completely.

 

Immortality would allow all societies to better maintain numbers, in reference to population, etc. Immoral, maybe, but then again, we're living forever. I don't think morality would be an issue.

That's just my take on the population issue.

 

How about a few more problems then?
1. People would cruise through life with the "I have plenty of time" attitude.
2. Many governments would illegalise it.
3. Do you not consider immortality going against nature, don't you think people have lives that end at a certain point for a reason?

 

Do you mean the size of the population? If so there would be no space on the Earth once it fills up and no vital necessities once resources are depleted.

Im pretty sure it would, what's to say about people who would use immortality for selfish personal gains?

 

By the time the sun's energy depletes we would probably so technologically advanced we would be colonizing other planets.

 

1. I don't see how random people would get access to this. If they succeed, it will probably be only for the insanely rich. So that's not a problem.

2. How do you enforce that? Especially in countries without death penalties?

3. Lives end for numerous reasons. I'd rather not die of old age if I could prevent it though. If by reason you meant higher meaning: No, I don't think so.

 

No. Both of my sentences were to support each other. Allow me to explain.

If immortality were an option, exact number of population would be fairly easy to maintain. For example, if we wanted 5B people on Earth, we simply get rid of the other 2B. If we one day decided that we wanted 6B, we'd wait until the count was 6B as people were reproducing, and then stop it there.

Explain why someone who is immortal and fit to be so would have any reason to do so ?

They do.

Those governments will, one day, die.

A life ends because there is nothing to stop it from doing otherwise. This concept, however, is the answer to that.

 

The only good purpose I can see for this is space exploration. I doubt it'll happen during my generation, as there's too much debate over it still, but I could see aging being slowed down for the next generation.

 

At this stage it is purely pseudo-science anyway, no different from the wild speculation of the past that we would be hovering on mars by the year 2000.

 

Except there are a multitude of TED conventions in which people have discussed anti-aging solutions to provide longer lifespans, and decrease cell deterioration. It's all possible through stem cells, . We actually understand the science of it nowadays, but getting it all to fit together is what would be difficult.