Indefinite Lifespans

It's been my dream, since I was ten years old, to find away to live forever, or at the very least, not to age. I'm an active participant in the Immortality Institute forums, so if you're also interested in this movement, you can look at their forums (Imminst.org) and see many people who are also aiming to cross this final frontier of conquering the blight of involuntary death.

Imagine living forever, or at least as long as you want to. Our technology has finally reached a point where we may finally be able to realize radical life extension.

Many of the arguments against this goal are addressed in the following video, so please WATCH IT BEFORE POSTING. It's a presentation by one of the main leaders in this movement, Dr. Aubrey de Grey. He's a brilliant computer scientist turned gerontologist:






AND HERE'S WHY IT WILL HAPPEN IN OUR LIFETIME!!!






As strange as it may sound, I do not ever plan on dying. I've already devoted three of the sixteen years I've been alive in doing active nanotechnology research (I attended a program at UPenn university, as well) and genetics research.

I value the pursuit of knowledge and happiness greater than anything else, and hopefully, one day, an individual does not have to be limited by their lifespan in this pursuit.

Regards,
E.

 

Living forever would be nice, but the world would become over populated in a 100 years or so, then where would we go? Live on the moon some how?

 

Yes lets continue our species wide narcissistic indulgence.. I mean of course we as humans, the most superior species of them all, deserve to be immortal! Nevermind the fact we're responsible for the extinction of thousands of species... millions of years of genetic programming lost.. and never mind that we have caused significant damage to our home planet upon which we are so very GRACIOUSLY aloud to inhabit despite our complete negligence as a species...

So yea... GO US! GO TEAM! Lets become gods so we never have to confront our fear of the unknown, the fear of death, ever again! Lets turn ourselves into robots and rob ourselves of our own humanity for the sake of our own vanity!

We deserve it don't we?

This planet definitely needs some cleansing to remind us of our humility and put us in our PLACE.

 

I can tell neither one of you saw the video, so I merely won't respond to your questions because they're addressed there.

Thanks for replying, at least.
E.

P.S. Lol @ Ughster's comment about becoming robots and gods. I don't plan to become an omnipotent invisible floating man whose son on earth is Jesus Christ - In fact, I'm an atheist, so I don't believe in that very concept. Please, if you're going to be negative, focus that negativity on something that actually has to do with the topic.

 

You sound like this guy I once knew who wanted to stay alive until the year 3026 or something, which is the year a radio transmission that was sent to some galaxy would return to Earth...he also said he wanted to remain as anonymous as possible, not even a footnote in history books. If you guys are like him, then you're all very eccentric. No, I didn't watch the video, I have to go to work atm.

 

I do believe that there will be life spans of like 200-300 years old but not living FOREVER
and a solution for OVERPOPULATION is to live on mars and the moon
That will like fix the problem for like 200 years and we do have a plenty of time looking for a new home....

 

Living forever would be nice if you don't believe in afterlife, but I could deal with a longer life span, but not to live forever, but it would be awesome to be a kid for the rest of your life.

 

If you think about it, would you really want to live forever?

I know I wouldn't. Just think.... no end. No end ever. It isn't even possible.

But yeah, one day I actually want to die.

 

Bill Gates can. He has enough money to replace his brain, his tissues, his bones and even his livers, lungs, and heart. I'm not sure, but I think that's enough to live forever.

 

Who's going to donate all those stuff to Bill Gates? Don't they have to be alive to be working?

 

No... just carefully preserved. Why do you think they ask you if you want to donate your organs after you die on your license?

 

^For scientific study, not donation.

It's probably possible, though.
The donating part. -.-

 

Even if such surgical techniques were perfected, your personality is contained in your brain.

 

I thought some organs become useless the minute you die...

>_<

 

When you die, your brain begins to die. IMMEDIATELY AFTER. That's why after you are rescucitated(sp?) like with a those shock paddle things, they always warn people there may be brain damage. Now, if the concept of prosthetic bodies was perfected, Indefinite Lifespans might be possible, excluding deaths by violence...But that's Ghost in the Shell, an anime. Cool idea though.

 

Scientists are becoming better and better at making organs. In not so many years we will be able to switch out every organ in your body as they become "finished". Except the brain. But I don't think it's impossible that I'll live 'till I'm 150. Of course, this will over time ruin our society. We already see the problems of too many old people. It's hard to afford letting them live.

 

Definitely. I'm not saying he'll be himself, just that, Bill Gates will be alive. His brain, his heart, his bones, his tissues, his kidneys, his lungs would all be replaced, which is basically a different human in his skin.

 

We havn't reached that technological stage yet, and we most likely won't in his remaining life span.

 

Even if this was attainable, living forever is beyond the mental capacity of any human being. Within 1000 years anyone WILL go insane, I am willing to bet my money on that much.

 

Or they would simply have enough wisdom to appear insane by the average human of that era... haha.

Humanity is already insane.