Immortality, university research on it.. physical, not spiritual

[oscar111]

in case you havent heard, here are the three most promising avenues now being looked at.

one.. dr Kenyon at U of Cal, Oakland... nematodes lived seven times normal lifespan with one gene change and some tissue snipped out. In human years, five hundred would be the age. She founded a company to develop the idea for human use.

two.. One of the gene map race leaders is looking at "trucking" in replacement DNA .. into every cell of an adult.. like you.. using harmless viruses as "trucks". Forget his name,.. he was the private company owner, who is said to have more or less stolen the research of the NIH guy, to speed up his own map work. Trucked in DNA would reshape your body to a much younger age, and if you wish, into an olympic winner's body with a spliced in Nobel brain. Problems remain to be solved, so more research is needed.

three.. more controversial is making a chimp embryo genetically similar to each specific human patient, so that the custom embryo will grow into a neonate that can receive the forebrain of the aged human when his "time comes to depart" from natural causes. A customized chimp would not reject the tissue.. plus, memories would carry over, and as human cells die, new ones could be injected as now done at U of Pitt. on altzheimers cases . Growing chimps with no chimp forebrain would sidestep some ethical problems. Still, this is a highly controversial route. It is the closest to feasible at the present time.

GOP will never supply greatly increased funds for medical research... so vote dem if you want breakthroughs in this and related areas to happen in your lifetime.

bush.. "i will triple funds for NIH research"
Later, he quietly cut funds.
So typical.

{When funds dont keep up with inflation, that is a cut. Despite freeper attempts to ignore that fact}

[xchrom]

1. with conservatives on the rampage -- burning and looting

everything around them -- you'd neve be able to save enough for that kind of life span.

[darkmaestro019]

2. .....(shudder)

I am NOT in favor of immortality. It would be for the chosen few, probably a very RICH chosen few, and that chosen few would come to be essentially, gods. Not cool if you're not favored by said chosen few.

Ever read the Dune prequels that Brian Herbert and I forget who made, where brains of the richest, warlord-iest wound up in almost unstoppable machines? Nearly killed the human race. Hyperbole, I know, but the idea of being able to make CERTAIN people immortal makes my skin crawl. We're running out of resources for the people we HAVE without suddenly making sure that the population number isn't decreased by natural death.

Besides, I wanna see what's after this. : ) If there's nothing I guess I lose my bet, but I had my shot. It's someone else's turn to take my place. Longer and healthier lives, maybe--maybe even hundreds of years, I guess--but forever? I really am not able to clearly express why, but the idea horrifies me.

EDIT: OTOH, I sometimes wonder what it'll be like when humanity finally becomes really civilized, and it'd be neat to see what the future-future is like--unless it's like this only worse, more crowded, and more polluted...

And it MIGHT put a stop to the "Fuck you, I got mine, I'll die before the air is gone anyway!" thing...

[oscar111]

4. what if dems take all three branches next time, foster progressive govs

all over the world, and so the world is progressive when the pills are developed for immortality?

then the dystopia you envision will not happen.. rather, a pretopia emerges with immortality too.

You would miss out on all that if you take the route of your post.

Cheer up!

Comments?

[bemildred]

3. Don't hold your breath waiting for this. nt

[Odin2005]

5. I have mixed oppinions on life extension.

On one hand I would love to live for a 1000 years or more, on the other hand, Asimov, in his robot novels, makes a good point that long life spans may make humanity to less likely to take needed risks

[oscar111]

6. balanced by not taking bad risks, i bet.

good point, tho.

My title is , more fully, that the needed risks idea is balanced out by humanity avoiding also, the taking of disasterous risks.

So, immortality still looks good.
consider how also, our great brains do not perish at age eighty, but continue to solve humanity's problems for centuries more... and get smarter all the time.

So, whatever problems arise from immortality, the growth of wisdom will make it easier to solve those problems.

Nice feedback loop.

[oscar111]

7. kick

kick

[Trillo]

9. the growth of wisdom

will make it that much harder for the young ones to compete. What's to stop a CEO from adopting the presumably expensive technology to extend his/her life to the point that all the money can be cornered?

I don't think this technology a good idea unless people stop or massively slow breeding. Even then, the older one's who never learned not to lie, cheat, and steal but who did learn to stay out of jail while doing so, will still be running things.

[oscar111]

10. many criscrossing social dynamics can be proposed: are u so sure of the

pessimistic dynamics, that you chose to die because of them?

that is what you are really doing when you forego development of longevity pills.

who knows, really, what dynamics will appear? Including wholy new ones we have never imagined?

More to your points... Wisdom includes .. mainly.. Kindness.

If CEO's develop kindness, well and good.

Your speculation was really that they would develop evilness, not wisdom. Some elders get wise, some evil.

For sure, scientists get more skilled with time, as long as their brains are intact. So that area of progress seems assured.

Slowing breeding is a cinch.. last decade, the explosion has imploded.

As to who runs things... First half of last century, FDR and whole world shifted leftward... this last half and splinter of twentyfirst... is yet another swing to RW.. expect more swings L and R.

Last few months, bush's polls sank. South America surprised everyone last few years.. with swing to LW. What if longevity arrives during a LW swing? Then the future might be locked in with elder LWer's running things.

after you took the option to die rather than see how it all turns out. Cheer up ol pal, and become an optimist.

[Trillo]

11. Sorry, my markup mistake. Let me clarify

Title should have read, "The Growth of Wisdom", enclosed in quotes and referring to your words.

I'm afraid I don't see any growth of wisdom in my years, quite the opposite. Scientifically, there's no doubt that knowledge has been increased, while simulataneously, I perceive that wisdom has decreased. Just since the late 1970s did the CEO decide to get obscenely greedy (perhaps this relates to the phenomenon of the MBA), as but one example.

Bush in office is just further proof-- but he is neither the beginning, or the end of the growing lack of wisdom, rather, he is a symptom of a deeper cultural problem that some if not many are still in denial about.

That, however, has little to do with people living for 500 years. The ratio of the total lifespan versus age of reproductive fertility is critical to population numbers if people otherwise limit breeding to replacing themselves only. The greater the ratio, the more pronouced the bubble.

[Odin2005]

12. Very true.

There is a saying that a disproven theory doesn't disappear untill it's last vocal supporter dies. Nearly all physicists switched to the quantum mechanical paradigm by mid-century, yet Einstien tried to discredit QM untill the day he died. Immortal scientists would not be a good thing because you wouldn't have the older scientists who are set in thier ways making way for the young turks with the fresh ideas.

[oscar111]

13. theories dont die idea, has been disproven

last i heard.. it was very intriguing as an idea, but did not really describe scientific progress.

As to a general decline in wisdom lately, you must step back and take the long view of history.

there is a pendulum swing between dark and light ages, with the center gradually moving toward the light end of things.

The last thirty years have truly been dark ones, but dont get lost in a closeup examination of human affairs. Look at S America for a possible harbringer of a move back to an age of wisdom.. AKA the LW.

[oscar111]

8. kik

kik

[oscar111]

14. kik

kik

[oscar111]

15. kik

kik

[oscar111]

16. kik

kik

[Crayson]

17. The future doesn't hapen like that

It happens NOW!

In my opinion immortality will be found in very small steps of life prolonguing measures.
And maybe one day when we really know how a brain works, we can build an artificial one.

I think society will always go on "normal" as they adapt to new science bit by bit and as such society will change and maybe on day hundreds of years of lifespan or even immortality will just be normal.

But even then you're not be truely immortal... accidents will always happen... wars too...
Change always happens, and that's good.

[oscar111]

18. kik

kik

[oscar111]

19. cut CDC 12% , cut NIH too

i just learned on the news, bush has cut the Centers for Disease Control by twelve percent.

this as we stagger into the peril of birdflu.

You want better health research? vote the bums out.

[oscar111]

20. kik

kik

[oscar111]

21. kik

kik

[oscar111]

22. kik

kik

[Boojatta]

23. Is Bush a lot older than people think?

three.. more controversial is making a chimp embryo genetically similar to each specific human patient, so that the custom embryo will grow into a neonate that can receive the forebrain of the aged human when his "time comes to depart" from natural causes. A customized chimp would not reject the tissue.. plus, memories would carry over, and as human cells die, new ones could be injected as now done at U of Pitt. on altzheimers cases . Growing chimps with no chimp forebrain would sidestep some ethical problems.

[IDemo]

24. And if you die after receiving Option 3, you can still help other humans

Hungry ones, anyway--> http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=228&topic_id=21801&mesg_id=21801

[oscar111]

25. kik

kik

[oscar111]

26. kik

kik

[oscar111]

27. kik

kik

[oscar111]

28. Forum on immortality research.. best one.. a link here

this is the best one i know of...

http://www.imminst.org/