Inventor says immortality is a matter of technology

[dArKeR]

Most people know Ray Kurzweil as an information-technology (IT) wizard. Not only did he invent the CCD flatbed scanner, print-to-speech software for the blind and omni-font optical character recognition, but he also created the first commercially marketed, large vocabulary speech recognition software.

As if that wasn't enough, he is also known for his IT predictions. Massachuset's Institute of Technology's Marvin Minsky described Kurzweil as a "leading futurist of our time."

But his latest book is about health and longevity. Kurzweil co-authored Fantastic Voyage -- Live Long Enough to Live Forever with Terry Grossman, founder and medical director of the Frontier Medical Institute, a longevity clinic.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2005/07/08/2003262676

[TwentyFive]

1. Great for Ray!! This would put religion out of business.

Most religions hold out some kind of heaven or nirvana as the reward for joining their religion.

The only question is...where would we put everybody? Maybe this is what all these other planets are for. If we had the technology to make people live forever - AND - the technology to make any planet inhabitable...that would be really cool!

[dArKeR]

2. If this discovery/technology does come, the rich will find ways to off

"unuseful". That doesn't necessarily mean poor people. On the contrary I believe the poor will be the ones saved because they are uneducated and more easily manipulated, controllable, suited for slave labor. I believe the Middle/Upper Class will be butchered to keep the population down.

[TwentyFive]

3. You are so right! With all our technology - we should have 20 hr weeks

The average worker today is 10-20 times more efficient than just a generation ago. Just think about much more work we get done with computers, faxes, the Internet, cell phones, etc. Yet, we are working harder and longer than ever.

If the people were to benefit, we'd get our work done in about 2-3 hours, and then head off to the gym or the golf course for the rest of the day.

Instead, we work harder. Technology has made it so women no longer have to stay at home. Who benefits? BushCo - that's who.

[NickB79]

15. Many people should be able to work from home

With advances in high-speed internet connections, why waste many hours and gallons of gas each week commuting to and from work?

[kestrel91316]

4. Immortality is not something I aspire to ...........

I consider this striving for immortality to be greedy and selfish. We are born, live a while, and die. Just like all other living things. And the living things to come feed on the remains of those who went before. This has always been the way of things. Kali must not be denied her due.

IOW, don't mess with Mother Nature!

[Tims]

5. We mess with Mother Nature every day

Would you agree that modern medicine "messes" with Mother Nature?

The reality is, Nature has dictated that after we have reproduced and have seen that our offspring have been protected and cared up to the point where they can provide for themselves, we no longer contribute significantly to the survival of our genes. This is why selection for longevity is not a major factor in defining evolutionary success. Living past the age of 35-40 does little to insure the success of our genes, therefore Nature just gives up on us and we begin our "natural" decline into old age. Once your offspring have reached the age of reproduction, they contribute far far more to your evolutionary success than anything that could be gained by you simply living longer. In other words, genes that would assure a life of 100 years have no more chance of staying the gene pool than genes that merely allow a life span of 40 years.

If we look at pre-technology man, typical life spans where quite low. It has only been through messing with Mother Nature, beginning with inventing the first tools in order to compensate for deficiencies in our natural biology, that we have been able to more that doubled our life expectancy. Would you give up these gains since our life spans are currently artificially (unnaturally) high? How long is long enough to live? Few of us live simply to reproduce, but that is all the time Nature provides for. Is it really greedy and selfish to want more than that? It has only been through our own technological advances that we have been able to grab additional (healthy) years to be creative and follow our dreams.

But simply stopping or reversing the aging process will not grant us immortality. We will still have diseases and trauma. It is unlikely that we will find a cure for every disease any time in the foreseeable future or the ability to reassemble a mangled and charred body from a horrible accident.

For me there are so many things I wish I could do, but as I age, my choices diminish. I would welcome extending my life if it would give me opportunities to pursue more of my dreams rather than having to perform triage on those dreams each year.

The fact that technology may indeed defeat aging is something we have to think about because it's ramifications to society would be enormous. We must not ignore the possibility that truly intelligent machines may also emerge in the not too distant future also. How will that effect society? There are many valid reasons to desire both, but there are also valid reasons for apprehension because the effects of these things will alter society to a degree we cannot imagine. There are no legitimated reasons to believe either is not possible or that it will only be possible in the far distant future. It may well be that we are closer to achieving these things than we are to achieving pratical controlled nuclear fusion or safe interplanetary manned space travel.

[kestrel91316]

8. I don't have a problem with extending "quality of life" .......

but I have a problem with trying too hard to extend "quantity of life". After a while it's time to move on to the next life.

[Tims]

11. But what if

you believe this is the only life you will have - that there is no "next" life???

[nashville_brook]

14. isn't there some passage in the bible about humans living much longer

lives prior to The Fall. what if we were meant to live 200 years and something "artifically" has shortened our lifespan?

immortality? might get boring -- but it would be nice if humans didn't age so damn quick. it seems like we hit 50 and all hell breaks loose. in my family, we hit 40 and start breaking down as if our warrenty is up.

[smirkymonkey]

16. I agree and I can't understand people who would want to live

forever. Have they really thought about what that would look like (and how expensive it would be - after they have tapped out their retirement savings) or is it that human beings are just so terrified of death?

[nashville_brook]

6. i'm no crackpot... but i've always thought

that lifespan could/should/will be manipulated. it's just always been there knocking around with the other bits of dust and weirdness in the back of my mind.

[beam me up scottie]

7. I don't want to live forever.

After reading some of the idiotic posts on this board today, I want someone to shoot me.

Now.

:banghead:

[smirkymonkey]

17. LOL!

I completely relate! There is a part of me that's not even interested in finishing out the life I have left, especially considering the mess this world is in and how hard it is to find peace and happiness in life.

[whyverne]

9. It wouldn't exactly be immortality anyway.

Not like a vampire or the Terminator. Something would eventually get ya. You'd get smooshed or crunched or hurricaned or plagued or something. I keep a couple of tortoises and by our terms they are kinda immortal. I don't think anyone has ever seen one die of old age. They keep eating and sleeping and breeding well past 100 years old, but something always gets them eventually. The oldest one on record was over 150 years old at the Philly Zoo and some jerk smooshed him with a door.

[dwckabal]

10. I like Woody Allen's take:

“I don’t want to achieve immortality with my films. I want to achieve immortality by not dying.”

[0rganism]

12. Immortality without infertility is a recipe for devastation

Other than that, I'm all for it.

[nashville_brook]

13. something my mother said:

i want to at least live long enough to enjoy life once you guys are gone. she had a wicked sense of humor.

[oscar111]

18. EMPTYCLONES, then shift your forebrain into one

that's the best idea i have seen on this.

grow a clone of yourself, with the DNA for a forebrain excised.. so the fetus has no awareness or personhood. Then transplant your forebrain into it. Add new neurons by injection slowly, as yours die off.

when the clone ages, repeat and repeat later, forever.