Are we destined for Immortality?

Having been noticing advancements in medical sciences on 'age-defying' medicines, one has to wonder. The average human lifespan increases every year and is currently up to approxly. 76 years. It has been mentioned/claimed that the 'baby boomers of today' may well see human lifespans of 110-150 years. And then you add in current biotech advancements (ie: brain chips, bionics, etc.) and one truly has to wonder if this will soon become a very plausible scenrio. I would think the next phase would be 'conscience carry-over'....the ability to carry one's conscience (ie: thoughts, experiences, etc.) into a new 'human' or human android form or capacity.

The article is entitled: "Human Immortality: A Scientific Reality?"
www.viewzone.com...

Any thoughts or additional information would be appreciated.

regards
seekerof

I don't believe so.
It's possible that we may live a lot longer in the future with the help of technology.

But in the end? Death comes to us all.
You have no choice. You have to accept that fact.

Entropy - The law the entire universe exists on, nothing can last for ever.

Unless you are religious, however.

Think about it, who would seriously like to live forever? I hope that my life will have a definate end just like it had a definate start.

I agree with you that life should have a definite end.

But I also see Death as a starting point for something else.

You don't even need to be particularly religous to hold that view.

Originally posted by Leveller
I don't believe so.
It's possible that we may live a lot longer in the future with the help of technology.

But in the end? Death comes to us all.
You have no choice. You have to accept that fact.

Agreed Leveller. There are only two, maybe three, sure things to life.....birth, in most cases--death.......and the third......paying taxes.

Thx for response.

regards
seekerof

Leveller - I agree.

Perhaps it is, but I've never thought of my afterlife being bound to a strict religion - well I did before I saw christianity for what it was.

Maybe the mind lives on, but I've thought long and hard about eternity and it is quite a scary prospect I would like a point where I cease to exist.

[Edited on 30-6-2003 by MrEisenhower]

No way dude.

If eternity is partying with hot chicks you can count me out of your point of view.

*puts on Freddy Mercury moustache and sings*
"Who Wants to Live Forever?"

Originally posted by MrEisenhower
Entropy - The law the entire universe exists on, nothing can last for ever.

Unless you are religious, however.

Think about it, who would seriously like to live forever? I hope that my life will have a definate end just like it had a definate start.

Yep, the Law of Entrophy is a well known and founded theory. But in the sense that we are ultimately 'energy', would not that energy continue on, in some form, whether as vibrations, etc.? Even if energy deminishes, does it fully disappear?

regards
seekerof

[Edited on 30-6-2003 by Seekerof]

"If eternity is partying with hot chicks you can count me out of your point of view. "

Put like that where do I sign up?

Originally posted by MrEisenhower
"If eternity is partying with hot chicks you can count me out of your point of view. "

Put like that

where do I sign up?

*hands Mr Eisenhower a Freddy Mercury moustache*

You've already signed up dude!!!

id like to live for like 500 years, but not be old and frail, maybe stay in my 20's and 30's for like 400 years, that would be cool, living forever would just get to wierd, and i think suicide rates would increase dramaticlly, *puts on a zztop beard and joins leveller* woo party time, id have a moustache but it would just look like a porn directors convention

Yeah i'm w/ Seedy it'd be nice 2 live 4 an extra 5 or 6 hundred years but not forever, it'd get boring...

Immortality.
Why would one want to live forever?
Death is just the begining to a new adventure.
Our bodys cease to exist but our souls move on.
Deep

Totally Deep

Eternity would get boring
bummer

Well here we go..
If we were to become immortal, where would the resources go to sustain the world's population? We would have to introduce "poulation control" as well. Some countries already have this,and it is ghastly. We want to live forever, that's understandable. But we should draw a line where want does not become reality. It's like using all of your money to buy some trinket. We would have a small window of time where we could try to solve problems such as sustenance and space...and jobs. But eventually what we would have is a bunch of people killing themselves because they missed the old days.

I do not believe that we will/can ever achieve immortality in matter form. And I agree with everybody else that who would want to???

I would like to respond though about after death. And I will try to do this without incorporating any religious/spiritual beliefs. (I said I'd TRY...ok )

Okay, so we strip away any concepts of heaven, or spirit or anything like that. Let's look at ourselves as "ugly bags of mostly water" - and ENERGY. And then let's incorporate the statements made concerning entropy - lost energy. Basically, everything is winding down, right? EXCEPT, entropy, which is tending toward a maximum. So what if, when we're all gone this thing that has previously been named "spirit" is simply some type of energy that at death transforms to entropy?

I want to share a passage from a book, that I have always thought was a WONDERFUL concept, one of those that when you read it, it makes you smile and go...wow! that's a neat thought!

Written by Dr. Charles Pellegrino (whose research on DNA was used conceptually in Jurassic Park). This passage comes from "Return to Sodom and Gomorrah" in which he discussed some of his archaeological research in the middle east.

"How is it that certain nerve fibers arranged in certain ways allow us to think? A lot of matter from diverse places...was assembled, not very long ago, into the first diploid cell of the yet-to-be-born, from which unfurled genetic blueprints for a gridwork of brain cells. And although the electrons coursing through the neural grid are the basis of every thought we have, they somehow produce a mind that, as it asks questions and designs computeres to help answer them, feels quite separate from the cells themselves. The electrons are working in our best interest, supposedly. But when I imagine what I would look like if all the organic molecules in my body could be made invisible, so that I could look in a mirror and see only the paths of freely moving electrons, I know that the outline of my entire body would be there in every detail, brightest at the brain and spine; even the nerves in my fingertips and eyelids would show up as streams of electrons. ...the electrons, being among the very first particles to come out of the Big Bang, waited more than twelve billion years for planets like Earth to form and then to sprout life, waited for moments such as this. Perhaps it is really the electrons who are thinking these words. Perhaps our bodies are little more than vessels serving their interests, and as we set forth to design increasingly advanced artificial brains, it is possible to believe that the sine qua non of our existence is to build larger, faster electron vessels, perhaps even to eventually clear the decks for them, as the dinosaurs once cleared the decks for us."

***

So maybe we are already immortal, if "we" turn out to be the energy that our "bags of mostly water" were created to carry around...what do you think?

well if your religous you only die in the physical sense but not spiritually just John 3:16

That's a compelling thought, Valhall. I'll have to think on the ramifications of such a possibility.

Methuselah would be pissed

Are humans destined for immortality? No.

Exercise, eat right, practice proper hygeine, day anyways.

But we are going to live alot longer, yay for that I guess.