Immortality.

Ever been in a car crash or the like,and time has seemed to slow down?That's our brain accelerating it's processing to give us "more" time to react and hopefully survive the incident.Is this the way to achieve immortality?

Or will we upload onto something like the web before we can master such a technique?

Science could provide us with a partial immortality,though accidents,murders etc would still be lethal to an entity that requires a body.

Which way should we(will we) head?And could a virtual reality existence ever replace "real" life?

Well, the only problem with this is that it exacts a toll on the human body. Blood pressure, adrenaline, heart rate are all significantly increased to achieve this slow mo effect.

True,though we're only using it on a base,untrained level.If we put our minds to it,so to speak,I think we could use this ability much more than we do.Imagine having it on tap whenever you wanted.

I think everyone from great sportsmen to great statesmen use it.

I believe the idea of immortality is not crazy. If not immortality (living forever), then perhaps an extended life of several hundred of several thousand years. I think first you have to examine “what is aging and why do we age.” Here is an article from wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org...

Is aging an evolutionary process? Is aging a disease? We can see that aging appears to be a deterioration of the body over time. It is a biological change.

This is why I believe that the human mind could possibly play a role in extending life as we know it. The placebo effect is the measurable, observable, or felt improvement in health not attributable to treatment. The placebo has no real effect other than giving the patient the idea or belief that they are taking something that will cure their illness and this does work in extraordinary cases, including patients with cancers. The mind has done “something amazing” so that the bodies own abilities take over the fix the problem without any help from drugs or medical procedures. If aging cells can be repaired or if aging can be treated as a disease it should be possible for the human mind to “cure” the aging disease. Of course this is really a stretch but it's a start.

Actually this is not so far fetched as some might think.

When we started out on our journey to extend our lives and improve ourselves one thing became very clear.

Ageing is not uniform across the animal kingdom. There are many instances of life forms that live far in advance of their size or likely life expectancy.

Though aging is caused by many factors, they all have a common theme.. Cellular degradation. I personally believe that the biological aspects of cellular degradation can be solved, but I don't think that is what the OP was getting at.

A computer's computational speed is derived by the number of of cycles per second it can reach. The more cycles the more calculations it can do within a given time frame.

If we were able to some how augment our brains to operate at a higher rate in cycles per second, then time would indeed appear to slow down.

However, I can't see this as being a way to perfect immortality... I think this would be a short burst process and not one that could be simply left on.

I believe that in the not too distant future this kind of brain implant will be all the rage for sports people, military applications and possibly musicians.

But I give you a BIG For some intelligent thought... You wouldn't believe how many people out there just don't understand how our brain measures the passing of time.

All the best,

NeoN HaZe.

[edit on 23-2-2007 by Neon Haze]

Originally posted by Neon Haze

Though aging is caused by many factors, they all have a common theme.. Cellular degradation. I personally believe that the biological aspects of cellular degradation can be solved, but I don't think that is what the OP was getting at.

Cellular degradation can be solved(let me find a passage from a fav book)but I'd like to know which way folks >think< we will go.Will we train our mind,or will we be uploaded before the last biological lifeform can continue the research?Is it inevitable that we become the Borg?

Given the choice of brain death or uploading,which will we take?How long have we got before that option becomes available..2k years max?Can we learn to master our minds in that time frame?

Originally posted by zerotime
I believe the idea of immortality is not crazy. If not immortality (living forever), then perhaps an extended life of several hundred of several thousand years.

I think it's something we'll achieve in several forms.Which will be the most satisfying?I don't know but I hope they come back and get me,like Fry in the cryo chamber.3000 pyrotechnics will look cool