The world's only immortal animal

Originally posted by Ha`la`tha

Originally posted by drew hempel


Even if he was 250 years old, he DIED... thats not immortal.

Pretty sure no human can live forever. Yeah pretty sure.

I don't think living forever would be much fun though....after a couple of centuries you're bound to get bored. However even extending our lifespan and keeping me young for a few centuries at say the age I am right now ...(24) would be pretty impressive.

reply to post by Romantic_Rebel

its getting so hard to blow my mind that when it actually does happen im blown away. THAT IS AWESOME.

i wonder if they maintain their original memories. or if they start with brand new memories.

Originally posted by Danbones
The wonders never cease...
To live forever, one must have a place to live forever.
I hope these Jellyfish live far far from the gulf of Mexico.

.
Well if they are taking over the ocean maybe we can find a way for me to run my truck on them instead of oil.

Think they would burn if we turn em to juice?

Originally posted by OrphenFire
Don't have time to read every reply, so I don't know if someone has stated this yet, but it is theorized that Hydras are also immortal, however this jellyfish is still unique as it is the only animal able to trans-differentiate, and also the first to be scientifically proven 100% immortal. It should be pointed out that this immortality function in these animals is purely "biological immortality". That is, they can still be killed. It is a very interesting subject...

I do think that this jellyfish is the largest and most complex creature we know of that is capable of biological immortality. If they discover the exact reason why, there will be nothing stopping scientists from replicating the feature in humans. Unfortunately, we will never, ever know about it if they do. No man would want to be identified publicly as immortal. And the only men capable of obtaining immortality, if it were to be discovered, would be the elite of the world (aka just the scumbags that we don't want to live forever). Honestly, I don't think humans deserve immortality at all. Not at this stage in our evolution. Give us another million years, maybe we will have matured enough to deserve the power of eternal life.

Jellyfish are still invertebrates and their biology is radically different from ours...it is in fact so different that you could consider them akin to comparing human biology to that of an alien. So mimicing any of their biological functions in humans is nearly impossible. BEsides if you reset your biological clock then you would lose all memory of your former existence.

However you know I have been thinking on this subject like you have. If physical immortality were ever discovered then such knowledge would be known to a esoteric few and never ever be given to out to the public ....so yea only high up douchebags in the government would get to live forever.


[edit on 1-7-2010 by Leonardo01]

Originally posted by dampnickers
As the last poster suggested, there will be lots of rich people investing in the research in this field.

It strikes me that the rich people that are going to invest in this, are rich, shallow, insecure, and definitely NOT the sort we want to have living forever.

Dolan you're a genius. I agree wholeheartedly. Imagine a world of oprah's, facebook clown, gate's, ugh. I believe that this is a rare gem of a thought. Don't ever think 'God' doesn't take note of such sentiments.

reply to post by starless and bible black


I've never understood the outright hatred for the wealthy. "Back in the day" - rich people were hated for having portable phones and pagers that were well outside the affordable expenses of the average house hold. Now, many of the poor wouldn't have communications if it weren't for cellular phones being as affordable as they are now. The whole system was paved with the investment of those damned greedy and luxury-buying wealthy people.

To me, there are several categories of people. "Upper Class" - intelligent, industrious and wealthy people that are upstanding members of society. "Middle Class" - lacking one of the "upper class" attributes - often lacking the finances of "wealthy" people, rather than lacking intelligent and upstanding characteristics. "Class-less" - these are not the "poor" - but are those with no self-respect, no intelligence, and essentially no value to society other than someone would be sad if they were to die.

You can have all the money in the world and still be low-wealth and without class. You can have absolutely no money or wealth, and still be without class.

Anyway - we are coming closer to the ability to extend the life of the human body indefinitely. Now - that may pose some problems... our brain has trouble remembering what happened over an 80 year lifespan... is that simply due to aging - or will our mind simply get too "cramped" after a certain time span? Of course - at the rate of technological expansion, it is likely we will be able to relieve the problems of a thousand years of memories through cybernetic technology well before we would begin running into limitations of our unaugmented neurology.

I find it highly likely that just about everyone posting on this forum today will have the opportunity to extend their life for a thousand years or more. We could begin human trials on activating telomerasse (which would aid both replicating and nonreplicating tissues) today, if it weren't for the bureaucracy of government being so heavily entwined with the development of medical technology. That would be able to prolong life considerably. Nonreplicating tissues would be more radically helped by advances in stem-cell research and the ability to revert various cells back to that state - and that's not too far off, either.

Easily within 20 years, we're looking at marketability.

It may be expensive, it may not.... however - you can be sure that payment plans will be offered for almost all income brackets, and a number of insurance companies would likely back such treatments - even if early procedures only minimally extend life while greatly extending quality - it's reducing the risk to health insurance companies, considerably. A world where a senior citizen has the skeletal system of a 25 year old and is free of things like macular degeneration and glaucoma is a much less expensive (for the medical industry) one.

Of course, it could be pretty freaky having great-grandparents that look the same age as your mother and father...

The biggest concern would come from those who opted into such treatments versus those who opted out. This would especially be true in the sense of religious and moral ideals that could create a new discriminatory rift in the population. This would especially be true in the employment world - a person who, for all intents and purposes, is not going to age has a considerable employment advantage over someone in their 30s and 40s - who will only continue to age. It also throws retirement plans into disarray - the standard reason for retirement revolves around how one physically degrades as they age, and hinges on the idea that, on the average, one will only live on most retirement plans (beginning at 65) for about ten years.

If I can, physically, have the body of a 20-25 year old while being 65 and drawing retirement... for another 120 years.... how does that system sustain itself?

What about companies that have retirement pensions? Would they simply set a term limit on how long retirement could be drawn? "You've worked here for 35 years, earned your retirement, and can only draw it for 35 years." ... That might work - but what about social security from government? How would they know if you are a "modified" person or not? Would they simply operate in the same manner as a business - you can only draw social security for so long?

A whole slew of problems, with no precedents in history, come about when the concept of near-immortality as a general characteristic of the population is tossed from fiction into plausibility. I have no doubt that "immortality in a pill" is, more or less, in our future and likely within our lifetimes (I'm 22 - so I have a little longer than someone who is twice my age - but I'd imagine that someone in their 60s is still likely to see this in their lifetime) - and I don't believe any of the problems mentioned will stop it, or that any power - spare the hand of God - would be able to stop such a medical breakthrough. The problems will be solved - or those that have a problem with it will end up collapsing (governments) or being destroyed (ideological extremists).

I think everyone would have a different reason for choosing to opt into such a treatment. Personally - I feel I have far more I can learn and contribute to the world than I can accomplish in one lifetime. If there is an opportunity to extend that lifetime in my own natural body - I'm quite likely to take it. Even if the procedure is permanent and irreversible - a bullet to the head will still be just as effective - I could choose the time of my passing, or - again - the hand of God could intervene. I don't see it as running from death - it will eventually find every being that can possibly die. A treatment that can prolong your natural life is little different, in my mind, than a plate of food. We don't say people are running from death when they eat a meal or protect themselves from the cold. They are merely doing what is within their power to stay alive - as any sane living thing does.

Not that I think any more or any less of people for their reasons for/against taking such a treatment. I want to see what this crazy conglomerate of monkeys comes up with over the next thousand years or so. I'm curious. I also enjoy tinkering and would love to be able to 'retire' with a small farm and various machine-tooling and electronic fabrication equipment. That, or I would love to captain-around an interstellar capable combat ship of my own design. Or both - when I get bored of one, do the other for a while.

Perhaps some rather excessively elaborate goals/expectations of my future self - but I don't intend to live a thousand years just to yell at kids for being on the lawn.

reply to post by Romantic_Rebel

that's really cool!

Actually immortality has been achieved by thousands of both plant and animal species that are one-celled and reproduce by splitting in half, at least according to the simple, traditional two-kingdom classification for living entities, namely, plants and animals. (Lynn Margulis has replaced it and has come up with a five-kingdom classification in which unicellular organisms are no longer plants or animals: Monera, Protista, Fungi, Plants & Animals.)

I came across the pertinent passage many years ago but it's still one of the most unexpected and delightful ones I've ever read. As a matter of fact it's one of the funniest, really.

This is what Greulach & Adams have to say about the numberless immortal creatures amongst us in Plants -- An Introduction To Modern Botany…

Fission

Bacteria and unicellular algae and fungi, as well as protozoa in the animal kingdom, generally reproduce by a process known as "fission". Fission is the simplest possible type of reproduction, consisting merely of cell division, the two cells produced by the division separating instead of remaining attached as do dividing cells in a multicellular plant or animal. Each cell resulting from fission is a new individual, the only growth being the enlargement of the new cells to the size of the parent cell. Since the parent cell now exists only as part of each of the offspring, all individuals produced by fission may be considered to be "orphans". On the other hand, since there is no such thing as old age or death from old age, organisms reproducing by fission may be considered to have a sort of immortality.

reply to post by Romantic_Rebel



I wonder if the regression is observed by onset of senility? Oh, maybe jellyfishes don't have a brain or consciousness. Well, blissful immortality, then.

Aim64c,

I plowed all the way through your essay and I think I'll give it a star, just because of all the effort that went into it, and because there's an uplifting comment about overripe people like myself having the chance to see the coming of the "immortality pill".

However, you see nothing but virtue in the rich, which is a false description even in the First World. In the First one, too, rulers tend to be insensitive, selfish and even wicked.

Moreover, you're mixing together two meanings of the term "class", namely, "social group" and "high quality", so that "classless" is supposed to mean, not "belonging to no social class", but "devoid of virtues" or something like that.

One can already imagine you being put in charge of a combat spaceship on your thousandth birthday and then going around laser-evaporating Kromaggs in a neighboring possible world where your possible self is a retiree that grows fruit trees and vegetables….

understanding that what the article talking about is just a jellyfish. it still makes me feel good, in the sense that people are actually thinking about this type of thing being a possibility. thank you for sharing

Originally posted by ucalien
reply to post by Romantic_Rebel

 

OMG, IT'S SOOOOOOOOOOO EXCITING... the idea of spend a ENDLESS lifetime as a hermaphrodite gelatinous creature...

You just described and thus, mocked, about half the ATS user population.