Imortality or an (impractality) !!!!!

hi im new to these forums and im rather impressed with awl the information thats being depicted sum true and false but thats another post


My ???? is does any 1 no information bout what scientists are up to in this field as i have come across a piece of info i cant reminise where but i'll look again but that some scientists have come up with the idea about cell devision and how too control it,this may be inacurate but a ruff goings on of what im trying to put across, but i heard that say each sell can repair itself 8 times before shutting itself down therefore dieing which is pre programmed into our genes ,they have managed with a type of worm for its cells to divide and repair themselves 256 before turning off and dieing times instead of the 8 which im not intirealy sure about so increased its life span by so much percent ,as i beleive everything is apart of a puzzle that needs to be pieced together id like to no if any 1 has any infomation and mybe clear up what ive mybe exagerated and misinterparted


and just for thought i saw sum posts bout cancer mybe they have a cure mybe they dont but cancer i beleive is cells that dont stop dividing and keep growing but could any of this be linked

i no this might not be the case but id like as much info any 1 can provide about this

Hope you enjoy your stay at ATS.

I had heard something like this a few years back, only it was with fruit flys. They normally lived only two weeks and if I remember right, at the time of this report, they had been alive for six months. I've always wondered what the implications for mankind would be if we ever discovered a way to lengthen our life. I personally would not want to live for ever, but 500 years or so would be nice

I actually think that Immortality is impossible. It is because, when you come to think of it in quite a cynical fashion, death is actually perfect. That is, if you believe Darwin's evolution theory. Biologically, death is used to ensure species preservation through genetic evolution. If it weren't for death, we would have never been humasn in the first place, if it weren't for death, we would all be monocellular crits in some big slimey goop. But that's really another story. I think that immortality is biologically impossible because even if you manage to stop body cells (which regenerate over time) sto regenerating (sounds horrible I know) there still wouldn't be any possible way of preserving neurons. Neurons are the only cells that do not regenerate over time, and well, though it's nearly a paradox, you had more neurons the day you were born than you have now. After the 20th year of your life, it is extimated that you will be losing 10.000 neurons a day. So, even if you did manage to stop body cells stopping their reproduction, you couldn't do it with the brain. And that basically means that you will be reduced to a vegetative coma and would have absolutely no control over your body. Ain't really that nice :S

Thats a very gd piont uve made 1 i had not thought of and it does seem ur correct and braincells cant regenerate but could stem cells be used to repair brain tissue cos there figuring out that this can cure almost any degenerate tissue but knowing how to use it correctly is another things what any 1's opinion on this

you are right about the cancer research they did find that a specific genome instruction told the cancer cells to infinitly divide. they have toyed with the idea of applying it to good cells, but are wary as to what the exact affect on the body would be. Potentially your skin cells could become a foot think, or your organs would continue to grow or your bone mass would continue to grow or you could simply turn into a giant blob as everyone of your cells could begin to replicate the same cell function, thereby not regrowing skin cells, but lets say muscle tissue, so your hair would stop growing and instead would produce muscle tissue and your lung tissue would not be able to exchange oxygen into the blood stream, so while your cells may keep dividing you as a person may be dead, and then when you stopped exchanging oxygen and your heart stopped pumping blood then your cells would stop dividing as well.

if you could localize the cell division process to say only let your skin cells keep dividing under the same conditions then your skin would retain its thickness and density regardless of how old your body was, you would still look young, still look 20 or 30 years old, whenever you started the "treatment" but underneath you would be a frail old person. Same thing for any part of your body, good mind but fragile body, or good eyes but bad lungs etc

What if one of the treatments interacting with another one and suddenly your skin turned into brain cells, then what ? What would you look like, how fragile would you be ? how exposed to infection or disease from direct exposure to the sun would you be ?

too many variable to make messing with cell replication a very dangerous ambition

Just like winning WWII and building the superhighway system and universal education and next: defeating death....then....(maybe if we have time)conquering the universe. All in a days work for America.

Bode

oh there is a cure for cancer, they just dont tell you about it is all... . dfh out.

If they cured every disease, we would only live to be 120 years old. The 7 deadlies is what kills us in the end, and if we conquer all disease these Seven Deadly Things will still kill us.

Bode

Imortality I do beleive is never an impossibility?

for example,
the human liver has the ability to regenerate itself (infact you only need part of a liver during a transplant and the liver will develop fully into the size of the body...

Regenerative liver

the fact that we die of old age or even age at all is due to the fact that the cells deteriorate.. therefore, with the use of gene therapy, I beleive that it would not be imprbable to manipulate the quality that the liver holds with the other organs (including skin which is the largest organ...TRUE!) and therefore put off the aging process..

or does that sound far fetched...?


"YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO EAT IT YOU CRETTIN!!!"




[edit on 19/9/04 by Klepto]

Klepto,

They are working on growing livers from stem cells and I heard of an artificial liver breakthrough just recently, but unless they conquer the Seven Deadly Things we are doomed to die.

Bode



[edit on 9/19/2004 by bodebliss]

Originally posted by k33l
I actually think that Immortality is impossible. It is because, when you come to think of it in quite a cynical fashion, death is actually perfect. That is, if you believe Darwin's evolution theory. Biologically, death is used to ensure species preservation through genetic evolution. If it weren't for death, we would have never been humasn in the first place, if it weren't for death, we would all be monocellular crits in some big slimey goop. But that's really another story. I think that immortality is biologically impossible because even if you manage to stop body cells (which regenerate over time) sto regenerating (sounds horrible I know) there still wouldn't be any possible way of preserving neurons. Neurons are the only cells that do not regenerate over time, and well, though it's nearly a paradox, you had more neurons the day you were born than you have now. After the 20th year of your life, it is extimated that you will be losing 10.000 neurons a day. So, even if you did manage to stop body cells stopping their reproduction, you couldn't do it with the brain. And that basically means that you will be reduced to a vegetative coma and would have absolutely no control over your body. Ain't really that nice :S

Interesting point you bring up here actaully about the whole neuron thing. If this is the case though, it will mearly push science to find a way of preserving the mind. Be it through biological means or via a technological means.

This whole topic was something that I actually was theorising about the other day, the idea which I cam up with was with some form of nano technology or reprogramming systems for the cells. Still only ideas.

Only one cause of death...dead brain cells.

You get stabbed/shot, blood and oxygen doesn't get to the brain, brain dies, you die, etc. Same with every other "cause" of death.

You keep enough brain cells alive, or enable them to divide other than during gestation, etc. and you've got an immortal (in theory). Of course, if you want to be a "fit" immortal, you've got to be able to regenerate your other cells too, so that they can keep pumping blood to the brain.

racos:
This whole topic was something that I actually was theorising about the other day, the idea which I cam up with was with some form of nano technology or reprogramming systems for the cells. Still only ideas.

These people have thought about it and are thinking about it daily.
Immortality.org
Longevity Meme
Biomedical.com
FuturePundit
BetterHumans.com
Kurzweil AI.Net
Extropy.org


On The Nano side:
Nano Apex
Nano-Now
Foresight.org
Picotechnology

On Science:
Physcical News Update
ScienceDaily

Bookmark These

Hope this helps.

Bode Bliss

PS:This is from my original post which no one has seemed to have read.
Seven Deadly Things

If they cured all disease we would only live 120 years. Unless they fix the 7 deadlies we are doomed to Die . The human body has the ability to grow new neural connects.Only it loses this ability as we age.








[edit on 9/23/2004 by bodebliss]

immortality is impossible because, eventually, something will kill you. maybe not cancer or a gun, but a rock. a big rock, from space. or fire. a big fire, from space.

longevity is very possible, it has limits (thank god). people look into it, as shown above, but what happens when we can all live to 120 easily? itll really change the entire way the world works. for one thing, itll further widen the gap between rich and poor, as the rich can afford it and the poor wont be able to.

Hmm you have a good point there. I guess immortality is something that if possible might be more of a curse than a blessing. What is that quote ?
"God envy's mans mortality".

im not 100 percent sure on this 1 but if humans live forever i think sum 1 brought it up but where and when would evolution take place, death is a wae of evolving and passing on 1s gene's and moving forward, being imortal would stop evolution, because tecnicaly u could meet ur great great great great great great great great grandkids and this would go on until the end of the universe , so wheres the imortality, u can see the end of the universe but not surpass it

ive long wished for an abnormally long life. i used to say immortal life, eternal youth, but i quickly realized this was naive. (time frame here: 12 yrs old) now, i say 500-1000 is a good time for me. this is another matter why, but in short i wanna see what happens. youth and health is very important there, cuz i dont wanna be the size of a bloody ant.

anyway, yeah. anyones whos watched their fair share of vampire movies knows that one eventually gets bored of living for ever, and commits suicide by draining a corpse. really, immortality wont exactly exist, so we can wish for a medical version. you can always just slit your own throat and die.

death will come. its simply a matter of when and by whose hand

I think scientists once calculated the maximum lifespan of a human, and it was 175 or so. This was the age when the law of averages would almost guarantee that you be killed through some sort of trauma(car accident, falling off a ladder, etc). Even if you lived in a sterilized bunker, something would kill you eventually

Originally posted by apw100
Even if you lived in a sterilized bunker, something would kill you eventually

boredom
Are people that afraid of death that they seek the way to live forever?
I for one belive it is just a matter of time before it is possible.But at what cost?
How long would one want to live?Think of all those years you would have to pay taxes

All silliness aside,I would not mind it for the fact that I dont want to miss out on anything.I would like to see what is ahead.What we accomplish.Will the earth die?Will we find another planet to live on?
Im not afraid of death.Im more afraid of what I am missing out on.