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Is immortality will ever possible? (Just like in the movie Mr. Nobody)


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I just started watching this movie, just peeked on it and it look interesting, i think i watch whole movie.

But it is not about the movie, in this movie people attain immortality by telomerization and rejuvenation of cells, I wonder if it ever will be possible?

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We currently have no idea how someones mindset will change if he is 120+.Will they continue to be a quiet elderly figure?or will they suffer a rejuvenation in attitude?

Also will the immortality plan take care of preserving full bodily function and aesthetics,will they be look and act like 20 somethings or will they be wrinkled cadavers grounded to a wheel chair?

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If we don't find a way to leave Earth and colonize other planets immortality will be a bad idea i guess. It will inevitably result in people killing each other because of missing living space, resources and other things.

So while it might be achievable from a science perspective it is not (yet) for other reasons.

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I suspect that within the next few hundred years humans will become effectively immortal. However a Tommygun pointed out at some point something will get you.

Yes, think its a 1/1000 chance of dying of something else than disease every year if you are 30-40 year old, younger people are involved in more accidents and violence.

It might be pretty simple to expand living age some, harder then you get past 150 year, it might take enough changes to make you an new species,

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I don't think the attitude of older people will revert to the juvenile, purely because they would then have a changed perspective on quite how much life they could live if they're careful.

But the older people also wont have to worry about their own death all the time. Knowing that you are 2/3th through your life already hugely affects how you view the world. I can imagine that immortal people will be a lot more carefree and optimistic at the age of 50. They won't be bitter about not getting that degree, or worry about their pension. If they want to do those things they have all the time in the world.

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Humanity has achieved immortality in this book series. The problems arising thereof are sometimes hinted at, sometimes they are the basis for the plot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Queendom_of_Sol

One never dying generation and the next generation that cannot inherit any positions anywhere, because they never get vacant. Even though poverty is eliminated, life is not all hugs and puppies for everyone, if you cannot advance in society.

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one of the problems to 'achieve' immortality, is the senescense of cells.

basically, in humans, your cells undergo cellular division during all of your life in order to replace dying cells. - however, each division shortens a bit the DNA contained in the cell. once the DNA becomes too short, the cell can't be replaced anymore (and that's not counting all damage cells can get from toxins, radiations, etc we get from all of our lives - and even just plain oxydation :P (yes, oxygen is also part in what makes us age and kill us in the end :P).

now, researchers are trying out on lab rats anti senescense techniques - basically, they artifically damaged their cells to create an artificial senescense in the rodent - and managed to cure the effects (the seemingly old rodent were actually rejuvenated when the damage was repaired) - however, it's going to be a very long way to transpose those techniques to humans :P (so we might see immortal lab rats long before we see immortal humans :P (will they call the immortal rodent Mr Jingle ? :P)

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If we don't find a way to leave Earth and colonize other planets immortality will be a bad idea i guess. It will inevitably result in people killing each other because of missing living space, resources and other things.

So while it might be achievable from a science perspective it is not (yet) for other reasons.

Also thought about it, we should first focus on the colonization of other planets, then we can think about extending the life / immortality if we do it in a different order over at the overpopulation of the earth, which is overpopulated anyway even today.

The second thing is we have the right to play God?

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I believe immortality will likely come hand-in-hand with technologies such as genetical engineering but with consequences, such as the heavy decline of childbirth rates and all that. Will immortality be achieved this century? Yes, probably. I also believe that before then, anti-aging technologies will already long-since been in the mainstream and hyper-accurate comestic "editing" technologies will long-since have been popular (Allowing anyone to become or look like anything they want, if it is in reasonable limits; sorry, no humans with tails or things like that). Genetical engineering for humans will be slower, but will first be exploited by the militaries of large nations such as the United States (Hey, who else wants a soldier who can stay underwater for 20 minutes, run twice as fast as the average human, be stronger, taller, and able to operate heavier weapons? Goodbye human limits! Here we come!). Considering that childbirth rates are already hitting record lows in the developed nations of the world, this wouldn't be as disastorous as many think (Provided that these rates keep falling; likely, due to the increased use of abortion, condoms, and other....things). Oh, and immortality probably isn't going to save you from being shot at or getting hit by a car or something like that.

Ethically, we have every right to play "god". Our species, our rules.

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5: Stagnant from an evolutionary PoV.

This only applies if you are the only human who becomes immortal and nobody invents drastic gene therapy, mind uploading or robotic enhancements over the following millions of years. Not a problem if we invent it via medicine.

4: Nobody can find out.

Again, only applies if you're the only immortal. If its a drug available from your local supermarket nobody will care that you're immortal since everyone is.

3: Your mind wont be able to cope due to memory overload.

[citation needed]. Nobody has ever been older than 120ish so there's no way to know what being this old does to your brain. Human brains don't work like computers and you won't get an Out of Memory error when you hit 150. Most likely you'll just start to slowly forget your past to make room for more recent memories. This happens already, I can barely remember anything from elementary school. It also assumes that no external memory is ever invented, something that sounds unlikely if several centuries of humanity suffer from it.

2: Time seems to flow faster.

"Hey, yesterday I found no money on the sidewalk. Today I found 2 dollar! Extrapolating that result, I should find about 1k dollar a day in just a year and can therefore quit my job!". Extrapolating data like that is just silly.

1: You'll get stuck until the end of time at some point.

That assumes you're immortal as in: Cannot ever die. If you're just someone who doesn't age you'll die pretty quickly in those situations.

I see no reason why any of these points hold water in the hypothetical case we're discussing. Bring on the biological immortality please.

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I would like eternal youth (assuming that is what people are really talking about, not the "survive being shot by a tanks main cannon, then nuked, then dropped in a vat of acid, and come out just fine like you were wolverine), but I doubt it can be done as a one time "cure", it would likely require constant upkeep to prevent cancer and rejuvenate damaged areas.

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But the older people also wont have to worry about their own death all the time. Knowing that you are 2/3th through your life already hugely affects how you view the world. I can imagine that immortal people will be a lot more carefree and optimistic at the age of 50. They won't be bitter about not getting that degree, or worry about their pension. If they want to do those things they have all the time in the world.

This, old people today are also very different from old people then I was a kid simply as they grew up in a different world.

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I would like eternal youth (assuming that is what people are really talking about, not the "survive being shot by a tanks main cannon, then nuked, then dropped in a vat of acid, and come out just fine like you were wolverine), but I doubt it can be done as a one time "cure", it would likely require constant upkeep to prevent cancer and rejuvenate damaged areas.

Yes you are likely to require constant upkeep, doing everything in the body would require so much changes that you would be an new species.

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