Biological Immortality - When Will We See It?

[THeSLuSH]

logan the god of candy

try being immortal and impervious to all forces in the universe... never die no matter what. earth eventually gets swallowed by the sun but you alone live to float endlessly in a void. sounds exciting.

What makes you think that if we had the ability to induce biological immortality in an individual that we would not also be able to reverse it?

[logan the god of candy]

THeSLuSH

logan the god of candy

try being immortal and impervious to all forces in the universe... never die no matter what. earth eventually gets swallowed by the sun but you alone live to float endlessly in a void. sounds exciting.

What makes you think that if we had the ability to induce biological immortality in an individual that we would not also be able to reverse it?

immortal and impervious to all harm... harm is a point of view. it's simply change. if you can't be affected by anything, how could you reverse it?

[THeSLuSH]

logan the god of candy

THeSLuSH

logan the god of candy

try being immortal and impervious to all forces in the universe... never die no matter what. earth eventually gets swallowed by the sun but you alone live to float endlessly in a void. sounds exciting.

What makes you think that if we had the ability to induce biological immortality in an individual that we would not also be able to reverse it?

immortal and impervious to all harm... harm is a point of view. it's simply change. if you can't be affected by anything, how could you reverse it?

So what happens if you severe the head from the body? Do zombie rules apply? Does the body regrow a new head? Or do you no longer require a head? There must be a kill switch somewhere, at least that is how I see it. So I guess I do not believe in a true biological immortality xP

[logan the god of candy]

THeSLuSH

logan the god of candy

THeSLuSH

logan the god of candy

try being immortal and impervious to all forces in the universe... never die no matter what. earth eventually gets swallowed by the sun but you alone live to float endlessly in a void. sounds exciting.

What makes you think that if we had the ability to induce biological immortality in an individual that we would not also be able to reverse it?

immortal and impervious to all harm... harm is a point of view. it's simply change. if you can't be affected by anything, how could you reverse it?

So what happens if you severe the head from the body? Do zombie rules apply? Does the body regrow a new head? Or do you no longer require a head? There must be a kill switch somewhere, at least that is how I see it. So I guess I do not believe in a true biological immortality xP

your flesh cannot be cut. your bones cannot break, your tendons cannot tear.

[Unicern]

Why would you want that? Immortality seems quite horrible to me.

[[x] Bob-IT [x]]

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned already, but I'll say it anyways.

We are working on a cure - not necessarily for death, more so for aging. Which is the leading cause of death (lol).

Aging is a byproduct of the process of cell division. Each time a cell divides, it replicates DNA, and every time DNA is replicated it's quality is reduced, that decline in quality is a huge part of aging, it leads to a breakdown of your body's functions, and makes you vulnerable to a lot more threats.

Telomeres exist at the bottom of chromosomes (read the wiki for a more in depth description), the shortening of these telomeres helps lead to this breakdown. Naturally, humans have Telomerase, which helps buffer and prevent further breakdown. However, in humans, it's efficiency is rather... lacking.

Cancer, on the other hand, has such efficient telomerase that it makes the cells essentially immortal. Which is part of the reason why cancer is such a d**k-a** to cure.

There was a study done on lab rats (unfortunately I don't have the study handy at the moment, so I'll have to do a little digging to find it) that suggested lengthening telomerase and even using the kind found in cancer essentially stopped the aging process, and even reversed some symptoms of again in the rats.


Pretty much we're on the verge of finding a method to not only stop the aging process, but even reverse certain symptoms, which isn't a very large step away from practical biological immortality.

[TotchiSnagglepuss5]

endthedisease

do you think we will see it in our lifetime?

do you think it will ever be possible?

I think it would suck. We are constantly evolving and we'd be a freak of nature.

[Silberne]

I think it is very possible if you look at Moores law. We are nearing the point of exponential growth. I think that it is possible in our lifetimes to achieve immortality. I am not intirely sure that Biological immortality is possible considering that there is a good deal about the human body that we do not know the functions of and if we were to remove them very well may kill us. Personally I think the idea of immortality will likely come from nanobots that are self replicating and have the same properties initally as stemcells so that they can perfectly replicate the function of any cells withing the body rather than fixing the body chemically. Nature is nature and in that rule everything must die eventually however I see a great number of problems coming from the idea of "natural" changes in the chemicals rahter than a mechanical replacement.

The idea is sound but the implimentation likely isnt quite there yet.

[Shin16]

About tellomerase, that would explain why certain species live longer than humans, wouldn't it? Is it all decided by that, all that simple?

AMortalCoil

Why would you want that? Immortality seems quite horrible to me.

In a best case scenario you would be able to cease to exist whenever you wished, whenever you were ready. Only then, and (hopefully) only up to you. But it would probably never work like that.

[Jeronus]

I think it WOULD be possible but I think the rapture will occur before it is. And I hope that it never does.

[[x] Bob-IT [x]]

Shin16

About tellomerase, that would explain why certain species live longer than humans, wouldn't it? Is it all decided by that, all that simple?

Well, not quite. I mean there are still DOZENS and DOZENS of other reason why we die biologically. Telomeres and Telomerase have a lot to do with longevity. We don't even know how much the extent of out life can be expanded by lengthening telomeres, for all we know it could lead to future mutation and backfires.

I suppose only time will tell.