Quote: Original post by trzy
Those who fear the consequences of immortality are free to drop dead and let the rest of us experiment with it.

I agree, it is all speculation since no one already lives forever, if we manage to stay young indefinitely, I am pretty sure that would mean no old age afflictions, since it implies no entropy or at least no irreversible entropy.

I pity those with a "man was never meant to live forever mentality", life itself is a fight against entropy, nothing wrong with giving evolution a push in the direction we want, we did it already when we domesticated animals and plants.

Quote: Original post by Talroth

Quote: Original post by Moe
Besides, who is to say that we wouldn't go mental after too long anyway...

Can we safely claim to not be mental already?

[grin]

Quote: Original post by ChurchSkiz
Get ready for the next health food buzz word.

"Eat more eggs! They produce extra telemeres!"
"Don't drink milk! It stifles telemere production."

In 50 years when we are doing genetic engineering regularly, they will isolate the enzyme producing gene and everyone will be altered to age slower. How about dogs that are bred to live 40 years (in people years).

So true. The telemeres of tomorrow are the antioxidants of today?

If I ever get a dog like that, I'm so naming it 'Methuselah'.

Quote: In 50 years when we are doing genetic engineering regularly, they will isolate the enzyme producing gene and everyone will be altered to age slower. How about dogs that are bred to live 40 years (in people years).

What about engineering a virus of some sort that adds telomeres to target cells, and releasing it in the body via some sort of "potion" or "elixir"? I would think it would be more profitable to keep it as an "Elixir of Life" than make it permanent.

Quote: Original post by Kwizatz

Quote: Original post by trzy
Those who fear the consequences of immortality are free to drop dead and let the rest of us experiment with it.

I agree, it is all speculation since no one already lives forever, if we manage to stay young indefinitely, I am pretty sure that would mean no old age afflictions, since it implies no entropy or at least no irreversible entropy.

I pity those with a "man was never meant to live forever mentality", life itself is a fight against entropy, nothing wrong with giving evolution a push in the direction we want, we did it already when we domesticated animals and plants.

Couldn't agree more.

Of course, I doubt this is likely to happen any time soon. I didn't read the article since I've read similar ones before, but if it's anything like I've read before, it's pretty speculative how it works, and changing it is about as easy as saying, "If I had a flux capacitor, I could time travel!" So, how do you get a flux capacitor?

Actually, I doubt it's that hard to modify, but I bet there'd be side effects. I believe I've read that these sorts of changes might promote cancer, or something nasty like that.

Another thing to keep in mind is non age related deaths. You could still be offed by a car accident, or cancer. So, we still couldn't live forever.

If we did manage to prevent aging in any significant portion of society though, there would be problems. People wouldn't be able to retire in their 60s, for instance, if they lived to be 500 or more. Population levels would explode after a century or so... see where I'm going with this? We can probably find solutions to all of this, eventually, but it's not going to be trivial to do, and there's going to be a lot of different opinions on how we should handle it.

I don't see any evidence at all that people will actually be able to live "forever" from this or any other medical advancement. I'm not saying it's impossible, just that I don't see it as a great likelihood, even hundreds of years into the future.

Quote: Original post by cowsarenotevil
I don't see any evidence at all that people will actually be able to live "forever" from this or any other medical advancement. I'm not saying it's impossible, just that I don't see it as a great likelihood, even hundreds of years into the future.

Then again, it sometimes just takes a coincidence or two, and the right people at the right time who realize how to exploit it. Just look at antibiotics, for example. No one would have ever dreamed of that stuff before, and it did actually change the world.

I don't think we will be able to modifiy an adult creature's DNA to make it live longer/forever in this century. But I do believe that if scientist happen to recognize the DNA encoding for aging they could be able to fertilize/clone one with it's DNA modified to that end.

I mean, a fly with wings on it's head it's almost like a fly that don't age.

I think the key is to find a way to make the tissues that can't be regenerated (like neurons, all kind of them) to do so... like...

{brainstorming}

... A pregnant cell: That'd be a cell that contains a latent cell of it's same kind inside itself and that at the moment of it's death the cell within takes the place of the dead one.

{/brainstorming}

If I could live forever(immune to old age and disease) I think I'd be too afraid of dying to do anything. I think my mortality is what fuels me to do cool things.

speaking of which, making an insect of any kind that doesn't age sounds like the worst idea ever. seriously

Umm guys, Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider, and Jack W. Szostak discovered telomerase in 1985 and were awarded for this research in 2009. We've known about it for 24 years. But don't take my word for it! [smile]