The Immortality Imperative

10 responses to “The Immortality Imperative”

1. 

   jurvetson

   Oct 26, 2011 at 7:36 pm

   adjacent poster, with 1 and 2 reversed… and reformatted for the ex-consultants… =)

   

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2. 

   !MimosaMicheMichelle!

   Oct 26, 2011 at 10:36 pm

   Clearly, life no 2 sounds best to me but my list of fun projects is quite different. I will be 59 on Saturday and I know for sure that I need to see life as a series of wonderful projects of discovery and creativity with a good measure of fun. Immortality sounds good to me. I do not mind aging, I perpetually feel 20 anyway. Yes, life 2!

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3. 

   solerena

   Oct 26, 2011 at 10:58 pm

   Happy coming birthday, Michelle – i was thinking of sendng you a Russian card:):)
   Right – age should be 25+, all after 25 is a plus:D
   push towards immortality with push towards becoming space-faring civilization is the only natural progression in our development as a whole. These ideas were around the block for a while…. It is critical to understand that aging is nothing else but a form of illness, will and can be reprogrammed. Really biosphere is not perfect and we can and will overcome biological limitations, it is fun!

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4. 

   Happy Tinfoil Cat

   Oct 27, 2011 at 3:49 am

   Absolutely believe that aging, genetic problems, disease, etc. will be solved, but the pessimist in me expects it to happen soon after my death. If only we, on this planet, spent our energy and intelligence curing disease and raising the living standard overall, instead of using it to screw over and kill each other in the most efficient ways, we’d all be better off. We will get there after mankind grows up.

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5. 

   Pieces of Eye

   Oct 27, 2011 at 7:15 am

   Skydive from space is on my mortality list. And, no its not the last item.

   I modeled it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRu_HhqaAuA (The simulation is pretty boring though)

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6. 

   solerena

   Oct 27, 2011 at 4:52 pm

   [http://www.flickr.com/photos/57954070@N00] It seems like it is a major biological limitation which we need to reprogram somehow… male aggressiveness… for instance, my daughter was working recently in a team on a project (ironically) about world peace and while she was doing it for the rest of the team, the rest of the team (boys) were punching each other on a nose… kinda like this oligarch right here: http://www.buzzfeed.com/liveforfilms/russian-oligarch-sucker-pun...

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7. 

   TrombaMarina

   Oct 28, 2011 at 6:41 pm

   I still think we’ll work out how to freeze people some day. They might have to surgically implant some tubing so they can cool or warm you from the inside out and outside in at the same time. That might be a precursor to long-term space travel. I bet the human body could stand many more G’s as a block of ice, allowing a relatively small number of explosions to propel you a long distance, slow you down once you get there. Then they could thaw you out so you could walk around. Of course, if it worked, everyone you knew on Earth would be dead already because of the time distortion near the speed of light. But I digress.

   Without solving the problems of alzheimers/dimensia, cancer, arthritis, etc… I just can’t get excited about being (and feeling) terribly old for decades. It’s sad when someone dies young, but when you see enough people that are really old… I can only speak for myself. I’ve seen long life get really ugly. There’s a time to die.

   Now, if we are talking about making people healthier so they prolong youth or middle age, that’s significantly more appealing. It’s a fun poster. Looks like a very long stretch goal to me.

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8. 

   jurvetson

   Oct 31, 2011 at 5:13 pm

   Todd has been working on the cyro protocols and has frozen many heads

   

   For interstellar space travel, I suspect we will want to send code for a synthetic biology instantiation on the receiving world, with a bit of local optimization for the environment. Code can be timeless and rad hard. But would it be "us"?

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9. 

   solerena

   Oct 31, 2011 at 5:55 pm

   [http://www.flickr.com/photos/66353259@N00] mostly it is fighting decease but also reprogramming the gene of aging itself… there were already all sorts of experiments done on mice and rats – doubled their life (i heard at one of the talks at singularity university last year), so there is probably more. There are multiple labs around the globe working on this research… China i bet is working too and since they do not care about civil rights and law, steal intellectual property and can experiment on people… spooky but this is where evil prevails in a short term (rather painful stage in our development). I am a firm believer of good wins in a long term over evil regardless – being optimist.

   It is not even science fiction anymore but science.

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10. 

    solerena

    Nov 2, 2011 at 2:47 am

    one more – Aubrey_de_Grey TED talk http://www.ted.com/talks/aubrey_de_grey_says_we_can_avoid_aging….
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey_de_Grey

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