Partial cell reprogramming to cure aging

[overload1]

32 minutes ago, Dash Lambda said:

Nope, entropy is a thing.

Then again, given trillions and trillions of years (if humans persist that long), we might find a way to fix that too.

Maybe we do not need to fix entropy though? Sure we can't live "forever" at least with our current technology set

At the moment we live up to like 80 years without any major issues. If you told that to someone in 1800s they might call you crazy

So maybe by the time this takes off (if it does) there's another reason why we can't live longer than X years.. But before we reach the stage where entropy is really a big issue (imo) there would be a lot more other challenges along the way

[Dash Lambda]

7 minutes ago, overload1 said:

-snip-

There will absolutely be other challenges, but entropy is the one that'll kill us if nothing else can.

And if we do manage to 'cure' aging, the only real new natural limitation on our lifespans would be memory. Brains don't have a rated storage capacity, but we do know that only so much information can be represented by a certain amount of material. We have no idea what would happen to our minds past a couple centuries.

[Matu20]

6 hours ago, samcool55 said:

Well, imo it sounds funny that they "cure" aging.

Aging isn't a disease or something, it's just how things work.

 

I was literally about the write the same sentence, exact words

[overload1]

46 minutes ago, Dash Lambda said:

There will absolutely be other challenges, but entropy is the one that'll kill us if nothing else can.

And if we do manage to 'cure' aging, the only real new natural limitation on our lifespans would be memory. Brains don't have a rated storage capacity, but we do know that only so much information can be represented by a certain amount of material. We have no idea what would happen to our minds past a couple centuries.

Yeah, the brain capacity also got me thinking.. Stargate SG1 had an episode where the entire town community got plugged into some sort of supercomputer that would store all their knowledge and they could access it wirelessly through an accessory on their head. While that may be centuries away.. could be a potential solution.. or could also be a way in for AI to dominate the world and use us as its car battery

[Trik'Stari]

Oh please yes. Fuck death. Fuck death in the ass.

[ARikozuM]

5 hours ago, MoonSpot said:

So what happens when you go to sleep for the night?  Are you sure your soul doesn't get formatted and recompiled during REM sleep, and some fake version of you wakes up every morning in your body, and creepishly starts moving about "believing" that it is the real you.

If you were to die and a 2nd "copy" of you were to occupy that body, the 2nd would be the true copy as you've ceased to exist.

[DocSwag]

6 hours ago, divito said:

No way. I'm legitimately afraid of dying and ceasing to exist and not be able to think anymore. Might be an irrational thought, but it's a terrible feeling.

Ya.

 

I don't want to be forced to die.

 

I'll be happy to live until I'm so bored I actually want to die.

 

Or maybe into eternal hibernation. So I don't die but don't have to "live."

 

And then when I get outta hibernation everything might be interesting again!

[malon]

why would you want to ''cure aging'' in the first place, we are already living way longer than even 100 years ago(life extension and improved medicine) and making humans live even longer is only going to create more problems, both populationwise but more important resource and food wise, the earth isn't an ball of earth and water that can keep producing food abd fresh water for more living creatures that can survive for hundrets of years who might be able to ''breed'' for several generations each for ever, and as long that we have no other earthlike empty planet (that we as the human species that we are for sure going to conquere if we find one since we will never learn from history) where we can safely can dump a large part of the population who can live for hundrets of years there also isn't much use in way longer lives exept why not.

[suicidalfranco]

cause overpopulation isn't already an issue, the last thing we need is a population that doesn't die. Bright side it will probably be treatment reserved to the rich and powerful 

[overload1]

11 minutes ago, suicidalfranco said:

cause overpopulation isn't already an issue, the last thing we need is a population that doesn't die. Bright side it will probably be treatment reserved to the rich and powerful 

If it was for rich and powerful the poor, quite litterally having nothing to lose would riot and start civil wars n stuff

And then there's this:

 

[BuckGup]

5 hours ago, Arokhantos said:

 

You want to see the end of the universe do you ?

And then some

[ADM-Ntek]

so we would be like the elves from LOTR. however one thing that worries me is brain capacity. what happen your brain reaches capacity? this is already a problem for old people. 

[Kobathor]

11 minutes ago, ADM-Ntek said:

so we would be like the elves from LOTR. however one thing that worries me is brain capacity. what happen your brain reaches capacity? this is already a problem for old people. 

well, old people's problem isn't that their brain is full, but rather that their brain is deteriorating. That's why their memory, perception, fine motor skills, pretty much everything gets terrible.

[overload1]

11 hours ago, Kobathor said:

well, old people's problem isn't that their brain is full, but rather that their brain is deteriorating. That's why their memory, perception, fine motor skills, pretty much everything gets terrible.

 

11 hours ago, ADM-Ntek said:

so we would be like the elves from LOTR. however one thing that worries me is brain capacity. what happen your brain reaches capacity? this is already a problem for old people. 

 

I do wonder.. would this cell treatment stuff affect the brain too? I guess considering that they reverted mouse age just like that it should.

But then that raises another issue of "what if you forget things that you knew before the treatment"

Could backfire easily against individuals that can be manipulated without difficulty. Though I guess means of "re-remembering" could be thought of. Where there's a will there's a way

[deviant88]

On 12/24/2016 at 5:54 PM, DocSwag said:

So maybe I can live forever?

 

YA BOIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

Only if they find a way to also regenerate our current organs, they fix aging but usin our bodies still causes organs wearing out if we can find a way to constantly replace worn out cells inside organs we will live a golden age.

[Vode]

On 12/24/2016 at 11:53 PM, Dash Lambda said:

There will absolutely be other challenges, but entropy is the one that'll kill us if nothing else can.

And if we do manage to 'cure' aging, the only real new natural limitation on our lifespans would be memory. Brains don't have a rated storage capacity, but we do know that only so much information can be represented by a certain amount of material. We have no idea what would happen to our minds past a couple centuries.

I think you'd just forget a lot of stuff without knowing it as it gets overwritten by new experiences/information.

 

The very emotional memories will become meaningless over time and just fade away slowly.

 

At least that's what makes sense to me. The problem I see with the whole living 200+ years thing is everything will become stale as emotions, feelings won't be as strong as they once were and you'll naturally seek stronger and stronger stimuli from the environment to compensate, which can be dangerous.

[SurvivorNVL]

Telomeric manipulation in mice yielded something like a quadrupled life-span, but two things occurred in the subjects:  Half died of extremely aggressive cancer.  Half died after they reached the quadrupled end, their bodies began to age normally and a biological kill switch happened - causing organ shut down.  Two things to take away from that:  It could be the same in Humans, and then we'd have half the Human population dying or find a way around that.  A quadrupled Human life span is actually awesome given we'll likely find cures and improvements in the first century afterward anyway.

My preference though is instead:  Advanced Robotics.  Telomeric manipulation and de-oxidation of the brain and nerves, transplant brain and nerves in to a new robotic body, seal it, and then allow for future upgrades and improvement.  Overcome biological limitations by keeping the two most important things going - the brain and your nerves!  Just need an artificial heart and an artificial lung process with a filter system for contaminants, water, etc- and a way to constantly de-oxidize the brain in constant use.  This path also allows a possible melding of the Human brain with raw increased data storage, and the ability for advanced processing via a CPU.  Though biological immortality + bio-engineering to heighten peoples IQ's and environmental durability is possible.  

[overload1]

2 hours ago, Vode said:

I think you'd just forget a lot of stuff without knowing it as it gets overwritten by new experiences/information.

 

The very emotional memories will become meaningless over time and just fade away slowly.

 

At least that's what makes sense to me. The problem I see with the whole living 200+ years thing is everything will become stale as emotions, feelings won't be as strong as they once were and you'll naturally seek stronger and stronger stimuli from the environment to compensate, which can be dangerous.

Well is that bad though? I guess you would need some special means to tinkle your winkle but at least you get the oportunity to. Doesn't that beat the alternative of just "nope"?

robot stuff

That approach I agree does sound a lot more preferable, robot body could likely be a lot less fragile too.. But I think we are a lot further from that than this gene manipulation stuff

[Vode]

1 minute ago, overload1 said:

Well is that bad though? I guess you would need some special means to tinkle your winkle but at least you get the oportunity to. Doesn't that beat the alternative of just "nope"?

You can't say if it's bad on behalf of humanity. It would be worth it as far as I'm concerned though!

 

Our species evolves biologically at a different pace as our values and ethics. 

 

But it's an issue we'd have to take a stance on assuming it will become reality. There would be a lot of backlash from conservative thinking people at first, no doubt!

 

 

[MrDynamicMan]

On 25/12/2016 at 1:50 AM, Trik'Stari said:

Oh please yes. Fuck death. Fuck death in the ass.

For the past 2 billion years death has been fucking us! Time and time again, we die. BUT NO MORE, I SAY!!! TODAY WE SHALL ROLL OVER AND DEATH WILL BE THE PENETRATED!!! ALL PRAISE BE TO THE SUN. 

[MrDynamicMan]

2 minutes ago, Vode said:

You can't say if it's bad on behalf of humanity. It would be worth it as far as I'm concerned though!

 

Our species evolves biologically at a different pace as our values and ethics. 

 

But it's an issue we'd have to take a stance on assuming it will become reality. There would be a lot of backlash from conservative thinking people at first, no doubt!

 

 

And I think I might agree with them. Reversing/avoiding death has a hell of a social and economic backlash. 

[Vode]

3 minutes ago, MrDynamicMan said:

And I think I might agree with them. Reversing/avoiding death has a hell of a social and economic backlash. 

I haven't given it enough thought but you're most likely right. Until our species as a whole is "ready" for it. Which might or might not happen..

[overload1]

17 minutes ago, Vode said:

I haven't given it enough thought but you're most likely right. Until our species as a whole is "ready" for it. Which might or might not happen..

This pretty much returns us to the dilema of abortions. Part of society deems it right and the other part deems it wrong.

And I suppose the approach will likely end up being the same where its up to the individual to decide weither or not its for them.

You can't possibly justify denying the whole society access to this. Sure it has the potential to cause bad but it also has a strong potential to do a lot of good.

 

Hypothetically, if the government and society decided to ban this gene manipulation. And since that result would require public knowledge of this things existance

Once it is in the air it only takes one country to not ban it and that could set everyone up for some really bad times.

Its like if someone was just coming up with concept of a gun and then society banned guns everywhere and no one would have them. What if someone makes one by himself for himself.. then what?

[TheReal1980]

Cure aging? Is aging a decease now? You are supposed to die, out with the old and in with the new.

[Bensemus]

I think overpopulation is a very minor concern. The trend is to have fewer and fewer kids anyways to the point where countries have negative birth rates.