- Arthanari Chandrasekaran
- Chennai , Tamil Nadu
- India
This conversation is closed. Start a new conversation
or join one »
How can we humans become immortal.
I came across a species called Turritopsis nutricula which seems to be biologically immortal.
It's the dream of every human being or may be every living being in this world, but how to become immortal and have never ending life at least biologically.
Lets twist some connections in our brain and find out its possibility and what will be the consequences if our dream comes to reality.
Lawren Jones 10+
Debra Smith 200+
Krisztián Pintér 200+
andrew jones
Obey No1kinobe 50+
Adriaan Braam 20+
Why would a fetus speculate on, and wish to be in the womb forever?? I use this analogy because Swedenborg says we are in the womb to prepare (physically) for this world. And we are in this world to prepare (spiritually) for the next, or spiritual world.
The second chapter of this book is "People are immortal"
http://webhome.idirect.com/~abraam/documents/TheSpiritualWorld.pdf
When our body dies, our spirit (our love) can and will create the perfect world around us and we'll love every 'second' of it. There really is something to look forward to..
Stewart Gault 30+
But there's too many problems such as population, health, costs etc
Though I'd argue that it would be an awful thing to be physically immortal. Whilst I'm loving life now I think there'd be a point when I'd just want to leave eventually. Especially if my health was bad, but even with good health I think I'd rather die before I was say 200
Mark Meijer 100+
Roy Bourque 20+
As for the consequences of biological immortality, it would halt the evolutionary process, at least as far as you are concerned. As you watch life evolving around you, you will find yourself falling hopelessly behind. Eventually, you may find that biological immortality was nothing more than a curse.
David Barnett 20+
Krisztián Pintér 200+
David Barnett 20+
Krisztián Pintér 200+
you: what would change?
me: nothing
you: we can not know the future
me: then why ask?
you: it is reasonable to ask even if we don't know the answer
does that seem to lead anywhere?
Lejan . 30+
quote: ‘does that seem to lead anywhere?‘
This sort of conversation may not, yet your last summary of David's thoughts does for me.
quuote: 'It is reasonable to ask even if we don't know the answer'
Everything humans do, or create, and this includes the future, has to be thought first, may it be conscious or unconscious. Asking questions without knowing the answer is what scienence is based on, and at times, the results have lead to our todays present, which was the future when the questions were asked.
Krisztián Pintér 200+
John Dunbar 10+
Could we at least travel the universe? Even if we could, what about 10 billion years and life still goes on, what then? Wouldn't it cheapen almost every experience we have here on this planet. I would also postulate that if we lost the fear of death we would simultaneously loose much of our drive to discover, make the world a better place, or procreate. Where would this leave us? I cant even fathom what we would do for stimulation.
David Barnett 20+
Krisztián Pintér 200+
David Barnett 20+
Krisztián Pintér 200+
pranoy sundar 20+
i don't know about the possibilities of humans becoming immortal, but about the consequences, i am pretty sure it wont be good for us and our planet.
being immortal is largely a personal thing. as a species all we should look forward is on survival of our kind. being immortal and surviving extinction are different things, i hope you understand.
other important thing is that, evolution of our species will stop by being immortal, i think you will agree with that. and without evolution we wont be able to cop with the changes of our environment and of our own life style. to survive we need to evolve and for that we should be a part of birth and death process.
just think of the case if our ancestors were immortal, our brains wouldn't have evolved and we wont be this intelligent and we would've been continuing their life style...and if we were continuing that life style who knows we would haven't been extinct by now. because everything around us were changing.
Allan Macdougall 30+
Death is an essential part of life, and immortality is certainly not the dream of this living being.
Krisztián Pintér 200+
the claim that "death is part of life" is a circular argument. as of now, it is. but we are just now discussing whether we can change that. and if we can change it, it will not anymore be a part of it.
Allan Macdougall 30+
My argument is not so much about population numbers alone, but numbers multiplied by lifestyle expectations.
You may or may not agree with the hypothesis that our planet is a self-sustaining single organism (refer to James Lovelock's 'Gaia Theory'). I happen to think the hypothesis is very plausible.
I think introducing the stressors of immortality to an already struggling organism, will very likely affect the planet. I would be interested to hear why you think it wouldn't?
The lifestyle expectations of modern mortals is already unsustainable. To introduce immortality into that equation, added to those same expectations, will be nothing short of disastrous.
I think nature should be allowed to run its own course. It is the only guarantee of a healthy planet.
Krisztián Pintér 200+
immortality leads to increasing population IF(!) children are born. but if only that much children are born as people die, the population can be stable.
such "theories" like tha gaia "theory" does not classify as scientific theories. theories have verifiable predictions that are not known at the moment of formulating the theory. but even if they were theories, they are certainly not well established theories.
nature does not run its own course for long time. we use heating, clothing, farming, medicine and many other stuff. eliminating aging is just another step (series of steps) on that path. again, it is either possible or not, but not in any way a game changer or fundamentally different than what we have today.
Allan Macdougall 30+
I need to ask you some questions, based on the supposition that immortality is possible:
What about my main point about the 'lifestyle expectations' of a mortal population as opposed to the expectations of an immortal one? Would they will be different in any way, with regard to demand on natural resources?
Would an immortal population eventually supersede a mortal one?
How would that affect the moral and ethical behaviour of those who can afford immortality - and would that lead to the engineering of a social elite over and above those who cannot afford it? (assuming immortality would be a very expensive privilege for those who have the money to do it).
How would immortality affect our own evolutionary path?
Krisztián Pintér 200+
i have no idea how eternal life would change lifestyle. i see no direct connection, and i don't think anyone can reliably forecast how people would react on average. but i also don't see how would that affect what we were talking about. whatever the consequences are, it has no bearing whatsoever on its plausibility.
as an example, imagine two cave men talking about lengthening human longevity. they would say: what are the implications? if we make people live 3 (4, 5) times longer, it immediately triples (quadruples, etc) the population at any time. what would the consequences be? and how would it affect the lifestyle of people?
this conversation seems as valid as your concerns about living forever. yet, i believe, you don't advocate shortening human life, and i also believe that you think giving people extra years or a decade is a good thing. so how can we think that long life is good, longer life is better, but eternal life is unnatural and wrong?
Obey No1kinobe 50+
Frans Kellner 100+
Life and death are two sides of the same coin. One can't be without the other.
It's the body that dies and that's not what we are. What we are is attached to a body and will be detached.
So we are immortal being born over and over, developping ever more.
Lejan . 30+
Just wonder how our minds will cope with it and what the average time till suicide becomes ...
I do assume, that in health and good vitality, we would probably go for a longer turn than we naturally have today.
Barry Palmer 50+
Defining 'elderly scientist' as in Clarke's First Law. -- Arthur C. Clarke
The vast majority of scientific discoveries are made by the young. Immortality might mean the end of human progress.
Jamaal Stewart
Rob Clark
It would take the fun out of life.
Linda Taylor 50+
Krisztián Pintér 200+
http://www.ted.com/talks/aubrey_de_grey_says_we_can_avoid_aging.html
the guy says it is not only possible, but within our reach
Peter Law 30+
:-)
Gerald O'brian 50+
Heather White 10+
If the birth rate didn’t fall the world population would expand at a faster pace than ever before - leading to increased land and resource stress and more wars - reducing populations in an indiscriminate way.
Personally, I'm quite happy with the status quo i.e. a mortal life where youth and fitness takes up most of a lifespan. I accept that in some parts of the world mortality occurs pitifully young - perhaps this is where the work needs to be focused. A more equitable life expectancy.
If Immortality was a dream I'd consider it to be a nightmare!