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PauldoMemberhttp://www.jumpthecurve.net/index.php/recent_posts/10_reasons_we_will_live_to_1000
10 Reasons We Will Live to 1000
Posted on Nov 22, 2007 – 09:29 AM
To most people the idea of living to 1,000 sounds absolutely crazy. But,
as I explain in my forthcoming book, Jump the Curve, due to exponential
advances in a variety of technologies the ability to do what sounds
“impossible” today could very well become quite possible tomorrow.With this brief introduction then let me provide you 10 reasons why you
might live to 1,000.#1: More powerful computers. Last week, it was announced that IBM had
the world's most powerful supercomputer. It is capable of 1 quadrillion
calculations per second. More impressive, by 2009, IBM expects to have a
supercomputer capable of 10 quadrillion calculations per second. Now,
computer speed, in and of itself, will not directly lead to longer lives
but what these supercomputers are learning about the human body-the
brain, protein-folding, pharmacogenomics, etc.-could very well lead to
some amazing medical breakthroughs.#2 Better Drugs. I recently stumbled across this article entitled “So
You Want to Live Forever?” It discusses the progress that Sirtris
Pharmaceuticals is making in testing a fountain-of-youth pill in humans.
The drug may or may not work, but if it doesn't work there are similar
drugs in the FDA pipeline and it is not unrealistic to think that some
of those drugs might just someday be successful at extending human life.
(And with the first Baby Boomers set to hit retirement age on January 1,
2008, you can bet that there will be a large market for any drug that
keeps the “Woodstock” generation feeling and looking young.)#3: Implantable Organs. I have written before about the amazing progress
being made in the area of implantable organs. Today, bladders and human
skin are being grown. Tomorrow, it is possible that kidneys and livers
might be grown. And in 10 or 15 years (perhaps sooners) maybe even the
human heart will be able to be artifically manufactured.#4 Stem Cell Research: Earlier this week, researchers announced that
they derived a new method for growing stem cells that might sidestep
some of the ethical issues hindering current research. If so, advances
in stem cell research could progress at faster rate than most people
generally appreciate.#5 Genome sequencing: This past weekend the New York Times ran an
article describing how three companies want to make a portion of your
genome available to you for less than $1000. This is extraordinary
considering that in the mid-1970's it cost $150 million to sequence a
single gene! As the technology continues to improve and we learn more
about how genes regulate human health scientists and researchers could
easily find ways to lenthen human longeveity.#6: Robotic surgeries: I written before about the future of health care
and I am of the opinion that within the next decade amazing
breakthroughs will be made in the field of robotic surgeries. In fact,
researchers in South Korea are already experimenting with miniature
robots to clear people's arteries. If effective, heart disease may be a
thing of the past.#7: Nanotechnology: The National Cancer Institute has speculated that
due to advances in nanotechnology cancer could be a treatable disease as
early as 2015.#8: Advances in proteinomics and metagenomics. How the human body
operates is only imprecisely understood today. As advances in each of
the aforementioned fields progresses, however, we will have a much
better understanding of the human body and, thus, how to treat it.#9: Human Desire. I understand perfectly well that a vast majority of
people are terribly uncomfortable with the idea of radical life
extension. Nevertheless there are thoughtful and intelligent people such
as Aubrey de Grey who are actively challenging society to think
differently. Rather than accepting aging as an inevitable aspect of
life, they are instead encouraging society to view aging as a disease-as
something to be treated. This is a profound paradigm shift, but is it
any more profound than Copernecius telling people 500 years ago that
they were not at the center of the universe? History has a way of
demonstrating that future often turns out much different than most
people appreciate and that what constitutes “conventional wisdom” in one
era is laughed at and mocked in future generations.#10: Evolution. Lastly, I am willing to accept that perhaps mankind is
destine to evolve towards radical life extension. In 1600, the average
life expectancy was 36 years. At the beginning of the 17th century, life
expectancy had inched forward to 37 years. One hundreds later it had
increased to 39 years. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was 47.
Only a 100 years , however, it had increased almost 30 years-to 77. What
will the next 100 years hold? It is difficult to imagine, but it is
important to understand that society will not simply experience a rate
of change similar to the last century. Due to the accelerating rate of
progress we could very well experience the equilavent of 20,000 years of
progress (as measured by the 20th century rate). Within all of this
progress, it is possible that we might find the key (or keys) to radical
life extension? I argue that the answer is yes.The real question then becomes: “How do we prepare ourselves and society
for this seismic change?”
RobyoParticipantOnly the super-rich elite will have the resources for life extension technologies.
HARDKORNATEMemberThey forgot #11…
Psytrance.
PauldoMemberOnly the super-rich elite will have the resources for life extension technologies.
In a free and open market with competition the technologies will be available to the masses. Biotech and pharma companies don't get rich by selling to just a few. Even for a socialist country it is in their best interest to cure the diseases of aging. It costs less to have healthy people vs. sickly. Insurance companies would rather have me cured than paying for monthly costs. I think there's a lot of good reasons why it will be available to all.
RobyoParticipantOnly the super-rich elite will have the resources for life extension technologies.
In a free and open market with competition the technologies will be available to the masses. Biotech and pharma companies don't get rich by selling to just a few. Even for a socialist country it is in their best interest to cure the diseases of aging. It costs less to have healthy people vs. sickly. Insurance companies would rather have me cured than paying for monthly costs. I think there's a lot of good reasons why it will be available to all.
If there's a life extension technology I can grow in my backyard, I'm all for it.
There's no doubt all the reason's the article listed can't happen. But at some point, you're just pimping yourself out to big pharma. It's like in “Ghost in the Shell” when the cyborg says if she wants to retire, she'd have to trade back most of her body to the company. I just wonder if it's all worth it.
AscensionKeymasterwas this article written by Ricky Bobby?
PauldoMemberIf there's a life extension technology I can grow in my backyard, I'm all for it.
There's no doubt all the reason's the article listed can't happen. But at some point, you're just pimping yourself out to big pharma. It's like in “Ghost in the Shell” when the cyborg says if she wants to retire, she'd have to trade back most of her body to the company. I just wonder if it's all worth it.
There's nothing un-natural about it you hippy! ;D
Have you ever flown in a plane? Drive a car? We use technology to supplement our abilities all of the time. I just don't want my nanobots platform to be Microsoft. I'm alive because of pharma companies.
EnergonMemberIts a well known fact that I want to be a robot or an AI. I firmly believe that it's possible to transfer your consciousness into a computer. The Lawnmower Man is my hero. Once we've fully mapped the brain it can be modeled in software. Next, you scan someone's brain and input that data into the software model. Viola! You're an AI! Talk to me about it sometime, seriously 🙂 This topic seems to come up in my conversations quite often and I love to to chat about it.
I decided recently that it's probably not going to be possible within my lifetime though. (During an enlightening conversation at the Sheridan hotel in Iowa City after 3rd Eye, actually) It's a shitty thing… I think we'll be one of the last generations that won't live forever 🙁
Here's some food for thought on this topic….
http://www.singularity.com/
http://www.transhumanism.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism
http://www.kurzweilai.net/index.html?flash=1Books:
Altered Carbon
http://www.amazon.com/Altered-Carbon-Richard-Morgan/dp/0345457684
edaisGuestPeople might want to consider having fewer children eventually…
PauldoMemberc'mon Derek, you can make it to the singularity no prob
HARDKORNATEMemberPeople might want to consider having fewer children eventually…
We need to make everyone sterile and force people to be liscensed before they are allowed to breed.
RobyoParticipantPeople might want to consider having fewer children eventually…
We need to make everyone sterile and force people to be liscensed before they are allowed to breed.
fascist 😉
RobyoParticipantIf there's a life extension technology I can grow in my backyard, I'm all for it.
There's no doubt all the reason's the article listed can't happen. But at some point, you're just pimping yourself out to big pharma. It's like in “Ghost in the Shell” when the cyborg says if she wants to retire, she'd have to trade back most of her body to the company. I just wonder if it's all worth it.
There's nothing un-natural about it you hippy! ;D
Have you ever flown in a plane? Drive a car? We use technology to supplement our abilities all of the time. I just don't want my nanobots platform to be Microsoft. I'm alive because of pharma companies.
There's a wide difference between using a technology to travel and installing hardware in your brain or rebuilding your decrepid cells with nanobots. I don't understand why anyone would want to live forever.
PauldoMemberPeople might want to consider having fewer children eventually…
We need to make everyone sterile and force people to be liscensed before they are allowed to breed.
Starting with you! 😛 ;D ;D ;D
PauldoMemberI can't understand why someone wouldn't want to live forever. Oh the things you could do and see in a 1000 years. How much more work would Einstein have done if his aging was nearly halted and he had a mind/body of a healthy 50yo? How much more art and song the masters could have produced? How many more people's lives could you make a difference in over a 1000 years? The skills that one would obtain in a 1000 years? How many subjects could one master? We would have a highly skilled society.
You could even spend 5-10 years traveling to Mars and it wouldn't be a significant amount time spent up in your life. I want to throw the first psytrance party on Mars. I hope to have all of my nutty psy friends around for many many more years.
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