Can science make us Immortal?

[Someone here]

Is it possible that in the future ,Science will invent anti-aging technology that prevents humans from Aging and therefore from death ? Is this fundamentally possible or not ?and why or why not? Can we achieve the dream of immortality with enough science work.  I mean who knows what could happen or be invented in let's say 5000 years from now (if humanity still existed ).

Thoughts ?

[Carl-Richard]

The longer you live, the higher the risk for cancer. So we'd essentially need a cure for cancer as well.

[Someone here]

5 minutes ago, Carl-Richard said:

The longer you live, the higher the risk for cancer. So we'd essentially need a cure for cancer as well.

 Yeah we have to basically find a cure to all fatal diseases as well.  Especially with the increasing of unhealthy  habits among people in this era (smoking ,taking drugs etc).

you are human, you are going to die. Immortality technology  will not be invented in our lifetimes. So we can be dam sure that we are gonna die.  This isn't the most comforting thought, but death is the inevitable price we must pay for being alive. however, we getting better at pushing back our expiration date, as our medicines and technologies advance. 

 

[Mulky]

Immortal means you never die. As a human you will die.  Not aging and being kept very safe would not make you immortal, it would just allow you to live for a very long time.  Time would keep going, being infinite, at some point you would die no matter how unlikely it seems.  If nothing else, the whole universe you live in would end.  In infinite time, something can only not happen if it is actually impossible, and there isn't much that is actually impossible.  No matter what a human being does their death will never become something that is not possible.  For this reason, humans, like all embodied beings, will die eventually.  

Edited July 4, 2022 by Mulky
thought of something else

[Someone here]

5 minutes ago, Mulky said:

Immortal means you never die. As a human you will die.  Not aging and being kept very safe would not make you immortal, it would just allow you to live for a very long time.  Time would keep going, being infinite, at some point you would die no matter how unlikely it seems.  If nothing else, the whole universe you live in would end.  

So is your point that Preventing the human body from aging still isn't enough to achieve immortality?

We have example from the animal kingdom..the hydra. Even though hydra don't show signs of aging, the creatures still die. They are eaten by predators, such as fish, and perish if their environment changes too much, such as if their ponds freeze in winter.

 

[Mulky]

It's just the infinitude of time and space that means no human can become immortal as a human or any specific embodied being.  Imagine a fractal zoom type of thing, and pick 1 spot at the start, let's call that earth.  Now keep zooming out... forever.  The Planet or universe or whatever that we physically exist in keeps finding itself in larger containers, like those Russian nesting dolls.  Say we had complete control over our universe, it's still inside of something else.  Our power and control over life could grow exponentially and it still wouldn't be enough to prevent our own death, because not only is there infinite forces outside of that bubble we think we have control over, but there is infinite time and in that infinite time any possible thing will happen... an infinite number of times.  Now we have made our death extremely unlikely, but we haven't made it impossible, so it will happen.  It would only not happen if it is not possible. 

I'm willing to accept that possibility that I don't really understand reality at all, and there's something beyond my understanding that allows for what you're saying to be possible, but with the way I understand reality right now it doesn't seem so.  You might be able to live for billions of years though, trillions even, there's nothing to stop that from being possible... just not for ever :).  But Honestly I could be wrong.. who knows  

[Someone here]

4 minutes ago, Mulky said:

It's just the infinitude of time and space that means no human can become immortal as a human or any specific embodied being.  Imagine a fractal zoom type of thing, and pick 1 spot at the start, let's call that earth.  Now keep zooming out... forever.  The Planet or universe or whatever that we physically exist in keeps finding itself in larger containers, like those Russian nesting dolls.  Say we had complete control over our universe, it's still inside of something else.  Our power and control over life could grow exponentially and it still wouldn't be enough to prevent our own death, because not only is there infinite forces outside of that bubble we think we have control over, but there is infinite time and in that infinite time any possible thing will happen... an infinite number of times.  Now we have made our death extremely unlikely, but we haven't made it impossible, so it will happen.  It would only not happen if it is not possible. 

I'm willing to accept that possibility that I don't really understand reality at all, and there's something beyond my understanding that allows for what you're saying to be possible, but with the way I understand reality right now it doesn't seem so.  You might be able to live for billions of years though, trillions even, there's nothing to stop that from being possible... just not for ever :).  But Honestly I could be wrong.. who knows  

Most scientists,are more hardline realists about death. It is simply the result of two facts about nature: (1) the Second Law of Thermodynamics, or the fact that there’s an arrow of time in our Universe that leads to entropy and the wearing down and eventual death of all systems, from stars and people to the Universe itself.

(2) the logic of evolution, or the fact that natural selection created immortal genes through our offspring but mortal bodies because resources were better allocated toward future generations than keeping alive great great grandparents. we die so others may live.

In the past quarter century some of these scientists ,particularly those who do not believe in an immortal soul or ethereal heaven don’t want to just live on through their children or their work but want to live on in their current bodies ..they have undertaken the grand goal of extending the human lifespan into centuries, millennia, or possibly even forever. Who knows ? If you told someone from 10000 years ago that one day in the future we will be able to communicate globally with each other via all the technologies we have today they would think you are crazy.  Certainly the possibility is open for science to advance exponentially in the coming centuries. And maybe one day will actually find an antidote to death of the body .because our souls (true nature ) is already eternal. 

[Danioover9000]

   Probably in the future, but in the meantime, it can make interesting discoveries like this:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/03/discovered-in-the-deep-the-snail-with-iron-armour

   We know so much about space, but so little about the ocean.

[Ulax]

I think you could have Quasi-Immortality. Something that makes it such that it is as if we are immortal, but we are not completely so.

I.e. we could cure all fatal diseases but we may still be vulnerable to life ending by virtue of physical harm.

[integral]

Cure aging, yes. The issue is something that doesn't die and only consumes and grows is a cancer to the larger systems at play. 

Edited August 7, 2022 by integral

[zurew]

4 hours ago, Ulax said:

I think you could have Quasi-Immortality. Something that makes it such that it is as if we are immortal, but we are not completely so.

I.e. we could cure all fatal diseases but we may still be vulnerable to life ending by virtue of physical harm.

I believe this will be possible for us.

 

 

We can learn about immortality from many species:

 

jellyfish, Turritopsis dohrnii

Quote

To date, there's only one species that has been called 'biologically immortal': the jellyfish Turritopsis dohrnii. These small, transparent animals hang out in oceans around the world and can turn back time by reverting to an earlier stage of their life cycle.

Hydra

Quote

Their claim to immortality? It seems as though they don’t go through senescence at all. Instead of gradually deteriorating over time, a Hydra’s stem cells have the capacity for infinite self-renewal. This seems to be thanks to a particular set of genes called FoxO genes, which are found in animals from worms to humans and play a role in regulating how long cells will live for.

In the case of Hydra’s stem cells, there seems to be an overabundance of FoxO gene expression. When researchers prevented FoxO genes from functioning, they found that Hydra’s cells began to show signs of ageing and would no longer regenerate as they did before. We still don’t know exactly how it all works, but we do know that these genes clearly play an important role in maintaining Hydra’s endless youthfulness.

Planaria

Quote

This ubiquitous organism has a simple yet incredible organ system that allows the indefinite regeneration of any lost body part. Because of this, this organism apparently can stay young and can never get old (unless it wants to).

 

[RendHeaven]

This question is so backwards lol

[Yarco]

Not in our lifetime. But given a long enough timeline, almost certainly yes. We know of several species like jellyfish and tardigrades that are basically immortal. We know how to insert chunks of DNA into our own DNA using stuff like CRISPR. All we need to do is combine those in a way that doesn't result in unintended mutations.

In our lifetime we might develop a way to transfer consciousness, or at least the full contents of your brain, into electronic format.

At that point, we could grow a clone of you and put all your memories and knowledge into a new child version of yourself. But I question if that's really "you" at a level of consciousness, or if you're just copying a hard drive without the soul.

I believe at some point (probably at least a few hundred years) the only unavoidable cause of death will be trauma like car crashes, plane crashes, etc.

21 hours ago, RendHeaven said:

This question is so backwards lol

Cool example of zen devilry. Don't explain your thought process, just make a 1-liner to look down on everybody else. 

I assume this is some meta-commentary about how we are never really born or alive to begin with. Or our true self is already immortal and doesn't need science to save us.

Edited August 9, 2022 by Yarco

[RendHeaven]

13 minutes ago, Yarco said:

Cool example of zen devilry. Don't explain your thought process, just make a 1-liner to look down on everybody else. 

I assume this is some meta-commentary about how we are never really born or alive to begin with. Or our true self is already immortal and doesn't need science to save us.

No, the question is literally backwards and the only proper response is laughter.

I'm sorry that I came off as condescending, that was not my intention.

[CultivateLove]

1 hour ago, RendHeaven said:

No, the question is literally backwards

Well, care to explain how the question would sound if it were... forward?  

 

[RendHeaven]

4 hours ago, CultivateLove said:

Well, care to explain how the question would sound if it were... forward?  

The question here reads similarly to: Can the color blue make us taller?

Like, I just don't know what to tell ya lol. Perhaps? Perhaps not? I don't even know how to begin reformulating it 

[CultivateLove]

9 hours ago, RendHeaven said:

The question here reads similarly to: Can the color blue make us taller?

Like, I just don't know what to tell ya lol. Perhaps? Perhaps not? I don't even know how to begin reformulating it 

Interesting you see it that way, to me it's a pretty simple and straight forward question like will we ever find a cure for balding?  

Maybe it's because I've been at the paradigm this question stems from, which is the belief that you are a fully separate entity from the outside world and the death of your body is the death of you. It would be interesting if you've never seen the world from that paradigm since it's a very common one especially in the western world and you've only (semi-recently) taken psychedelics hehe .

[hyruga]

Well, the first thing you need to do is stop aging. Justin Timberlake acted in a movie called 'In Time' which is about people who stopped growing old after age 25.

The next thing probably is to find a cure for all diseases such as cancers.

Then to be immortal, you must also be immune to cobra venoms, fire, water, heat, coldness and more.

[Danioover9000]

   For immortality, as a finite being, you need the following:

Abnormally high resilience to damage.

Abnormally high regeneration and recovery rate to all types of damage and destruction.

Either stop aging, or mimic the aging process of the jelly fish.

A technology that allows you to transfer your consciousness into another body, like in Alternate Carbon.

Magic, supernatural and paranormal abilities, that allows you to drain life force energy from other beings.

Be actually able to bring pieces of powers from God, each and every time you have God realization, increasing further your Sidhhis and paranormal capacities.

And many more factors....

And if you can't and don't have any one of these, you don't have immortality, for a finite form.

 

 

 

Edited August 10, 2022 by Danioover9000