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Immortality Only 20 Years Away Says Scientist [Predicts"Virtual Sex Will Become Commonplace"]
Telegraph(UK) ^ | September 22, 2009

Posted on 09/22/2009 5:48:59 PM PDT by Steelfish

Immortality Only 20 Years Away Says Scientist

Scientist Ray Kurzweil claims humans could become immortal in as little as 20 years' time through nanotechnology and an increased understanding of how the body works.

By Amy Willis 22 Sep 2009

Ray Kurzweil claims we could all be cyborgs in 20 years.

The 61-year-old American, who has predicted new technologies arriving before, says our understanding of genes and computer technology is accelerating at an incredible rate. He says theoretically, at the rate our understanding is increasing, nanotechnologies capable of replacing many of our vital organs could be available in 20 years time.

Mr Kurzweil adds that although his claims may seem far-fetched, artificial pancreases and neural implants are already available.

Mr Kurzweil calls his theory the Law of Accelerating Returns. Writing in The Sun, Mr Kurzweil said: "I and many other scientists now believe that in around 20 years we will have the means to reprogramme our bodies' stone-age software so we can halt, then reverse, ageing. Then nanotechnology will let us live for ever.

"Ultimately, nanobots will replace blood cells and do their work thousands of times more effectively. "Within 25 years we will be able to do an Olympic sprint for 15 minutes without taking a breath, or go scuba-diving for four hours without oxygen.

"Heart-attack victims – who haven't taken advantage of widely available bionic hearts – will calmly drive to the doctors for a minor operation as their blood bots keep them alive. "Nanotechnology will extend our mental capacities to such an extent we will be able to write books within minutes.

"If we want to go into virtual-reality mode, nanobots will shut down brain signals and take us wherever we want to go. Virtual sex will become commonplace. "

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Health/Medicine; Science
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To: Need4Truth

yep what about Social Security? what about the whole concept of retirement, in a world of immortality?


21 posted on 09/22/2009 6:03:39 PM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: longtermmemmory

Not under Obama. Obama is too focused on launching and executing a genocide against the elderly. Only after the population has been geriatrically cleansed will he look into immortality for the liberal elite.


22 posted on 09/22/2009 6:03:43 PM PDT by libh8er (If Karl Rove is 'turd blossom', Hussein is just turd.)
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To: Steelfish

bookmark


23 posted on 09/22/2009 6:04:32 PM PDT by massmike (...So this is what happens when OJ's jury elects the president....)
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To: Krankor

"The "orgasmatron" is a fictional device in the fictional future society of 2173 in the Woody Allen movie Sleeper. It is a large cylinder big enough to contain one or two people. ... Once entered, it contains some (otherwise undescribed) future technology that rapidly induces orgasms. This is required, as almost all people in the Sleeper universe are impotent or frigid, although males of Italian descent are considered the least impotent of all groups."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orgasmatron

24 posted on 09/22/2009 6:10:02 PM PDT by ETL (ALL (most?) of the Obama-commie connections at my FR Home page: http://www.freerepublic.com/~etl/)
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To: Steelfish
There "immortal" and then there is "Immortal".

I would love to live long enough to run out of things to learn. Everything from wood working to astrophysics pose a draw for me. I don't have enough time in one lifetime to do everything I want to do.

Give me just another thousand years of healthy, early-middle age life and I could die contented.

25 posted on 09/22/2009 6:11:03 PM PDT by Dead Corpse (III)
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To: Steelfish
Mr Kurzweil calls his theory the Law of Accelerating Returns.

Ray Kurzweil is a lot smarter than I am, but I get the impression that this is a mis-application of Moore's Law to technologies he thinks can combat aging.

Writing in The Sun, Mr Kurzweil said: "I and many other scientists now believe that in around 20 years we will have the means to reprogramme our bodies' stone-age software so we can halt, then reverse, ageing.

There's no doubt Kurzweil is right - the technology needed to control the aging process will be developed in the foreseeable future, but 20 years seems extremely unrealistic. I'd give it the rest of the century, at least - probably right after I drop dead of old age.
26 posted on 09/22/2009 6:12:42 PM PDT by AnotherUnixGeek
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To: Dead Corpse
Give me just another thousand years of healthy, early-middle age life and I could die contented.

Sounds like "Ground Hog Day." Chainsaw ice-carving and Piano playing.

27 posted on 09/22/2009 6:20:59 PM PDT by Onelifetogive (Liberals are always one genocide away from Utopia.)
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To: Steelfish

Horseplop! When I was a kid they were predicting everyone would have a heliocopter and that flights to our lunar colonies would be commonplace. Didn’t happen, and neither will “immortality.”


28 posted on 09/22/2009 6:38:54 PM PDT by attiladhun2 (Obama is the anti-Reagan, he believes government is the solution, rather than the problem)
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To: Steelfish
Scientist Ray Kurzweil claims humans could become immortal in as little as 20 years' time

Oh really??? Did the Almighty get the memo yet? They said the Titanic was impossible to sink too. Arrogance of man!

29 posted on 09/22/2009 6:39:07 PM PDT by tflabo
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I would not want to be Immortal, not unless it gave immunity to mental pain that would build up over time.


30 posted on 09/22/2009 6:39:19 PM PDT by potlatch
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To: Steelfish

Yea, right, and we will all be driving flying cars, too.


31 posted on 09/22/2009 6:39:31 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (The Second Amendment. Don't MAKE me use it.)
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To: Steelfish

Where’s the flying car huh? Huh !! I’ve been waiting since I was a little boy ...


32 posted on 09/22/2009 6:40:14 PM PDT by Scythian
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To: Blood of Tyrants

LOL, you’re post was 45 seconds before, mine, funny, you were thinking the exact same thing ...


33 posted on 09/22/2009 6:41:45 PM PDT by Scythian
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To: Blood of Tyrants

Can you imaging the havoc if there were flying cars-—with all the morons on the road today it would be a disaster in the air unless very strictly regulated.


34 posted on 09/22/2009 6:42:39 PM PDT by tflabo
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To: Onelifetogive

Minus the repetition, but yes. I’d learn a few languages, accrue a record number of Doctorates, and if my wife chose to join me across the Eons... Maybe even finally get to understand at least one female completely.


35 posted on 09/22/2009 6:47:06 PM PDT by Dead Corpse (III)
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To: tflabo
With multiple dimensions to move in and thousands of more square feet to move through?

You really haven't thought this through much... "Strict regulation" is why we don't have more "flying cars" now.

36 posted on 09/22/2009 6:48:28 PM PDT by Dead Corpse (III)
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To: al baby
Immortal no thanks

From the lessons of antiquity as told here: http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Sa-Sp/Sibyls.html

The most famous of these [female Greek and Roman] prophets was the Cumaean Sibyl.

Apollo offered to grant her any wish if she would make love to him. Scooping up a handful of sand, the Sibyl asked to live one year for each grain of sand she held. Apollo granted her wish, but then the Sibyl refused him.

As punishment, Apollo gave her long life but not eternal youth. As the Sibyl grew older, she shrank in size, finally becoming so small she lived in a bottle.

When someone asked the Sibyl what she wanted, she would reply that she wished only to die.

37 posted on 09/22/2009 6:49:30 PM PDT by poindexters brother
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To: Steelfish
Virtual sex will become commonplace.

"Uh-oh! Commander Riker's heading off to the holodeck with a six-pack and a bottle of Jergen's again..."
38 posted on 09/22/2009 6:49:50 PM PDT by RandallFlagg (30-year smoker, E-Cigs helped me quit, and O wants me back smoking again?)
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To: ReagansShinyHair

Be Well.


39 posted on 09/22/2009 6:55:07 PM PDT by Redcitizen (Zartan for President 2012)
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To: Dead Corpse
I’d learn a few languages, accrue a record number of Doctorates

I'd do the same. I have 3 degrees as it is. I'd get a Law Degree and a Medical degree if I had unlimited $$$.

40 posted on 09/22/2009 7:10:10 PM PDT by Onelifetogive (Liberals are always one genocide away from Utopia.)
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