Do You Want to Live Forever?

TechnologyReview.com ^ | February 2005 issue | Sherwin Nuland

[snarks_when_bored]

A fun (and also sobering) read.

[snarks_when_bored]

Ping

[Graybeard58]

Do You Want to Live Forever?

I plan on it.

So far, so good.

[spetznaz]

bump.

[snarks_when_bored]

Go for it!

[Coyoteman]

Do You Want to Live Forever?

Or die trying!

[pierrem15]

How long would you have to live before your dialect becomes noticeably different than current speech? 200 years? How about mutually unintellible? 1000 years?

Of course if just about everyone in your cohort also lived to a 1000, then the pattern wouldn't change at all.

[goldstategop]

May you live to be 120 is still an old Jewish blessing! Hope we all get to live that long.

[since1868]

booked

[PistolPaknMama]

Do You Want to Live Forever?

No. Especially if it will make me have excessive facial hair and write articles that can't be absorbed in one sitting.

[Welsh Rabbit]

Do You Want to Live Forever?

Depends. Would I have to wear a beard like that guy in the picture?

[boris]

"3. Mutations in chromosomes. The most damaging consequence of cell mutation is the development of cancer. The immortality of cancer cells is related to the behavior of the telomere, the caplike structure found on the end of every chromosome, which decreases in length each time the cell divides and therefore seems to be involved with the cell’s mortality. If we could eliminate the gene that makes telomerase—the enzyme that maintains and lengthens telomeres—the cancer cell would die. De Grey’s solution for this problem is to replace a person’s stem cells every 10 or so years with ones engineered not to carry that gene."

Why are babies born young? If a 40-year-old couple have a child, why is it not born 40 years old? Because--aside from cancer cells--the only body cells which express telomerase are sperm and ova. Be careful. 40-year-old babies would not be a good idea.

Now. If one could somehow "switch ON" the telomerase in all of the bodies' cells WITHOUT making them cancerous, would they not "rejuvenate"?

So why does he want to turn it off?

--Boris

[woofie]

Its simple ...keep breathing

[SedVictaCatoni]

That first graph is the best demonstration I have ever seen of the difference between a median and and average - specifically, that it's easy to throw off an average.

[peyton randolph]

I always suspected that ZZ Top were immortals. ;-)

[nmh]

Ya can't cheat death.

You're date with death is not something you will be late for or postpone. You can be in the best of health and get into a fatal car accident. Youcan be in poor health and linger.

If you want eternal life, seek Christ.

[WestVirginiaRebel]

I already know I'm immortal. In the end there can be only one...

[nmh]

My Grandmother nearly made it to being 101. She died in February of last year and her birthday was June for 101. She didn't relate to this world anymore. She felt like a foreigner. Her family was her all.

The truth is you're not going to out smart death.

[Fiddlstix]

Bump
To read later

Do You Want to Live Forever?

My short answer to that question.......
Not Just No but Hell No!

[joesnuffy]

Every human ever born is going to live forever...

The only question is.....where

imo