Do You Want to Live Forever?

TechnologyReview.com ^ | February 2005 issue | Sherwin Nuland

[diamond6]

LOL

[diamond6]

I just love these short and to the point articles.

[ZinGirl]

write articles that can't be absorbed in one sitting.

truly.....after the first paragraph, I scrolled down a bit and thought, "crikey...I'll have to live forever if I ever want to finish reading this"

[evangmlw]

Hell, you would have to live forever to read this article in its entirety, and beyond that to understand it.

[The Grammarian]

I had this perverse fantasy after reading this article of running up to this guy at a convention, chopping off that ridiculous beard and seeing what everyone's reaction was.

[Welsh Rabbit]

I'm afraid Frank Beard, with his mere mustache, won't live forever...

[SamAdams76]

If we could stop aging, at what point would we stop it? What about babies? Do we let them grow up and them stop them from aging? If so, what age? 25? 30? 40? When I turned 30 years old, I figured it was all downhill from there so at that point, I would have stopped my aging process. But now that I'm 42, I like the way I am better than the way I was when I was 30. So I would prefer to stop the clock now. But I never would have had that opportunity if I had already stopped the clock at 30 because I would never come to know how good 42 would feel. So I'd have been stuck being the immature jerk I was at 30 for all eternity. But if I stopped the clock now, how do I know that I wouldn't feel even better about myself at 50...or even 60?

What about people who are already elderly? Do they stop the aging process even though they might already be in their 80s and in poor health? Imagine having to wear Depends and not being able to climb a flight of stairs for all eternity?

So many questions. So little answers.

[snarks_when_bored]

I think he wants to be able to switch off the telomerase in order to prevent cancer cells from being 'immortal', so they'll die.

Here's an interesting page on telomeres, telomerase, cancer cells, longevity, etc:

Telomeres

[Petronski]

Do You Want to Live Forever?

Good Lord no, not in this world. I'm just trying to get through the week.

[bwteim]

LOL

[PistolPaknMama]

...I'll have to live forever if I ever want to finish reading this

ROFL! So you think we should check into it or not? Maybe a two-for?

[ZinGirl]

well.....my SECOND thought (after "is this the Neverending Story?") was:

Do I want to live forever? YES...but not here.

[tsmith130]

I could live forever and still not get through this article. I already wasted a minute of my life just scrolling through it.

[PistolPaknMama]

OK, now we're getting somewhere. :)

[snarks_when_bored]

Summary:

• Aubrey de Grey is odd, but very charming and really, really smart;
• He wants to live a very, very long time;
• He's smart enough to have figured out the seven feats of bio-engineering that need to be accomplished in order to prolong human life indefinitely (barring accidents, murders, etc.);
• The article's author, Sherwin Neuland, thinks de Grey is almost completely isolated from the real world as far as biological matters are concerned, and that, even if de Grey's seven problems could be solved, the indefinite prolongation of human life wouldn't be a good thing either for individuals or for the species.

I return you to your regular programming...

[ChicagoHebrew]

Just like on my Ashkenazi side, "may you have children named for your shortly" is an old Jewish curse!

[piasa]

Is that a beard or a muskrat?

[Begin]

I'm gonna live forever
Baby, remember my name

[Michael Barnes]

Live Forever? Well, depending on your faith, that's already a given..However, live for a couple thousand years? I would love to. Explore the cosmos, become a complete brainiac, not retire till I'm 1865 years old. The only downside I could possibly imagine is if "it" goes limp early on during my tenure in this realm.

[PistolPaknMama]

She didn't relate to this world anymore.

You know I always wondered about that. I remember the "half moon hotel" at my grandma's place and I remember the huge project of my Dad and uncles installing running water, a bath and a flush toilet. Even in my grandparents' lifetime they went from no electricity to microwave ovens. Horse plows to combines. Mid-wife assisted delivery to nuclear medicine It boggles the mind, really.

If you live forever, and you can't no matter how long your beard, it would be quite a journey, but none I think as awesome as my grandparents who saw most of the last century from start to finish.