one step closer to immortality?

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/acel.12344/abstract;jsessionid=2427BE98FAF5ED9E23CA8F80190D97A9.f02t04
http://www.digitaljournal.com/life/health/lifespan-dramatically-increased-aging-reversed-by-new-drug/article/428414

When I see the word immortal I cringe. Nothing is immortal. solar systems are born and die, probably even universes. I know that word is thrown around lightly and people may not mean it literally, but it is the most absurd thing to me every time I see it in the context of human beings, let alone anything else that has life spans of millions of years. Ashes to ashes, everything dies. Accepting death is a crucial part of life. Without death there is no life. What would life even mean if there was no death to contrast it to? Death is not the opposite of life, it is the flip side of life (like a coin). Organisms, stars, planets, solar systems, must die in order for new life to come forth. Without death and decay there is no life. Everything must and will die. No harm in extending life for a longer period of time, but it strikes me as absolutely bat-shit-crazy when human beings start using the word immortal. Aren't all the cells in the body replaced every certain period of time (like 15 years or something?). That means that you aren't even the same physical thing that was born into this world. You have actually died however many times the cells do this (sorry for lack of scientific specifics, but I hope you get my meaning).

It is only unreasonable because it does not exist in nature...except for cancer. Supposedly cancer is a form of immortality since it constantly replicates its dna and the cells don't die. They just keep multiplying. At least that what I heard. But I think immortality can work as long as there are resources to supply the ever growing population. You don't have to die to give life. In fact you have to be alive inorder to make more life. Once making more life why do you have to die? You only need resources to sustain the ongoing life.

shaftless wrote:It is only unreasonable because it does not exist in nature...except for cancer. Supposedly cancer is a form of immortality since it constantly replicates its dna and the cells don't die. They just keep multiplying. At least that what I heard. But I think immortality can work as long as there are resources to supply the ever growing population. You don't have to die to give life. In fact you have to be alive inorder to make more life. Once making more life why do you have to die? You only need resources to sustain the ongoing life.

YEs but the key part is where do those resources come from? What is meant when you say resources? You are talking about dead things... Dead trees, and dead plants and animals for food. Life and death are the same. You must have death for life to continue. If nothing died then everything would.

I don't think you're following my point, which is the larger picture. I don't mean immortality just for human beings. I mean that nothing is immortal in the sense of having the same form. Everything is immortal in the sense that energy/life just changes form. For example, you and I are made literally of the material of "dead" stars that are millions of years old. We are literally star dust. That star (like our sun) had to collapse and die for us to exist now. A tree and all other plant and animal life must die in order to provide the building blocks for new plants to grow and new animals to be born. Oil which is our primary power resource which we depend on to survive, is literally the remains of old living organisms long extinct. Life is energy and it changes form. So that star is dead and gone but we are here. The same material in different form. Nothing is immortal, not even the universe. They know that the universe is only something like 13.8 billion years old. Before that what? We don't know, but most likely something bigger than the universe which the universe is inside of. My point is that what is born by definition must die. Being as every THING literally is born including the universe, solar systems, galaxies, planets, stars, and life forms. There is nothing that can be named that was not born and will not die. The concept of immortality is a function of the way human beings perceive time as linear. We already know that time doesn't behave this way. The experience of time passing is relative to space and gravity. So 1 year is not a measure of time but experience. In certain circumstances an astronaut can fly into space at a certain speed. On his watch one year will have gone by. One year will be what he expereinces (365 calendar days). When he gets home 10 years on earth will have gone by. Einstein calculated this and showed it was possible. I forget the name of it right now. So even the idea of time or immortality is only how our tiny little animal brains perceive things to be. Other animals have no concept of time so they don't worry about only have a couple years left to live. I hope that helps some. I can say without a doubt that immortality  is IMPOSSIBLE because NOTHING is immortal.

Well put...but erroneous lol. What I mean is, yes everything is born and the laws of physics are such that energy is constantly being used and matter is ever-changing as a result. And once that energy is used up...or transformed into another state...then permanent change or "death" is inevitable.

Buuuuuuuuut, what if we try to play god and skew those laws of physics a bit. Alter them, or at least protect us from them in such a way that they no longer have any effect on us? Or maybe find something already here that hasn't been discovered yet that can do this. Sci-fi madness? Perhaps. But look at dark matter as opposed to visible matter. We can't detect dark matter directly but we know it's there and has an effect on us. What if we stumble upon a unique chemical that alters the normal actions of energy and entropy? It's still part of nature but it hasn't been used in such a way yet.

Just because we look around us and see birth and death everywhere...doesn't mean that we will never discover something unusual to interfere in that process. Our bodies may never be the same as they were and we could be a totally different animal as a result. In a way it's almost like balding. Since the dawn of time nature dictated that some of us must go bald and there is nothing that we can do about it. It is the LAW of the universe. But we know now that we can interfere with baldness. You might say that if it was that easy we'd have discovered immortality by now or see it already occuring in nature or the universe. But what about mutations? Rare, never-before seen physical changes in chemistry? A fluke of sorts.

Yes someday we might discover...or create...or maybe even be given by an advanced race of aliens a whole new set of physical laws to live by. But not die by.

Just because you are able to fantasize about something (not saying that you are even logical within the realms of your fantasies), doesn't make me erroneous lol. If you choose to believe that human beings (or whatever other carbon based organism you imagine could possibly be some day) can live forever (i.e. immortal), when our sun (solar system), galaxy, and possibly even universe will all cease to be... then ahhh Lol .... good for you? I guess.... lol. That's quite the optimistic imagination. I'd focus first on making it to 150 with no exponents after it and work your way up from there

*pumps myself up with nuclear-irradiated antioxidants* Hmmm, my skin is turning green and I feel like destroying things...ooops

Immortality is a pipe dream. It's like believing that your soul can be uploaded into a computer. Sadly, quite a few people seem to believe this stuff.

Between the ones who believe they are going somewhere after this, and the ones who believe they will be here forever- I'm not sure who I'm more frightened by! It's just another form of denial.

Oh ye of little faith. How about this? Nanotechnology to the rescue! Hordes of tiny little robots coursing thru our veins and arteries. Each a little doctor or repairman or garbage collector. Administering drugs, repairing cells and removing toxins. We can be better than the 6 million dollar man...or even the borg. Think of the possibilties!

fuck immortality, all I want is a full head of hair....