[jumptrooper]

Here's a snippet from a Time Magazine article that seemed like an interesting topic:

Quote

...it's well known that one cause of the physical degeneration associated with aging involves telomeres, which are segments of DNA found at the ends of chromosomes. Every time a cell divides, its telomeres get shorter, and once a cell runs out of telomeres, it can't reproduce anymore and dies. But there's an enzyme called telomerase that reverses this process; it's one of the reasons cancer cells live so long. So why not treat regular non-cancerous cells with telomerase? In November, researchers at Harvard Medical School announced in Nature that they had done just that. They administered telomerase to a group of mice suffering from age-related degeneration. The damage went away. The mice didn't just get better; they got younger.

Aubrey de Grey is one of the world's best-known life-extension researchers and a Singularity Summit veteran. A British biologist with a doctorate from Cambridge and a famously formidable beard, de Grey runs a foundation called SENS, or Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence. He views aging as a process of accumulating damage, which he has divided into seven categories, each of which he hopes to one day address using regenerative medicine. "People have begun to realize that the view of aging being something immutable—rather like the heat death of the universe—is simply ridiculous," he says. "It's just childish. The human body is a machine that has a bunch of functions, and it accumulates various types of damage as a side effect of the normal function of the machine. Therefore in principal that damage can be repaired periodically. This is why we have vintage cars. It's really just a matter of paying attention. The whole of medicine consists of messing about with what looks pretty inevitable until you figure out how to make it not inevitable."

The full article was about the future of AI and "the Singularity" and is definitely worth a read. This quote came from the third page (I think).

I don't think I would want to live in this world if death were not a factor...

What do others think?

[BenignDesign]

I think there has to be some horrendous side effect not yet discovered.

[Kilorn]

I'd do it in a heartbeat. There's so much that I want to witness and a single lifetime on this planet isn't enough.

[macosxnerd101]

Immortality leads to Zombies.

[Creecher]

I would do it. Then I would have the rest of forever to watch television and experience sexual intercourse at some point.

[macosxnerd101]

It's gonna suck when both your hands fall off.

[Creecher]

macosxnerd101, on 10 February 2011 - 12:37 PM, said:

It's gonna suck when both your hands fall off.

[jumptrooper]

Consider this:
You live forever - YAY!

but wait!

So does your boss...

[macosxnerd101]

Sorry Martyr2, that means you are forever stuck in Chris' basement.

[BenignDesign]

macosxnerd101, on 10 February 2011 - 12:37 PM, said:

It's gonna suck when both your hands fall off.

I lol'd. Out loud. Frrl.

[jumptrooper]

Other things to consider:
Overpopulation, food and resource shortages, who is allowed to undergo this treatment?, death penalty, reproductive rights, human tendency towards greed and exploitation, when do you get your driver's license, when do you vote, would your memory keep up with you or would you forget stuff that happened 100 years ago...

I say you get your driver's license by 200! Vote when you're 500!

Other other things to consider:
Adam lived to be 930 and Methuselah lived to be 969 - so it's been done
Long distance space travel might be a cool option to address some of the above concerns...

[dorknexus]

I dunno about living forever but living for a few hundred years might not be so bad.

[onlineconnect]

Aubrey de Grey........... didn't he have a Great Grandfather called Dorian?

[jumptrooper]

Dark_Nexus, on 10 February 2011 - 10:09 AM, said:

I dunno about living forever but living for a few hundred years might not be so bad.

I agree - which brings up the issue of how such a procedure/substance would be distributed and when it's withheld.

[baavgai]

If I could life forever; sure. I might finally get all the crap done I've been putting off. (Ok, probably not. )

If everyone could live forever? Shoot me now. That's horror movie material. We already have too many people; the planet could use a good die off. VHEMT! Seriously.

Pass the Soylent Green...