Would You Want To Be Immortal?

in #life7 years ago

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There are many desires that we humans have and death is certainly not one of them. Of course, we are all aware of this inevitability and yet we live like we have all the time in the world.

The thing is, life is fickle and we could be taken away from our loved ones at any time, owing to unnatural causes like diseases or accidents. Even if we are lucky and end up having a normal life, we will still get old and die of old age.

Our biological bodies are literally designed to get old and die. I guess that’s how nature ensures balance where the old perish, making room for newer life to take its place.

We have all seen people in movies trying to conquer death and failing miserably. Such people are often portrayed as villains for trying to break nature’s rule. But what when we try to achieve the same goal ourselves. Right now, some of the best minds are working on methods to increase human lifespan and in the future, we might even reach immortality.

Human Longevity - Already A Reality

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Thanks to rapidly advancing technology, human lifespan has already increased a lot in the past century. In 1900, the world average life expectancy at birth was just 31! Compare that to the world average of 71.5 in 2014.

Yes, the lower number a century back was majorly influenced by high infant mortality rate but it was only one factor amongst many. There was a lack of cure for diseases that we now consider common in today’s day and age.

Medical science has surely come a long way, equipping us with tools that help ensure that we live a longer life and are able to fight off diseases. Also, we have cutting edge surgical technology now, the latest of which includes robots performing complex surgery!

So, we have already taken major strides in human longevity and yet, we are just getting started. Longevity is not the final destination. We might one day end up being immortals.

Immortality - A Product In The Future?

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Immortality sure sounds like something only a mad scientist would pursue. But so much work is being done on expanding human longevity that directly or indirectly, all of it may lead to us being immortals one day.

By now, I am guessing you must be aware of the development of nanobots that will one day swim in swarms within our body taking care of any ailments whatsoever and continuously repairing our cells and keeping us healthy as long as possible.

Then there are genetic modification technologies which are slowly becoming a reality. Remember I told you that we are designed to get old in the beginning of this post? Yeah, genetic modification will help us change that design if we would so wish to.

Then there will be cures for all the incurable diseases right now. In fact, if genetic modification is mastered, we could virtually be immune to any sort of diseases whatsoever.

Then there are bio-enhancements. Right now these are limited to only some parts of our body but in the not so distant future, we will be able to replace any organ or part of our body with an artificial one which would work just as good and could be replaced any number of times. It would be like upgrading your body parts just like we update our smartphones today!!

And then there is something so crazy and so distant in the future and so far fetched that even talking about it is making me feel a little crazy but nonetheless it is something that is being worked upon. I am talking about downloading your consciousness into a machine (robot for example) and essentially becoming an immortal.

Is It Ethical?

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For a second let’s forget about when/if it will ever be possible for us humans to become immortal. Let’s discuss the ethics of such a thing. Immortality means indefinite time and I believe that the only thing that gives meaning to life is the limited time.

First of all, immortality will cause an obvious strain on resources. If everyone becomes immortal and the next generation of people are again immortal, where will we even all fit?

Then there are more abstract problems. What would one even do with an infinite life? When and if we do reach such a stage in our technological innovation, rest assured that the problems plaguing our current civilisation, will have been long solved. Who knows we might not even have to work in the future.

What would one do with such a long and frankly, a life that would get boring after the first 100 years on the planet. In my personal opinion, the only thing that could give meaning to an immortal would be to explore the entirety of the cosmos. Maybe one day we will all be doing just that.

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I would love to become immortal I think that would be awesome! I think that with the help of virtual reality living forever would be very unlikely to become boring. When using virtual reality especially once it becomes super advanced you will be able to do anything you can imagine. I think immortality could likely be achieved relatively soon. I actually wrote an article on my blog about the multiple ways we will be able to become immortal relatively soon whether its through biological means or non-biological means.
Here is the article: https://steemit.com/sciencefiction/@digitalcosmos555/futurtopia-2-living-forever
This article goes very well with this one.
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Great article @digitalcosmos555 - I wish that I was 18 also! Following you and hoping for more content on this subject.

Yes, the virtual reality thing could help. But immortality is a really long time and I doubt that VR would be sufficient for eternity!

I like your post. I think humans will be further divided when immortality becomes a reality, which is very soon. In fact, I just made a post on human immortality through science. Perhaps you or the readers here might find it interesting as well. Here is the link: https://steemit.com/life/@bba/eternal-life-vs-eternal-youth-if-you-have-to-choose-what-would-it-be

yeah, it will be available to the rich guys first. And I doubt that everyone will get their hands on it, thus, creating a divide.

As the founder of the Fountain Longevity Circle here on Steemit [ @flc ] I too want to live for a long, long, long time. I am 45 years old myself. I think that it's possible that we reach longevity escape velocity before I kick the bucket. But it is probable that it will happen for my children... IF we make it happen. Thanks for raising this issue here on Steemit, as I have found many good thinkers in the comments thread! #longevity

Immortality is something that I spend a lot of time thinking about and I really think that it is inevitable. Larry Page, for what I think of him does have some of his minions working on that very problem and the fact that they've been extra secretive about it makes me think there are some breakthroughs that we don't yet know about.

Immortality is hard to come by, but there are interesting things coming up soon that will largely help get longer lives. Take personalized cancer treatments for example. Think how nice that would be! Not knowing if a treatment will work or not is bad enough as it is but I am glad people are researching solutions.

Hmm, I haven't read about that yet. Will need to check that one out. But yes, a lot of work is being done on this right now. It might be years from now, but I suspect we will be able to crack the code of life.

Brave of you to engage in such a multi-dimensional question like that. I believe that we are in the perfect spot right now. Being able to live a long life if lucky and giving years to the unlucky ones in order to prepare themselves and their loved ones for their death. In the end it all depends in the state humans will be when they are north of one hundred years old. Their phychological needs and their ability to meet them. I highly doubt long life will ever be a priviledge to the majority of people to tell the truth.

The 100 year mark sure sounds totally enough for a life. But that's just me. People always want more. Yeah, I think that in the beginning it will only be available to a handful of people.

This comment has received a 0.08 % upvote from @booster thanks to: @theokritos.

According to the myth of Atlantis, the wisest people there found a way to live as long as they wanted. Most choosing to end it after 1000 years if I remember correctly.

Now, we know that this is a biological possibility regards to telomerase. In animal models they have already expanded life (health) span in animals by 11 times. In a human, this meens 800 years long life.

In the bible you can also read about some people living to I think more than 900 years.

Could it be some truth to it? :)

In a second.... im currently trying to live to be 110 years old, hopefully by then we have machines that can trsnafer conciousness.... ill be living in a robot body in no time...still buying and using steem power

If you live until 2030 then there is a decent chance that you will be able to live forever. You should check out my article here if you want more information on why what I said is most likely true.
https://steemit.com/sciencefiction/@digitalcosmos555/futurtopia-2-living-forever

To each his own :) I wouldn't like to live in a machine. My mind may change if I see how awesome it would be ;)

Interesting read, this subject has always interested me. I can see benefits and draw backs to both sides. The human side wants to say yes, let me live forever, but then a bit of nihilism sets in saying what would it all be for then. I can still give meaning to things even if I were to live forever. I do think that a form of immortality is not that far off. With the rapid progression of our tech, we will soon be able to program out cells on a molecular level. This could prevent us from aging. I suggest everyone read some of what Ray Kurzweil has written, here is a link to his wiki.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Kurzweil

yeah, that programming of cells has already started. Our genetic modification tech is rapidly progressing.

Yes indeed. Here is a good article, kind of scary but i shouls make it to the 2030s.

https://www.google.com/amp/m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_560555a0e4b0af3706dbe1e2/amp

The scariest part is just how accurate Ray is in his predictions.

Reproduction is like a quest for immortality. We strive to "go on" somehow. If we all became immortal, there would not be any need to reproduce anymore. That takes care the "where to fit" issue :D
As of boredom, you are right. Life as we know it would lose its meaning. Perhaps it would gain a new one. Not reproducing would probably mean not evolving biologically, apart from artificial means. We would still have the same instincts that remain with us until now, no matter how many years would have passed. That could only change when we slowly turned into robots, replacing our brain neurons with artificial ones or uploading our conscience onto a computer. Would we still be considered immortal? Our human nature would have died.
There is no such thing as immortal :)

I have thought about it too and I always come to the same conclusions that if we ever become immortal, we would stop reproducing altogether. There just wouldn't be a need from a biological view point.

I absolutely love that last part!! :D

As a kid I was always thinking of what would've been my 3 wishes if i find a genie or catch the golden fish and Immortality was one of the things that was on the list usually. Now that I think of it as an adult it might be a but selfish but i would probably still wish for something at least close.. maybe just a lot longer live not infinite because there is so much to learn and to be done that the human life simply isn't enough to experience it all. Good post.. makes you think about it a bit more. :)

That's a nice way to put it! Thanks for reading :)