Defeating Death

[Balagor]

Well said, S :thumbsup:

[MonsterHunterMaster]

Even tough I'm very young, I'm not afraid of death. I'm very careful in anything I do, you know (Even though I get hurt in almost anything I do - Yeah, last week I couldnt really move cuz I hurt my back and about 2 days later my knee got really fat so I wasn't able to walk properly again. On the same day I burnt my hand twice in school...and that was just one week..). Also I'm living very healthy, eating not so much bad stuff and I also do a lot of sports. So if the Dead is trying to get me in my younger years, I will kick his ass! ;D

[brokenergy]

What happened to aging gracefully? Age is not a disease it is a fact of life and if you stop aging you cause cancer (literally). There is a little gene in our DNA that is responsible for replenishment of cells in with the same amount of DNA (our DNA gets shorter as we get old because of all the replication of cell in our bodies). If this gets activated, it will cause cancer. I just hope that people would understand that aging is good, it is the natural process and it must happen but our image obsessed society won't let would it go that easily.

[Keanumoreira]

A cure for aging should never be researched, its just not right. Now research to prolong life yes, but not make humans immortal other than accidents and murder, no, seriously, why would someone do this? If humans were to never age, sex would be useless, and our population would sky rocket, making population explosions seem like population inflation. This would be the worst disaster to date, even if we manage to colonize other planets because of all the anarchy that would occur, simply because of resources; if people don't die from aging, they certainly would die from constant war, eventually we would destroy ourselves I would imagine; it'll be like the Fallout series all over again. :nuke: :down:

[XxquinnzoxX]

I do not think that aging should be eliminated, or even prolonged longer than it has been. I do not welcome death, but if I died in a minute, I wouldn't regret what I have done, nor what I haven't. You just gotta live your life, and when you numbers pulled, thats that. Also, am I the only one who thinks that being 500 years old would get pretty damned boring.

[Zephyr2011]

I do not think that aging should be eliminated, or even prolonged longer than it has been. I do not welcome death, but if I died in a minute, I wouldn't regret what I have done, nor what I haven't. You just gotta live your life, and when you numbers pulled, thats that. Also, am I the only one who thinks that being 500 years old would get pretty damned boring.

 

Nope. I think I'd run out of insanity to cause. Either that or my conscience(sp? never can spell that right, always looks funny) and cause more insanity but the immoral, illegal kind instead of the harmless, hilarious kind.

[XxquinnzoxX]

I do not think that aging should be eliminated, or even prolonged longer than it has been. I do not welcome death, but if I died in a minute, I wouldn't regret what I have done, nor what I haven't. You just gotta live your life, and when you numbers pulled, thats that. Also, am I the only one who thinks that being 500 years old would get pretty damned boring.

 

Nope. I think I'd run out of insanity to cause. Either that or my conscience(sp? never can spell that right, always looks funny) and cause more insanity but the immoral, illegal kind instead of the harmless, hilarious kind.

Wouldn't a life sentence to prison suck? I mean, you'd be there for all eternity :P And, you spelled Conscience right.

[ub3rman123]

I don't think research on eternal life should be blocked. In my opinion, it's futile, I can't fathom a way it's possible. Human bodies just don't last that long. Every scar is permanant. A man near death looks pretty bad after all his life, but imagine one who has lived a thousand years. That's some serious wear and tear. Like zombie-style people.

 

Meanwhile, if eternal life were possible, it'd be interesting, provided one could 'opt-out' and just die. I could get a lot more work done.

[Zephyr2011]

I don't think research on eternal life should be blocked. In my opinion, it's futile, I can't fathom a way it's possible. Human bodies just don't last that long. Every scar is permanant. A man near death looks pretty bad after all his life, but imagine one who has lived a thousand years. That's some serious wear and tear. Like zombie-style people.

 

Meanwhile, if eternal life were possible, it'd be interesting, provided one could 'opt-out' and just die. I could get a lot more work done.

It is theoretically possible by developing catalysts to cause enough cell replication to outstride apoptosis however it'd cause cancer unless you had a cure for it or until the cells just don't have the genetic coding to function properly however we don't know for sure how long a nerve cell would last because the reason they die is either they're destroyed by external means or the rest of the body dies so they have nothing to give them life. Theoretically you could also use stem cells (not from embryos but ones harvested from yourself earlier in life and cultured to make a bunch of organs) to replace any tissues where the DNA has become unviable. This is all theoretical however if put into practice very feasible but the ethical question of if we should, as with any Biomedical Engineering, must be considered first (else we have a similar issue as in Jurraissic park where we got up in if we can we don't ask if we should and we get ourselves screwed over)

[kidwitthafro]

I'm reading alot about apoptosis in this topic. do neurons undergo apoptosis as well? It is my understanding, that apoptosis does not cause aging (although it may be correlated with it), but rather ends a particular cell's life...however the cell cycle continues. Cells reproduce as well as deteriorate. Where is the conclusion being drawn that preventing aging means preventing apoptosis? Why can we not have cell death in a body that does not age? the water hydra is believed to not age, however their cells still die...although they don't age, they don't seem to have over populated. Surely if we prevented aging, then we would do it in a way that would avoid causing cancer. Causing cancer would defeat the purpose of prolonging a life to begin with.

 

more information on the water hydra here: http://www.biochem.uci.edu/steele/PDFs/Hydra_senescence_paper.pdf

 

I admit, perhaps immortality is a bit of a hyperbole, but why not eliminate aging? People could still die of incurable illnesses, accidents etc. I myself, do not think that the quality of life changes depending on how long it's been lived. Why not allow those who want to live longer, the opportunity to do so?

 

As for overpopulation, i read a study that longevity has little effect on population. I believe it was this one: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20426616

 

Instead, it is my understanding that overpopulation is more of a socio-economic consequence. It can be observed from the population at large, that the wealthier and more learned someone is, the less kids they have (and need)

 

not to mention, overpopulation would take decades, and would likely be working against many other factors (including the fear of it...)

 

I do not fear death, but I also do not long for it. Speaking of fear, why is a long life so fearful? now that, i believe is a real problem that says volumes about the world we live in...