Mortality is a quality of life that arose from a biological environment that needed adaptation through natural selection to arrive. A quick succession of generations made this amzing feat of biological endurance through the odd billions possible. However, the prevailing belief that i've picked up from looking at futurists is that technology will superseed that adaptation with augmentation of small devices, and ultimately better monitoring of blood nutrient levels and the like. In short, it will be a super brain addition to monitoring health and productivity, in an internal way, just like the industrial revolution lead to contruction workers being supermen compared to workers of a hundred years ago.

Whether from society pressures about confronting a relatively short life, or from a spiritual need, the will to die will still be apparent in much of the population for some time. People who have their inner sides dialed out and attuned, like yoggis, choose to die at certain times, and have mastered the human condition well enough to do this with dignity. On a lesser note, people eat or drink for the temporary relief it grants, much like the pleasure that a religious type can sustain without. In a small way, all people able to beget another practice the social habit that attempts to provide bliss and connectedness to eachother and the world. And the idea of death is so engrained into the world, and an early one in those struggling with health, that many will grudgingly hold onto it to the grave, early or late. While the idea of an individual identity with just soul and no body is still the product of a ridiculous ego to me, the extension of the life of the body is not.

A greek once compared aging to the rubbing of edges and damages a triangle recieved during it's life. The jist was that a shape or initial state was given to a human at birth, and the amount it would live was determined by the amount of damage it would take, and this lead to a short or long life. Now, many such ideas arise in genomics and health studies, a concept of the total calories consumed being a set point for the end event, with time as a variable depending on how much one eats, for example. The aging ends tieing DNA strands closed, like the glue or tape holding ones shoelace tight where the stop provid another idea of the aging process as gradual change to this moments conditiona. So with this mentality in mind, and the damage limiting technology predicted to be close at hand (a matter of decades) the crux of the argument for life prolongment is rested. While no one, least not the scientist who first conceptualize original ideas, can predict the future events and developments, along with the way other people will apply new ideas, the technology prediction for grades like speed increase and price decrease have held fairly accurate.

Population is a problem, but whether the current lives longer, and more efficiently, has little to do with the current crisis. Not having kids would be a blessing for others who depend on resources currently and perhaps in the future. My point is that whether or not we have a large population, nature will reset itself one way or another. Population will be a big factor in that run down, but longer and more enjoyable life is part of the solution, long term. Think about the mental contribution to the population that more people could have then.

I really don't know if I want to live longer or shorter than I'm going at the current rate, which is exactly why I'll try to clean up what I can until I decide, or time decides for me! Of course I've thought about it, some thinking being, or train of thought existing throught times, But i've always shut it out as a not yet does this person need to debate such matters. Given providence of a natural, universal kind, this may not be the case so long from now.

Interesting!
Wonder what eventually will be done with that knowledge!

There's actually several immortal species currently. Jellyfish and hydras being a couple.

The singularity project seeks immortality by the year 2045. It may sound farfetched, but scientific progress has achieved countless things that were once thought to be impossible. Whether the deadline (pardon the pun) is met or not, it will be interesting to see how things pan out.

It doesn't sound farfetched. It may happen sooner.

That is an erroneous assumption. The price of immortality comes at the cost of your very mortal soul. That price is far too high for me.

Overcrowding is not a problem - it's a big universe. Our species has already (decades ago) traveled from this planet to our moon and returned safely. It can't be too far in the future when we will be able to travel farther and establish independent communities elsewhere. Meanwhile, advancing technologies will extend the carrying capacity of the earth, which hasn't even been reached yet under current technologies.

People who say they don't want to live forever are probably assuming that it would bring ever declining health, as is the case with aging today. Ray Kurzweil claims that the immortality we are very near achieving will include the ability to dial our physical condition back to that of a healthy young adult and keep it that way indefinitely.

If the technology became available, reliable and safe, choosing not to take advantage of it would be the equivalent of suicide. Why would any reasonable 85 year old who has the health of a 25 year old choose to die at that particular age instead of ten years sooner or ten years later? Don't say, "Because it's what nature (or God) intended", because we're long past that point already; without the human interventions of medicine, housing, agriculture, etc. we'd all still be dying before 35 or 40, the way nature originally intended. We have never refused age extension technologies before, and I doubt we will going forward.

The issue of it being an evolution-stopper is an interesting point, but we have clearly already started influencing the path of our own evolution and with advances in genetic science, etc. the very mechanisms of evolution will transfer into our own hands. It's not unreasonable to think that at some point "evolutionary" adjustments can be made to existing individuals.

When your grandparents were children no one could imagine a time when an ordinary nine year old might carry a pocket sized computer thousands of times more powerful than the one used to fly that first man to the moon. Such a time has arrived. Advances will be coming at us faster every day. Buckle your seatbelt and prepare your mind.

Oh I so DON'T want to live forever. The world would be over-crowded, government will be even more corrupt, food will be more scarce, there'd be more violence, more disease's, even more unavailable housing, people running riot. This is how I honestly see the world being, in about sixty years time. I think it'll be a much poorer place. Then there's the fact you can't talk to family or friends, because they will be dead. It would all just feel terrible. It especially worries me how I will cope once my mum dies. I've been her sidekick most of her life. And once she "goes", I think I'll feel lost for quite a while.

I hope it never happens...To many negative consequences!

Immortality on the surface is a very seducing concept to many but, think about this.

You would have to keep it secret because alot of greedy, wealthy and powerful people would do anything to continue thier existence. What's more, you would never age which means you would have to change your identity and location every 15 years.

All of this would doom you to always staying out of tv, newspapers etc etc etc. There are a finite places on this planet to go before eventually ending up where you started and hoping nobody is alive that remembers you there.

You would never be safe from world governments or the religious believers.

Mankind has always delutted themselves with false religious beliefs and lusts for power and wealth. An immortal would be a lonely and hidden life to avoid those others who are desperate.


In closing, let's not forget one day the sun will expand and obliterate earth. What for the immortal yhen? Go to another planet light years away ?