Immortality By 2050

Converging technology in the fields of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science are making super intelligent machines, artificial intelligence and human biological enhancement a reality. So what are the implications of this, "ever accelerating progress of technology and changes in the mode of human life,"? One of the most exciting, in my opinion is the possibility of brain-computer interfaces. If we can create a virtual world to enter before we die, the character and knowledge of every human that ever lives can be preserved...




New Scientist talks to Aubrey de Grey, Nick Bostrom and Anders Sandberg about how we could become immortal.




In February of 2012 the first Global Future 2045 Congress was held in Moscow. There, over 50 world leading scientists from multiple disciplines met to develop a strategy for the future development of humankind. One of the main goals of the Congress was to construct a global network of scientists to further research on the development of cybernetic technology, with the ultimate goal of transferring a human's individual consciousness to an artificial carrier.




"First we build the tools, then they build us"
- Marshall McLuhan
TURNING INTO GODS is a new feature length documentary exploring mankind's journey to 'play jazz with the universe'... it is a story of our ultimate potential, the reach of our intelligence, the scope of our scientific and engineering abilities and the transcendent quality of our heroic and noble calling

I actually though this thread was about biology's attempt to find the biological clock within
each living cell, and turn it off.....the fountain of youth, so to speak. so I was a little
disappointed to find out this was something else.

And although I've seen idea's like these presented in many movies, it looks interesting.
The best movie about this kind of tech was (I think) "The Sixth Day" with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
--where a human's previous consciousness was uploaded into a surrogate clone when the
original person died.

I'm not really all that excited about the idea of living inside a computer...and in fact it wouldn't
actually be my consciousness, but like in the movie I mentioned, would only be a copy of me.

This topic always interests me.

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm excited about the possibilities. We will finally have the chance to learn everything there is to know. And I always like learning new things.

Imagine the advances we can make if say a person can become a master in particle physics, and metallurgy. Exciting stuff.

I made a thread on part of this topic a few months ago.
Reaching brain capacity

cheating death will be a never ending vain search, you can't cheat death, there's only one way man will be able to live in a body forever, the resurrection, the resurrected body has no blood, i suppose in replace of the blood there will be something that keeps the body rejuvenated forever, religion and science do meet at one point and do become one and the same, we are cavemen & thinking we can extend life longer than a few decades is not in our reach & never will be, past the era of methuselah the bible does state somewhere that God shortened the days of man, limiting their lifespan, can't remember the exact age but it's somewhere around 130.

reply to post by seudonymous


It probably is going that direction but to end up somehow being the one that gets a longer life or everlasting life on this earth would be the greatest curse you could ever dream of. Like look at the vampire movies. All the vampires always say "I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy". That's because there's only so much you can experience in this life. It's designed in such a way that within 70-100 years you've experienced most of it. Your bored with it at that point and you just want to move onto see what's in the next life.

The other point I should mention is we're all immortal already. After you die you'll keep living. You'll either go to heaven or hell. So it's wise to get to know your maker while you still have time. That way there won't be as many surprises when you pass on.

But ya I agree that the elitists are trying to accomplish this as they're way of somehow avoiding hell, and just staying here. For the most part it's just a fairy tale because there's not enough time most likely to accomplish this kind of thing. You'd also have to be an elistist to even have a chance to see if it works. Which you're not so you can forget about this technology turning up at Best Buy. But we have a better version of this anyway, the bible describes it all, how it works, how you can get it now etc etc. ha ha.

President of Iran

He will come to return all children of Adam irrespective of their skin colors to their innate origin after a long history of separation and division linking them to eternal happiness. m.latinospost.com...

 

This idea is called by many names
"ascension"
"spiritual awakening"
"global consciousness"
"spiritual evolution"
"the Christ consciousness"
"evolution of consciousness"
"the divinity within"
"dimensional uplift"
"transhumanism"
"post humanism"

....Hinduism, New Age, Freemasonry, Shiite Islam, Buddhism, Mormonism, apostate Christianity, Mayan "elders", ufology cults, New Age religions....

The fact is, this whole idea has been given to us by the spirit world, almost without exception. Every single one of those religions espouse the belief that "man is becoming god", and their core dogmas and doctrines derive from channeled entities. Funny that these entities claim numerous identities - extraterrestrials, spirit guides, ascended masters, Christ, Matraiya, humans from the past or future...yet give the same promises as in the Garden of Eden - that through gnosis (knowledge) that man can become like god, and not die because of it. The word serpent comes from the Hebrew word nachash which means to learn something through divination.

And herein lies science who will provide the means. Atheists, who look to science as their source of truth, lap it up just as much as those converts above. 

President of Iran

He will come and he will cut through ignorance, superstition, prejudice by opening the gates of science and knowledge.

This really should scare you, not excite you. Billions around the world actually believe that man will become divine...like god....

"Man is becoming god" - ADOLPH HITLER

We were told in Revelation that Satan would be released to go out and deceive the nations once again....and he's been hard at work. We sat for thousands of years in basic primitive conditions, only to forget this fact as knowledge has increased exponentially in the past two centuries leading us to another world judgement. The end was declared from the beginning and it seems that man will choose the same path as our ancestors.

Its not that hard really, there are a couple of ways we could go about it. We can already grow humans from stem cells, its just a matter of growing healthy bodies (minus the brain, because of moral implications of coarse) for your brain to be transplanted into once your body gets too old or damaged. Nanobots would be used to constantly maintain the brain to keep it healthy.
Or the quicker, cheaper option will be to create an avatar for our brain to control, or just an old fashion robot.

There are really only engineering issues stopping us from taking a complete scan of the brain and replicating that structure in a digital world. Our thoughts are just a neuron becoming excitable in the nervous system which processes and transmits information by electrochemical signaling. nothing we can't artificially reproduce...

I don't see how religion is in anyway relevant to this thread!

reply to post by rival


Agree, a simulacrum, the same issue is valid to personal teleportation, also possible in the future (only requires lots of computing power and a capable replicator). If a mind can be fully mapped and copied a better avenue would be cloning, a lot easier on the resources and complexity.

reply to post by Panic2k11


The problem with cloning is, there are still people taking up physical space. The population will probably start to level off as more people get out of poverty but there still isn't enough space for us all, especially if we want to conserve some of Earths natural wonders.
I think we will need to find a way to digitalize our consciousness, so people can download into avatars/ machines/ clones etc but then upload back into the cloud when they have done whatever in the physical world. But that will be a fair ways off yet, and we will probably have colonized space by then. It's hard to say what the technological singularity will bring.

Science is closing in on the mechanism responsible for aging. It's the tiny clock in each cell.
Once we isolate it and can manipulate it we can stop the cell from aging.

We are not far from that point...I've even heard scientists say that there are people who are alive
today who will live to be two, or possibly three hundred save for accident and disease.

reply to post by rival


What effect do you think it will have on the social structure? If we continue to populate the world at the rate we are, the last remaining pockets of nature will be wiped out. If we can find a way to cap our population- and more importantly our greed- it will be fine, but I don't see that happening anytime soon. So I think we have to be very careful, we don't want too create more reasons for conflict. But apart from the social issues we are already trying too solve, I think a longer life expectancy can only be a good thing.

reply to post by seudonymous


Not that I wouldn't mind a decline in demographics but the idea that there isn't enough space for us all is a fallacy, there isn't in the current setup. There are plenty of space at sea, even deserts that would benefit from new forms of urbanization, even underground, what we need is better planing and stop wasting good land and optimize the use of space (some steps have already been taken for that change).

We are still in the middle of a population shift toward urban areas, it takes time. Climate change will probably force drastic changes (I wish that governments would get jail time when things get very bad and no real preventive steps were taken)

In any I only mentioned cloning because of the "copy" bit, there is no real usefulness in (full) clones not even in animals, except for exceptional performance (sports, etc) If I was one to bet I would say that the first human clone will be some pop musician

reply to post by Panic2k11

I agree, everyone on Earth could live on a single continent if we could all learn too cooperate. I think technology is advancing so fast we are left fumbling to catch up. I don't think people can remain ignorant for too much longer...

Originally posted by Panic2k11
reply to post by seudonymous

 

In any I only mentioned cloning because of the "copy" bit, there is no real usefulness in (full) clones not even in animals, except for exceptional performance (sports, etc) If I was one to bet I would say that the first human clone will be some pop musician

edit on 16-11-2012 by Panic2k11 because: (no reason given)

Well an abundant source of meat through the use of stem cells could be revolutionary. We could feed the entire world with the genetic material from one cow. There would still be farming, but for quality not quantity, no domestic animal ever has to suffer. And you can already get a clone of your pet!
The first human clone?.. I'm pretty sure some billionaire mad scientist has already done it. There are companies that are already offering the service... clonaid

reply to post by Panic2k11


The problem with over population lies not in how much physical space we have, but how much airable(soil that can grow vegetation) land there is.

As for the immortality issue, I think this has often been misunderstood. I think that immortality is simply an ability to carry on the knowdege and memories you've had from this life to the next. They talked something like that in your first video, except with them trying to upload your conciousness into an AI interface. I'm not sure this is where the issue is. The issue is in the birth, where we forget about the past lives we've had. I think this has something to do with the brains ability to retain information, and the way that your brain accesses your soul, your you in a sense.

ETA: cloning wouldn't work either simply because it is a copy of you. It is not you and you will not have access to that clones mentality. They are simply copies, not something that manifests souls.

reply to post by openeyeswideshut


The way I expect immortality to be achieved is this:

At some point in the next 15 - 20 years, we will be able to 3D print a fully functioning human body. Then, not too much later we will be able to do this while removing predispositions, precursors, or defects that cause diseases. Then the same for the switches that cause aging.

Blammo! Immortal body.

Then we will be able to transplant the mind from your current body into your new one.

reply to post by seudonymous


World?? You kidding me

You think we'll be able to attain immortality before we can acquire resources outside terra and colonize other spheres? ?

We don't have a lack of resources, we have a lack of imagination.

reply to post by unityemissions


I think due to Murphy's law and converging technology they will happen about the same time. Google and the owner of pay pal (I think it is) already have an asteroid mining company, Planning their first scouting mission in 2015. And there have been talks of a manned mission to mars by 2020, so we are not far off.
As others have said, immortality wont be the result of a single technology. Young people today will be able to extend their life by a a hundred years or so. This will extend their life long enough to take advantage of brain transplant type immortality, and eventually will be able to extract their consciousness... I think the second video is a good guide to how long these technologies will take to developed, it'll probably be another twenty years on top of that before its widely available.
I would defiantly agree there is a shortage of imagination in the world today.

every immortal i ever met was severely depressed, i'm not sure if immortality is such a blessing.
i don't want to cling on to this existence, death is part of life too, i don't fear life's certain outcome.

note: the claim of having met immortal beings was inserted for means of illustrating a point.

We are not far away from life extending technologies. They have shown promising results in the labs to slow down the aging process in order to give people more time as they research more powerful life extending technologies. In 50 years there will probably be extensions of decades, if not centuries, to the human life span.

reply to post by UziLiberman


oh, don't get me started on those immortals!
A lot of people will feel this way, it will be a massive shift of our paradigm. A part of me hopes the Amish stick to their ways, so at least there will always be at least a pocket of humanity that doesn't forget how to use tools. The possibilities of these development are too mind blowing too ignore.