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> By that token normal reproduction qualifies as immortality ... As a kind of immortality, yes. It's not even just DNA, it's actual cells that were part of the

• Retric 5mo ago
  My point is because it doesn’t qualify at the organism or cellular level this doesn’t either. > actual cells that were part of the individual that stay alive beyond any age limit Neither the egg or sperm or egg cell survive to birth. Only descendent cells with wildly different DNA do.
  • spwa4 5mo ago
    I think given that all your cells directly are the egg, there is a strong argument to be made of the reverse. Close to 100.000 cells make the reverse change, in girls (they become egg cells, and potentially the next generation). There's a continuous cycle keeping (some of) these cells alive. A cycle that has been running one way or another, for 4.3 billion years.
    • Retric 5mo ago
      Biologically when a cell in invaded by foreign organism who inserts it’s DNA and the cell now spits out copies of the foreign genome that’s often a viral infection. From that perspective it’s arguably the sperm that’s preserved and using the eggs cellular machinery. In either case calling it the same organism is stretching the definition of same well past its breaking point. Like you can apply the word “same” if you want, but what’s actually happening is isn’t a simple continuation of the original organism any more than a clone is the same organism and at least that’s more closely related genetically.