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Has the First Person to Achieve Immortality Already Been Born?
- melling 11y agoI didn't realize that we've made any progress towards extending the maximum human lifespan. It's probably a lot harder than we think. I guess we're at the point where Jules Verne was in the late 19th century; we like to dream big.
- scarmig 11y agoI'm hoping the first person to achieve immortality was born at least 29 years ago.
- ffn 11y agoIf you read between the lines of this guy's comment, you can infer he is implying that he will get to be the first immortal person.
- nrb 11y agoI read it as him hoping that the first immortal person will be his senior (increasing the likelihood of immortality for himself), and not his junior (reducing that likelihood).
- jmorrow977 11y agoSame here. My email is in my account profile, please get in touch. Cooperation improves our odds.
- mhurron 11y agoYou won't really know until they don't die.
- gallamine 11y agoIt's kind of like being a cancer "survivor" - XKCD explained it well: https://xkcd.com/931/ https://xkcd.com/931/
- sonnyz 11y agoThe comic has that one part a bit wrong. You're considered a cancer survivor as soon as you're diagnosed with cancer.
- walterbell 11y agoUnless they undergo cosmetic surgery and adopt a new identity.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- tenpoundhammer 11y agoAssuming we could keep the human body alive forever, I don't think we could handle it a person would eventually go insane. Also it would get incredibly boring at some point and I imagine the suicide rate would be somewhere near a 100% or at minimum people would allow themselves to die. I definitely don't want to live forever. So my answer is No, and no one will ever be immortal.
- Zikes 11y agoIt really depends on what sort of definition you have for immortality. I would say in this case it would be the ability to live until you choose for yourself not to live any longer, not necessarily that you can never die. I disagree that it would drive people insane, though, excepting the increasing chances for mental illness to set in as we age which I would assume would be solved as a part of the implementation of immortality as a concept. Our perception of time changes as we age, the passing of a single year takes on less and less meaning each time, becomes less of a milestone and more of just another regular occurrence. Depending on how we go about achieving immortality, time may take on dimensions we can't currently understand, and we may even have the option to choose not to perceive its passing at all.
- mattmanser 11y agoSiri, what's my favourite memory? Hi Matt, going on the Mars Safari is your favourite memory. Siri, store Mars Safari memories, wipe from my soft drive and book a ticket on a Mars safari. Never bored again.
- pyrrhotech 11y agoWhat is boring about it? Is living 40 years more boring than living 30? What about living 1000 years instead of living 100 years? At what point does it become boring? It's hard for humans to conceptualize eternity, so don't think of it in those terms. If I could live in my current body for 1000 years, I'd still never get around to most of my backlog of things I'd like to do. Boredom is mostly caused by lack of purpose IMO. As long as there is something to learn, something to explore, something to achieve, something new or pleasurable to experience, boredom is the last thing I'd worry about.
- SAI_Peregrinus 11y agoThe second law of thermodynamics answers this question with a definitive "no".
- Zikes 11y agoImmortal for certain definitions of forever.
- crimsonalucard 11y agoMaybe not forever, but eons.
- darkmighty 11y agoEven if we had a "permanent" energy source, we have only a finite number of atoms. So one day we would actually also be guaranteed to cycle our thoughts. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poincar%C3%A9_recurrence_theorem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poincar%C3%A9_recurrence_theore... So for me true immortality is not only about unbounded time but also unbounded size, neither of which seems achievable. For all purposes of regular human condition though, an approximation is good enough.
- jshevek 11y agoThey aren't speaking literally. From my point of view, a human who can live, say, 10,000 years is as good as 'immortal'. Sure its literally wrong, but I heard webster now defines 'literally' as 'figuratively' so I'm ready to give up on pedantry.
- Zikes 11y agoThere's a short story of a woman who was a bit of a luddite, but late in life her children and grandchildren convinced her to adopt "upgrades" here and there, until she became almost entirely virtual. She retained much of her humanity, but was able to be in many places at once, "inhabiting" purpose-built bodies, and building up a certain reputation and popularity. Eventually humanity's probes make contact with aliens, and she's chosen to be humanity's ambassador. I wish I could recall the name of that story, but it always painted a pleasant picture of immortality to me. Hopefully someone here recognizes it and can share it with us.
- moyix 11y agoI believe that's "The Gentle Seduction", by Marc Stiegler: http://www.skyhunter.com/marcs/GentleSeduction.html http://www.skyhunter.com/marcs/GentleSeduction.html
- Zikes 11y agoThat's the one! Thank you, I'll be sure to bookmark it this time.
- iwwr 11y agoIf you liked that one, you may also enjoy 'Accelerando' by Charlie Stross. It's available for free at Stross' blog: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelerando/accelerando-intro.html http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelera...
- iwwr 11y agoA civilisation where people can live arbitrarily long lives may have some interesting consequences. For one, cultural stagnation caused by people with entrenched beliefs sticking around. A lot of social progress and scientific development happens over the dead bodies of the old holdouts. Then in the beginning at least there is the risk of extreme social inequality and a gerontocratic ruling class. Only the wealthy will have access to life extension and it may be the wealthy power structures that deny the technology to other people. Finally, a civilisation made up of long-lived individuals may become extremely risk-averse, with possible consequences of reduced experimentation, creativity and rebellion. They may also turn out a little like what Larry Niven makes of the Puppeteer race: powerful, cowardly creatures, highly ritualistic, paternalistic and soft-totalitarian.
- crimsonalucard 11y agoThere was this movie starring justin timberlake that depicted a world like this. The plot was generic, but the setting was unique.
- rey12rey 11y agoIn time.
- flycaliguy 11y agoAs far as experimentation goes... I think I'd probably go gay for a bit after 300 years. Might as well right?
- cymetica 11y agoCompanies working on this: http://www.calicolabs.com http://www.calicolabs.com http://www.genopharmix.com http://www.genopharmix.com http://www.sens.org http://www.sens.org http://www.humanlongevity.com http://www.humanlongevity.com http://www.buckinstitute.org http://www.buckinstitute.org
- cymetica 11y agoThis must be done for real space travel that leads to truly inhabiting other "earths".
- pvaldes 11y agoYes of course, is an afro-american woman and her name is Henrietta Lacks