immortality???

[orbsycli]

Not of we slowly adapted with it. Most of the people who can't use computers barely use them and don't understand them at all.

[the5thhorseman]

sounds like fun...

I think as you live longer your perception of time will become more in tune with your age..

if you live to be 200 years old you would have such a much different look on time spans then a 50 yr old..
in fact you most likely would not even be able to interact with people under 100 years old..

there's allot of maybe's and allot of guessing but if a turttle can do it I think we can handle it .

[pgrmdave]

The problem is that we reproduce much more frequently than a turtle. And how would longer lifespands lead to quicker development of technology?

[C1ay]

Originally Posted by pgrmdave

The problem is that we reproduce much more frequently than a turtle. And how would longer lifespands lead to quicker development of technology?

Well, the more people you have using technology to create new technology the faster you get new technology. There's a really good article on this called "The Law of Accelerating Returns". You can read it here (warning, it's really long). It's mainly about the exponential rate of the exponential growth of technology. He points out in his analysis that we should be able to obtain one human brain capacity of computing power for $1000 around 2023 and the same for around 1¢ by 2037. He also predicts we should be able to get one Human Race capability for $1000 by 2049 and the same for 1¢ around 2059. I think it would be interesting to see how well his predictions prove out.

[pgrmdave]

I've read that article before, I think it was posted elsewhere on hypography, but I think that we wouldn't see the increase in technology that is expected. I hadn't thought about there simply being more people developing it - that would surely increase the speed - but I think that we would also experiance overload. Just like it is difficult to research online because there is so much information, there would be so many new developments that it would take a long time to put them togeather, and build off of them. You would have many groups working on the same thing simply because they didn't know of each other.

[whoa182]

If you wish to challenge aubrey de grey on his claims you can go over here and join us in a discussion at www.imminst.org . He will respond but please try and challenge him scientificly if you do.

I think that technology and science would progress at the same, increasing rate

Lets look at knowledge

Knowledge used to double every 1500 years. Now its estimated that knowledge in the medical community is doubling at a much faster rate, its doubling at a rate of around every 2 years.

The reason its doubling so much quicker is becuase we are seeing a rapid convergence of biotech, informtion tech and nanotech.

At some point in the near future its expected that we may be doubling knowledge every 6 months in the NEAR future and by 2010 about every 50 days.

Please watch this talk by Ray kurzweil he explains it better
http://stream.knowtechnology.net/poptech/session1.html

"An analysis of the history of technology shows that technological change is exponential, contrary to the common-sense "intuitive linear" view. So we won't experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century -- it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today's rate)"

[whoa182]

Originally Posted by pgrmdave

And if the mind purged memories, is it worth it to forget all the people you once knew? I think that I would rather live for a hundred years than for a thousand. Even if there is nothing beyond this. If I couldn't remember my mother, or father. Or if I couldn't remember what life was like when I was younger, I don't think that it would be worth being alive that long. I'm not saying that it is worthless - I think it would be interesting to see what politics would be like if we lived that long - but I don't understand the benefit.

As you grow you just make stronger connections, now depending on how strong them connections are the better you will remember things. Remembering your parents will not be very hard depending on how long you lived with them. Your brain forgets things that do not have strong connections in the brain.

Also with the emergence of these new technologies Im thinking that Implants will solve this memory problem.

Its human nature to get on with life after one dies, But the difference is, What make you think your friends and family will not be there with you when all this happens??

Do you somehow think you are special like Dunacn McLoud and everyone dies around you? Your Friends, your family can be there with you!

[whoa182]

Originally Posted by pgrmdave

Beyond that - let's look at the simply logistics. Let's assume that the ages in which you are fertile are extended as well, so women would be fertile for a few hundred years. Let's assume that people continue to have sex as often as they do now. So, now you have many more people giving birth, and living longer. A population explosion. Even if we progress to the point where there is no disease, there would still be too little food for everybody. And there would be more people in the workforce, which would drive down wages. That coupled with a food shortage would mean lowered wages and raised prices, a lot of starvation. I think that the human lifespan is long enough.

More developed countries people are living much longer and having less children ! so just because people live longer it does not mean people will have more kids. Women at the moment have to have kids young. But if she had an option to have kids anytime she wanted then I believe there would be no rush

With the Advances in Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information technology - AI and Robotics who is to say we will need to work at all !! We could just live for fun rather than live to work. We could all get to our hobbies and interests within limitation of time. We could achieve so many things.

Nanotechnology promises to litrually make everything extremely cheap, Im assuming you have read a lot about nanotechnology but its about manipulating atoms. If a Nano assembler is ever built then we could build things atom by atom and re-arrage them... As you know depending on how you re-arrange the atoms results in what you get. So Food would not be a problem. Imagin something like Star treks little device, where they ask for something and the it appears a few seconds later. Simular to that!

So If full blown nanotechnology were ever to develop, Money would actually become useless.

Robots are evolving 10 million times faster than humans did, How do you even know that we will need to work ?

Also Look at Nanotechnology, Creating Self cleaning carpets, self cleaning walls, scratch resistant and stain resistant materials..

Look at Computer chips such as RFID tags, Who needs checkout people?


You see, Technology will solve most of these problems you are worried about, Advances are happening every day - if you would take the time to read and research, you will see

[whoa182]

Originally Posted by Thomas

Very good points, it might be alright for one person, but not for 6 billion, that would be disasterous. Perhaps it is best that nobody lives past 120, but it still would be a cool experiment.

Lets think about this with more common sense, Shall we?

First of all, lets put us in a quick scenario... lets say there is a 120 year old man and he has the athletic abilty like a 20 year old and hes mentally stable and intelligent.

Do you think all of a sudden hes going to go " Gee.. Im 120 years old now, I think Im gonna just kill myself " Now come on ! be realistic here... If we can stay young and mentally stable, we are not just going to have a fixed number like 120 and after that just kill ourselves..

Aubrey De Grey " There is no different between saving lives and extending lives "


We also will not stay on EARTH for eternity!!! There is plenty of space to colonize yet.

[whoa182]

Originally Posted by Aki

Well personaly, I don't see why I would want to live for thousand years. By the time I get to 90, I'll be so old, that I can't walk, I can't go biking; I'll just be sitting there.

Well, by the time you get to 90, you wont feel like a 90 year old does today!!!

You will not just be sitting there either. You can be active.

The reason why most 90 year olds just sit there and wait for death is because they are frail people. Whats the point in going on if you cant do anything?

But with these therapies you can be totally active!

Also Life is going to be far different from it is now, New technology is always coming about and the world is going to drasticly change, There will be many things to do, Infact " things to do " are growing all the time. We will never ' run out ' of things to do !