Immortality

[island911]

Originally Posted by kstarnes

Is Island the new Mule?

Best,

Kurt

Ohhh. . .Kurt dips his toe into the personal dig pool. Go ahead Kurt, dive in. ...I'll follow.

[dewolf]

The knowledge base alone would make immortality truly brilliant.
And imagine how many Porsches you could you own!

[kstar]

Originally Posted by island911

Ohhh. . .Kurt dips his toe into the personal dig pool. Go ahead Kurt, dive in. ...I'll follow.

Sorry if that was too personal.

I like to joke around and I get off-topic in other off-topic threads as well. The Mac/PC thing is funny for a while in an unrelated thread, but its gets a little tired as it drags on, IMHO.

FWIW.

Best,

Kurt

[bt1211]

What is that diseases that some kids get that rapidly ages them? The one that makes them look like old people.

If that disease triggers the aging process, than that gene might be manipulated to slow down the aging process in non-affected humans.

just my .02

[sammyg2]

I've often thought of death from old age like this:
Take a letter and run it through a copy machine. Then make a copy of the copy. Keep doing that until the copier runs out of toner. the last copy will undoubtedly look terrible, faded, smearted, blurry, etc. How many times can cells reproduce a certain complex string of DNA without introducing some error? Maybe death is nature's way of preventing inimaginable mutations. Maybe not.

One thing that bothers me big time is the rate at which the human race is aquiring knowledge, and the fact that our cumulative wisdom is not keeping pace. We are quickly getting too smart for our own good.

[Drago]

Originally Posted by island911

First our doctors need to cure sleeping. I mean, what good is sleeping? It's just wrong, and a waste of time.

When will everyone realize that man is above and outside of nature and he Controls nature -not the other way around?

Somehow I've cured my sleep habit. You won't like the results though.

[Tobra]

Originally Posted by livi

Yes, sleeping seems like a monumental waste of time. But I suppose, without sleeping we would die worn out at about 15 years old. I think it all has something to do with evolution..

You would not be worn out, but your brain would quit working. Lack of REM sleep makes you act like a paranoid schizophrenic, maybe that is not totally accurate, but it makes you crazy. Makes me think a certain cat from Wisconsin has never slept.

Dieing is part of living. Quality of life is much more important than how long it lasts, that is where the effort should be expended

Originally Posted by sammyg2

I've often thought of death from old age like this:
Take a letter and run it through a copy machine. Then make a copy of the copy. Keep doing that until the copier runs out of toner. the last copy will undoubtedly look terrible, faded, smearted, blurry, etc. How many times can cells reproduce a certain complex string of DNA without introducing some error? Maybe death is nature's way of preventing inimaginable mutations. Maybe not.

One thing that bothers me big time is the rate at which the human race is aquiring knowledge, and the fact that our cumulative wisdom is not keeping pace. We are quickly getting too smart for our own good.

Something to both main points here. First is the concept of cellular senescence, which is a big part of aging. Cancer cells are immortal, as I recall. The more troubling concept is Man gaining knowledge too much more quickly than wisdom, which is of great concern to me.

[island911]

Originally Posted by Tobra

You would not be worn out, but your brain would quit working. Lack of REM sleep makes you act like a paranoid schizophrenic, maybe that is not totally accurate, but it makes you crazy. Makes me think a certain cat from Wisconsin has never slept.....

Ah, that's it. --Thanks Tobra.

Listen to this guy, Drago. Get some sleep.

[sjf911]

Originally Posted by bt1211

What is that diseases that some kids get that rapidly ages them? The one that makes them look like old people.

If that disease triggers the aging process, than that gene might be manipulated to slow down the aging process in non-affected humans.

just my .02

Progeria. Most of the premature aging syndromes involve defective gene repair while Progeria may involve a defect in one of the components of the nuclear membrane (a defect in the lipidation of certain proteins). They accelerate cellular aging when defective but don't lead to cellular immortality when functioning (with the possible exception of telomeres).