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987 Comments
- Harabeck, on 09/22/2009, -44/+677Who wants to die? I'd love to live forever.
- dtele, on 09/22/2009, -96/+649Who wants to live forever?
- julian02392, on 09/22/2009, -1/+436Bad news for dead people.
- alan617, on 09/22/2009, -12/+349Want to live forever? there's an app for that!
- freakish_beast, on 09/22/2009, -7/+313"Heart-attack victims – who haven't taken advantage of widely available bionic hearts – will calmly drive to the doctors for a minor operation as their blood bots keep them alive."
blood bots sounds so evil. - luckyarcher, on 09/22/2009, -7/+272How about you make my ***** 360 last 5 years for a start?
- tekian, on 09/22/2009, -7/+228Death will happen eventually, nanobots or not. I doubt nanobots can stop a person from being decapitated. I'd like this procedure just to endure my life until something catastrophic like that happened.
- anthropodeus, on 09/22/2009, -5/+194if the hemoglobin in my red blood cells incorporate atoms of iron in order to ferry O2 to my cells, am i a cyborg?
if my eyes are physically augmented by glasses to improve my vision, am i a cyborg?
if the GPS in my car enables me to know how to reach any location on the North American continent, am i a cyborg?
if i use the wikipedia and access the memories of millions of humans before me, am i a cyborg?
if i carry a cellphone and am in constant communication with potentially every human, am i a cyborg?
and finally,
if each of my neurons was replaced one-by-one with artificial neurons that function the same way, until my entire brain is synthetic,
at what point did i die? - XBebop, on 09/22/2009, -7/+192Nobody got this Queen reference. For shame.
- sdphost, on 09/22/2009, -6/+188And 20 years will come and we will still be mortal.
As much as I want to believe this isn't any different than the 50 cures to aids that appear on the front page every month on digg or the countless interviews of scientists I've seen and stuff like this is always 5 years away and always will be.In 5 years when you ask I bet you that they won't say immortality is 15 years away it will still be 20. - PseudoThink, on 09/22/2009, -0/+136Still no word on flying cars...
- KMehthas, on 09/22/2009, -0/+134"This organ has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down."
- anthropodeus, on 09/22/2009, -9/+140anybody who says they want to live forever is a fool.
anybody who says they want to live indefinitely is not. - djnforce9, on 09/22/2009, -2/+126Sounds all good until someone releases an EMP and kills everyone within its range instantly .
- inactive, on 09/22/2009, -3/+122You are getting old. that is a pre existing condition sorry.
- MacBookForMe, on 09/22/2009, -5/+110me and mini me, of course...
- GoonPowerX, on 09/22/2009, -1/+102Immortality...for those who can afford it.
- Truedirt, on 09/22/2009, -4/+102If only we don't self destruct ourselves.
- XBebop, on 09/22/2009, -3/+99You'll regret this statement eventually.
- Cyberdine, on 09/22/2009, -11/+104will people please stop submitting stuff from the telegraph? its a tabloid.
- TAGline, on 09/22/2009, -3/+95@TheEggAndI
If your consciousness ceases to exist at death, you'll never know the answer.
And if its an afterlife... why not just live in the sure thing? - amabaie, on 09/22/2009, -23/+113I don't think I would want to live forever, but I also don't think I would want to die if there is a way to stay alive. It was easier in the old days, when God could make the call.
- sbcea, on 09/22/2009, -4/+89From kick-ass synthesizers in the 80's to immortality. Way to go Kurzweil!
- sturmgiest, on 09/22/2009, -1/+85The human genome project was supposed to take several hundred years to complete when it started in the 80s. It took about fifteen years. Mapping genomes now takes less than a year for many organisms. In 1985, we discovered how to replicate mass quantities of DNA for sequencing by hand with water baths. Now, computers do it for us. Our understanding of genetics and biochemistry has been taking leaps and bounds along with increases in computer processing power since the mid-80s. Much of the text on biochemistry taught in college now was barely in research ten years ago. Add nanotechnology to this, the ability to fix problems on a microscopic scale, and we indeed have the potential for immortality, and at the pace of technology, it is achievable within thirty years or less.
These deep understandings will allow us to fix the things that break due to the limits of evolution that we have been stuck with. - GoCougs98, on 09/22/2009, -1/+78Getting my sword ready. There can be only one!
- cygnus2112, on 09/22/2009, -1/+75Great.. another way for them to extend the age of retirement..
- Morac, on 09/22/2009, -2/+71What if you get "life"?
- voyetra8, on 09/22/2009, -4/+67LOL. Good troll, would laugh again. A++++
- JasonQpublic, on 09/22/2009, -8/+69Mr. Kurzweil could fill the void created by the death of Michael Crichton.
- ChromaVita, on 09/22/2009, -0/+58Actually it's just going back to the old meaning, right?
- AresDiggs, on 09/22/2009, -2/+56Rob a bank > become immortal before you get caught > serve your 50 year sentence or w/e > get out and pretend it was vacation or something
- GorfTron, on 09/22/2009, -4/+56Deal with cancer and I will be impressed.
- Treshnell, on 09/22/2009, -0/+50In the Greek version (which is the original, I think), the paradox arises when you ask, "If you replace each part of a ship a piece at a time, is it the same ship?"
This is the same, I believe, as when we discuss replacing our own biological "pieces" with cybernetics/robotics/etc.
But for me, another problem arises. What happens when you duplicate, exactly, a person's mind, neuron for neuron, with a machine equivalent in order to transfer the consciousness? Is the creation of an exact replica enough to complete the transfer? That is, if something is created which is identical to my mind, is it also me? Or is there something physical/spiritual that needs to be transferred into this copy that transfers my "mental self" to this other body?
Religions have their answer, your soul is the missing element. But science has no real concept of a soul, that I know of.
Clearly, I am not the same person I was even 30 seconds ago. New associations in my mind have been created over that time that makes me a different person than that previous person. But this lingering and constant self identity is what is the root of the paradox. - achansen121, on 09/22/2009, -10/+60"The 61-year-old American"
He just wants it to happen before he dies. Pipe dream. I hate ridiculous predictions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictions_made_by_R ... - Andrwmorph, on 09/22/2009, -12/+62"you would get bored. living for a long time would be nice, but living forever would be torture for me. never getting to know the one true answer in life. something that everyone....*everyone* eventually gets to learn. and i'd be the only one deprived of that. i would find that maddening"
42 - anthropodeus, on 09/22/2009, -0/+50don't you mean "goodbye waste, hello resources"? nanobots will enable flawless recycling.
- supersonicjim, on 09/22/2009, -1/+50I'll take my chances with this dog talisman.
- MxM111, on 09/22/2009, -0/+45The word "Virus" suddenly takes new meaning.
- NikoKun, on 09/22/2009, -1/+46Me! =P
Besides, if I ever felt differently in the future, I could simply choose to end it. Nothing says you're stuck with the choice, if you choose the live longer.
Immortality is a poor choice of words. Life extension and the elimination of unintentional death, might be a little more accurate. - plainOldFool, on 09/22/2009, -1/+45There can be only one.
- stk198323, on 09/22/2009, -0/+43How do you know that your not dreaming your current life?
- mikemiller1000, on 10/30/2009, -1/+43Freddie Mercury... wanted to, I mean
- yournamehere, on 09/22/2009, -3/+44Overpopulation is a given no matter what we do as a species. However, if we can use the knowledge gained while living longer towards expanding technology to advance us to a point where we can leave earth this wouldn't be an issue.
Imagine the things that could be accomplished if we could live forever. over time everyone gains knowledge, after a few centuries we could all be encyclopedias of knowledge simply by just absorbing daily information. Imagine what these people could have accomplished if they were to live centuries:
Archimedes
Aristotle
Niels Bohr
Nicolaus Copernicus
Marie Curie
Charles Darwin
Leonardo Da Vinci
Rene Descartes
Thomas Alva Edison
Albert Einstein
Benjamin Franklin
Galileo Galilei
Isaac Newton
Max Planck
Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen
Carl Sagan
Nikola Tesla - pwner, on 09/22/2009, -1/+42Immortality=Procrastinator's Dream
- crodulfo, on 09/22/2009, -1/+42maybe it AT&T filmed a commercial with immortals, then it could really happen.
- Harabeck, on 09/22/2009, -2/+43The part about VR scared me. How would you know if the VR was over? Would anyone get anything done?
- NikoKun, on 09/22/2009, -0/+40Space has, essentially, unlimited resources. =P
Overpopulation isn't a problem, if we can move into space. - bnorman, on 09/22/2009, -10/+50Goodbye resources.
- wordfan, on 09/22/2009, -0/+40The thought of living indefinitely doesn't sound appealing to me, but at the same time, I can't imagine ever deciding to die when I had the option not to.
- picotl, on 09/22/2009, -5/+43So now everyone that was supposed to die from social Darwinism won't....... And the world is ***** up now!?!
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