[Mars]

Nature does have us existing on a rather small ball with rather small continents however.

[captain-custard]

i think its a chinese plot to stop buddist being reborn.........

[Ford Prefect]

I disagree completely: If you have the power to stop the ones you love from dying, then you should use it, even if that means falling to the Dark Side.

Goooooooooooooooooooooood... goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood!

[Snail]

Hello? Nature MEANT for us to die, we are NOT supposed to live forever. Where's the respect for nature, people?

You're a  fool if you really believe that. There's always a few short-sighted idiots who really believe that sticking to nature will help us all, or, in some cases, knows that sticking to nature limits us but still insist on going back in time and becoming primitives. Sorry, but I feel rather strongly on this point so this will probably be a ranty, incoherent post.

Sticking to nature is idiotic. As Ghostavo has already said, nature did not intend us to construct buildings or computers or whatever. Nature intended us to be hunting and scavenging for food, starve when we couldn't do that and then die when we were inept. For people like me, who have asthma or whatever, are more or less dead by default by nature's choosing. People like me who have 'faulty genes' are supposed to die: It's called natural selection. Would you like to die because your parents had some anomalies in their genes or whatever? Really? Would you?

I'll give you that natural selection was a beautiful system - Those who couldn't survive died, those who could lived on and supposedly their children shared their strength, thus making the human race better on the whole with the sacrifice of the weak ones. But now that we've evolved, we've more or less reached a standstill. Because no one is dying anymore with all these modern medicines, the weaker ones are surviving too as opposed to only the strong ones.

Nature had us evolve in a certain way. And unless you're a creationist, you'll understand that we evolved to have the best attributes for survival. Somewhere down the line, evolution dictated that the smart people lived and the stupid ones died. The smart ones then formed the bulk of human civilization. We evolved to a point where we were smart and could think for ourselves instead of just dying all the time when we were weak. So natural selection affects us a lot less than it affects other animal species.

So we're at an evolutionary dead end, but we're very far from perfect. We got brainz, but we're pretty weak, and we age and then we die. Evolution gave us the power to conquer time by the spoken word so things learned by one person can be passed on to the next generation instead of being lost until someone else learns it, and then dies (after which it is lost again, and lalala, it goes on forever). Ironically, we evolution had us become so smart that we can make evolution happen for ourselves.

And if you think of it, in a weird roundabout way, it is natural. Nature made us evolve so that we had brains. And through this evolution, it indirectly gave us the power to allow ourselves to evolve. So really it was inevitable that we'd become this smart on the path we were going. Nature made us evolve this way. It is idiotic just to ignore something like this because of the convictions of a few people who believe that we're breaking nature by doing this. It's the same with stem cell research. It's not doing any harm to anyone giving us these things. It's just a few freaking idiots who think stem cell research and this anti-aging thingy are immoral that are holding us back.

If they want to die so much, kill them.

[TrashMan]

That's not for you to decide. To be honest, when people say stuff like this it makes me want to strangle them with their own Ethernet cable (or, if they're using wireless internet, just stab them).

Just because you think that the human life span is long enough doesn't mean that other people don't want to live. Only when you're an old fart, living in an old-folks home, lonely and wishing you had done something better with your life, can you say that.

Well who should decide? You?

When people want to live forever it makes ME want to strangle them.
Actually, it makes me want to do FAR, FAR worse things to them, so they start BEGGING for death.

No one really wants to die (mostly). But death is there for a reason. The old gives way for the new. People should just accept it and move on.

[Al Tarket]

Hello? Nature MEANT for us to die, we are NOT supposed to live forever. Where's the respect for nature, people?

You're a  fool if you really believe that. There's always a few short-sighted idiots who really believe that sticking to nature will help us all, or, in some cases, knows that sticking to nature limits us but still insist on going back in time and becoming primitives.
... as Ghostavo has already said, nature did not intend us to construct buildings or computers or whatever. Nature intended us to be hunting and scavenging for food, starve when we couldn't do that and then die when we were inept.


... It's called natural selection. Would you like to die because your parents had some anomalies in their genes or whatever? Really? Would you?

Nature had us evolve in a certain way. And unless you're a creationist, you'll understand that we evolved to have the best attributes for survival. Somewhere down the line, evolution dictated that the smart people lived and the stupid ones died. The smart ones then formed the bulk of human civilization. We evolved to a point where we were smart and could think for ourselves instead of just dying all the time when we were weak. So natural selection affects us a lot less than it affects other animal species.

So we're at an evolutionary dead end, but we're very far from perfect. We got brainz, but we're pretty weak, and we age and then we die. Evolution gave us the power to conquer time by the spoken word so things learned by one person can be passed on to the next generation instead of being lost until someone else learns it, and then dies (after which it is lost again, and lalala, it goes on forever). Ironically, we evolution had us become so smart that we can make evolution happen for ourselves.

And if you think of it, in a weird roundabout way, it is natural. Nature made us evolve so that we had brains. And through this evolution, it indirectly gave us the power to allow ourselves to evolve. So really it was inevitable that we'd become this smart on the path we were going. Nature made us evolve this way. It is idiotic just to ignore something like this because of the convictions of a few people who believe that we're breaking nature by doing this. It's the same with stem cell research. It's not doing any harm to anyone giving us these things. It's just a few freaking idiots who think stem cell research and this anti-aging thingy are immoral that are holding us back.

If they want to die so much, kill them.

for someone who is strongly agains't nature speeches, you seem to be making an arguement towards nature instead of your intended point which you stated.

no one will ever discover the age cure, whether you like it or not, no god will take you into a wonderful place. you will just simply stop and thats it, then either burnt up and turn into a diamond, put in a coffin and buried, or thown into a tip somewhere. and nothing will ever stop this from happening, everyone can try come up with some excuse to live longer or believe in something after you die. but the fact is as humans, evolution or no evolution we will will just stop functioning and die, no amount of drugs will change that. whoever comes up with anything else to say otherwise doesn't have a real clue what they are saying.

 

[Daeron]

Hello? Nature MEANT for us to die, we are NOT supposed to live forever. Where's the respect for nature, people?

You're a  fool if you really believe that. There's always a few short-sighted idiots who really believe that sticking to nature will help us all, or, in some cases, knows that sticking to nature limits us but still insist on going back in time and becoming primitives.
... as Ghostavo has already said, nature did not intend us to construct buildings or computers or whatever. Nature intended us to be hunting and scavenging for food, starve when we couldn't do that and then die when we were inept.


... It's called natural selection. Would you like to die because your parents had some anomalies in their genes or whatever? Really? Would you?

Nature had us evolve in a certain way. And unless you're a creationist, you'll understand that we evolved to have the best attributes for survival. Somewhere down the line, evolution dictated that the smart people lived and the stupid ones died. The smart ones then formed the bulk of human civilization. We evolved to a point where we were smart and could think for ourselves instead of just dying all the time when we were weak. So natural selection affects us a lot less than it affects other animal species.

So we're at an evolutionary dead end, but we're very far from perfect. We got brainz, but we're pretty weak, and we age and then we die. Evolution gave us the power to conquer time by the spoken word so things learned by one person can be passed on to the next generation instead of being lost until someone else learns it, and then dies (after which it is lost again, and lalala, it goes on forever). Ironically, we evolution had us become so smart that we can make evolution happen for ourselves.

And if you think of it, in a weird roundabout way, it is natural. Nature made us evolve so that we had brains. And through this evolution, it indirectly gave us the power to allow ourselves to evolve. So really it was inevitable that we'd become this smart on the path we were going. Nature made us evolve this way. It is idiotic just to ignore something like this because of the convictions of a few people who believe that we're breaking nature by doing this. It's the same with stem cell research. It's not doing any harm to anyone giving us these things. It's just a few freaking idiots who think stem cell research and this anti-aging thingy are immoral that are holding us back.

If they want to die so much, kill them.

for someone who is strongly agains't nature speeches, you seem to be making an arguement towards nature instead of your intended point which you stated.

no one will ever discover the age cure, whether you like it or not, no god will take you into a wonderful place. you will just simply stop and thats it, then either burnt up and turn into a diamond, put in a coffin and buried, or thown into a tip somewhere. and nothing will ever stop this from happening, everyone can try come up with some excuse to live longer or believe in something after you die. but the fact is as humans, evolution or no evolution we will will just stop functioning and die, no amount of drugs will change that. whoever comes up with anything else to say otherwise doesn't have a real clue what they are saying.

 

And you base this on what? Fact is that there are complex organisms with a lifespan much longer than humans.

Interesting bit about turtles whose organs seem to not age, Land Turtles can live up to 190 years:

Researchers have recently discovered a turtle’s organs do not gradually break down or become less efficient over time, unlike most other animals. It was found that the liver, lungs, and kidneys of a centenarian turtle are virtually indistinguishable from those of its immature counterpart. This has inspired genetic researchers to begin examining the turtle genome for longevity genes.

Fact is, longevity is a real subject in science. Biological immortality is a very realistic possibility in our future. Get used to it, and do your homework before you claim to speak facts.

[Flipside]

It's not physical age that is the problem, it's mental age, and there simply aren't enough Nintendo DS's around to fix the problem.

As we get older, our brains fix themselves into certain patterns of thought, certain beliefs, each new generation challenges those beliefs, pushes the border of what we consider 'known'.

If you believe in God, then Death is not to be feared.

If you believe in Evolution, then you understand why constant growth and change is necessary to prevent stagnation.

Yes, death is a scary, unpleasant thing, birth isn't exactly a picnic either, though preferable to death. But that is because we see the world from a 'me' point of view, not an 'us' one. I've lost about half my relatives in the last 5 years to various things, Motor Neuron Disease, Cancer, Car Crashes, Organ Failure and, most notably, simply losing the will to live, yes, I hate death, but the idea of a world where people like Bush, Putin, Brown, Bin Laden and others never get old and pass the mantle on to younger, more open minds is a terrifying one.

[MP-Ryan]

Biological immortality is a very realistic possibility in our future. Get used to it, and do your homework before you claim to speak facts.

No, it's not.

We are genetically hardwired to a fairly inflexible lifespan.  Circumventing that would require modification of thousands of different and interconnected genetic systems which also perform a variety of other functions.

Extending the lifespan of the human being is certainly possible - delaying the aging process is already something we're familiar with.  However, to say we will eventually be able to produce biological immortality at any juncture in time is not only naive, it's supremely arrogant.  We understand perhaps a billionth of how human genetic systems actually work, nevermind interact.  Molecular genetics has expanded rapidly since 1953, but the more we start to understand the more it becomes obvious that we know very, very little.  Take a look at issues of Nature and Science over the past 50 years - where once you saw articles dealing with whole gene systems, now we're down to studying individual gene products - and in many cases, just one product out of a possible thousand generated by the same gene.  The sheer amount of knowledge required for any type of genetic modification or therapy makes any prediction impossible.

While television and movies make genetics out to be this sexy science that we can manipulate at will, the truth of the matter is that we know precisely squat and can actually do even less.

[TrashMan]

Fact is, longevity is a real subject in science. Biological immortality is a very realistic possibility in our future. Get used to it, and do your homework before you claim to speak facts.

"Living longer" and being immortal (living forever) are two different things.
Assuming we manage to extend our life span, it will still be finite.
There is no such thing as infinite for anything material. All things must come to an end sooner or later.

EDIT: MP Ryan said it better

[Daeron]

There's also a difference between "biological immortality" and "immortality". And no, I'm not saying that this generation will see it.

We are genetically hardwired to a fairly inflexible lifespan.  Circumventing that would require modification of thousands of different and interconnected genetic systems which also perform a variety of other functions.

I disagree. Your hardwired "inflexible lifespan" is most likely the result of natural selection, based on it lowering the chance of cancerous growth. Theoretically it could be possible to change the human Hayflick limit at the stage where the egg gets impregnated. We're dealing with a single cell, not a full grown human.

If you can prevent organ failure through aging and find the cure for all sorts of cancer, can you point me to another way one can die a truly natural death that doesn't involve unhealthy lifestyle? Even then.. you can still die of countless bacteria's and viral infections I'm sure.

But then you completely misunderstand the concept of biological immortality. I'm not going Duncan McLeod on you.

[IceFire]

I'd just like it to be like in the book series Honor Harrington where everyone has a lengthened lifespan and everyone has the body of a late teenager (17 or 18) until late in life where the aging process picks up again.  I think they lived longer as well...maybe well over 100 years but not much more than that and everyone looked damn good doing it

[Daeron]

Heheh, if everyone also lived like a late teenager for all those years, I wouldn't give much for their lifespan.

[BlackDove]

FOREEEEEEEEEEEVER YOOOOOUUUUUUUUUNG, I WAAAAAAAAAAANT TOOOOOOOOOOOO BEEEEEEEEEEEEE FOOOOOOOOOREEEEEEEEEVEEEEEEEEEEER YOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUNG!

Had to be done Bob, had to be done.

That's not for you to decide. To be honest, when people say stuff like this it makes me want to strangle them with their own Ethernet cable (or, if they're using wireless internet, just stab them).

Just because you think that the human life span is long enough doesn't mean that other people don't want to live. Only when you're an old fart, living in an old-folks home, lonely and wishing you had done something better with your life, can you say that.

Well who should decide? You?

When people want to live forever it makes ME want to strangle them.
Actually, it makes me want to do FAR, FAR worse things to them, so they start BEGGING for death.

No one really wants to die (mostly). But death is there for a reason. The old gives way for the new. People should just accept it and move on.

Wow, you're one sick puppy.

Made that text smaller, it was breaking the formatting - Flipside

That's not my goddamn problem.

I want it HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOGE!

HOOOGE I SAY!

[Flipside]

Well, at least that one fits

[Herra Tohtori]

There can be only one.

Battles are to be fought one on one, and no fighting on Holy Ground.

...Ahem.

We are genetically hardwired to a fairly inflexible lifespan.

Yes. Currently. And what happens if the genetical code is changed so that this limitation is removed or reduced in effectiveness?

The DNA aging in itself is due to telomere sections shortening slightly by every cell division, eventually causing the functionality and structure of the cells decline and bring forward some of the symptoms associated with old age - metabolism slows down, resistance to infections is lowered, things like that. It's kinda like what happens to a file when you repeatedly save it with a lossy compression format. Random mutations obviously add to the whole degradation, kinda like if you applied a slight noise filter to the image in between of the saves too... (exaggereted example, not an analogy - there are similarities but not equivalencies here).

Some species, however, have mechanisms that repair the damage to their DNA, be it caused by cell division, radiation or other mutagens. If such feature could be embedded to human DNA, well, let's just say that it would definitely need to come with a fenotypical modification that gives the carrier of the gene pointy ears, slender body structure, fair facial features, ability to see in infra-red wavelengths and high resistance to magic.

Of course, with our luck we end up just giving ourselves elongated lifespan, increased constitution, increased facial hair growth for both genders, and shortened posture... or if we're really unlucky we end up turning ourselves to Orcs rather than Eldar.

[ShadowGorrath]

Shaddap everyone and accept it!

[Kane]This is the next step in our evolution as a species![/Kane]

And I'm being serious. Those who don't want to live forever ( or at least MUCH longer ) are sick. The only people who want to die are emos and old people who suffer every day.

[Flipside]

Mortar Kombat!

Seriously though, I think extending lifespans at this particular moment in time would cause more death than it cures, we are already fighting over limited or unevenly distributed resources, more people alive means more demand, and as we get older we will look more to our own luxury.

Shaddap everyone and accept it!

[Kane]This is the next step in our evolution as a species![/Kane]

And I'm being serious. Those who don't want to live forever ( or at least MUCH longer ) are sick. The only people who want to die are emos and old people who suffer every day.

Actually, I'm neither Sick, an Emo, nor do I suffer every day, except possibly from comments like that.

Edit: To be blunt, if it is a choice between the life of a human or the death of humanity, which is what it would pretty much lead to right now, I'll take option 1.

[ShadowGorrath]

More people means faster and greater advancing. And if the tech is distributed only to allied/friendly countries, it could give a big enough advantage to beat the terrorist nations and etc.

Eitherway, I see only gain. Except from those whiners who are afraid of new technologies.

Alright. One vision, one purpose. Peace through power, kids. I'm off to sleep.

[Flipside]

New technologies are one thing, pissing in the gene pool is another altogether.

If you want to consider me a 'whiner' then that's your choice. I don't want to die, no-one does, but maybe it's because you are viewing life from a 'Me first!' point of view and refusing to even consider the effects that such things would have.

As for 'distributing only to the West and 'beating Terrorist nations', well, you've proved my point for me really. Mindsets like that need to get old and die for change to take place.