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[MetalSlimeHunt]

Fun fact: Maturation and aging are mostly separate processes. In theory, if you undo aging, you should end up perpetually somewhere around 23.

[Max White]

Fun fact: Maturation and aging are mostly separate processes. In theory, if you undo aging, you should end up perpetually somewhere around 23.

But would you still die eventually?

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Thing is, can the DNA damage be reversed? That's one of the problems with ageing.

With sufficiently advanced gene therapy, yes, you should be able to reverse DNA damage.

Fun fact: Maturation and aging are mostly separate processes. In theory, if you undo aging, you should end up perpetually somewhere around 23.

But would you still die eventually?

You're going to die eventually no matter what, even if you live to near the heat death of the Universe, but there's nothing internal that should kill you if you don't age and don't get damaged genetically.

[Sergarr]

Thing is, can the DNA damage be reversed? That's one of the problems with ageing.

With sufficiently advanced gene therapy, yes, you should be able to reverse DNA damage.

Fun fact: Maturation and aging are mostly separate processes. In theory, if you undo aging, you should end up perpetually somewhere around 23.

But would you still die eventually?

You're going to die eventually no matter what, even if you live to near the heat death of the Universe, but there's nothing internal that should kill you if you don't age and don't get damaged genetically.

And what do you propose to do with external threats?

[Max White]

Protip: Nuking a black hole does not destroy the black hole, you just loose your nuke.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

And what do you propose to do with external threats?

Two things: First, make society more peaceful, to decrease the most prevalent threat to human life, that being other humans. This is going very well, statistically speaking.

The second is to make humans more difficult to kill once medical technology has reached a level where it can reverse everything but death. For example, putting respirocytes in everybody shortly after birth would make dying of oxygen deprivation somewhere between very unlikely and improbably difficult.

After that, the next big leap is the most difficult one: brain uploading. Hard to die for good then no matter what befalls you. The problem is, of course, that we know almost nothing about how this could be done. There's the proposal for vitrifying a brain and scanning it into a computer as you slice it apart with a diamond, but that's never even been tested. It's a field we're definitely going to get more into these next few decades, but at this point there just is not enough information for a meaningful prediction.

[Karlito]

But would you still die eventually?

I remember someone running through the actuarial tables once. Excluding all causes of death related to age and disease, most people are still likely to be killed in some kind of accident before they hit 10,000 years. That's based on current rates, of course. Anyone expecting to live forever would probably act a lot more carefully.

After that, the next big leap is the most difficult one: brain uploading. Hard to die for good then no matter what befalls you. The problem is, of course, that we know almost nothing about how this could be done. There's the proposal for vitrifying a brain and scanning it into a computer as you slice it apart with a diamond, but that's never even been tested. It's a field we're definitely going to get more into these next few decades, but at this point there just is not enough information for a meaningful prediction.

Anyone else bothered by the idea of extending your life by getting your brained chopped up into bits? I'm not sure I'd willingly kill myself so that a copy of me could always be running around.

[SalmonGod]

Anyone expecting to live forever would probably act a lot more carefully.

There are a fucking lot of things I would do differently with my life if I knew I were going to live a very long time, and I doubt I'm the only one.

I'm 30.  At this point, it's really sinking in that I must try to stop engaging in everything that catches my attention.  I just can't do it all.  There's no enough time.  I have to focus if I ever want to get anywhere.  I'm just starting to accept that many things I've always thought I would do one day, like getting into martial arts or learning to play guitar or learning different languages or all these fucking projects I've halfway started and still lurk in the back of my mind, are never going to happen.  I have a full-time job.  I have two days a week to do anything meaningful outside of work.  I can only expect so many more weekends before I die.  I need to start thinking about what I can realistically do with myself in the next 20-30 years.  Now if you start multiplying that number, that outlook will change pretty drastically.

[Max White]

I imagine with the gift of immortality, assuming you don't fuck it up, the cigarette industry would die off quickly... Expect the research to be blocked.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

After that, the next big leap is the most difficult one: brain uploading. Hard to die for good then no matter what befalls you. The problem is, of course, that we know almost nothing about how this could be done. There's the proposal for vitrifying a brain and scanning it into a computer as you slice it apart with a diamond, but that's never even been tested. It's a field we're definitely going to get more into these next few decades, but at this point there just is not enough information for a meaningful prediction.

Anyone else bothered by the idea of extending your life by getting your brained chopped up into bits? I'm not sure I'd willingly kill myself so that a copy of me could always be running around.

The Ship of Theseus problem has come up plenty of times on the forum before, and we have people all over the place. Personally, I believe that a person who is an exact copy of me is me, and it is hypocritical to believe otherwise as almost all of your matter is replaced over time with different matter. "You" are an idea arisen from a naturally evolved data system, not specific matter.

Anyway, there are other proposals, but this one is the only one that is technically possible right now. The cutting up part is necessary because the scanning can't be done in 3D otherwise. If you have small enough nanomachines that problem can be subverted.

I imagine with the gift of immortality, assuming you don't fuck it up, the cigarette industry would die off quickly... Expect the research to be blocked.

Firstly, you don't even need immortality to give the cigarette industry a major resurgence. If I were a cigarette CEO, I would fund research into things like organ printing as an investment. Much easier to convince people that smoking is a good idea if you can nullify the consequences.

Secondly, you can't block research anymore. Somebody will do it, and not even eventually, but immediately. In fact, if it comes out that you blocked it, you're just going to give some radical somewhere the conviction to give it their all, even if it's just to spite you.

There is too much going on now to prevent progress. I've always thought that one line from Video Killed The Radio Star signified modern society very well:
"In my mind/and in my car/we can't rewind/we've gone too far."

[Karlito]

The Ship of Theseus problem

I'd say there's a difference between slowly replacing all the parts in the ship and building an exact replica from a detailed schematic, but I don't really want to make everyone retread old ground, especially when I'm not too sure about my own ideas.

[Max White]

I think it has to do with where somebodies sole ends up. Clearly we need an actual test for each unique sole, personally I like anything that involved counting into a tube until something lights up and the officer asks you to step out of the vehicle.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I think it has to do with where somebodies sole ends up. Clearly we need an actual test for each unique sole, personally I like anything that involved counting into a tube until something lights up and the officer asks you to step out of the vehicle.

Oh, well that's easy. Just cut the sole off of the old body and staple it to the new body's forehead. Unless the old sole was destroyed, in which case you should incinerate whatever is left of the old body lest it become possessed by demons. Do it quickly if it objects, as that means the possession is already starting.

[Karlito]

Well, I've got two soles, but I'm not sure what feet have to do with it.

[alway]

Secondly, you can't block research anymore. Somebody will do it, and not even eventually, but immediately. In fact, if it comes out that you blocked it, you're just going to give some radical somewhere the conviction to give it their all, even if it's just to spite you.

There is too much going on now to prevent progress. I've always thought that one line from Video Killed The Radio Star signified modern society very well:
"In my mind/and in my car/we can't rewind/we've gone too far."

Tangentially related, this is where a lot of research-related conspiracy theories fall flat. Even if you did manage to somehow block all research in a country, there are enough developed places in the world -- many of which are at odds with one another -- that blocking any particular research is pretty much impossible.