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."