Is it Possible for People to Live Forever?
- Sunny Lan
- Feb 19, 2022
- 6 min read
Death is an inescapable fact of life for everyone born into the human race. It is an unavoidable fact of life. On the other side, recent medical advancements have brought us closer than ever to discovering one. As medicine and technology improve, humans are becoming increasingly proficient at extending their lives. According to some scientists, human life expectancy is expected to increase by up to 20% over the next century. Children today may live to be 145 years old, according to this prediction.
People will become cyborgs in near future?
Artificial intelligence (AI ) can offer us the key to biological immortality
Longevity is now a much more scientific subject. You may not want to live in perpetuity at the age of 95, but you may prefer to renew your body to the age of 25 or 30 This may be accomplished by using genetic engineering to delay the ageing process in cells. More advanced organ cloning will be explored with the goal of permanently utilizing it as a life-extension method. As a result, new organs may be obtained to replace those that have been damaged or destroyed.
Researchers from all around the globe are trying to develop 3D-printed human organs with living cells that may eventually replace the need for organ donors. Initiatives such as 2045 are making an attempt to solve this. By 2045, scientists hope to create extraordinary human bodies capable of everlasting life. Their ultimate aim is to create a map of the human brain, but this is a tough task. Scientists have been able to map the brain of just a worm, which has 86 billion less neurons than humans. Your brain might be thawed and put into an avatar to enable you to exist forever.
When people inquire about immortality, Susan Schneider, a philosopher and director of the Center for the Future Mind at Florida Atlantic University, says, “I don’t think they truly mean genuine immortality, unless they believe in something like a soul.” “If someone were to improve their brain and body in order to live a very long period, they would still be unable to survive beyond the end of the universe.”
Scientists predict the end of the universe, putting an end to the problem of human immortality. According to scientific writer John Horgan’s article in Scientific American, some scientists have theorized on how to survive the end of the universe, although it’s very improbable that anybody living today would see the end of the universe.
There are many people that grow old and pass away. To be able to live forever, we would have to halt the ageing process in the body itself. Even while solving this issue may seem impossible, it isn’t as far-fetched as it first appears.
Hydra are invertebrates that look like jellyfish and have an interesting way of ageing. They are mostly composed of stem cells, which divide indefinitely to produce new cells while discarding the old. Live Science earlier stated that hydra may regenerate and remain eternally youthful because of the continuous inflow of new cells. Prof. Daniel Martnez of Pomona College in Claremont, California, who first identified the hydra’s lack of ageing, told Live Science: “They don’t appear to age, therefore, theoretically, they are everlasting.” “Although creatures like the Hydra demonstrate that ageing is not a necessary part of life, it does not follow that people might adopt the same renewing behaviors. Hydra are tiny, measuring just 0.4 inches (10 millimetres) in length, and they lack internal organs. Martnez said that it was “impossible for us since our bodies are so complicated.”
However, unlike hydra, the human body does not consist nearly completely of these cells. Humans contain stem cells that can repair and even regenerate bodily organs like the liver. That’s because cells do more than simply divide and produce new ones in people. Our red blood cells, for instance, are responsible for transporting oxygen throughout the body. “We force cells to commit to a role by preventing them from dividing,” Martnez said. We age together with our cells.
We can’t just throw out our old cells as hydra do since we need on them for survival. Neural networks convey information throughout the body, including the brain. ‘We don’t want them to be replaced,’ Martnez said. Otherwise, nothing will stick in our minds. Scientists believe Hydra may spark new ideas for improving human health, such as discovering methods to help our cells work better as we age. Nevertheless, he has a gut sense that humanity would never be able to reach this level of biological immortality.
According to Guinness World Records, Jeanne Calment, a 122-year-old French woman, was the oldest person ever recorded to have lived. A study published in the journal Nature Communications in 2021 predicts that people would have a lifespan of 120 to 150 years, beyond which time the body’s capacity to heal from sickness or damage will be completely depleted. Overcoming this obstacle will need developing methods for delaying the ageing of cells and guarding against illness.
Technological advances using nanotechnology may one day allow humans to live beyond their biological limitations. Material manipulation on a nanoscale (less than 100 nanometers) is taking place here (one-billionth of a metre or 400-billionths of an inch). With this tiny of a footprint, machines may be able to move through the bloodstream and repair damage that occurs to cells over time. Using nanotechnology to remove malignant cells from the body, the University of Melbourne in Australia believes it may be able to treat some illnesses, including certain kinds of cancer.
Immortality cannot be achieved simply by stopping the ageing process in the human body. There is still death for hydra even if they don’t exhibit any symptoms of ageing. As Martnez said, they’re preyed upon by predators like fish and will die if their habitat changes too much, as when their ponds freeze in the winter.
As a species, humans are not threatened by many dangerous predators, but we are susceptible to deadly accidents and severe environmental events, such as those that are exacerbated by climate change. There will be a day when our present bodies will be insufficient to carry us into the future. It’s also possible that technology will offer a solution to this problem as well.
Technology is here to stay
Futurists believe that as technology develops, there will be two major turning points. In the first place, we will create artificial intelligence (A.I.) clever enough to redesign itself, and it will become more smarter until it is far superior to our own intellect. Second, we’ll be able to scan our brains and transfer ourselves to a non-biological medium like a computer, which would provide us virtual immortality.
As soon as the human mind can be stored in a computer and uploaded to the internet, the human body will be extinct. Transplanting the human mind would be a huge step toward immortality, but Schneider warns that there’s a no-win situation. In her opinion, creating a digital duplicate wouldn’t provide you immortality since you’d be making a digital copy of yourself.
A thought experiment in Schneider’s book, “Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind” (Princeton University Press, 2019), shows whether or not the brain can survive the upload procedure to the cloud. It is impossible for the digital copy to be you if your brain survives the upload procedure since you are still alive; conversely, the copy can only be your digital duplicate if your brain does not survive the upload process.
According to Schneider, biological improvements compatible with the survival of the human brain would be a better path to extreme longevity while also maintaining the individual. Alternatives such as implanting brain chips, however divisive, are also viable.
Schneider opined that: People have speculated about the possibility of implanting chips in various regions of their heads over time. Eventually, you’ll be like a computer programme. Instead of thinking in terms of neurons, they’re gradually becoming cyborgs. However, she said, if your brain is a part of you, removing it might be the same of taking your own life.
Despite her concerns, Schneider is intrigued by the future’s possibilities for brain and body improvements and welcomes the notion of avoiding death from old age. “That would be fantastic,” she said. “I hope science and technology will help heal diseases and improve human intelligence. People should have the choice to add chips to their brains, in my opinion. I just want them to be aware of the risks.
Overall, I believe we’re on the cusp of something significant happening. Scientists are now rewriting the natural rules of the universe, and our generation is fortunate to be alive during this time of scientific advancement. Naturally, none of these options is perfect. People will die in accidents, and natural catastrophes. Because of this, natural resources and the ecosystem will be put under stress. Ensuring human existence involves considerably more than just increasing lifespan. Everyone must do their part to make the world a better place while waiting for things to improve.
Source: Live Science
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