Immortality in Humans

Yep, you read it right.

A scientist has claimed we could be just 20 years away from the nanotechnology that would let us live forever.

Here's the full article.
There are also other articles covering it if the Telegraph doesn't please you. :)

I find this really fascinating yet slightly... scary. It sounds like a great progression in technology, but I'm not entirely sure I'd want to have eternal life.

What are your thoughts?
Do you think this is merely a fantasy or could it be possible?
Would you want to live forever if it were possible?

That's amazing, but I definitely wouldn't want to live forever. To quote Batman - "You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villian".

I saw it on Russell Howard's Good News...

(I don't like him, but I find the BBC iPlayer somewhat mesmerizing...)

Basically, you'd be replaced by a lot of spare parts, wouldn't you? Don't fancy that.

Also, eternal life would get boring. And depressing.

it's not really being immortal, though, is it? Because it's not you, it's just bits of metal and electricity. i don't think it counts.

That would be so cool...

No!

Spare Parts? Cybermen cybermen...

I have a myriad of reasons.

I wouldn't want to live forever it would be boring and the world would overflow with people haha

Life is meant to be a cycle.
This would disrupt the course of nature.

The Doctor.:

No!

Spare Parts? Cybermen cybermen...

I have a myriad of reasons.

I know! Why not just genetically engineer ourselves to ridiculous lengths and then live inside giant pepper pots?!

She's A Genius:

I wouldn't want to live forever it would be boring and the world would overflow with people haha

Exactly! If we could live forever and reproduce, where would we put everyone? And I can't see people agreeing to take eternal life in exchange for the ability to bear children.

Why would you want to live forever? Surely you'd get fed up of it eventually.
Like Adam Gontier. said, life's a cycle. It's supposed to happen once for each person and when it's time for them to go, it means that their cycle's over.

Well, that's my opinion anyway.

I'm all for technological advancement in most cases, but this just seems unnecessary, scary and...impractical?

It's In The Blood.:

I know! Why not just genetically engineer ourselves to ridiculous lengths and then live inside giant pepper pots?!

I mean, this whole living forever by replacement of body parts actually started on Mondas - an Earth twin planet - and those people slowly become more machine than man.

On another issue, surely this would merely highlight the ills of inequality? All the superrich live forever while the poorest still struggle to survive.

Would this mean, with the replacing of organs, that we'd eventually become fully or almost fully robotic?

Now that's just freaky.

^ We'd slowly become bionic because no organ can last forever. Blood, organs, tissues, bones, skin - we would no longer be Human.

We'd be Human.2. And that "upgrading" bullshit really does scare me. Relying on nanotechnology and bionic bits would work for a while but at what cost? What would happen with computer viruses? Surely, something can really screw up or reprogramme these little 'bots so it could make things worse rather than better.

It's just...wrong.

Christ, don't Americans get Doctor Who? We sorted that one out forty odd years ago.

Oh, I got bionic and robotic mixed up. My bad.
Thanks for answering my question. :)

And I agree. I mean, there was the whole freak-out over Y2K and whether we'd be able to survive without computers, but imagine just how much worse it'd be if we were directly dependent on bionic parts?

In the end, isn't it also just making us lazier too? What with being able to write books super fast and the like.

jeordie.:

Oh, I got bionic and robotic mixed up. My bad.
Thanks for answering my question. :)

And I agree. I mean, there was the whole freak-out over Y2K and how we'd be able to survive without computers, but imagine just how much worse it'd be if we were directly dependent on bionic parts?

In the end, isn't it also just making us lazier too? What with being able to write books super fast and the like.

I wouldn't want to live in a world where I could play the oboe, run miles in seconds, make souffles perfectly, understand quantum physics on a deeper level I already do, be able to perfom brain surgery and a million trillion other awesome things that everyone else could do anyway...nobody would be special anymore.

Unless you were poor, of course. So, I wouldn't be. I'd be the pleb at the bottom.

It's In The Blood.:

Exactly! If we could live forever and reproduce, where would we put everyone? And I can't see people agreeing to take eternal life in exchange for the ability to bear children.

We would invade and conquer other planets and steal their space. Then we would meet aliens of different races and boast to them that we're immortal. God knows what happens after that...A possible war maybe.

^ Invasion of the Cybermen.

What happened with the Mondas folk, they invaded other planets...and converted them against their will. The ultimate biological conformity.

^
Nooo! We cannot let this happen! We must put a stop to our future cyber-ness! We now know the outcome, and it is not a pleasant one!

They were here before.

The Cybermen.

And we defeated them. With UNIT, Torchwood and the Doctor.

Now, are we letting our homegrown ones run amok?

No.

I would protest against this. Yes, let us live longer but not like that. Not like that, it's not worth it.