#13 Exploring Immortality
Ever dream of living in Tír na nÓg? The paradise with everlasting youth, health and beauty. Where, Oisín fell for Niamh and lived an eternity full of eating, dancing and loving. Well, look no further! Futurologist Ian Pearson believes we will achieve immortality by the year 2050. So, follow Teresa Mannion’s advice, “Don’t take risks on treacherous roads”, and by surviving the next 30 years, you might just live forever.
Having followed our blogs for the past 12 instalments, we hope you are pretty convinced (or deceived) that technology is radically changing the current healthcare system. Now, the time has come to visit the more obscure, futuristic vision concerning the potential of technology in healthcare. Perhaps, the human species in its current form does not represent the end of our development but rather a comparatively early phase.[1] This is a theory of transhumanists who believe that technology and science will evolve the human race beyond its known physical and mental limitations.[2] Here’s how…
Method 1
Nobody wants to live forever at 95 years old but what if you could rejuvenate it to 30 years old? Now I’ve caught your attention. This could be achieved by using biotechnologies such as genetic engineering. Genetic engineering could be deployed as a strategy to reverse the ageing process of genes.
The Gilgamesh project believes that getting old is an inherent characteristic of the biological system i.e. ‘programmed inside the genome of the organism’.[7] Named after the Sumerian poem Gilgamesh where the hero sets out “to give humankind eternal life”. This is the basis of SENS research where they are searching for a strategy to combat the disease of body ageing. In the latest scientific research, a pill has been developed that triggers the anti-ageing enzyme Sirtuin 1. It is estimated that this could extend the human lifespan by 15% by slowing down the ageing process. With the investments in SENS research growing, the remedies for anti-ageing will grow.
Genome editing is a group of technologies that give scientists that ability to change an organism’s DNA.[8] Allowing genetic material to be added, removed or altered. This will be hugely beneficial in the prevention and treatment of diseases. Currently, it is being conducted in lab experiments and scientists are determining if it is safe for use in people. Altering semantic (sperm and egg cells) is of key interest. What if you could pick and choose the characteristics of your child…hair colour, eye colour, height etc. Or perhaps have them immune to certain or all disease.
People have so much faith in technology and gene editing that they are paying to freeze their body after death. Cryonics is a method whereby the body of a just-deceased person is suspended in a frozen state, in the hope that a remedy for their cause of death will be soon discovered. Theoretically, they could be thawed and cured by future medical technologies. A practice in Arizona run by Ralph Merkle has frozen 153 deceased patients in its facility. A further 1,000 people have made bookings for when they die![3] Latest technology could not restore brain information due to its complicated structure, however, in the future, these cryonic believers hope it can.
Method 2 — Augmenting our organs
Alternatively, 3D printing could be used to replace aged body parts. As discussed in Blog 9, 3D printing is beginning to be used as a strategy to manufacture human organs loaded with living cells. This could extend to printing parts that are everlasting with superhuman abilities. If your ear was no longer functioning, why not replace it with a 3D printed ear with supersonic hearing, printed accordingly to your genetic makeup. Or perhaps your lungs are clogged up with smoker’s tar, simply print a new pair. In this fashion, our bodies will never age. However, 3D cellular printing is still in its early days. Watch this space.
Method 3 — Nanobots
Singularitarians believe that at some moment in time, artificial intelligence will overtake and merge with or replace human intelligence.[3] Nanobots are minuscule robots that could be what Singularitarians have been looking for. It is a growing industry with great potential for healthcare.
It is expected that these Nanobots will have the ability to connect to our neocortex and connect it with a synthetic neocortex that operates in a similar fashion to the cloud where we can upload information.[3] Thereby, adding levels of abstraction, meaning greater brain power and superintelligence.
Furthermore, Nanobots could also be used as a strategy to make us healthier and extend our life spans. By destroying pathogens, removing debris, rid bodies of clots and tumours and correct DNA errors to ultimately reverse ageing and make us invincible. Can you imagine an army of minuscule robots patrolling our body? Now the 1996 film ‘Fantastic Voyage’, where a submarine of scientists was shrunk to enter the bloodstream, doesn’t seem so bizarre.
Method 4 — Living in android bodies
The human brain contains trillions of connections between 80+ billion neurons. To produce a digital mind map of the brain is beyond the capability of computers, even as sophisticated and advanced as they are today.[4] With Moore’s Law proving that technological capability is doubling year on year, this digital mind might be achievable in the next decade. With the first implementations on frozen brains, and eventually mapping and continuously uploading live brains.
Yitpin blogged about the use of cloud technology to store vast amounts of medical information. Well, what if, technology becomes so advanced that we link our minds to machines. We’ll effectively be living in the cloud. Thereafter, with minds in the cloud, we will be able to use androids as bodies. Potentially, one could hire any android anywhere in the world, like hiring a car and simply upload your consciousness to it.[5] You could travel anywhere in the world by switching avatars… could quite literally chase the sun day and night.
Does this equate to immortality? I don’t think so but the correct phrase is ‘cybernetically immortal’ whereby your original body dies but your digital mind, stored on a computer can still be used with highly realistic robot bodies. Just imagine, it would be like a game of ‘Sims’. You could pick and choose what character you would like to be for the day…old, young, male, female. Car crashes or diseases can kill your body but your mind will be backed up and ready for a restart tomorrow. We could, therefore, live eternally electronically.
There hasn’t been enough non-PG content so far in our blog series (besides Dan’s dad jokes), so here we go. Kids skip this part…
Who is Harmony? Harmony is an artificially intelligent robot who acts as a sexual companion. Her accent was particularly programmed to appeal to users. A “smoothing” Scottish accent. I was surprised too. If Scottish isn’t your cup of tea, one can change her accent or her personality via a smartphone app. Would you pay €12,000 for unconditional android love?[6]
This is the first step towards an android world, first they become intelligent, then our minds will be synched with their hard drive and then, BAM!, we’re in the movie ‘Avatar’.
Method 5 — Living in a Virtual World
If our minds are online, why bother with robotic bodies? We could just live happily ever after in a simulation, where nobody ages and we don’t have to worry about rejuvenating body parts or diseases or climate change or poverty. One could simulate any scenario from any era and live a day in the life of a character of choice. Like an episode of Westworld, each day a new beginning. Or a simulation from the ‘Matrix’, where we can’t tell what’s the difference between the real and dream world. It is scary how far technology could take us. Technology could replace the need for healthcare.
Technology in healthcare has increased life expectancy dramatically over the last century with special thanks to vaccinations. Perhaps, this was just the first bounce, of a stone skimming across the Fountain of Youth.
Slán,
Team Checkmate,
Gavin
References
1. (2019). What is Transhumanism?. [online] What is Transhumanism?. Available at: https://whatistranshumanism.org/
2. Oxford Dictionaries | English. (2019). transhumanism | Definition of transhumanism in English by Oxford Dictionaries. [online] Available at: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/transhumanism 3. Nypost.com. (2019). Scientists could one day make humans immortal. [online] Available at: https://nypost.com/2018/01/06/scientists-could-one-day-make-humans-immortal/
4. Newstatesman.com. (2019). Could technology hold the key to immortality?. [online] Available at: https://www.newstatesman.com/2016/09/could-technology-hold-key-immortality
5. NewsComAu. (2019). You could be immortal by 2050. [online] Available at: https://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/inventions/want-to-live-forever-you-just-have-to-make-it-to-2050/news-story/4c70508f0f48b6fdfb3ebed09ab85754
6. Scotsman.com. (2019). Video: Meet Harmony, the sex robot with a Scottish accent. [online] Available at: https://www.scotsman.com/news/video-meet-harmony-the-sex-robot-with-a-scottish-accent-1-4630603
7. Medium. (2019). Gilgamesh Project: Death is not the end, Death it’s only the beginning. [online] Available at: https://medium.com/@tomolagos/gilgamesh-project-death-is-not-the-end-death-its-only-the-beginning-e74e21de9a74
8. (2019). What are genome editing and CRISPR-Cas9?. [online] Genetics Home Reference. Available at: https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/genomicresearch/genomeediting
