Dying of old age

[trip]

Lets face it - old people aren't the most attractive and sometimes(usually) they smell funny. If people didn't die off then the world would be even uglier and smellier than it is today.

 

 

There is also the political side of things. The world would progress at such a slow rate since all these old people would be holding on to(and voting for) the ideals they believed in 100 years ago.

 

 

do people still die of old age?

[Adler]

 

Lets face it - old people aren't the most attractive and sometimes(usually) they smell funny.  If people didn't die off then the world would be even uglier and smellier than it is today.

Well actually if you reverse the aging process by preventing the mutations that cause people to grow old from occurring then those problems you mentioned might not be present in the new generation of old people. It's also really superficial to think negatively of old people like that. You'll become old and ugly too until you die.

 

To everyone with mostly pessimistic outlooks on this I believe it is a really major breakthrough in science. Are you really denying people a longer lifespan just because you think the world has enough problems? Think of what the greatest scientists of the human species could have done if they had lived for some extra hundred years (K^2 included lol). Besides focusing on the bad side of things everyone should consider some positive outcomes of this.

Edited December 2, 2010 by Adler

[Vercetti27]

Yeah never ending life = disaster for the planet, either we die at say 80, or live until 200 with an overpopulated planet, 10 guys who own everything in the whole world, and we are slowly suffocating due to pollution.

I've got the solution- no unprotected sex and reproducing. want kids? get a dog instead

[freak2121]

I'd like to stay alive longer just to see some nice scientific accomplishments. f*cking Discovery Channel and their promises for 2100!

This. I seriously want to see what the f*ck will be going on in a hundred years.

[Niko_Vercetti7]

I just don't know about all this eugenics crap. I don't know how ethically right it is to modify our genes. Look what happened in Nazi Germany, do we really need a repeat of all that?

[Rawra]

Serious question:

If all goes well with this eventually, would it mean that we would soon after be able to live forever? As in never die of anything but accidents?

If so, ggggggggggreat.

[coin-god]

 

I just don't know about all this eugenics crap. I don't know how ethically right it is to modify our genes.  Look what happened in Nazi Germany, do we really need a repeat of all that?

You can't compare.

[K^2]

I just don't know about all this eugenics crap. I don't know how ethically right it is to modify our genes. Look what happened in Nazi Germany, do we really need a repeat of all that?

You don't have to participate. But if you try to interfere with other people doing it, we will not be friends.

 

As a civilization, we've put ourselves into the situation where genetic manipulation is necessary. You might be happy with dying a natural death, taking yourself out of the gene pool if there is something wrong with your DNA. Most people extend their life and manage to procreate. That means that we no longer have a system in place to clean the genetic pool naturally, as it has been for over a billion years. The only options are eugenics or voluntary gene modifications.

 

We are at a point where we'll start messing with next generation's genes for fun and profit. And yes, there will be a lot of people who want to make sure that their kids have blue eyes and blond hair, but if that funds the research necessary to stop kids becoming terminal at age 10 due to some broken gene, I'm all for it.

[Niko_Vercetti7]

 

As a civilization, we've put ourselves into the situation where genetic manipulation is necessary. You might be happy with dying a natural death, taking yourself out of the gene pool if there is something wrong with your DNA. Most people extend their life and manage to procreate. That means that we no longer have a system in place to clean the genetic pool naturally, as it has been for over a billion years. The only options are eugenics or voluntary gene modifications.

 

We are at a point where we'll start messing with next generation's genes for fun and profit. And yes, there will be a lot of people who want to make sure that their kids have blue eyes and blond hair, but if that funds the research necessary to stop kids becoming terminal at age 10 due to some broken gene, I'm all for it.

 

Now I'm not saying that I'm against the idea of improving negative genes. If we can get rid of the bad genes that cause disease then by all means we should go ahead and do that. However, controlling things such as hair and eye color may be going a little bit too far in this case but whatever. I recently heard on the news about a company that allows you to pick the gender of your child, to me that sounds like a pretty good idea, especially because as of right now there are much more females in the world and supposedly the male chromosome is slowly disappearing which I find extremely hard to believe.

[Tommy-Vercetti19]

Death is there for a reason. We were only learning about populations in school last week. Old people die to make way for young people. The population levels itself out, if there was too many people there would be nothing left, no resources and everyone would be old.

Edited December 3, 2010 by Tommy-Vercetti19

[junkie2115]

The thought of not living forever makes me scared. I wish they had a funding to somehow when you die. Put your train of thought and mostly be reborn and see everything from a Baby's point of view and relive life. I know thats really f*cking stupid but it would be cool. Nobody would be scared to do suicide and sh*t.

 

But living longer is somthing i would wanna do at least 130. I wanna see my Kids Grow up and have a family and i wanna Fulfill my dreams (even small ones) before i die. I hate having a Time period for this.

 

Like school you need to do homework in time or else you Fail on it. Life works the same way.

 

I could make the worst life choices and now my Life is sh*t. I have nothing to live for. I wish that Coming back to life as a animal or somthing was true (sorry if i offended anyone who believes that) but its just my opinion. I really wish of dying old. But i don't ever wanna die. I wanna live life until the end of the world. sounds pretty selfish tho. everyone has to die sometimes..

 

 

[Adler]

 

Death is there for a reason. We were only learning about populations in school last week. Old people die to make way for young people. The population levels itself out, if there was too many people there would be nothing left, no resources and everyone would be old.

Not everyone's going to be able to benefit from a longer life if they're met with accidents or disease throughout their lifetime. It's not really cheating death; it's just allowing people to grow older than they normally would. The human lifespan has been increasing throughout history so there's no reason to stop now.

 

Besides forcing old people to die like they normally a less ethical strategy would be to conserve the resources we have now and practice the use of renewable resources. We'll have to make a change for the better eventually so even if we run out of nonrenewable resources then most of us might die out anyways and we'll be forced to let go of our dependence on nonrenewable resources.

 

I usually try to stay in the optimistic side of things, and that's what keeps me away from cynicism, I believe. I fear death just as any normal person would and I don't wish for it to come sooner for people than they would like. Everybody should be able to enjoy this opportunity if they wish and pretending that the Earth is going to suffer for the selfishness of humanity is so cliche (I'm in AP Environmental Science and the Environmental Club at my school so don't even sass me for that remark by accusing me of not caring for the environment).

[Niko_Vercetti7]

Personally, I'll be happy when I'm pushing up daises. This life blows hard

[Ari Gold]

If you make the right decisions and do what you want to do, trust me, it doesn't. At all.

[Pico]

Get this to work on humans and combine it with proper myostatin blockers, exo-skeletons/bionic suits, and neural-computers and we'll be damn near indestructible.

 

Imagine not aging (this thread's topic), having super human strength (myostatin blockers) combined with a bullet proof armor (exo-skeleton/bionic suit) that aids in your already insane strength combined with having a computer embeded in your brain that connects to the internet and is capable of searching the web for information at your very whim (instead of when you think about something you bring it up from your gained knowledge, it will be pulled from a database and instantly presented in your thoughts).

It's true that our evolution is no longer going to be fed by natural selection, we out grew that when we dominated our environmental surroundings. Now we're in a technological evolution, and if even the few things above are accomplished, the human species as we know it will be changed in ways that are unimaginable.

[K^2]

I recently heard on the news about a company that allows you to pick the gender of your child, to me that sounds like a pretty good idea, especially because as of right now there are much more females in the world and supposedly the male chromosome is slowly disappearing which I find extremely hard to believe.

Well, the male chromosome is degenerating because it's a direct line. You got yours from your father, he from his father, and so on. At no stage do you have genes crossing from one individual to another. (There could be some exceptions involving viruses, but for the most part, no change). So if something in that chromosome breaks down, it's irreparable. And over time, more and more things within break down.

 

As far as gender selection goes, this involves no manipulation. It's simply in-vitro where they check the gender of the fertilized egg before implanting it. This only works because any two parents can have a male or female child. With altering other features, things are more complicated. You basically have to custom-engineer DNA for zygotes, and then continue with in-vitro process. This is not nearly as straight forward. But the tech is already here. It's just a matter of someone investing money in opening a clinic.

[Typhus]

You are prepared to spend the last decades of your life in condition of which the best part is that you don't actually realize that you keep sh*tting yourself?

And you sir, have just summed up exactly why I will probably kill myself before I reach old age. Dignity is the most precious thing a human possesses. I think of my grandmother, barely able to move, with machines breathing for her and collecting her bodily waste as though she were an invalid.

There is no way that's happening to me, and no one should be expected to let it happen to them either. One of the worst things about the Christianisation of the West is that we have an inflated view of the sanctity of life. The Romans knew that there were worse things than death, and to be in a posistion where I can no longer use the toilet without assistance or recognise people I care about is far more frightening than cruising along the Styx.

Humans have the right to decide when they depart this world, and I think most sane men would do so before they lost all their dignity.

[Vanilla Shake]

 

This better be the song that plays in the afterlife.

[E.A.B.]

 

Well, the male chromosome is degenerating because it's a direct line. You got yours from your father, he from his father, and so on. At no stage do you have genes crossing from one individual to another. (There could be some exceptions involving viruses, but for the most part, no change). So if something in that chromosome breaks down, it's irreparable. And over time, more and more things within break down.

 

So, let me get this straight; females are a case of broken male Chromosones that will never exist within that person?

 

Obviously women can still have men. But that's only because you need a man to have a child (a man having the male chromosone), obviously. But, for the women, she is 100% woman and if she could have a child all on her own it would be woman. For the man, it's an uncertainty and it's a gamble for him to have a boy or girl.

 

Correct?

 

I actually like it like that; less competition and plenty of women to chose from. Nature works wonders yet again!

 

 

Yeah never ending life = disaster for the planet, either we die at say 80, or live until 200 with an overpopulated planet, 10 guys who own everything in the whole world, and we are slowly suffocating due to pollution.

I've got the solution- no unprotected sex and reproducing. want kids? get a dog instead

That doesn't float my boat, bro.

 

 

It's true that our evolution is no longer going to be fed by natural selection, we out grew that when we dominated our environmental surroundings.

and replaced it with some sort of quasi-natural selection in the form of how far you can go when it comes to social status.

 

Women want men that have good social standing. Deal w/it.

[Algonquin Bridge]

And here I was hoping I could artificially elongate my life by having hydraulic legs, and an M. Bison heart re-start pack installed.

It's always been a bizarre fantasy of mine to be sprinting down the street at the age of 97, having my heart restarted if I cop it from the intense speed.

[K^2]

So, let me get this straight; females are a case of broken male Chromosones that will never exist within that person?

 

Obviously women can still have men. But that's only because you need a man to have a child (a man having the male chromosone), obviously. But, for the women, she is 100% woman and if she could have a child all on her own it would be woman. For the man, it's an uncertainty and it's a gamble for him to have a boy or girl.

 

Correct?

No, what you get is X-monosomy, also known as Turner Syndrome. Look it up. Normal female needs two X chromosomes, one from each parent.

[Creed Bratton]

Death is there for a reason.

Yes it is. It is there so that we can find a way to defeat it. It's the ultimate quest or some sh*t like that.

[860]

To all the people who have said that the world would be full of old people: what the f*ck? If we can stop and even reverse aging why on earth would you not be 25 for the rest of your life. The world would be full of twentysomethings. Not old people.

[Illousion]

I can't believe people actually want eternal life. Give it 70 years and you've probably done everything that you are capable of. Now what? And personally, I think that the future seems really boring. I think that the 80's-early 90's was a very intresting time. Cellular phones were being developed, computers came in to peoples lives, the fall of the wall and the Soviet Union and so forth.

 

That's why I would prefer some sort of afterlife where I could manipulate everything that I wanted the way I wanted it instead. I could put myself in the year 1991 if i wanted, and it would never become boring because I could manipulate it that way.

[Moonshield]

Get this to work on humans and combine it with proper myostatin blockers, exo-skeletons/bionic suits, and neural-computers and we'll be damn near indestructible.

 

Imagine not aging (this thread's topic), having super human strength (myostatin blockers) combined with a bullet proof armor (exo-skeleton/bionic suit) that aids in your already insane strength combined with having a computer embeded in your brain that connects to the internet and is capable of searching the web for information at your very whim (instead of when you think about something you bring it up from your gained knowledge, it will be pulled from a database and instantly presented in your thoughts).

It's true that our evolution is no longer going to be fed by natural selection, we out grew that when we dominated our environmental surroundings. Now we're in a technological evolution, and if even the few things above are accomplished, the human species as we know it will be changed in ways that are unimaginable.

 

This is all I saw when I read your post. Resistance is futile. The singularity is coming.

[Pico]

That's pretty much a likely outcome for humans if what I said were to happen.

[cidamelo]

I want to live 102 years!!

[Tchuck]

I can't believe people actually want eternal life. Give it 70 years and you've probably done everything that you are capable of. Now what? And personally, I think that the future seems really boring. I think that the 80's-early 90's was a very intresting time. Cellular phones were being developed, computers came in to peoples lives, the fall of the wall and the Soviet Union and so forth.

 

That's why I would prefer some sort of afterlife where I could manipulate everything that I wanted the way I wanted it instead. I could put myself in the year 1991 if i wanted, and it would never become boring because I could manipulate it that way.

Manipulating everything the way you wanted can get quite boring as well. Specially since you'll know that, no matter what you do, you have control over everything, things will have less appeal. First thing you'll do is make up some hot chicks and bang them all. Though since you're actually controlling them as well, it's pretty much just a fancier form of masturbation. Then you can drive all the fastest cars you want. But because you control everything, the experience will be limited to your grasp of fast cars and how they handle. What's next? Live in different times? Sure could be interesting. And then it gets boring because of the billion limitations that they'd have, specially since you know what the future is and how much cool stuff they miss. Whereas, if you can keep extending your life span, you'll always be amazed by the new discoveries that will inevitably come. Sure you can make up cool stuff in your afterlife dreamworld, but you will always know you have full control of it all, so there really is no thrill. (If you don't think so, go play creative Minecraft. Eventually you'll run out of things to do in your peaceful world and start craving the excitement that only being chased by monsters and surviving can provide)

 

I also agree that extending our lifespan can come for good. Imagine those scientists that have discovered so much, have so much knowledge, imagine if they could live even longer to produce even more knowledge? That would just be amazing. Or those creative people, making art for longer. Or athletes, who will be able to retire at older and older ages, keeping their skill and ability in the game for longer, giving them more time to influence more people. Actors too, who mature overtime, increasing their acting skills. Extending our lifespan can be a fantastic thing, I for one welcome this discovery.

[Ronnyboy]

That's pretty much a likely outcome for humans if what I said were to happen.

I just hope we all run on Android

 

This sh*t sounds intense, but will probably cost a fortune! I personally wanna live to be 165 or some sh*t like that, but then again, who needs to live that long? And what for? Some flying cars and technology I won't be able to understand?