Insights April 1st, 2019

The EXPONENTIAL MINDS Executive Briefing on Immortality looks at the idea of immortality and that we can cure the world of the disease of DEATH. See Aubrey De Grey and Ray Kurzweil present their thoughts and a longer documentary on immortality.

Can humans live to be 1,000 years old? Aubrey de Grey

Ray Kurzweil — Immortality By 2045

The onset of the 21st century will be an era in which the very nature of what it means to be human will be both enriched and challenged, as our species breaks the shackles of its genetic legacy, and achieves inconceivable heights of intelligence, material progress, and longevity. The paradigm shift rate is now doubling every decade, so the twenty-first century will see 20,000 years of progress at today’s rate. Computation, communication, biological technologies—DNA sequencing, for example—brain scanning, knowledge of the human brain, and human knowledge in general are all accelerating at an ever faster pace, generally doubling price-performance, capacity, and bandwidth every year. Three-dimensional molecular computing will provide the hardware for human-level ‘strong’ AI well before 2030.
The more important software insights will be gained in part from the reverse-engineering of the human brain, a process well under way. While the social and philosophical ramifications of these changes will be profound, and the threats they pose considerable, we will ultimately merge with our machines, live indefinitely, and be a billion times more intelligent… all within the next three to four decades.

This Is How Humans Will Become Immortal By 2090

It’s not known exactly when us humans began to imagine being able to live forever, but it’s probably been thought about for thousands of years since getting old comes with a whole list of problems associated with it. The ancient Greek poet Homer called old age ‘loathsome, and the well-known Shakespeare termed old age as a ‘hideous winter’.
There are many scientists and researchers who believe that soon discoveries will be made that lead to immortality and that maybe even stem cell research could reverse the effects of aging since it has great potential. Believe it or not, it’s not known exactly why we age, it just happens and it’s a part of life. Researchers are still trying to understand what actually causes us to grow old and wither away and have looked at aging as if it were a disease. But is it possible to achieve immortality?
There are many scientists who say that it’s just a matter of time. In fact, the tech giant Google says that we will probably find out the secret to eternal life by the year 2029. This is the time when its estimated that Nano-bots will be created that will be able to swim through our bodies and fight disease. Even more unbelievable is that Ray Kurzweil, who is Google’s director of engineering, says that medical advancements and technology will advance so much in the next 10 years that we may see humans being given the option to live forever. It’s a pretty bold statement unless you understand the concept of medical Nano-bots. The microscopic bots could one day be used as drug capsules that directly target the disease and deliver the cure without affecting the entire body. Some scientists claim that eventually, we will be able to inject tiny nanoscale machines into our bodies that act like tiny pharmaceutical labs. These tiny robots would be able to detect a problem inside of your body, process your body’s natural enzymes and proteins into a drug, and then deliver it to the problem spot. Imagine never being sick again. Nanotechnology is already capable of some incredible things. At the same time, there are some scientists that say that it’s impossible to biologically live forever because our bodies would age no matter what. Research suggests that by solving one problem the human body ends up with another. There is a normal cell cycle in our body and if good cells are boosted, then cancer cells have a better chance to grow and even more violently. Well even if they are, there are other ways to become immortal. Cryonics is something that has been around for decades and is the science of freezing the body of a person using ultra-cold temperatures stopping decay and putting everything on hold. No, it’s not science fiction and shouldn’t be confused with cryosleep you see in the movies. And for the record for those who are curious, the first human ever frozen by cryonics was Dr. James Bedford, who passed away in 1967 and is still in his cryonic chamber after 50 years. The big question one needs to ask themselves is ‘do I really want to live forever?’ Imagine the things that you would be able to accomplish if you could live as long as you wanted to. Of course, there is that whole ‘afterlife’ thing that a lot of people believe in. What if there is some existence when we leave our bodies and we don’t want to come back? Some of you might think that it will be impossible to bring a frozen person back to life. However, some cool technology has come from the science of cryogenics. Some doctors have come up with a procedure which removes all the blood from a wounded person’s body and replaces it with a really cold saline solution which drops the bodies temperature to around 50 degrees Fahrenheit. It is an absolutely fascinating thing that all of us will eventually experience what happens after we leave this Earth. Maybe there is some kind of glorious afterlife where only our spirit can live, or even perhaps scarier, maybe when we pass away it’s as if we simply flipped off the light switch. There are a lot of questions when it comes down to being immortal. If you could suddenly live forever, have your brain moved into a robot, or upload your consciousness into a computer….
Would you do this? What about your family, and your friends? What if they weren’t coming along?