bizerta has got it right. Even if you could prolong your life for an indefinite period of time, the second law of thermodynamics is going to catch up with you, as it does for all things, sooner or later.
I agree Dr. Lao.
You folks have no imagination. OK, so the guy in the OP is almost certainly crackpot (with 99.999999% certainty). Duh.
But, let’s consider the human body. There is a large, but finite amount of information associated with the biological operation of said body. If people survive long enough, I think that eventually we will be able to molecularly repair our bodies to the point that we will be able to live “forever” (YMMV) for all intents and purposes.
Granted, if the universe collapses or the Sun novas, things would be pretty bleak. Then again, continuing to play the devil’s advocate for extreme optimists, at that point we might understand the nature of the universe so well that we’d be able to prevent these things from happening.
In other words, Jean-Luc Picard saves the day again. The universe is safe once again for interstellar garbage barges. Yea.
Let me clarify that:
A. I recognize that there would be some serious social repercussions with immorality being given to the general public.
B. I don’t personally think the human race will survive long enough to reach that potential.
C. I don’t think this thread was intended to be a Great Debate that the title would suggest, but, as a GQ, it should have said “Can this guy’s stuff make one immortal?”
The great thing about selling immortality devices is that noone ever sues you if it doesn’t work…
“Dust in the Wind” recorded by Kansas. Later covered by Sarah Brightman, who also recorded a song called “Who Wants to Live Forever?”
immortality is certainly possible, as long as our definition of immortality is: life that does not end by ‘natural causes’. eventually a comet or a supernova or the end of the universe will wipe us out, but it is possible to arrange it so that humans never die of old age. think about it, do bacteria ever die of old age? no, all bacteria alive today are essentially 4 billion years old. there is nothing inherent in the process of cell division that requires the product to expire at some point. now invision an island populated by bunnies. if there is no limit on there age, this island will soon be vastly overpopulated with bunnies, and if the old ones are not dying to make room for the new ones, evolution flops. the whole point of evolution is that the old models make way for the new and improved ones. so aging is hard-wired deep into our genetic code, and it would take a large amount of genetic tampering to remove all of the aging protocols without damaging other functions. but it could be done, but not until our technology is much more advanced. the obvious shortcut around this situation is the fact that the human brain is nothing but a computer program, and could therefore be downloaded into a computer. of course, your body would still die, but your intellect/persona/whatever would be safe to frolic forever in virtual reality (heaven?). of course, this solution is also well in the future.
but just so y’all know, i intend to live forever.
and alex chiu’s magnets will have nothing to do with it.
-b