AGING FU**ING REVERSED

Qonfused said:
No of course not. Medication is for pussies.

Please give me the benefit of the doubt that I'm not ****ing retarded. If people were living into their 130s, there's a serious problem. It's already a problem with population. Having people live longer isn't a positive thing. Having people live better for those years is fine, but lengthening lives isn't smart beyond what they are now (I would argue that people living into their late 80s being too long already).
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Thats messed up.
 
Yeah, I saw something on the BBC recently on a related topic - they are making huge progress in figuring out how to make people live forever.

Basically, there is nothing in any part of your body that is programmed to die. They have shown that yeast, for example, can be made to live forever in the proper environment. Every part of our body can repair itself. Over time, it begins to have errors in that repair, and those errors are reproduced and magnified in the next repair. If they can stop that, they you can live forever.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-radical_theory
 
Qonfused said:
Please give me the benefit of the doubt that I'm not ****ing retarded.
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OK

Qonfused said:
If people were living into their 130s, there's a serious problem. It's already a problem with population. Having people live longer isn't a positive thing. Having people live better for those years is fine, but lengthening lives isn't smart beyond what they are now (I would argue that people living into their late 80s being too long already).
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Benefit of the doubt, removed.

"I would argue that people living into their late 80s being too long already"

Please do, I would like to see that. I also dare you to go to your grandparents and tell them that.

Also this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malthusian_catastrophe
 
The interesting thing about being old - you're still the same person you were when you were young, and 20 years ago could feel like the blink of an eye - could seem like yesterday. I noticed it the other day. So it doesn't surprise me that really old people (when not in pain) don't want to die. It also makes time (and our perception of it) a very interesting property.

I was watching something on the BBC (as usual) where they show that - and you may notice this - people say that when faced with a life or death situation, time slows down. Adrenaline gives you more time to react. It makes your senses keen as hell. Even the framerate of your vision becomes enhanced. And we see creatures like the hummingbird, and the housefly - their heart must beat so fast and they can see at like 120 frames per second?, compared to ours, which averages about 60. So we probably seem slow as shit to them - that's why houseflies are hard to strike. So to them, time has slowed down. Their short lifespans seem longer. However, with our intelligence and experience, we can 'predict the future'. We know based on their trajectory and habits where they will be in the future and we strike there. Housefly dead.

Anyway, interesting stuff all around.

EDIT: Oh, and for the sake of completion, here is another source of information on topic. This time with video (that I haven't watched)
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Health/20101129/reversing-aging-mice-101129/
 
VirusType2 said:
I was watching something on the BBC (as usual) where they show that - and you may notice this - people say that when faced with a life or death situation, time slows down. Adrenaline gives you more time to react. It makes your senses keen as hell. Even the framerate of your vision becomes enhanced.
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Then you start tripping the **** out, according to some people you start perceiving yourself to be part of "all that is, was, and ever will be" and even cases of perceived omni-presence.

I remember there was a thread here years ago about a neurologist who consciously experienced a stroke, the left-side of her brain shutting down.

EDIT: found it, I think: http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html
 
Good find, Banimal. That's the video that began my slow turn from atheism to spirituality.
 
Remus said:
I also dare you to go to your grandparents and tell them that.
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Afraid that's not possible.

To completely ignore the fact that population growth is a massive problem that cannot go away without serious birthing restrictions (see: China) is just irresponsible. Part of population growth is life span.

I really don't have any intention of arguing this. I really don't care. I should have been working on uni work but I got sidetracked.
 
Stigmata said:
Good find, Banimal. That's the video that began my slow turn from atheism to spirituality.
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You should check out David Icke.

At least, everything before the Reptillians.
 
Stigmata said:
Good find, Banimal. That's the video that began my slow turn from atheism to spirituality.
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Have fun in "lala land".

Qonfused said:
To completely ignore the fact that population growth is a massive problem that cannot go away without serious birthing restrictions (see: China) is just irresponsible. Part of population growth is life span.
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Population growth is a problem in poor countries. Wherever quality of life and education goes up, birth rate goes down, that's a fact. As avarage life expectancy goes up, the age at which people decide to have children or not, gets pushed back further.

However that being said, even if overpopulation was this insurmountable obstacle that you see it as, it would still not be a valid argument to stop research into life extention. Using the same idea you could argue to stop the development for treatments against cancer, aids, etc. Since that would mean more people would die and that would keep the population problem under control. How is this idea different that what Malthus proposed? To have people go back to filthy medieval living conditions, so they would die faster.
 
I forgot to say that they also did experiments which showed that older people perceive time as moving faster, and younger people: slower. I noticed it myself, that when I was younger, time seemed to take forever to pass, and now it seems the months fly by.

Oh, but this is our built-in clock. It seems to go through changes.
 
PvtRyan said:
So I take it you wouldn't use medication, or anything else that increases lifespan? You do realize that average life expectancy used to be around 30 years, right?
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It's not like people died of natural causes at 30, the reason it was so low (and still is some countries) was due to high infant mortality rates, which brought down the average.
 
VirusType2 said:
Basically, there is nothing in any part of your body that is programmed to die. They have shown that yeast, for example, can be made to live forever in the proper environment. Every part of our body can repair itself. Over time, it begins to have errors in that repair, and those errors are reproduced and magnified in the next repair. If they can stop that, they you can live forever.
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We're "programmed" to have errors, so yes, we're programmed to die.

Also way to jump the gun everyone
Mice engineered to lack the enzyme, called telomerase, become prematurely decrepit. But they bounced back to health when the enzyme was replaced.
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Totally the same thing as reversing natural aging right?
 
The programing needs an overhaul me thinks.
 
I'm not sure, but we might still find some due to sexual selection and genetic drift. My point was more that immortality or greatly extended lifespans would be a massive mistake though for the forseeable future.
 
Eejit said:
I'm not sure, but we might still find some due to sexual selection and genetic drift. My point was more that immortality or greatly extended lifespans would be a massive mistake though for the forseeable future.
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I don't disagree. Humanity isn't mature enough to even deal with it. But I'm still curious; so very curious about evolution in humans. I'm going to sleep on this and try to imagine.
 
Remus said:
OK, why exactly?
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Hyper-Malthusian population growth? Even bigger gap between rich and poor - those who can afford such treatments live for even longer?
 
Eejit said:
Hyper-Malthusian population growth?
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-54OpEwE0w&feature=related

Every time life extension is discussed it comes to this. Over population this, overpopulation that! Bull shit!

Malthus was a fool as he didn't forsee technological advances that would allow continued population growth, and people today are making the same mistake AGAIN. Renewable energy sources, vertical farms, floating cities on the ocean, expansion into the solar system. That's assuming that exponential population growth will continue, which I doubt. I've seen estimates that the worldwide population will plateau at about 9 billion. Like I said before in this thread the main contributors to worldwide overpopulation are the poor regions of the planet. Why do you think Japan one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world is investing so much in robotics? Their population is aging rapidly and the birth rate is going down. Increase in life expectancy/living quality/ education, means a decrease in birth rate.
On top of that I'm sure there are many people out there, such as myself, that don't want to ever have children.

At the end of the day research will continue despite naysayers.
 
Old age to middle age. To experience that all over again.
Also, **** yeah existentialism!
 
Remus said:
Every time life extension is discussed it comes to this. Over population this, overpopulation that! Bull shit!

blah blah futurist predictions we're still waiting for
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I knew you'd say that.
The point I'm making is we need all of those make-believe utopia technologies and developments before or at the same time as we get the hypothetical anti-ageing treatments. If we get significantly extended lifespans first we'd have massive problems.
 
Good thing these developments are happening at the same time then...
 
Ah, so changing the hypothetical situation, sweet.
It's all pipe dreams for the forseeable future so you might as well frame the argument in whatever way suits.
 
Eejit said:
It's all pipe dreams for the forseeable future.
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It would be my pleasure to come back here in 30-40 years and give you the "I told you so". If this forum still exists that is.
 
We were promised fly cars 30-40 years ago along with robots in every home and moon colonies. I'll remain skeptical for now thanks.
 
I'm just gonna point out here that overpopulation has always solved itself.
 
If old people were able to become young again, wouldn't that actually be good for society? They wouldn't be a drain on resources anymore; they'd once again be productive members of society. The boost in production that that'd grant humanity would probably be enough to tide us over until we develop advanced technologies like moon colonies to ease the pains of Terran overpopulation.
 
Tagaziel said:
Yay, overpopulation. How about we first work to change our biological imperative and then focus on creating Soylent Green?
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What's the need to change the biological imperative?

India solved it's resource/population boom crisis in the 1970s via the genius police Indira Gandhi implemented that meant forceful sterilization for any committed crime, be it murder or shoplifting (Yes, this actually happened.)

Also, population growth seems very connected to poverty and education levels, in India for example, heck I think in most of the world, the upper classes and more well-educated portions of society have less children than the poorer ones!

So let's just make everyone well-educated and filthy rich!

On another note, I am seriously considering copying that Discovery channel-hostage taker and becoming a Malthusian eco-terrorist.

Save the world, kill yourself indeed! As long as it is others that have to kill themselves.

Seriously though, I need to get rich quick, then I'll get some Sarin nervegas labs set up and spread them via planes over the most densely populated cities of the world to do my part in the battle against overpopulation.

Sorry if I am not making much sense, I am just in a very weird mood today, partly after seeing these news.

I think I am finally about to crack!
 
Mr. Gargantuo, the FBI has been notified. Expect them to "knock" on your door shortly.
 
The FBI has no jurisdiction in Sweden they most certainly don't.

No, Syphilis.
 
fishdbaz said:
If old people were able to become young again, wouldn't that actually be good for society? They wouldn't be a drain on resources anymore; they'd once again be productive members of society. The boost in production that that'd grant humanity would probably be enough to tide us over until we develop advanced technologies like moon colonies to ease the pains of Terran overpopulation.
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But then you also need to take into account the mentality of people who've lived too long. If many things happen in the lifetime of a healthy, illuminated person -such that said person could "die in peace" after having experienced many things-wouldn't they also feel the need to explore other darker sides of the human psyche? Would they even retain their memories at all, and how long would it take for them to become corrupt? I do think human beings can be considered as a means to boost production, but in the lifetime(s) of a single person, it begins to sound like they are a slave to society, forever.
 
evil^milk said:
This. I think time is, in this universe, what makes our efforts worth pursuing.
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I find this mentality insulting/disgusting to be honest. What you're basically saying is, our lives and acomplishments have value only because our time is finite. That's rubbish.
 
Although the points about overpopulation are true enough and I'm probably being a bit selfish in this (am I not allowed one or two vices) but if this worked on humans with no adverse reactions I would sign up to be pumped full of that shit. Or at least I would when I got old. I don't want to go through reverse-puberty thankyouverymuch.
 
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