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Dr. Mercola
July 05 2008
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Is Immortality in Your Future?

The World Transhumanist Association (WTA) aims to bypass death by using technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), genetic engineering and nanotechnology to radically accelerate human evolution. The transhumanists think this could happen as quickly as a decade from now.

To many, their ideas are scary. Political scientist Francis Fukuyama singled out transhumanism as the world‘s "most dangerous idea."

But they are planning to go mainstream. WTA membership has risen from 2,000 to almost 5,000 since 2000, and transhumanist student groups have sprung up at university campuses from California to Nairobi. Plus, the WTA has attracted a series of wealthy backers.

In the video above, longevity biologist Aubrey de Grey, philosopher Nick Bostrom and neuroscientist Anders Sandberg talk about how you could become immortal.

Dr. Mercola Dr. Mercola's Comments:
From a strictly biological standpoint, human beings seem to be set at around 120 years as a maximum lifespan. I do believe that one day lifespan may be extended well beyond this … but becoming “immortal,” at least here on earth, is not something that’s possible for any living creature.

That is, perhaps, until you start blurring the edges of life and technology.

Whether it’s morally right or not, we humans have advanced technology to a point of no return in many respects. It is advancing at exponential rates, and one day may “learn” how to advance itself -- a concept that Ray Kurzweil, the famous inventor, calls "the singularity.”

Singularity refers to the point in time when technology becomes smarter than the people who create it. What will happen when and if this superhuman intelligence takes over is anyone’s guess. Some predict an end to the problems that have been plaguing mankind for generations. Others see half-human cyborgs taking over their “inferior” human neighbors.

Still others, like the three men interviewed in the video above, see intermingling advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI), nanotechnology and genetic engineering with the human body and mind as nothing but natural.

Earlier this year, Wired Magazine ran an intriguing article on this very topic. In it, Kurzweil says that “the first AIs will be created as add-ons to human intelligence, modeled on our actual brains and used to extend our human reach.” (I am actually scheduled to do an upcoming expert interview with Ray Kurzweil later this year for my Inner Circle.)

They will be used to improve eyesight and hearing, boost your memory and fight disease. Eventually, however, futurists like Kurzweil believe that artificial intelligence will “render biological humans obsolete.”

To most of us, this sounds like a travesty. But Kurzweil sees it differently. “The singularity won't destroy us,” he says. “Instead, it will immortalize us.”

Is This for REAL?

All of this talk about cyborgs and superhuman intelligence sounds like something straight out of Hollywood. And it has been the topic of countless movies. One of my favorites that came out a few years back was "A.I." by Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick. Now there is a movie that brings up enduring questions of moral responsibility and technology, and their impact on human life.

As for whether or not human beings will one day become bionic … I suppose only time will tell.

If you really want to take your mind on a trip, Nick Bostrom wrote a mind-expanding article in 2003 that argues we could all be living in a super-powerful computer simulation right now.

Now I’m not one to want to veer far from the natural order of things. I don’t even want to eat a piece of genetically modified corn, let alone have that technology implanted in my body.

But the technology enthusiast in me can’t help but be intrigued.

Of course, you can always work on extending your lifespan the natural way, through nutrition, exercise and emotional well-being. If living your life to its full potential -- without becoming a transhuman -- appeals to you, I’ve listed nine of my top tips to maximize your lifespan in this past article.
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Community Comments ( 81 )
 		Comment on this Article
  
  
seg
 [ Joined on 11/06 ] [ Posted on June 19, 2008 ]
20 Points        
   
 
Savvy User
No thank you monsieur De Grey, keep your mark of the best for yourself and others in your "congregation"......I will achieve "true"immortality through my creator and lord of all things...........as promised.....
 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
qualitygeek
 [ Joined on 10/07 ]  [ Posted on June 19, 2008]
6 Points        
   
Savvy User
  Mercola
ditto & a resounding amen!

This body has too many flaws to want immortality in it...

The only way part of this current physical shell will live on after I'm gone will be as an organ donor.
Mercola
  
Judy_Miller
 [ Joined on 09/06 ]  [ Posted on June 21, 2008]
6 Points        
   
This user is BELOW novice level and all their comments need to be reviewed with great caution.
  Mercola
Totally! This idea is nothing new.  People have gone round and round with it for thousands of years.  There will be immortality, but the way God planned it, not a plan like this!
It is already written, and nobody gets to change it!
Mercola
  
healthnutmom
 [ Joined on 09/07 ]  [ Posted on July 5, 2008]
-1 Points        
   
Novice User
  Mercola

Same here. Why would I want to stay here forever when there are better things for me with the Lord?
Mercola
  
hunter3738
 [ Joined on 01/08 ]  [ Posted on July 5, 2008]
1 Points        
   
Novice User
  Mercola

Better things with the Lord huh? Why don't you speed things up and end it all today then?

The story is nonsense though, the mind serves the body and is inferior to it, not the other way around. The mind/soul/intelligence was evolved only to give us better odds in the natural selection game.

I wouldn't pay a cent to have my consciousness transplanted (copied) to some silicon based hardware. My body would still die and that's what MATTERs.

Mercola
  
healthnutmom
 [ Joined on 09/07 ]  [ Posted on July 5, 2008]
       
   
Novice User
  Mercola

Because I love my life and my family and all the good things that I have been so very blessed with here on this earth.  But when it's "my time" I will go in peace knowing I will have eternity in Heaven without having to transplant my mind to a computer disk to live on without me. Hope that answers your question.

Peace, health and happiness...

Mercola
  
krupulfinch
 [ Joined on 01/08 ]  [ Posted on July 5, 2008]
1 Points        
   
Novice User
  Mercola

amen I'll trust the Lord.
Mercola
  
Girl from Oz
 [ Joined on 06/08 ]  [ Posted on July 6, 2008]
-3 Points        
   
Novice User
  Mercola

Thank you Jesus for the Cross......I know I'll live forever!
Mercola
  
StrangerHereMyself
 [ Joined on 04/08 ]  [ Posted on July 13, 2008]
       
   
Novice User
  Mercola

Amen to that. Even if I didn't believe that, though, why the heck would I want to stay here? I'm not the least bit afraid of death, and I don't want to be here any more than I have to, accomplish whatever purpose I'm supposed to have and then I want out. Same reason I don't want to raise kids in this world that is getting scarier every day, greedy government out to do everything they can to keep our quality of life as poor as possible, making us (and our money) depend on them... rubbish.
  
  
chrissywolcott
 [ Joined on 06/06 ] [ Posted on June 19, 2008 ]
8 Points        
   
 
Novice User
why is the idea of the circle of life so off-putting? we are part of a cycle, we are not separate from the earth. we briefly use resources, then those resources are cycled back for some other creature to use.

like a match that lights up brightly, then burns out slowly - such is life meant to be. to artificially smolder on forever, or until one is hit by a car or struck by lightning, is obscene.

this is another hideous idea thought up by man, along the same lines as genetic modification.
 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
stoic
 [ Joined on 03/07 ]  [ Posted on June 19, 2008]
3 Points        
   
Apprentice User
  Mercola
Why is the idea of expanding the circle so off-putting? After all, the lifespan you can presently expect to have is an expanded one relative to your ancestors....
Mercola
  
stoic
 [ Joined on 03/07 ]  [ Posted on June 19, 2008]
       
   
Apprentice User
  Mercola
If logical & true were a political candidate, as you can see (-2 points voted), there would always be those, typically a majority, that would vote for someone else. Ain't democracy grand?
  
  
Pragmatico
 [ Joined on 06/06 ] [ Posted on June 19, 2008 ]
8 Points        
   
 
Apprentice User
Interesting speculations, all. But until it's recognized that only a very small portion of the mind is rooted in the brain, and that the real "me" (the unit of awareness that survives all conditions) is not beholding to either brain or mind, then such speculations are really without much foundation. No matter how you cut it or project it, human immortality  (which I believe is possible under certain conditions not even hinted at in the video) would be overwhelmingly boring without some ever-expanding, higher mission to carry the day. Human life everlasting ... what a limitation! Why, I even dislike using cell phones (or listening to others use them). Why would I want to hang around a piece of human-developed technology that supposedly represented me when there are new worlds to conquer?
 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
stoic
 [ Joined on 03/07 ]  [ Posted on June 19, 2008]
1 Points        
   
Apprentice User
  Mercola
Yes, interesting speculations - yours as well. The universe is vast, however, & immortalty would still not be long enough to conquer the worlds you refer to...You might run out of curiosity, but never material..... 
Mercola
  
shiva
 [ Joined on 10/06 ]  [ Posted on July 5, 2008]
1 Points        
   
Savvy User
  Mercola

Pragmatico - - Well said. .. and just to reiterate the truth you have addressed,... The Mind Is Not The Brain. .. Never was and never will be. .. The Brain is merely a 'Transciever' between the mind and the body. .. Consciousness never dies. .. The flesh is a temporary experience,.. but it is a Divine Creation that is ordained by the One Mind that is God,.. and it is the challenge for those souls who incarnate into this life,.. to become fully HU-MAN. ... Until one accomplishes this,..  one will not graduate from this HU-MAN experience.
  
  
freeseb
 [ Joined on 06/06 ] [ Posted on June 19, 2008 ]
7 Points        
   
 
Novice User
Ok.... so now we can live longer so we can Watch more TV, eat more, and post more on forums?

yah!


 [ Reply ]
  
  
Bobby_Lee
 [ Joined on 06/06 ] [ Posted on June 19, 2008 ]
7 Points        
   
 
Novice User