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comment by thenewgreen
thenewgreen  ·  4313 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Do you think we'll achieve immortality before the end of this century?

I think I should refer this question to theadvancedapes, he has a great podcast on the singularity that perhaps he can direct you to. Also he posted this comment which is his vision of the future that ties nicely in to your question.





theadvancedapes  ·  4313 days ago  ·  link  ·  

That comment really sums up a lot of my thoughts about the future. I've also written a lot about the technological singularity on my site if you want to check that out. But I will try and elaborate a little bit on my thoughts about immortality (or negligible senescence) more specifically. Technologies that will move the average life expectancy from 70-80 to 160 are really only decades away, not centuries away (this is in line with many predictions about exponential doubling of human life span). As Michio Kaku has stated, the 20th century was "The Age of Discovery," and the 21st century will be "The Age of Mastery." This includes mastering the biological, chemical, and physical world that we spent so much time learning about last century. The first half of this age will most likely be characterized by the three revolutions mentioned in The Singularity Is Near: genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics (GNR). Once we can specifically control how our cells develop and age, and once we can grow and replace organs, negligible senescence will essentially be achieved. However, I don't know how much it will matter. This is because the transformations brought by nanotechnology and artificial intelligence (N and R) will probably takeover any biologically-relevant processes before we have a chance to experience what it is like to be a 300 year old "young" biological human. In my mind, the question of whether our generation has a chance to live indefinitely is not really that interesting anymore. It seems extremely likely. What is interesting is discussing some of social repercussions of that knowledge (i.e., what will it be like to live that long? What does it mean for our social lives? Our relationships? Our partners? Our working lives? How should we approach the rest of our lives?). It is also interesting to discuss what will happen post-singularity. People are working on these ideas now (which brings up whether "the singularity" is the right metaphor for the transformations to come this century). Singularity U is a great place where these discussions can take place. I feel like in my graduate program I have to censor myself regarding these issues, although I am making some progress in discussions. But Singularity U is a place where graduate students can do research on these issues. I would recommend checking out John Smart's YouTube channel for more info on this as well. Also, I always find Singularity Hub to be a great site to explore these ideas and to discuss discoveries and research that are happening now with relevance to the future of this century.

EDIT I would just like to add that we need to divorce the idea of the singularity from Ray Kurzweil. It is not "his" idea. It was first proposed by Vernor Vinge in 1993 and many computer scientists throughout the 20th century predicted "singularity-like" events in the 21st century. Kurzweil did a great job popularizing the idea, but he is not the only one predicting this future. There are many many research papers about it and many different researchers from different academic disciplines actively studying this. If anyone wants a suggested reading list contact me.

Ferridium  ·  4313 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Thank you for that insightful comment. While I am rather biased toward the idea of our generation being the first to achieve some form of biological immortality, I would really like to be able to construct a more informed opinion. I'd appreciate a reading list on how far along we are on the path to immortality, i.e. types of life extension technologies, how viable these methods are, what obstacles they have to overcome etc. Funny you should mention Michio Kaku though, cuz it was his Physics of the Future that prompted me to ask this question aha.

theadvancedapes  ·  4313 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Alright, I'll try and organize a suggested reading list on the subject.