Here’s a good overview of what Google, Thiel and others are doing. I wish they’d stop calling it “immortality,” though. That’s not the goal, and if it were, it would be unrealistic. It’s just indefinite lifespan. As I often notes, expansion into space and extended lifespan go hand in hand.
[Update a while later]
Sorry, link was missing. Fixed now.
There seems to be no link…?
Several years ago I looked at death statistics and estimated that if old age were removed as a factor the average life expectancy in the US would be about 1000 years. More recently I read of someone else coming to the same figure. So not immortality, but a long average lifespan without an upper bound. And certainly a problem for a fixed retirement age.
Another thing to consider is that our concept of risk is tuned to seventy year lifespans. If we knew we could live for a thousand years, we’d be far less likely to, say, walk across a road, or ride a motorbike.
My guess is that humans with indefinite lifespan are far more likely to leave their body somewhere safe, and use drone bodies any time they have to interact with the physical world. If one gets run over, you can just buy another one.
“If we knew we could live for a thousand years, we’d be far less likely to, say, walk across a road, or ride a motorbike.”
You don’t view it as 1000 years of riding motorbikes?
Few people would last a thousand years if they did. Even if they didn’t kill themselves, a car or truck would probably get them sooner or later.
Similarly, you’d be unlikely to meet many thousand-year-old base jumpers, whereas anyone could do it with a drone body… if you go splat, just replace it and try again.
Add to this effort research in fertility in low gravity. If we (or even our food animals) cannot procreate we aren’t going anywhere off planet.
Artificial means (MATRIX) could help but the old fashioned way is more fun.
Oh just because implantation may not occur wouldn’t mean people give up on the fun way. It might even lead to more fun…
The article does distinguish between immortality and longevity.
Immortality, however, is what some of the backers are clearly after. Consider the Larry Ellison quote: “Death has never made any sense to me. How can a person be there and then just vanish, just not be there?”
That’s actually a profound question, but it’s a religious question, not a scientific one. Biomedical research can merely postpone the question, not answer it.
Who knows maybe science will answer it someday. But the answer still might be religious in nature.
Maybe if people live to 1000, there would be some who have fewer or maybe even the same number of children but what about those people who choose to keep popping out babies? It would be a good time to be a polygamist and that will be legal fairly soon.