While there doesn't seem too much support for this idea, I quite like it. I don't expect that death itself will be conquered, but life span extension, with a corresponding increase in quality of life to match of course, is certainly possible. We have been able to increase the lifespans of a few animals by some very simple methods (eg caloric restriction) that are not fully understood yet, I betting there are quite a few more.

A couple of these potential mechanisms that may arise may involve apoptosis signaling (programmed cell death) and cell damage repair, ironically these could come from research into a leading cause of death - cancer.

While there will be challenges, society adapts and changes to suit and I think it will actually increase the speed of scientific discovery, not stagnate it. The average bench life of a scientist is about 15-20 years, before administrative duties and managing a laboratory and seeking grant funding for their programs takes them further and further away from their research. Imagine a scientist being able to complete or spend many more productive tears on their research without having to hand it over to a younger group, or even seeing it fall by the wayside and not being looked for years.

Also imagine having the time to have several careers and being able to have an actual long productive time in each. I believe scientific discovery would increase at an even faster pace. I also believe that space travel would become more feasible, the future would certainly be 'different'. An extension of maybe a couple of hundred years would be sufficient (at least for me). But then again, maybe the elephant in the room is dead, in that case it's going to start stinking at some point.

Bugsy! The benefits for space travel in that respect would be feasible, but for common human sustainably fore-cast, it is not. If another planet was found, I know they would manage it better than this one. But at present we need to clean up not expand.

Your thinking is good!

EV

The Elixir of Life is a promise divine,
Which says that living forever would be so sublime.
I wonder what, if we were to find,
That a life worth living,
Depends on your mind,
Would living forever still be sublime?

Jaranet, Easy times and others
Fair conclusions
Here are a few extra thoughts for you to mull over.
• It is a scientific reality that we evolved as a result of a struggle for survival.
• Viruses et al also have the same imperative…as our science has evolved so too must our pathogens…consider penicillin was once a wonder drug. Now we have super antibiotics and also Multi drug resistant pathogens.
• We still have the legacy of our origins in our DNA so long as we have that DNA we must remain vulnerable to pathogens and genetic errors in DNA replication due to the fallibility of the method.
• Scientists have determined that there is a ‘death/suicide gene’ one that causes our cells to stop dividing and eventually die to make room for newer more healthy ones. Without this we would become a cancerous blob and die anyway.
• Scientists have determined that the theoretical limit of human life is about 130 year however this is with optimal conditions.
Therefore given all this we are born with a use by date mechanism built in and lack the science/ability to affect any of pre- requisite changes.
Notwithstanding this to alter any or all of these parameters significantly would require fundamental change in life it’s self.
The question then is would we still be human being or something else?
A supplemental question is then what and what would our motives be for living then? Our two primary urges/motivation (survival and procreation) would irrelevant what would be in its place or would life be like parliament superficial, sterile and as useful as a fish hook enema?
Therefore I conclude that “life as it is” is all we have so lets make the best of it in terms currently understand.. enjoy being helpful to the goal of life (survival of the species) and hope for an acceptable quality of life until we die. Your turn rip into it.

Bugsy,
You are an open mind! Always we start with fantasy and finish with the reality.
Our fantasy is the gate to the future, science today and tommorow and always will have huge limits and big darkness.
As we will go further and deeper into world, in different sides and levels from it, micro and macro, we will find new laws, new rules new worlds.
We are at the very begin, of human history, of human evolution, I am sure that better days are coming, days of great glory and horor!
Scary, humans run to hide yourself into the caves!
I will continue the fight against the death!
EasyTimes ignore them! The science will change its conclusions, Humans will win the death.
When? We are here billions of years and we will be even more.
Analyzing my cells you will found not only the monkeys and crocks but even elements from volcanos, earthquokes from our galaxy or from other stars and galaxies.
We came from very far from the past and we are going even farther into the future.
THE QUESTION IS NOT IF WE WILL WIN THE DEATH BUT WHEN.
Of cause humans will not be similar with humans we know them now in our town!
In realy humans change very often and very fast.
Put the elephant onto my bike and I will take him to the future!
Antonios Symeonakis
Adelaide

Easy Times, good to see back on board.
And as always, with a stimulating subject.

I agree, I think we’ll eventually overcome death.
Some like Kurweil think we’re very close.
There was an interesting piece about him in a recent Wired.
He says he is ‘sixty going on forty’.

Actually, even now , some organisms don’t have death built into their cycle.Can single cell organisms with asexual reproduction be said to experience death ?(Though of course, the down side is they are not likely to be any the wiser).

Some have said we need to keep the life-death cycle going to accommodate the ever increasing world population.And to seek to live a longer than natural life span is selfishness. It is less selfish than producing kids without the wherewithal to look after them and,then expect others to shuffle-off to make room for them.

PS: There are some interesting studies going on at the moment about ‘the self’.Some are theorizing that we actually have a more than one self –and one or other may dominate at different times.
Which if true would open up some new angles on immortality?