Horus,
I understand it’s a gene in all life. Single cell asexual ones too. Nothing lives for ever at some point in time the chemical messages in the gene switch off the repairing capacity. Why it is set off? Scientists aren't sure but the decay mechanism, break down at cellular level will ensure all life will die at some time.

Easy times
On the lighter side I am tickled by the possibility of my eventual reason for death being listed as "Mass existence failure by the elephant in the room".
Then suppose that document was found by some future archaeologist can you imagine the controversy it would cause in those circles?

*Or do you see it like I do that it is an unnecessary part of life that with time we will be able to over come and thus change the world in the most amazing way.*

Your question Easy Times, is really a philosophical one. I personally
think that the world would be a worse place, not a better place,
if your wish came true.

You are implying that only humans matter and that only you and
your beloved matter. You mention 100 billion people. Where
they live is not the issue, its their global footprint that matters.

What about other species? Don't they have a right to some of
this planet too? Why do only humans matter? So 100 billion
is purely a pipe-dream, for we have shown as a species that we
simply cannot live sustainably at 6 billion, let alone any more.

My prediction is that as we head for ever larger numbers of people,
as evolution theory predicts, eventually the whole thing will
become ever more unsustainable, mother nature will sort it out
and the planet could well be left with cockroaches and ants
as inhabitants, for they are fairly tolerant of radiation etc.

Humans have a track record of inventing new things, but not one
of employing them wisely and sustainably.

I have long ago accepted the cycle of birth, life and death.
Fear of death is what drives people to not accept it, but the
way I see it, if I die tomorrow, I won't know I'm dead, so it
won't really matter.

Love and grief, if you think about it for long enough, are once
again based on self interest. Yes they can be extremely painfull,
but they are also part of the cycle of life.

Once you accept that cycle, you look at things differently.
You enjoy every day more, enjoy and appreciate your loved
ones more, but also accept that it all can change tomorrow.
So enjoy today for what it is, another special day.

examinator
"Nothing lives for ever at some point in time the chemical messages in the gene switch off the repairing capacity"
OK, but you speak for the current human abilities, for todays's sciences.
We will win the dead when we control the gene switches and we put double and trible switches, you know...
We can not use today's tools to solve future's, advanced problems.
If we can imagine that we can win the death then we must imagine first that we can create the tools,which control the switches of genes and even from some other things which we ignore at the moment!
examinator
Some times I can not understand you, I am not familiar with sciences I am a (second class)poet!
you use very much your logical part from your brain, free little bit your fantasy, it is nice!
Antonios Symeonakis
Adelaide

Evo2 – No I am not kidding you make it sound like people are some sort of pest and the world would be better off with out us. Are you kidding?

Asymeonakis – Thanks for your good words. Over coming death via way of “natural causes” is only a matter of time but time is the big issue. At the current rate we are increasing human life expectancy by about 3 months for every year that passes but what we need to do is get it up to a year or more then a year so even if we don’t find some amazing immortality drug ( I doubt we will) we will be increasing life expectancy exponentially so that most people never reach the area or average human life expectancy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNcLKbJs3xk&feature=channel_page

That link is a presentation as to where we are headed with science over the next few decades. I am sure you as well as most others here will find it very interesting.

Jaranet – Are you saying that if we have the option to live for as long as we want we should all say no? If we are not dead by say 120 should it be passed into law that people of this age should be killed off so as not to over populate the universe which you seem so terrified of? Can you imagine telling your gran that? “Common gran its time to go we already have the noose hanging from a tree in the back garden! Chop Chop the footy starts soon so lets hurry it up a bit” You cant be fairdinkum!

We have a long way to go before over populating the universe or should I say known universe as far as we know Jaranet the universe could be infinite!

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/07/22/stars.survey/index.html

This article states an estimate of the size of the known universe, for humans to even get close to this “the conservation of matter” what you are talking about we are all going to have to get very busy in the bedroom for many millions of millenniums

If we reach 100bil pop which I think if it ever happened would be many centuries away I see no reason as to why we cant live on mars or other star systems which are close by. Besides with in a few hundred years I would expect technology to enable the population of earth to reach over a trillion.

Bugsy - I agree not only science but also the arts and every other form of human endeavour would benefit from increasing of the human life.

The main problem with age is that when cells divide they lose a strand at either end (Its either the cells or the DNA) There comes a time usually around 80 or 90 that the cells or DNA cant divide any more and thus the effects of old age really start to kick in and its all down hill from there.

Examinator – I agree with what you say and the fundamental problems you put forward that’s why I am a champion of transhumanism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism (I might start another thread about peoples thoughts on Transhumanism) Transhumanism is the obvious next step in evolution and makes us masters of our own destiny and leaving nature and evolution in the past.

What are our motives for living today examinator? So that we can have kids who can have kids who can have kids.. What you are asking is a philosophical question and is like asking is there any point living at all? I personally could think of a plethora of things to keep myself busy for a few thousand years! After that I don’t know but I will have plenty of time to think about it.

Horus – You are of the same line of thinking as I am.

http://www.kurzweilai.net/index.html?flash=1

This is a link to Kurzweil website with links to lots of very interesting articles.

“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.” I 100% agree! Why should we shuffle off to make room for others after all we where here first! I am not going to drop off the perch so somebody else can pop out another baby. We can work it so there is enough room for everyone.

Would you have any links regarding the stuff you are talking about Horus with regards to self etc! I take a big interest in the study consciousness and the like.

http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/254

This is an interview with David Chalmers who studies consciousness at ANU! Very eye opening and interesting interview.

Yabby – its dogma like yours which the original article I posted is trying to over come. You accept status quo as the norm! That’s fine but lets make very long lives status quo!

We can easily make 100bil sustainable! I personally doubt we will see 100bil people on this earth ever but if we did we could sustain it. To sustain it, it all comes back to energy and there is a big bright thing in the sky we call the sun which will provide us with enough energy for at least the next few billion years to do this. We could use this energy to convert salt water into fresh and use it to irrigate mass greenhouses which would use recycled sewage as its fertilizer. Seeing that they are in green houses it would not only enable yield increases in cereal crops by 100’s of percent but also enable 2 crops per year now seeing that in a green house seasons don’t really matter.

If we ever ran low on basic building materials like iron to produce steel for our structures we could harvest asteroids in the asteroid belt which have a lot of iron in them. I could go on but that should be done in a different thread.