Do you think humans could live forever?

[V-G]

Do we have to grow old and die? Or is this something that we do now because we don't have the right tools to prevent this "desease" from happening to us?

I was watching some TV program yesterday about super-humans in the world today. There was a guy who was able to withstand extreme cold temperatures, another was a human calculator, they also mentioned a rich dude who was claiming that in the next 15 years we will have the technology to prolong our lives quite a bit and soon after we should be able to live forever. There was also an asian scientist who was talking about DNA research that may increase our resistance to cancer etc. He was also mixing two different kinds of mice (apparently more different than humans and monkeys in their genetic profile). Modifying genes is what his lab is testing on animals now and he said that humans are next, it is not an "if" question but "when" and the answer is soon.

With gene modifications we could change the way "evolution" works today, we could channel it the way we want. Cool eh?

So, could we live forever? Yes or no? What do you think?

[bm-21Lemko]

not unless these genes could regenerate organs and tissues and cells, otherwise we would still die.

[Lvivske]

Isn't this type of research the cause of most zombie movies? :-x

[lisaparx]

zombies

[stepanstas]

Interesting.

I think with the science we can life forever but I also thing that would mean replacing our body parts.

You notice old people can't move that much because they don't have the energy, their bones are not as strong, etc.

I am not a doctor, so I do not know what exactly fails when a person dies (the heart or what) but if you start replacing everything that is failing aren't we just going to be robots with a brain?

Either way most people are religious and this goes against that. However, it would be very generous of God to let me live for ever. (It never hurt asking :-)

[bm-21Lemko]

You notice old people can't move that much because they don't have the energy, their bones are not as strong, etc.

yeah, that was my issue too, Stepan

We would have to develop something that would regenerate the body. I believe replacing body parts would be a temporary solution because the other warn out pieces could fail at any time like a car

[Lilly]

Somehow this reminds me of the movie "Death Becomes Her" with Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn and Bruce Willis where Society has been obsessed with youth and beauty.

Regenerative medicine holds promise of repairing or replacing damaged organs. Stems cells offer incredible healing potential. Gene therapy and other medical marvels are on the horizon, but I don't believe we could live forever. All organic material eventually dies.

Dr. James Vaupel said....
''There is no reason that life expectancy can't continue to go up two to three years per decade,'' ''Biomedical progress is really very impressive. We are beginning to understand cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's disease. In animal models, we are beginning to understand how to slow aging itself.''


Personally I don't want to live to be 150 or so. I would hate to look like my age at that stage of my life. Ugh!