The Calming Effect of Evoltion and Immortality

[ryan]

As most of the regulars on here know, I have been pro life (in the general sense of the phrase) and very much anti death to the point where I would be happy to be immortal (with the option to die) even if that means everyone alive today would be immortal too.

I have to be honest, an immortal world freaks me out a little when I compare it to life as we know it today. But today I thought of something that totally takes that anxiety away. I thought about the universe and what immortality may mean in terms of evolution.

The intelligent life that makes it out of their solar system and spreads to another solar system would probably have mastered their biological system by the time they have the technology and capability of travelling that far.

So we may look at other worlds one day and question whether or not the immortal step in evolution has happened to them yet.

For some reason, this big picture makes immortality feel a little more "natural" in that it is probably inevitable to other intelligent forms of life assuming they exist or will exist in the future. It would be a natural progression of a universe like the one we are in.

Comment how you like.

 

[DBT]

I don't think that, given the choice, many would turn down the option of becoming Immortal. Unfortunately this probably won't be an option in the near future...although a significantly increased life span may, perhaps somewhere around 100 to 150 becoming routine.

 

[Sajara]

My wife would turn down being immortal in a heart-beat. I would love the option.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Ever since I realized that I and the rest of the universe is immortal I've been much calmer and less anxious about life. You learn to see yourself in everything, even the not-so-good, and realize it's all connected. Death is just change, same as life.

 

[ryan]

I don't think that, given the choice, many would turn down the option of becoming Immortal. Unfortunately this probably won't be an option in the near future...although a significantly increased life span may, perhaps somewhere around 100 to 150 becoming routine.

There are permanent artificial hearts being used already in tests and so far have been successful.

Stem cells can regenerate degenerated tissues.

Organs are being grown outside of humans potentially for mass production.

Artificial limbs are here.

Meanwhile, stay safe until mind uploading is invented.


Anyways, I am happy with what your country has done with its health research budget. I hope that every other country follows that path.

 

[ryan]

Ever since I realized that I and the rest of the universe is immortal I've been much calmer and less anxious about life. You learn to see yourself in everything, even the not-so-good, and realize it's all connected. Death is just change, same as life.

I am a little less certain and less optimistic. The more I learn about philosophy and science the more uncertain I am about what reality is or can be. The edge of the knowledge in physics and cosmology are left so infinitely open and uncertain that for me I can't rationally take any hypothesis or theory over any other.

 

[fromderinside]

Ever since I realized that I and the rest of the universe is immortal I've been much calmer and less anxious about life. You learn to see yourself in everything, even the not-so-good, and realize it's all connected. Death is just change, same as life.

tic toc tic toc 25% heart efficiency toc tic tic tic

 

[DBT]

My wife would turn down being immortal in a heart-beat.

I'm curious about the reason.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Ever since I realized that I and the rest of the universe is immortal I've been much calmer and less anxious about life. You learn to see yourself in everything, even the not-so-good, and realize it's all connected. Death is just change, same as life.

tic toc tic toc 25% heart efficiency toc tic tic tic

I suppose it's true that good health can optimize one's outlook. Certainly I've had my share of shit health but nothing both so chronic and unmanageable that it has permanently impacted my quality of life. Fact is that when I'm breathing nice and deep I remember those times when that was a struggle. Somehow that memory makes me appreciative.

 

[fromderinside]

tic toc tic toc 25% heart efficiency toc tic tic tic

I suppose it's true that good health can optimize one's outlook. Certainly I've had my share of shit health but nothing both so chronic and unmanageable that it has permanently impacted my quality of life. Fact is that when I'm breathing nice and deep I remember those times when that was a struggle. Somehow that memory makes me appreciative.

Yeah, well breathing nice and deep is one thing. That having an effect can be quite another. I do appreciate the ability to breathe deeply though. What really clams me is that I appreciate the notion of advancing evolutionary knowledge is making the probability of immortality more likely and that I might have had a small part in that. So I vote for appreciating the impacts of knowledge and history.

Go kids.

 

[Malintent]

The edge of the knowledge in physics and cosmology are left so infinitely open and uncertain that for me I can't rationally take any hypothesis or theory over any other.

This sounds a lot like, "My mind is so wide open, my brains have completely fallen out".

So the explanation, "The cake was eaten by the child sitting there next to it who has frosting all over their face" is just as good (to you) as "god willed the cake away to feed all 182 residents of heaven during the annual festival of eternity that is held every 100 years, during which cake is prohibited"

I see what you mean.. those are like identical possibilities

 

[ryan]

The edge of the knowledge in physics and cosmology are left so infinitely open and uncertain that for me I can't rationally take any hypothesis or theory over any other.

This sounds a lot like, "My mind is so wide open, my brains have completely fallen out".

So the explanation, "The cake was eaten by the child sitting there next to it who has frosting all over their face" is just as good (to you) as "god willed the cake away to feed all 182 residents of heaven during the annual festival of eternity that is held every 100 years, during which cake is prohibited"

I see what you mean.. those are like identical possibilities

You got that from my post, oh dear!

 

[Malintent]

This sounds a lot like, "My mind is so wide open, my brains have completely fallen out".

So the explanation, "The cake was eaten by the child sitting there next to it who has frosting all over their face" is just as good (to you) as "god willed the cake away to feed all 182 residents of heaven during the annual festival of eternity that is held every 100 years, during which cake is prohibited"

I see what you mean.. those are like identical possibilities

You got that from my post, oh dear!

Yes. your sentiment seemed to indicate that you equate the openness for discovery and integration of new information with an inability to judge the merits of one claim over another.

 

[ryan]

You got that from my post, oh dear!

Yes. your sentiment seemed to indicate that you equate the openness for discovery and integration of new information with an inability to judge the merits of one claim over another.

So do you know what theories are correct and what conflicting theories aren't? And regarding mysteries that have not even been observed yet, do you also know what theories are correct before they are even made?

Maybe you should think harder about what I wrote.

 

[ronburgundy]

Ever since I realized that I and the rest of the universe is immortal I've been much calmer and less anxious about life. You learn to see yourself in everything, even the not-so-good, and realize it's all connected. Death is just change, same as life.

But you aren't immortal. "You" or "I" is a particular arrangement of matter that gives rise to everything that defines "you" rather than a pile of dogshit. Do you enjoy life? Because there will be no you that can enjoy anything or experience life once your brain dies and decomposes.

Do you really find the notion that the unconscious atoms that comprise you will continue in other arrangements comforting? I don't. I don't see how someone can not prefer true immortality (non-death of their body) unless they already don't enjoy life and don't want to experience it anymore.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Ya, I don't see how "my atoms will go on" is somehow more comforting than "my atoms will not go on". When my consciousness stops, I will stop and that sucks big, stinky asshair.

I'd jump on immortality in a heartbeat and it really annoys me that I don't have a soul to sell to Satan in exchange for it. Not "annoys me" in the "I spend time thinking about it" type of way, but more in the same way that I'm kind of annoyed by the lack of a zombie invasion because all the effort I've put into mapping out my response to one is turning out to have been a less-than-productive use of my time.

 

[Lion IRC]

Is it true that during our lifetime we shed dead cells (molecules) so completely that, by the time we reach old age, we don't have any of the same molecules we were born with?

 

[DBT]

We mostly have the same neurons for life. Although other cells die and are replaced (subject to Hayflick limit division) many neurons are not replaced when they die.

 

[fromderinside]

Sentiment is OK if you're not involved. Wait until your body gives out, you are pain wracked, and you don['t remember much except to fear anything new. You won't have a choice to think. If you could you'd ask for someone to pull the plug.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

We mostly have the same neurons for life. Although other cells die and are replaced (subject to Hayflick limit division) many neurons are not replaced when they die.

Not replaced but they are maintained for a lifetime. I've heard the claim that our entire organism is replaced at least annually. And that's rather astounding considering that "we" are only 10% of what we call "we" if we count DNA and cell population. We're 90% other organism by that measure.

But I am not biologist so I don't know if our neurons are more like car engines. They require fuel and maintenance but they don't divide/rebuild themselves.