Scientest seeks Eternal Youth, takes 250 supplements each day

[bran987]

sorry about that spelling error in the subject
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...washpost/20041007/tc_washpost/a11564_2004oct6

Kurzweil acknowledged that science today can't halt aging, but he said he believes science will develop age-defying or even age-reversing techniques within 10 to 20 years, thanks to advances in biotechnology and nanotechnology.

He described three stages or "bridges" on the purported road to immortality. First is his healthy living program designed to correct "metabolic imbalances" and keep people alive long enough to benefit from the second stage. In stage two, a decade or so away, he contends biotechnology advances will block diseases and slow aging, because the decoding of our genome is already leading to tissue-engineering techniques for regrowing cells and organs, and to the creation of genetically targeted drugs and gene therapies.

These techniques, he said, should help some people reach the third stage -- about 30 years away -- when nanotechnology will allow humans to radically rebuild and extend their bodies with help from "nanobots," itsy-bitsy robots smaller than human blood cells that will slip into our bloodstreams to fix DNA errors, fight pathogens and expand intelligence.

At that point, he declared, humans may be able to live forever.

 

[bran987]

Kurzweil, a well-regarded scientist who invented the flatbed scanner and a reading machine for the blind, claimed his pills appear to be helping: Biological tests conducted at a clinic in Denver found his body resembles that of a man in his early forties, he claimed, rather than his true age of 56.

The claim startled many in the audience because there is no medically accepted way to measure aging. Most biological markers simply measure health.

 

[Subzeero]

First they found a mutant gene immune to aids and now this.

 

[bran987]

Kurzweil later conceded that radically extending human life could lead to a "deep ennui" if nothing else changed, but he believes we will grow smarter and vastly improve our quality of life. Nanobots, if we let them swim around our brain capillaries, will boost our brainpower, he said, as they chatter with our biological neurons over a wireless local network and the Internet, creating a hybrid form of super-intelligence.

"This scenario will enable us to expand our mental faculties through these massively distributed neural implants with no surgery required," he added.

 

[the nature boy]

yeah but can he make his penis grow bigger?

 

[Subzeero]

Kurzweil later conceded that radically extending human life could lead to a "deep ennui" if nothing else changed, but he believes we will grow smarter and vastly improve our quality of life. Nanobots, if we let them swim around our brain capillaries, will boost our brainpower, he said, as they chatter with our biological neurons over a wireless local network and the Internet, creating a hybrid form of super-intelligence.

"This scenario will enable us to expand our mental faculties through these massively distributed neural implants with no surgery required," he added.

Thats honestly fucking awesome.

 

[milo hobgoblin]

LOL what a load of crap.

Magic nanobots that fix stuff in your body. We are so far away from anything useful in nanobot tech. And in spite of mapping the genome they are still decades away from comprehending all the interactions between genes and their expression.

And how does he expect to "power" these nanobots? Or wil he just keep injecting them as they die out? And what happens to all the byproducts of the nanites???

Our biochemistry has no effecive way to deal with the metabolism of an artificial organism? Eventually they would build up in the blood stream and no amount of drugs could repair the damage they would cause.

And of course a nanite would be very sensitive to external radioation.. unless of course it were a chemical based nanite.. which itself would be prone to aging and degredation leading back to systemic buildup of nanite byproduct.

We are A LOT further than 30 years away from something like this.

Drugs and gene therapy hold much more promis in the short term (next 100 years) for slowing aging.


But ANYONE who thinks we can completely halt aging in the next few hundred years with ANY technology thats even in the theory phase hasnt spent too much time studying biology.

 

[JarHed]

Nanobots???? Sounds like something right out of Star Trek!

 

[bran987]

But ANYONE who thinks we can completely halt aging in the next few hundred years with ANY technology thats even in the theory phase hasnt spent too much time studying biology.

I think this guy's whole life has been predicting trends and studying biology.

"Yet no one got the crowd talking like Kurzweil, winner of the National Medal of Technology and author of "The Age of Spiritual Machines." He's known for making accurate predictions, including one about the emergence of a global network resembling the World Wide Web and another about when computers would beat humans at chess."

he might know more about science than you? or he could be a nut. he seems to be very well respected in the scientific community though. but we could be anyone on the Internet, maybe he eats your leftovers

 

[_Yossarian_]

there's a cool novel written by Neal Stephenson called the Diamond Age(or A Young Lady's illustrated Primer). It explores the possibilities of nanotechnology in a futuristic setting.

Awesome read for anyone even remotely interested in the subject.