Comments on: Declaring War on Human Death

By: Nigel Deighton

Nigel Deighton — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 16:05:39 +0000

Well, I guess several billion people around the world who believe what their preachers tell them already think that there is life after death.

So another important question to consider “Is life as we know it merely a preparation for a next step”………alright so far no cell phone calls from the hereafter saying “being” is great here.

Begs another question…………..can we technically redefine life……..actually apart from the brainwave and hearbeat……….since memories, thought processes and many other aspects of “what and who we are” could potentially be saved and allowed to live in a virtual world …… potentially at far less TCO than keeping the physical bodies of billions of people well nourished, oiled and ready to run a marathon.

The whole arguement to me seems misguided………….limited to brainwave and heart beat….linked to a physical enevelope which has adequately proven its “disposable” nature…..by killing and regrowing billions of cells/year.

One victorian gentleman seriously proposed that the British Patent Office be closed “because nothing new would be invented”………….since then mankind has probably mutiplied its knowledge and understand of “things” by thousands of times. And on the S shaped curve of learning we are not even asymptotic to vertical.

One year of invention, innovation and understanding the fabric of “things” today is already several centuries at Arabic/Greek/Roman/Sino-Japanese speed…………and it will continue to accelerate (though a pessimist may say until we really screw up….if that is not already the case, mother nature has been giving increasingly severe warnings).

Everyones’ brains already work in an abstract layer caused by the sensory and physical capacities of their envelopes (bodies). Your “persona” lives with a physical barrier to what we consider to be the real world……..if you believe in “reality”!!!!

So transferring that persona into a virtual body should eventually become feasible…………..at which point you have not declared war on death…………..you have declared that there is life after death. And possibly opened the door to allowing folks with split or multiple personalities to achieve the maximum for all involved.

Some interesting research on how meditation allows folks to “illuminate” connections between the sides of the brain in similar ways to autistic folks with considerable “gifts” and on imaging from brain activities when folks look at photos/videos is showing interesting insights.

So my advice would be to declare “The Triumph of Life” rather than the “War on Death”.

Oh, and let’s not forget the genetic mixing machine just yet.

By: Dominic T

Dominic T — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 05:45:38 +0000

I just started reading your views today. Interesting. I was thinking, Through evolution, the human mind did not have to know how to apreciate and enjoy life indefinatly. And along side that, many people start running into a grove as they age that closes the world around them. Perhaps that might be the biggest chalenge. Maybe we could simply re-boot every hundred years with very little, or selective memory crossing over.

By: scott howell

scott howell — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 04:50:34 +0000

If we were to eliminate death, it could only be sustained by the elimination of birth.

By: Jeff Prystupa

Jeff Prystupa — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:37:55 +0000

Man has uprooted himself from his host planet and is suffering the loss of power and vitality. Issues of health, incomplete health, impaired health, loss of health, and death, need to be re-framed in a more modern, less superstitious-based order and protocol.
What definition of death will be employed? This will require socio-medical ethical debate which is unlikely to escape the taint of religious input.
Is death the point at which organ donation becomes acceptable?
If death is signaled by the end or cessation of two standard indicators of life; a heartbeat and brain waves, does life begin with the onset of the same?
Both are present 28 days post fertilization. Does this definition of death impact the definition of life as applied to abortion?
Will the oak tree live forever? Is the average life of the average human so tremendously fruitful and productive that we feel compelled to wring a few more years out of it? What is the motivation to live forever? Is there a market for it?
“Push me near the window today, nurse. It looks like a nice day outside.”
Far more pressing than eternal life, are the present questions about exterminating life. Our planet simply can not tolerate continued pollution from burning coal and petroleum. Pan evaporation rates, not temperature, are the most reliable indicator for climate change.
The major causes of death and disease are man-made and self-inflicted. The damage being done to the Earth is mirrored in the health of its inhabitants. The whales are starving in the Pacific.
Medicine misleads by mistaking infection for toxicity.
Man is being presented with the opportunity of a lifetime.
Simply avoiding death does not mean one is living.
To the extent that man remains uprooted from his host planet, he is sick. To the degree that he repairs and strengthens his roots, he will experience growth and fruitfulness. The corrections needed for climate change response and all others, must take place within us all as individuals first then we can tend to the planet. If we sit back and let the government attempt to solve yet another problem they created, we will continue to observe the migratory flight of individual freedoms. Those who would trade security for freedom will enjoy neither. (B. Rush)
Death does not exist until life begins. We need not wait and ask for whom the bell tolls, but rather dance until the music stops.

By: Jeff Samson

Jeff Samson — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:20:30 +0000

NO Death!

Tom,

Now, that’s an answer for space travel and getting to the far reaches! This is an interesting topic and your thoughts are one set of a number of options for future life. Not that this topic can also go to the concept of an eternal soul and brings notions of reincarnation though that’s not necessarily important to the discussion at this point.

This discussion on “no death” should include the definition of what constitutes death. For example, one concept involves just the mind being kept alive and growing external to the body. This mind may be taught to control a fresher body/machine and so the original body may be considered dead or at least temporary. However the mind’s thought system would be considered alive if it can continue to have experiences, make decisions and affect action beyond the limitations of the current body.

Writing computer code for controlling systems and memory storage capabilities suggest that saving and empowering such a life essence may be easier to accomplish then complete body brain renovation. Therefore, body reconstruction may be a temporary relief from body limitations but an awkward process for sustainability. Where as sustaining the mental controls and values might be more efficacious.

This option and other definitions for what constitutes “no death” will likely impact your list above and may even provide significant benefits in addressing the items on that list. I would enjoy discussing life form extension/transcendence further in the interest of deriving reasonable goals for the near future.

Jeff Samson