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Humans search for immortality futile

So lveig Rundquist

by: Solveig Rundquist on March 24, 2013 inShare1 T here are species in nature that are able to regenerate themselves and live f orever. T hese animals are able to achieve something humans have been searching f or generations to attain. T hree U prof essors were f eatured in a panel discussion at T he Leonardo museum on Friday. Part of the museums Af ter Hours series, the discussion f ocused on the human obsession with immortality, death and aging. Ray Kurzweil, an American inventor and f uturist who recently became the director of engineering at Google, predicts computers will surpass the power of the human brain as early as 2045. Another theorist most popular with audience members and panelists alike, Aubrey de Grey, views aging as a disease to be cured.

Panelists also explored the technical aspects of aging. A key term in the discussion was senescence, the process by which cells and organisms gradually begin to degenerate and die. Telomeres shorten with each cell replication, and eventually the cell can no longer successf ully copy its DNA. Without the telomeres, cells lose the end of their chromosomes, which carry vital inf ormation. Senescence occurs when cells lose this ability to divide. T hese extra, now useless, cells can cause serious damage. In other words, senescence is aging. T here are at least f our species on the planet that do not age, at least not noticeably, the moderator said. T his is called negligible senescence. In these organisms, age is not an issue and death rates do not increase with age as they do in most species. T hese organisms include sea squirt, hydra, coral and a certain type of jellyf ish dubbed the immortal jellyf ish. All of these species have two things in common, the moderator said. All of them live in the water. And all of them reproduce asexually. So that may be a price were not willing to pay. T he immortal jellyf ish ages naturally to adulthood and then reverts its cells back into their youthf ul state, repeating this process indef initely. T his makes the jellyf ish immortal f rom a biological perspective, but this method may be unavailable to humans, who obviously lack this ability to absorb and transf orm our own cells. Robert Marc, director of research at the Moran Eye Center, said this isnt the only problem humans f ace in trying to gain immortality. Many f uturists believe we will soon be able to upload our brains to a computer system and thus achieve virtual immortality, but Marc said it isnt that simple. A brain is not a computer, and the brain does not work digitally, he said. Its a common error to take the brain-computer metaphor literally. But there is no possibility that we can ever capture a brain computationally.

Do c to rs Ro b e rt Marc , J e ffre y Bo tkin and Ric hard Cawtho rn d is c us s ho w to c he at d e ath d uring the Do Yo u Want To Live Fo re ve r le c ture at The Le o nard o o n Frid ay nig ht. Sc o tt Fre d e ric k / The Daily Utah Chro nic le

Marc said it would take 163 zettabytes, or more than 1 billion terabytes, to store all of the inf ormation and connections in a human brain. At the current download speeds of which our technology is capable, that would take 5 million years to download. T he ethical issues involved with immortality also were addressed. Jef f rey Botkin, a prof essor of pediatrics and chief of the Division of Medical Ethics and Humanities, challenged the audiences initial desires f or immortality. T here is a huge discrepancy between people who want to live f orever and people who think that everyone should live f orever, he said. So if we were to gain that technology, how would we choose who would get it? Richard Cawthon said the goal should not be living f orever but simply living a quality lif e as long as possible. Your risk of dying doubles every eight years you are alive, he said. Cawthon, a research associate prof essor in the Department of Human Genetics known f or his work with telomeres, explained that if it were possible to stop that exponential risk f actor in its tracks at age 20, the average lif espan f or a woman would be 1,500 years. Considering testosterone levels and risky behavior, however, the average lif espan f or men would only be 500. Since we cannot yet halt that risk f actor, though, senescence is an issue. Marc said the best step a person can take to ensure a high quality of lif e is to protect his or her cognitive abilities. Exercise and sleep help, and maybe one day a portion of your mind will be available f or download. But when it comes down to it, Marc said, Wear a helmet. s.rundquist@chronicle.utah.edu Contact Solveig Rundquist at s.rundquist@chronicle.utah.edu
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