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Scientists engineer mice genomes to lengthen their lifespans by 30 percent

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Re: Scientists engineer mice genomes to lengthen their lifespans by 30 percent

#21

Post by woofyman »

lisper wrote: post #15
photoJ wrote: post #5

Lets hope so!

Careful what you wish for. Aging and death are woven deeply into the fabric of society, indeed, into the fabric of life itself. Old growth needs to be periodically swept away to make room for new growth. The only logically possible outcome of immortality is that sooner or later the entire biomass of the planet is consumed by immortals, at which point all growth must stop. Imagine being the last person born into such…

The immortals will be risk averse and stay inside their highly secured compounds.

Re: Scientists engineer mice genomes to lengthen their lifespans by 30 percent

#22

Post by hguant »

sqeaky wrote: post #14
grabcocque wrote: post #9

Mightier and bloody wars will not be caused than when we finally figure out how to cure ageing.

Why? Any other thing we have invented has generally reduced war by increasing resources available to all, at least since industrialization. There are a few exception, but they were generally intended to be weapons, it seems hard to imagine an aging based weapon.

The problem isn't an "aging based weapon" - it's the repercussions of what happens population that doesn't have a natural death rate. This introduces resource scarcity the likes of which we've never seen.

Re: Scientists engineer mice genomes to lengthen their lifespans by 30 percent

#23

Post by imron »

sqeaky wrote: post #14
grabcocque wrote: post #9

Mightier and bloody wars will not be caused than when we finally figure out how to cure ageing.

Why? Any other thing we have invented has generally reduced war by increasing resources available to all, at least since industrialization. There are a few exception, but they were generally intended to be weapons, it seems hard to imagine an aging based weapon.

Over population will be a problem.

To prevent that problem supply will be limited.

People will not be happy

Re: Scientists engineer mice genomes to lengthen their lifespans by 30 percent

#24

Post by phkahler »

sqeaky wrote: post #14
grabcocque wrote: post #9

Mightier and bloody wars will not be caused than when we finally figure out how to cure ageing.

Why? Any other thing we have invented has generally reduced war by increasing resources available to all, at least since industrialization. There are a few exception, but they were generally intended to be weapons, it seems hard to imagine an aging based weapon.

I don't know the reason or if the GP was quoting someone, but it may be the idea that by reversing aging we can expect the world population to grow even faster, resulting in massive conflicts over resources.

Re: Scientists engineer mice genomes to lengthen their lifespans by 30 percent

#25

Post by mynameisvlad »

striking wrote: post #11
devoply wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but poor people can't pay. That's why they can't solve anything. Google can spend a billion dollars on this. Multiple billions can be easily spent on this. And it's a great time for that. So much excessive capital. So many millionaires and billionaires. All going to die. What can scientists do to help them?

We're looking for extended life for some people, without being able to guarantee a regular life for all. What a world.

However, this technology would ostensibly over time get commoditized and available for everyone, like practically every other piece of technology so far.

Re: Scientists engineer mice genomes to lengthen their lifespans by 30 percent

#26

Post by Ericson2314 »

lisper wrote: post #15
photoJ wrote: post #5

Lets hope so!

Careful what you wish for. Aging and death are woven deeply into the fabric of society, indeed, into the fabric of life itself. Old growth needs to be periodically swept away to make room for new growth. The only logically possible outcome of immortality is that sooner or later the entire biomass of the planet is consumed by immortals, at which point all growth must stop. Imagine being the last person born into such…

Immortality would be the most dangerous technology (to society) ever created. Hah.

Re: Scientists engineer mice genomes to lengthen their lifespans by 30 percent

#27

Post by Ericson2314 »

Ericson2314 wrote: post #26
lisper wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Careful what you wish for. Aging and death are woven deeply into the fabric of society, indeed, into the fabric of life itself. Old growth needs to be periodically swept away to make room for new growth. The only logically possible outcome of immortality is that sooner or later the entire biomass of the planet is consumed by immortals, at which point all growth must stop. Imagine being the last person born into such…

Immortality would be the most dangerous technology (to society) ever created. Hah.

(not sarcastic)

Re: Scientists engineer mice genomes to lengthen their lifespans by 30 percent

#28

Post by pixelbash »

lisper wrote: post #15
photoJ wrote: post #5

Lets hope so!

Careful what you wish for. Aging and death are woven deeply into the fabric of society, indeed, into the fabric of life itself. Old growth needs to be periodically swept away to make room for new growth. The only logically possible outcome of immortality is that sooner or later the entire biomass of the planet is consumed by immortals, at which point all growth must stop. Imagine being the last person born into such…

Given technological progress and human nature I think that might be a temporary or worst case scenario but unlikely to be a long term status quo.

What about exploration or just plain old boredom? There might be more radical escapes (VR, brain upload), more extreme sports or more people leaving this planet in search of something else.

1000 years is a long time. Forever is a lot longer than that..

Re: Scientists engineer mice genomes to lengthen their lifespans by 30 percent

#29

Post by linkregister »

sqeaky wrote: post #14
grabcocque wrote: post #9

Mightier and bloody wars will not be caused than when we finally figure out how to cure ageing.

Why? Any other thing we have invented has generally reduced war by increasing resources available to all, at least since industrialization. There are a few exception, but they were generally intended to be weapons, it seems hard to imagine an aging based weapon.

Weren't the world's bloodiest wars conducted after the advent of industrialization? The 20th appears to be the bloodiest century.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_by_death_toll

Re: Scientists engineer mice genomes to lengthen their lifespans by 30 percent

#30

Post by applecore »

lisper wrote: post #15
photoJ wrote: post #5

Lets hope so!

Careful what you wish for. Aging and death are woven deeply into the fabric of society, indeed, into the fabric of life itself. Old growth needs to be periodically swept away to make room for new growth. The only logically possible outcome of immortality is that sooner or later the entire biomass of the planet is consumed by immortals, at which point all growth must stop. Imagine being the last person born into such…

Immortals will still die occasionally due to accidents and other non-age related causes. Unless risk is totally eliminated from the world, there will always be a positive replacement fertility rate.
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