
Has the First Person to Achieve Immortality Already Been Born? - dreamweapon
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/has-the-first-person-to-achieve-immortality-already-been-born?trk_source=popular
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scarmig
I'm hoping the first person to achieve immortality was born at least 29 years
ago.

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ffn
If you read between the lines of this guy's comment, you can infer he is
implying that he will get to be the first immortal person.

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nrb
I read it as him hoping that the first immortal person will be his senior
(increasing the likelihood of immortality for himself), and not his junior
(reducing that likelihood).

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melling
I didn't realize that we've made any progress towards extending the maximum
human lifespan. It's probably a lot harder than we think. I guess we're at the
point where Jules Verne was in the late 19th century; we like to dream big.

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iwwr
A civilisation where people can live arbitrarily long lives may have some
interesting consequences. For one, cultural stagnation caused by people with
entrenched beliefs sticking around. A lot of social progress and scientific
development happens over the dead bodies of the old holdouts.

Then in the beginning at least there is the risk of extreme social inequality
and a gerontocratic ruling class. Only the wealthy will have access to life
extension and it may be the wealthy power structures that deny the technology
to other people.

Finally, a civilisation made up of long-lived individuals may become extremely
risk-averse, with possible consequences of reduced experimentation, creativity
and rebellion. They may also turn out a little like what Larry Niven makes of
the Puppeteer race: powerful, cowardly creatures, highly ritualistic,
paternalistic and soft-totalitarian.

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crimsonalucard
There was this movie starring justin timberlake that depicted a world like
this. The plot was generic, but the setting was unique.

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rey12rey
In time.

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Zikes
There's a short story of a woman who was a bit of a luddite, but late in life
her children and grandchildren convinced her to adopt "upgrades" here and
there, until she became almost entirely virtual. She retained much of her
humanity, but was able to be in many places at once, "inhabiting" purpose-
built bodies, and building up a certain reputation and popularity. Eventually
humanity's probes make contact with aliens, and she's chosen to be humanity's
ambassador.

I wish I could recall the name of that story, but it always painted a pleasant
picture of immortality to me. Hopefully someone here recognizes it and can
share it with us.

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moyix
I believe that's "The Gentle Seduction", by Marc Stiegler:
[http://www.skyhunter.com/marcs/GentleSeduction.html](http://www.skyhunter.com/marcs/GentleSeduction.html)

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Zikes
That's the one! Thank you, I'll be sure to bookmark it this time.

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mhurron
You won't really know until they don't die.

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gallamine
It's kind of like being a cancer "survivor" \- XKCD explained it well:
[https://xkcd.com/931/](https://xkcd.com/931/)

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sonnyz
The comic has that one part a bit wrong. You're considered a cancer survivor
as soon as you're diagnosed with cancer.

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SAI_Peregrinus
The second law of thermodynamics answers this question with a definitive "no".

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Zikes
Immortal for certain definitions of forever.

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Retra
Arbitrary longetivity?

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iwwr
Excluding accidents, natural disasters, murder or suicide.

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tenpoundhammer
Assuming we could keep the human body alive forever, I don't think we could
handle it a person would eventually go insane. Also it would get incredibly
boring at some point and I imagine the suicide rate would be somewhere near a
100% or at minimum people would allow themselves to die.

I definitely don't want to live forever.

So my answer is No, and no one will ever be immortal.

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pyrrhotech
What is boring about it? Is living 40 years more boring than living 30? What
about living 1000 years instead of living 100 years? At what point does it
become boring?

It's hard for humans to conceptualize eternity, so don't think of it in those
terms. If I could live in my current body for 1000 years, I'd still never get
around to most of my backlog of things I'd like to do.

Boredom is mostly caused by lack of purpose IMO. As long as there is something
to learn, something to explore, something to achieve, something new or
pleasurable to experience, boredom is the last thing I'd worry about.

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crimsonalucard
Boredom is a common argument against immortality that is completely derived
from pure speculation because nobody has ever lived long enough to experience
that feeling of suicidal boredom.

I spend great portions of my life being bored. Never has my boredom ever
interfered or had any connection with my desire to live or be immortal. It's
pure bullshit to even imply there is a connection.

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Zikes
I would find it hard to believe there's a single human in all of history that
would be bored if they found themselves living in present day. Especially now
that we're in the Information Age, more and more boredom is becoming a
conscious choice for anyone with an internet connection, rather than an
inescapable circumstance.

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crimsonalucard
I guess it depends on how you look at it. I can be bored and on the internet
at the same time.

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jshevek
Aren't you usually avoiding something, though, when you do that?

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crimsonalucard
The thing I'm trying and failing to avoid is boredom. In short I try to
alleviate boredom by going on the internet, however I am still quite bored.

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jshevek
I'm not trying to be argumentative, I'm just trying to understand. I can't
relate to this. I might 'feel bored' when I have something I feel I must do,
but which I don't want to do. And then I may procrastinate, by turning to the
internet, only to find this even more dissatisfying.

But if I have some free time with truly no demands, I need only commit myself
to something fun and interesting - even something as simple as reading a
novel.

Wait... maybe that's the key. Maybe we try to use the internet to alleviate
boredom because it doesn't take any commitment, and maybe it fails to satisfy
for that same reason. But what if you are willing to put a little more effort
or investment into your distractions? Find a good movie, turn down the lights
and really pay attention? Or approach the internet with a sense of
purpose....?

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cymetica
This must be done for real space travel that leads to truly inhabiting other
"earths".

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pvaldes
Yes of course, is an afro-american woman and her name is Henrietta Lacks

