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tonyhart7today at 10:18 AM5 repliesview on HN

having genetically modified human to become immortal sounds good


Replies

Frierentoday at 10:56 AM

Not immortal, but virtually immortal. When the super-rich get these treatments and open the gates to live for ever. It will still be possible to kill them. They will not be immortal.

pelagicAustraltoday at 10:19 AM

Absolutely, especially if you can mine them for electricity to keep datacentres going

otikiktoday at 3:18 PM

what if it's only for the 10 wealthiest men in the world? Does it still sound enticing?

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z3t4today at 11:15 AM

probably easier to clone, and then somehow transfer memories to the new body. This made me think - is it our memories that create our consciousness?

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RetroTechietoday at 11:58 AM

Not really. Having offspring & re-mixing genes in them, is one way how species (not individuals!) adapt to a changing environment.

Bacteria do that in ~hourly intervals, humans take decades, some plants can span millenia.

So you could say the 'update interval' is tuned to how fast-changing a species' environment is. A balance between energy 'wasted' on re-building individuals from scratch, vs wasting energy by having poorly adapted individuals.

So 'immortal humans' to me reads as: humans optimized for a caveman hunter-gatherer lifestyle, while living in Star Trek like tech-heavy surroundings.

If anything, humanity would be served by shorter lifecycles, until tech advances stabilize somehow (?). Okay a few individuals living way longer could be good. Eg. billionaire tech bros taking that spot? Please nooo!!!

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