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/sci/ - Science & Math

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1211513 No.1211513 [Reply] [Original]

Do humans actually ever die from old age, or do we just die from complications of old age?

If we can keep our bodies from breaking down, could we achieve immortality?

>> No.1211520

>>1211517
Embalming?

>> No.1211517

why can't nature recycle us?

>> No.1211521

I believe that aging is the actual process of your body breaking down. As your cells are replaced I think they are gradually more imperfect over your life, or at least that's what I understand from something I saw on national geographic, but I could be totally wrong...

>> No.1211524

>>1211521
And when I say imperfect I mean with more mutations and such so that they don't function as well as original healthy cells, but I honestly have no idea

>> No.1211525

Telomeres.

>> No.1211539

I've heard it said more than once that every male will eventually die of prostate cancer if he lives long enough.

Also, we age largely due to cosmic radiation.

>> No.1211541

Telomeres are a bunch of jumblish nonsense code at the ends of DNA sequences. They don't code anything, but people believe that they are there to prevent errors when replicating. However, telomeres are cut in half every time your DNA replicates, so the safety net gets smaller and smaller, so more mutations occur.

Aging!

>> No.1211543

>>1211525

ya, the end of your chromosomes brake down and eventually make you die. But keeping them intact is characteristic of cancer, so probably not that great.

>> No.1211547
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1211547

Fuck telomeres.

>> No.1211582

Just complications. The telomeres do their thing. It looks like we're developing technology to start recoding DNA, so we can hopefully stop that.

What I'm wondering is, if I were to get my genome sequenced in my 20s, would I be able to go back and recode the cells in my body to go back to that state at age 80? What would the results be? I figure my body would look and work like it was 80, so the real trouble would be rejuvenating it. Is that plausible?

>> No.1211586

telomeres are sort of a life clock, maybe if we could get super pro at gene therapy we could repair them.

>> No.1211607

Ever heard of the immortal jellyfish? We just have to imitate that and then we have won all the universe.

>> No.1211616

>>1211607
note:evolution will stop. PROBLEM. Humans have a lot of evolving to do, I say we wait until we can upload our consciousnesses to machines.

>> No.1211623

>>1211616
Technology > Evolution

>> No.1211747

>>1211616

implying consciousness even exists, and your "unique personality" isn't just random genetic code combined with environment.

>> No.1211753

why do you people want to live forever?

>> No.1211764

>>1211753
Because death is permanent.

>> No.1211766

>>1211607

Yes, all we have to do is figure out a way to revert back to infancy.

Fund it.