OT: here is your eternal life, but would you take it ?
 

Basic idea: "Manipulation of the worms' insulin signalling combined with removal of their reproductive systems, produced life spans of six times longer than normal. In human terms, these animals would correspond to healthy, active 500-year-olds"

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3208983.stm

Re: OT: here is your eternal life, but would you take it ?
 

i think i'd wait until the hormone manipulations are done with a pill and i can keep my, er, lower parts.

and 500 years is hardly infinite.

[ October 23, 2003, 20:57: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

Re: OT: here is your eternal life, but would you take it ?
 

imagine working for 485 years!!!! After 400 years with the same company you get 3 weeks vacation.

Re: OT: here is your eternal life, but would you take it ?
 

Probably cannot be scaled up to humans quite yet. And Id rather not lose those parts, thank you very much.

Re: OT: here is your eternal life, but would you take it ?
 

There are other interesting means of life extension. Though you usually have to start young. For instance, if you deprive an mammal of carbohydrates for the first six (human equivalent) years of life you double their lifespan. Mind you, this has to be a complete lack of carbs, even one or two periods of binging during childhood completely ruins the effect.

I have often toyed with the idea of enforcing this regimine upon my own offspring (though they do not yet exist). There is something attractive about thought of giving ones children the capacity to be a little more human than human.

Re: OT: here is your eternal life, but would you take it ?
 

Extended life may not be the utopia and panacea that some folks expect.

Just ask Tolkien's elves.

Re: OT: here is your eternal life, but would you take it ?
 

I don't need utopia and I don't mind working all my life.

Then again, I am rather fond of the effects my reproductive organs have on me. I like being a man.

Re: OT: here is your eternal life, but would you take it ?
 

Jokes aside, this is obviously not directly applicable to humans. Several problems of aging in humans are caused by lack of sex hormones, such as osteoporosis. Worms don't even have bones, so there is no way to guess how this would have affected their skeletal system. This is probably a useful step along the road to understanding the aging process in general, though.

[ October 24, 2003, 01:22: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

Re: OT: here is your eternal life, but would you take it ?
 

As for me..I'll wait till I'm about 70 or 80 by then I doubt I'll have much use for my lowers that a good ole fashion pLastic tube wont take care of...

Just think..Id could live to be a 400 year Dirty Ole Man!!..plus I'll have time to make my own SE Mod!

Seriously...imagine the sights you might see..maybe even actually visit an off world colony!

It kinda goes back to the ole question..If Aliens offered you a chance to see the Universe but you had to leave everything here behind forever...would you?

Re: OT: here is your eternal life, but would you take it ?
 

To put it simple: If someone would tell me: "I have good and bad news. Good news is that you will live next 400 years. Bad news is that you can't have sex ever again.", I would propably kill myself.

Though, right now I might actually agree to that, because most propably cloning of body parts and alternate aging prevention systems are to be invented in near future, say during next 100 years. Then I would simply have new body(parts) I were missing and keep orgies never heard of http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif