Immortality is an ancient dream, like humanity itself. Barely realizing the fleeting nature of his existence, man decided at any cost not only to live as long as possible, but also to achieve immortality. Experiments with chemicals, occult rituals, magical rituals and many other, much more bizarre, attempts to achieve longevity were undertaken by humans. However, this dream of all mankind has not yet come true. Despite the incredible development of medicine and the improvement of technology, man has not been able to significantly prolong his own life.
The dream is still there, which means it is still possible to realize it. What are the chances of humanity for its implementation, and will our grandchildren be able to be forever young?
Problems are at the root of everything. In ancient times, the short life span of a person was explained not at all by the aging process, but by wars, accidents and numerous diseases. Natural selection functioned in symbiosis with artificial selection. On the one hand, even trifling illnesses, which in our time are treated with the most extraordinary medicines, posed a mortal danger 500 years ago, and the human factor only increased a person's chances of retiring to another world. All prehistoric medicine was based on unfounded conjectures and creeds, or, more precisely, on anything, but not on real knowledge and facts.
Artificial selection has also been successful in reducing the human population. People who were incapable of fighting died in endless wars, in intrigue, and even found death under completely ordinary tragic circumstances. In such a simple way, evolution has received generations of people devoid of genetic defects.
Understandably, eternal youth or even eternal life was unattainable. However, in our time everything is different. Most of the previously fatal diseases are now treatable, society protects people genetically unadapted to survival. Natural selection practically does not work, but artificial selection is simply not enough. Reality is incredibly harsh; it has absolutely nothing to do with the abstract ideas of humanity. Human morality is alien to nature, which is why truth is so cruel. Since the middle of the last century, generation after generation, people have continued to accumulate genetic errors. Our advanced civilization is saving all those who should have perished by natural selection. It is for this reason that modern medicine has not been able to seriously increase the life of a person,because today every third child born has abnormal genes. Is there really no way to achieve incredible longevity?
This is far from the case, although many refuse to believe it. Today, humanity has several paths at once that can be followed. The first and most obvious way to eternal youth is to defeat the physiological processes of aging. Of course, many problems await us on this path, the main of which is our technological backwardness. We simply cannot afford it today, but the work is already underway. Gene programming and removal of aging mechanisms from cells can fix a person's age at one specific date. A person will receive not only eternal youth, but also relative immortality. We will not die a natural death, but pathogens, natural disasters and the notorious human factor - all this will pose a danger to us.
The second way to achieve longevity is much more sophisticated. Its supporters see a great future in nanomechanisms and mass augmentation. In this case, there is no question of preserving a person as a species. People will pay for their longevity with humanity. This will not be extermination, but only the next stage of our evolution. Nanomechanisms will make any part of our body renewable, and cybernetic implants will multiply the capabilities of each person. All this will give us not only longevity, but also unprecedented strength. Absolute resistance to diseases, impossibility of aging and a body much more resistant to any damage - all this is much better than simple longevity.
A completely different concept of achieving eternal life and completely invites us to stop being human forever. For many years now, we have been developing information technology. No one would have thought that the Internet would be so popular, but today it is a necessity. A person can no longer live without the Internet and computer technologies, the Canadian politicians came to this conclusion and included high-speed Internet in the list of basic services for a normal life. This is indeed the case and it is not at all a matter of dependence. With each new generation, a person evolves and adapts to existence in the information environment. Some private researchers even claim that children born from 2015 to the present day are adapted to exist in full virtual reality through a neurointerface. The creation of a neural interface is already the very near future. However, although the interface itself does not give eternal youth, the technology will give us the opportunity to digitize the consciousness of people. Subsequently, when the digitization technology is ready, everyone will be able to live not only in the physical, but also in the electronic world. He will be able to upload his consciousness into a variety of bodies and control them. It is more than immortality, more than evolution and certainly more than progress. This concept scares millions of people around the world, although its advantages are more than obvious.more than evolution and certainly more than progress. This concept scares millions of people around the world, although its advantages are more than obvious.more than evolution and certainly more than progress. This concept scares millions of people around the world, although its advantages are more than obvious.
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It is possible to be forever young. However, this will not happen in our lifetime. Our descendants will be able to live in a wonderful world and at the same time be forever young. Man has always been afraid of death and aging, and fear fueled curiosity. This ensures that work in this direction will not stop at all and the dream of eternal youth will be achieved. It is not immortality and it means that people will have a new dream.