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Immortality. Indefinite lifespan. Eternal life. Eternal youth. Deathless. Ageless. Living forever, or at least very, very, very, VERY long time. From The Epic of Gilgamesh to the elves of the Middle-Earth and to Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain, it is one of the oldest themes and aspirations in the human history.
Do I want to live forever? Of course! Dying is so old-fashioned.
Can I live forever? Probably, with the right technology.
Is it boring to live forever? Let's try and find out!
Once upon a time...
The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant - Recounts the Tale of a most vicious Dragon that ate thousands of people every day, and of the actions that the King, the People, and an assembly of Dragonologists took with respect thereof. A story by Nick Bostrom. MPrize
The Methuselah Mouse Prize (MPrize) is the premiere effort of The Methuselah Foundation; a scientific competition designed to draw attention to the ability of new technologies to slow and even reverse the damage of the aging process, preserving health and wisdom in a world that sorely needs it.The Methuselah Foundation has already raised over 4 MILLION DOLLARS for this prize, but this is only the beginning.
Top 10 Immortality Quotes
- I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying. -- Woody Allen
- That is not dead which can eternal lie. And with strange aeons even death may die. -- H.P. Lovecraft, The Nameless City
- He had decided to live forever or die in the attempt. -- Joseph Heller
- Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children. -- George Bernard Shaw
- Do not go gently into that good night. Old age should burn and rage at the close of day. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. -- Dylan Thomas
- Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it. -- William Somerset Maugham
- We loose vitality, creativity, flexibility, energy, even personal health as we age. This is not a feature, this is a bug. -- Eliezer Yudkowsky
- The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes. -- Frank Lloyd Wright
- Speak for yourself, sir. I plan to live forever. -- Riker, Star Trek: Generations
- Here's what happens when you die - you sit in a box and get eaten by worms. I guarantee you that when you die, nothing cool happens. -- Howard Stern
The Immortalists
ImmInst.org
The Immortality Institute is a nonprofit 501(3)(c) organization with the mission "to conquer the blight of involuntary death." The organization hosts an online forum, publishes books, creates films, and sponsors conferences in order to advance life extension research. Documentary film
in Google Video
Exploring Life Extension - A film by the Immortality Institute that explores various aspects of extreme life extension including cryonics (cryogenics), caloric restriction, transhumanism, and other scientific pursuits. Aubrey de Grey - Google Talk & Documentary
Google Video
Prospects for extending healthy life - a lot -- Aubrey de Grey's Google Tech Talk video, May 29, 2007. 1 hr 1 min.Do You Want To Live Forever? - Channel 4 documentary about Aubrey de Grey. 1 hr 16 min.
Immortal or not?
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SENS.org
SENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence) - Aging is a set of progressive changes in body composition, at the molecular and cellular level, which are side-effects of essential metabolic processes. Many of these changes are eventually bad for us -- they are an accumulation of damage, which becomes pathogenic above a certain threshold of abundance. SENS is a detailed plan for curing human aging. Quote
Aging really is barbaric. It shouldn't be allowed. I don't need an ethical argument. I don't need any argument. It's visceral. To let people die is bad.-- Aubrey de Grey
PayPal founder pledges $3.5 Million to antiaging research
Peter A. Thiel, co-founder and former CEO of online payments system PayPal, has announced his pledge of $3.5 Million to support scientific research into the alleviation and eventual reversal of the debilities caused by aging, to be conducted under the auspices of the Methuselah Foundation, a charity co-founded and Chaired by Dr. Aubrey de Grey.Mr. Thiel commented: "Rapid advances in biological science foretell of a treasure trove of discoveries this century, including dramatically improved health and longevity for all. I'm backing Dr. de Grey, because I believe that his revolutionary approach to aging research will accelerate this process, allowing many people alive today to enjoy radically longer and healthier lives for themselves and their loved ones."
Immortality links
- Wikipedia - Immortality
- Immortality (or eternal life) is the concept of existing for a potentially infinite, or indeterminate, length of time.
- Fight Aging!
- A blog fighting against aging.
- The Prospect of Immortality (1962)
- A free book by Robert C.W. Ettinger.
- Pimm - Partial immortalization
- An online bookblog about maximum life extension and regenerative medicine.
- ImmInstWiki FAQ
- These are some of the common Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) that we are constantly running across.
- Why Life Extension?
- or why live at all? by Ben Best.
- Mechanisms of Aging
- by Ben Best.
- Life Extension Survey
- Take the survey.
- Forever Young
- by Ronald Bailey.
- Technology Review: Living Longer
- No one has won $20,000 Challenge to disprove Aubrey de Grey's anti-aging proposals.
- LiveScience: Toward Immortality
- In this three-day series, LiveScience looks at the implications of the path toward immortality.
- All the Flavors of Immortality
- by Soleil Lapierre.
Top 10 Frequently Asked Questions About Immortality
- What about overpopulation?
Stay mortal and have kids, or be immortal and childfree. Your choice. - What about boredom?
Only boring people get bored. You're one of those boring people, are you? Boredom is a lame excuse (see AskANinja.com, Question 25). - What if I don't want to live forever?
Hey, no problem. You can kill yourself anytime you want. - What about God's plan?
Sorry, there is no god. And even if there is, his plan sucks. - What about nature and being natural?
Trying to overcome nature IS natural to humans. - What if it doesn't work, or something goes wrong?
Well, then you die, like you would have died anyway. Nothing to lose by trying. - What about losing our creativity and memories and stuff?
Yeah, like you lost your creativity and memories when you were growing up and lost your childhood. Even if that happens, it's still better than being dead. - What if we don't want to take risks anymore and just play it safe all the time?
Still better than being dead. - What about the poor people who can't afford the cure?
Yes, let's forget it because we all can't have it instantly. Like clean water and antibiotics. - We all die eventually (heat death, blah blah), so why bother?
You might die tomorrow, so why bother living today? Try answer number 3.
Fiction?
"To a scientist, there is nothing impossible about it. Something is impossible if it violates a physical law. If it doesn't, it's possible. This is a basic tenet of science. Living 300 years doesn't violate a physical law, so it has always been possible. It is a human failing to think that something we haven't done is impossible. Instead of following facts to their logical conclusion, we follow intuition, which tells us that the earth is flat and a heavy thing, such as an airplane, can't possibly fly."
-- George Webster Ph.D
"The commonest misconceptions about the ageing process are that we age because in some fundamental sense we cannot survive for longer, or that we are programmed to die because this is necessary to make way for the next generation. Neither of these ideas is correct."
-- Tom Kirkwood, Reith Lectures 2001
-- George Webster Ph.D
"The commonest misconceptions about the ageing process are that we age because in some fundamental sense we cannot survive for longer, or that we are programmed to die because this is necessary to make way for the next generation. Neither of these ideas is correct."
-- Tom Kirkwood, Reith Lectures 2001
Free book download
The First Immortal (1997) by James L. Halperin is available as a free download. A national best-seller, The First Immortal is one of the most meticulously researched scientific novels ever written, and presents a balanced, and at times frightening, yet ultimately optimistic view of the possibilities of human science and philosophy. Cryonics
Cryonics is the process of using very cold temperatures to stop the dying process when ordinary medicine can no longer sustain life.Alcor Life Extension Foundation - As of August 2006, Alcor had 805 members, and 74 patients in cryopreservation.
Top 9 Cryonics Myths - Vitrification, not freezing!
Alcor Cryonics FAQ
Cryonics Institute - As of September 2006, CI had 614 members, 74 patients and 44 pets in cryopreservation.
Fear of death?
"I am not afraid of death, I just don't want to be there when it happens."
-- Woody Allen
"I've long thought it a pity that non-transhumanists equate trying to conquer death with a childish fear of death and a lack of wisdom. This is like saying Sir Edmund Hillary had a childish fear of mountains."
-- Philip Goetz
"To me, discussing the value of life extension with people uninterested in extending their own lives is a great deal like suicide counseling. I see no easy way of translating my positive attitudes about life into other people having a positive attitude about life. I have come to believe that if a person does not value life, or believes that the value of life has an expiry date, the matter is beyond discussion. And I mean this not in the sense of difficulty of communication, but in the sense that what is of value to me may not be of value for someone else. I like strawberry and she likes vanilla. I want to live to be a thousand years old -- and he doesn't care whether he is alive in five years. Personal choices."
-- Ben Best
-- Woody Allen
"I've long thought it a pity that non-transhumanists equate trying to conquer death with a childish fear of death and a lack of wisdom. This is like saying Sir Edmund Hillary had a childish fear of mountains."
-- Philip Goetz
"To me, discussing the value of life extension with people uninterested in extending their own lives is a great deal like suicide counseling. I see no easy way of translating my positive attitudes about life into other people having a positive attitude about life. I have come to believe that if a person does not value life, or believes that the value of life has an expiry date, the matter is beyond discussion. And I mean this not in the sense of difficulty of communication, but in the sense that what is of value to me may not be of value for someone else. I like strawberry and she likes vanilla. I want to live to be a thousand years old -- and he doesn't care whether he is alive in five years. Personal choices."
-- Ben Best
Fight for your life
Those who say death cannot be killedLack the proper defensive skill
Yell it out with an angry sound
Sayin' "Death, you're goin' down!"
-- CoG, Death to the Angel of Death
Way Lay: The Fighter
YouTube: Killing Death
Oldest Authenticated Supercentenarian
Jeanne Louise Calment (1875 - 1997) has the longest confirmed lifespan in history at 122 years and 164 days.Jeanne Calment's remarkable health presaged her later record. At age 85, she took up fencing. At 100, she was still riding a bicycle.
"I've only got one wrinkle, and I'm sitting on it."
Articles about life extension and immortality
www.longevitymeme.org
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byDaily News
www.longevitymeme.org
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Stuff on Amazon
Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime
Amazon Price: $17.79 (as of 07/11/2009) 
The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology
Amazon Price: (as of 07/11/2009)
The Scientific Conquest of Death
Amazon Price: $21.15 (as of 07/11/2009)
Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever
Amazon Price: $11.56 (as of 07/11/2009)
Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond To The Redesigned Human Of The Future
Amazon Price: $21.45 (as of 07/11/2009)
Stuff on CafePress
Parables
The Monkey CageOnce upon a time there was a big cage inhabited by a tribe of monkeys...
Turkey Story
Once upon a time there was a farm, and on the farm were some turkeys...
Three Fishermen
Three fishermen are fishing together on a river...
The Myth of Sisyphus
The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain...
Top 10 Fictional Immortals
- Hob Gadling -- Sandman
- Wowbagger, the Infinitely Prolonged -- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- Gandalf -- Lord of the Rings
- Q -- Star Trek
- Resurrection Man -- DC Comics
- Silver Surfer -- Marvel Comics
- Nox -- Stargate SG-1
- Lorien -- Babylon 5
- Connor MacLeod -- Highlander
- Peter Pan -- J. M. Barrie
Hob Gadling says
No, it's rubbish, death is. I mean, there's so much to do. So many things to see. People to drink with. Women to swive. You lot may die. I expect you will, 'cos you're stupid. Not me, though.-- Sandman, The Doll's House, Men of Good Fortune
5 things to do when you are immortal
- Read all books, watch all movies, play all games and visit all websites in the existence. Rate them and write reviews.
- Build a castle out of matches. One match every day.
- Hug all humans and animals in existence. One by one. Also, learn to speak all languages and have a nice chat with everybody (yes, with the animals too).
- Terraform and colonize Mars. Have a "Burning Martian" festival on Ares Vallis.
- Visit every planet and every moon in the galaxy and dance like Matt (www.wherethehellismatt.com). Move on to the next galaxy.
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Comments?
Lensmaster
Deborah Shlian wrote
Check out my new novel, Rabbit in the Moon about the search for the secret of longevity, My website is http://www.shlian.com or my lens at:
http://www.squidoo.com/Chinanovel
Posted September 02, 2008
Lensmaster
Crumpled_Goose_Skeleton wrote
Good one, eh! You should check out mine on the same subject:
http://www.squidoo.com/why_we_die
Posted December 19, 2007
Bio_guru wrote...
Check out my lens,
Which has a scientific overview over Immortality
www.squidoo.com/immortal
Posted April 15, 2007
