Will a mechanical body allow you to live forever in a few decades?

By David McElroy · August 7, 2012

What if I told you that some people who are alive today are never going to die? To some Russian scientists, that’s a very real possibility. They believe they might have the technology by 2045 to allow a human being to live forever.

The human body is always going to wear out — as far as we know — so how is this possible? The scientists of the 2045 Initiative believe they’ll have the technology by then to transfer what they see as the essence of a human being into a machine. If you’re interested in the stages of development they plan to go through to get there, this story will interest you.

For the most part, I’m going to set aside the science of this and assume that some very smart people are able to develop the technology to sustain a human brain. I’m even going to assume that human consciousness is centered there, at least for the purpose of this discussion, even though I have serious doubts about that. (If you’re interested in why I started doubting this commonly accepted belief, you might be fascinated by Paul Pearsall’s book, “The Heart’s Code.”) I’m mostly interested now in the question of whether this kind of immortality would be a good thing or not.

Humans have been pursuing immortality for centuries. (Here’s a good brief history of such efforts.) Scientists, doctors and magicians have all pointed toward the idea of living forever, but few have seemed to ask whether this would be a good thing or not.

I want to live a long time. Most people do. I know of only one person who truly sees the world as such a painful and ugly place that she doesn’t want a long life. She’s a Christian, and she finds this world to be such an unhappy place that she’s eager to get this life over with and go “home” to be with God. That’s pretty unusual, though. Most of us are more like me. I’m planning to somehow live to be 120 years old.

But would it be a good thing if people could suddenly start living lives of virtually unlimited length? If the human race keeps reproducing, what happens when people quit dying? Would could we sustain that world? Could we deal with a population that was growing and growing — and almost nobody was dying? I don’t know.

And what about valuing life? Part of the reason we value life now is because of the brevity of our time in this world. If we were able to stay here — and somehow continue experiencing life — would our views about the value of life change? Would we eventually get bored enough to switch our mechanical bodies off? I wonder.

I can think of all sorts of potential issues with living this kind of extended lifespan. Still, I know if I were given a shot at it, I’d take it. I believe in God and look forward to experiencing Him in whatever the next world looks like. But I love the world here, too, and I have no desire to leave it quickly.

So if the technology were available and I could afford it, I’d pursue it when the time came that my physical body is broken down. It might be a bad idea. I might even get tired of it. And the woman who told me she’s eager to leave this world and be with God might even have the right idea. All I know is that I have an intense desire to live and to continue experiencing this world.

I’m nowhere near ready to go. I’m not going to be ready at 80 or 90 or whatever. What about you? Would you extend your life — potentially forever — through such technology? Why or why not? I’m curious whether your answer is similar to mine.

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The company that owns Facebook and Instagram is heavily promoting its new AI-based software assistant called Muse, but people who are using it as it was designed are incredibly foolish. An early adopter of the software discovered that a few days ago when he advertised an item for sale on Facebook Marketplace — and he inadvertently gave Muse full authority to act on his behalf. The software agreed to a lowball offer made by another Facebook user and then gave that man the home address of the man for whom he was an agent. The software told the buyer that the seller was home and waiting for him. When the buyer showed up and waited angrily, the would-be buyer left an angry review for the man. And this angry man had the seller’s home address. It was only well after that that the software reported what it had done and admitted it had made a mistake. I won’t be putting that much power into the hands of any software. I think anyone who agrees to such terms is a fool. And the software’s user agreement says you’re responsible for purchases the software makes in your name. Nope.

Meet my new girlfriend. Her name is Meg. And she’s my little sweetheart. A couple of months ago, a neighbor across the street told me about a new stray in the neighborhood that she and I were both soon feeding. The cat had been very skittish about contact and she had a lot of scabs and parasites in her fur, but a trip to the vet last week revealed that she was otherwise in good health. The vet estimates her to be 1 to 2 years old. I named her for Meg Murry, the 13-year-old protagonist of Madeleine L’Engle’s wonderful book, “A Wrinkle in Time.” (Please read the book. Don’t watch the horrible movie.) Since we lost Lucy almost a year ago, it seems appropriate that we finally have a new little girl to join the household. She’s already captured my heart, but Alex, Oliver and Sam aren’t there quite yet.

There’s nothing socially acceptable that’s as dangerous as drinking alcohol. Most people grow up being told to “drink responsibly” — and all of us see people abusing this drug in one way or another — but the truth is that drinking alcohol is always a terrible risk. The alcohol in these drinks is toxic and the human liver has to work hard to filter the toxins out. What most people don’t realize is that alcohol is classified as a known carcinogen by the World Health Organization — because of the well-established connection between imbibing and various cancers. Many people have taken refuge behind the idea that light or moderate drinking might be safe, but a new study shows that drinking even one drink a day increases the risks of 10 types of cancer. When I was a teen-ager, I looked around and saw the negative effects that this behavior had on a lot of people and decided not to start drinking, so I’ve never even tried this poison. The evidence keeps piling up that I was lucky to have come to that conclusion early.

It turns out that the radical far left has been training “Antifa cats” to sabotage anything important to Donald Trump. Everything he did was perfect. Honest. It was all the cats’ fault. Arrest all the cats! This is the latest of my ridiculous satirical shorts. Please go watch it. Then “like” it and subscribe. Please. I’m begging you. (Too much?) Although a couple of the previous videos have had views in the hundreds, most have still been seen by fewer than 20 people. So I seem to be having trouble letting people know that page exists.

Here’s the latest of my ridiculous parody shorts. It crossed my mind Tuesday to wonder what a slick and fast-talking car dealer might do right now to try to turn the high price of gasoline to his advantage. So I conceived of a fat and lovable character who tried to sell cars that don’t use any fuel — and then I started wondering if it would be funnier if all the characters were felines. Designing the King Cashpaw character took about four hours, but the rest took only another four hours, so this was a relatively quick piece that virtually wrote itself. I know it’s almost impossible for these parody videos to find a larger audience, but at least they amuse me — and there are 19 of them on my YouTube page now. The first few were very limited, but they’re getting more complex.

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