SCIENCE: Biomedicine, Nanotechnology and other strategies
We start, as is proper, by defining the subject matter. What is immortality? How can we define it in a scientifically sensible manner? Is immortality even biologically possible? These and other questions will be addressed in "Biological Immortality" by Michael R. Rose, Professor of evolutionary biology at the University of California, Irvine and author of Evolutionary Biology of Aging, a book that created a complete departure from the views that had dominated the field of aging research since the 1960's. We will learn that far from being a scientific impossibility, there are now good reasons for thinking that biological immortality is fundamentally possible.If aging can, in theory, be conquered – how would, how should we go about it?
Aubrey de Grey, an authority in the field of anti-aging theory from Cambridge University, outlines a general strategy for proceeding with "The War on Aging." In his essay, Aubrey de Grey touches on numerous issues, both scientific and societal, that will be taken up later in the book After these introductions, we move to consider individual aspects of this strategy.
Firstly, on the biomedical side, microbiologist João Pedro de Magalhães provides a summary overview of how "The Dream of Elixir Vitae" might be realized. One of the most topical and promising approaches to extending healthy life span is stem cell tissue engineering. Michael West, president of Advanced Cell Technology and one of the "founding fathers" of modern stem cell research has written "Therapeutic Cloning." It gives us an exciting insight not only into the scientific background, but also into his very personal experiences and hopes in relation to the conquest of death.
While stem cell research is still an immensely dynamic field, we have recently seen the emergence of another exciting area of potential anti-aging treatments: "Nanomedicine" – the science of creating medical devices through nanoscale and eventually molecular manufacturing – has received intense media scrutiny and generous public funding in the US and Europe. Robert A. Freitas, a true pioneer in this area, describes how tiny machines could be effective in the conquest of death.
As a special bonus, a second part of this chapter, including numerous illustrations, is published online.Once inspired to consider molecular-sized machines, we are not limited to healing and repairing our aging bodies: Ray Kurzweil, well known futurist and the recipient of the 1999 US National Medal of Technology introduces us to "Human Body Version 2.0," where advanced technology constructs and defines the very substance that we are made of.This introduces a second vision of immortality, one that ventures beyond biology.
Dr. William Sims Bainbridge, Deputy Director for the Division of Information and Intelligent Systems at the National Science Foundation, considers how digital information about personality, feelings, likes and dislikes can be recorded. By archiving the uniqueness of a person, we might achieve some "Progress toward Cyberimmortality." But can we be more ambitious? Will we one day be able to copy our 'selves' onto a computer?"Will Robots Inherit the Earth?" asks Professor Marvin Minsky, who in 1959 co-founded what became the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. He proposes humankind will indeed leave behind the constraints of biological mortality – not only conquering death, but also expanding in consciousness.
"All very well," one might contend. But will these predictions come true within our own life spans? For those who seek to conquer death, dreams of a distant future might not suffice. However, Dr. Brian Wowk, physicist and cryobiologist introduces us to "Medical Time Travel" via cryopreservation – the science of maintaining the human brain until the scientific predictions that we were considering in this section have indeed come to pass.
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