Longevity science

What if humans were to completely eliminate the process of aging in, say, the next ten or twenty years (probably before the technological singularity)?

What would be the worldwide consequences of such a development?

Would the elimination of aging, and thereby the elimination of death, ultimately, have good or bad consequences?

Many forward-thinking scientists are looking into solutions that would strengthen the brain by reinforcing its neurons with non-biological neurons made from carbon nanotubes.

These new artificial neurons would not only act as electrical bypass circuitry, giving patients a ‘fail-safe’ system should their brain become damaged, but would also enhance performance of healthy cells, providing ‘superhuman’ brain functions. Thoughts could be processed millions of times faster.

A new video called “The Future Is Ours” inspires a positive view of the future. It shows a sincere hope in technology with a mashup of presentations, speeches, and YouTube videos.

Michael Marantz, who created the video, wrote in the comments, “The future excites me so much, that is why I made this video. We need to be inspired by the immense possibilities of the future and work extremely hard to achieve them. We can do it, we just have to commit."

One of the more promising developments in the field of medical technology involves the use of microspheres for targeted drug delivery. In a nutshell, this encompasses creating tiny hollow balls that are filled with a specific drug, which travel directly to a specific organ or area of diseased tissue. Once there, the spheres release their medication, keeping it concentrated where it’s needed while sparing other tissue from any harmful side effects.

Recently, a team of scientists from Germany’s Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces devised a new method of manufacturing such microspheres, which is said to offer several advantages over existing techniques.

Medical researchers expect that with whole genome sequencing, treatment will be tailored to an individual tumor’s mutations, with drugs, eventually, that hit several key aberrant genes at once.

What is important, the researchers say, is the genes that drive a cancer, not the tissue or organ — liver or brain, bone marrow, blood or colon — where the cancer originates.

Many people believe that we’ve run out of ideas and that the future will be one of bleak shortages of food, energy, and water. Billionaire Peter Thiel, for example, argues that despite spectacular advances in computer-related fields, technological progress has actually stalled because the internal combustion engine still rules our highways, the cancer death rate has barely changed since 1971, and the top speed at which people can travel has ceased to improve.

"No one is better at predicting the future" than Ray Kurzweil.

~Bill Gates

Humans are continually changing their own world and positions. We transcend limitations far more successfully than any other species. As we push developing technologies further, we are approaching a time when the difference between human and machine is no longer a meaningful distinction. This time has been dubbed 'the Singularity' by Ray Kurzweil, one of society's most credible and well-known futurists.

In this interview, Ray talks about how the technology he has predicted will change the face of life and death. Though the report focuses closely on his desire to create an avatar of his dead father, keep in mind that is just one aspect of the ideas.

By the fall, this lab says they will have enough tissue grown in a petri dish to serve up the first grown burger that is fit for consumption.

FutureMed 2013 has officially arrived. On Monday, Singularity University kicked off day one at their NASA Moffet Field campus, a stone’s throw from Hangar One and the NASA Ames Research Center. Seventy-five years ago this place housed giant airships—now the tech is smaller and exponentially more powerful. Which, of course, is what FutureMed is all about.

To open the program, Director of FutureMed, Daniel Kraft, set the tone by delivering a whirlwind tour of exponential technologies and their impact on medicine and healthcare in the 21st century.

Kraft said, “We’ve been flying blind.” But that’s changing fast. He went on to note how information technology is the basis of a vast and growing sensor network, connected real time at the speed of light. Smartphones can give EKG readouts or take blood sugar levels—and are increasingly able to analyze the data, provide initial diagnoses, and involve healthcare professionals as needed.

A few weeks ago, PBS NewsHour ran a 10-minute piece with Kurzweil titled “As Humans and Computers Merge…Immortality?” from correspondent Paul Solman for his economics-focused Making Sen$e of Financial News.

Solman probes Kurzweil for some insights about where technology is headed in the coming decades, covering topics like artificial intelligence, extending lifespans through supplementation, and digital resurrection of the deceased as avatars.

Will we one day be able to live forever?

According to inventor/author Ray Kurzweil, eternal life is now actually on the horizon -- the near horizon. He predicts that by 2029, biomedical technology will be extending longevity faster than we age.

Twenty years ago U.S. healthcare cost $2800, on average, per person. Ten years ago, that figure had risen to $4700 per person. And four years ago, in 2008, it was $7500 per person. (From exhibit 4A in this Kaiser Family Foundation Report.) Over the same period, the portion of Americans without insurance has risen. In 1990, 14.1 percent of Americans were uninsured. In 2000, 13.1 percent were uninsured.

Today, 16.3% of Americans are uninsured (approximately 50 million people), in part because of job losses and employers cutting back on coverage.

At the same time the number of uninsured has risen, there have been stunning innovations in healthcare

Dr. Terry Grossman presented at the G20: Designing the Future conference in Mexico. His portion begins at about 1:22:46 and runs 12 minutes.

(G20: SESIÓN 2: PROVOCAR EL SIGNIFICADO)

European researchers have created a robotic arm with precise control to pick up a diverse range of objects enabled by a novel string actuator that...

Could Science Exchange become the Ebay of scientific research? This new marketplace helps to accelerate scientific studies by supporting collaboration and allowing researchers to share, buy and sell resources.

They vet providers, handle the monetary transactions, curate a rating system for each provider (and researcher), help providers publicize availability, and can sometimes track down exact providers...

"Electrical engineer Ada Poon has developed a tiny, wirelessly powered, self-propelled medical device capable of controlled motion through the bloodstream.

Poon, an assistant professor at the Stanford School of Engineering, is developing a new class of medical devices that can be implanted or injected into the human body and powered wirelessly using radio waves. No batteries to wear out. No cables to provide power...."

Imagine the apps that we could load into this little device. You could check your blood sugar, monitor your cholesterol, watch your weight, even do routine maintenance to the arteries and organs. You'd never forget to take a pill again.

Check out the video at KurzweilAI