The immortality and the future of mankind
Man thought of immortality from the very moment of his appearance as a rational being. Throughout history, humans have had the desire to live forever. For example, in Ancient Egypt mummification processes were applied to pharaohs, kings, chiefs or personalities in order to protect those remains in lavish enclosures that supposedly guided them towards reincarnation.
On the other hand, religions have based their essence on the resurrection, on eternal life but seen from spirituality, faith and trust in an almighty God and the existence of a paradise where the virtuous will live forever.
What is immortality?
For believers, immortality is the continuation after death towards an eternal life. Religions claim the existence of a soul that can transcend with the departure of the spirit from the inert body. In this way the eternity of conscience is achieved, which may go to heaven or hell according to the justice that each deserves based on their behavior in earthly life.
But not only people with religious faith seek immortality. From a supposed antithesis of religion, science has approached from different perspectives the possibility of making eternal (or at least more lasting) the passage of human being through the fleshly space.
Approaches
Prolonging of human life
Science has already managed to double and triple the average human age compared to decades before, especially in more developed countries that have greater and better access to a public health system.
A research career takes place day after day in the search for a cure to the most dissimilar diseases. Some scientists claim that life can be prolong up to 1000 years through the use of regenerative therapies. This way, rejuvenating biotechnologies restore the normal functioning of essential cells and biomolecules of our body.
As demonstrated, the world has achieved a scientific development in respect to human health which has allowed us to live much longer through the control and treatment of multiples diseases. But it is quite obvious that this achievement is just a lengthening of life and not an enduring immortality.
Cryogenization
Cryogenization is recognized as the practice of freezing humans to preserve their body pending technological advances that allow for future reanimation.I should say that I do not share this perspective as the most promising one, but now I will give you some details so that you can do the math yourself.
Since the eighteenth century we know that “matter is not created or destroyed, only transformed.” If we apply this principle to human beings in his search for immortality, it is reasonable to think that the aging of the whole body changes its state through successive modifications generated by the cellular aging itself.
In other words, over the years there is a transformation process in our bodies that includes the brain as the governing organ of the organism and the consciousness. Therefore, to think that through the conservation of the brain we can revitalize information, data and consciousness seems to me very far from reality because that organism had already had a degenerative process before.
In the cryogenization versions there are two fundamental modalities, that of preserving the whole body or only the brain thinking of a future resuscitation and return to life. In both cases, this author does not give any credit to such practice as a path to immortality.
Humanoid robotics
Humanoid robotics refers to machines programmed to accomplish a group of tasks. But, unlike the generic robot, these machines physically evoke a human being. Thus it is implied that in this way we will achieve “electronic” individuals similar to ourselves.
I am of the criterion that robotics with an anthropomorphic aspect and human functionalities can achieve I am of the criterion that robotics with an anthropomorphic aspect and human functionalities can achieve success in the world of toys, fun, assistance in daily tasks in the elderly, therapeutic training, patient accompaniment or baby care. But in none of these cases I see it associated with the immortality of the human being.
Bioprinting of the human body linked to data management
The 3D bioprinting of organs and tissues recently seemed futuristic, but today it has become a technique of a high global demand. One of its first applications is the reproduction of organs of the human body for transplants, but the potential of this technology is almost infinite.
But, in the hypothetical case that bioprinting soon allows the entire body to be reproduced in a functional way, a fundamental component would be lacking.
A human organism is not a human being: a fundamental component is missing. Call it conscience, personal information, soul, data…
Imagine a world where people have an online repository of all their personal information, a truly reliable store. And where technology allows to dump all that information into an artificially created human being, with the connections and intelligence capable of processing it in a similar way to the brain. Yes, to emulate the functioning of the human brain, much is missing … but nobody foresaw much of the inventions we use
every day.
So, this is my vision of immortality: human beings created artificially in the image and likeness of the original, where you can put all your information and experiences.
And what about you … do you believe in life beyond 100 years? Tell us which approach to the search for immortality seems more real to you.
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