Immortal fiction becoming fact

Long before Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon searched Florida in vain for the fountain of youth, legends of its existence flourished. Since then, humanity’s search for immortality has been similarly fruitless.

In recent years, however, what once seemed like fiction is closer to becoming fact.

Research on an enzyme called telomerase, for instance, has focused on its ability to maintain the protective “caps” at the end of chromosomes, potentially halting the process of aging.

An extensive report compiled in 2008 and published in the journal Nature concluded that the development of an anti-aging drug was a “possibility,” if not a certainty.

However, the field of cybernetics may yield quicker results than medicine.

British futurologist Ian Pearson, for one, says he thinks human consciousness will be transferable to a computer by about 2050, enabling people to live indefinitely inside the bowels of a machine.

“As our knowledge of neuroscience and nanotechnology increases, we will get much better at connecting IT to our nervous systems,” Mr. Pearson explains.

“By 2025, we will be able to augment memory for people with Alzheimer’s. By 2035, we will see an industry rise to provide brain add-ons that increase memory, improve our senses or add processing capability, as well as picking up thoughts, relaying them to the Net and bringing answers to queries we are thinking even before we could type or vocalize them.”

After that, he says, microscopic nanoparticles will come into play.

“By 2040, nanotechnology will be able to make links to individual synapses in the brain. I imagine something like a fluid full of nanoparticles could be injected into the brain, and each synapse could be monitored by our external IT.”

According to Mr. Pearson, a full working replica of the brain will be possible by about 2050.

“If the computer has a model of every neuron in your brain and can pick up the activity at every synapse, then it will be possible to initiate a two-way link between your brain inside your head and the replica one in the computer, which could run far faster, possibly millions of times faster,” he says.

“Gradually, your mind would reside more and more in the computer, with its enormous capability, and less and less in your head.”

So what happens when the organic body wears out? Mr. Pearson claims death will be an “inconvenience but nothing more,” with little perceivable difference in one’s subsequent mental processes.

“After attending your funeral, you carry on life,” Mr. Pearson notes dryly. “Death will no longer be a big career problem.”

Story Continues →