Immortal fiction becoming fact

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By Paul Christensen THE WASHINGTON TIMES

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."