Could We Live Forever?
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Could We Live Forever?
There are many things that a person ponders when it comes to what we do, why we do it, and how we got here. Did a god create the world we live in? Are humans the evolution of modern African apes from five to eight million years ago? Why is it considered necessary to nail down the lid of a coffin? Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavor and dish soap made with real lemons? What I ponder about is the medical technology of the 21st Century. Will we be able to freeze people and bring them back to life on demand, being able to skip centuries instead of actually living through them all? Or could we be able to skip that and make it our mission to live forever? Could this be done in my lifetime?
I want to know, could I beat old age? Could I live to see what comes of the world in the next 500 years? Could any medical problems I have during my life time be defeated by Science? What if my body gets damaged beyond recognition? Could I simply switch to a newer, younger body?
Some of these technologies are already in place today. Women of today are already using creams daily to beat the appearance of old age. Their anti-wrinkle creams have proteins that penetrate the skin and stimulate the production of collagen; a protein that reinforces the skins support structure that their thinning skin loses with age. But what about actually feeling younger instead of just looking younger? Scientist have that covered too. In 2010 in California, a prototype of a machine called a Cell Scrubber was put into action.
Found in old people is a good amount of cell damage of the white blood cells. These damaged or dying cells clog up the body. So how would someone clear the clog and bring back the youthful and healthy cell structure? By using the Cell Scrubber. The Cell Scrubber works by extracting the blood from the patient which then goes through a chamber where its bombarded by proteins designed to attach to the old white blood cells. These proteins have small amounts of metal particles so when the blood is passed over a set of powerful magnets, the metal in the old cells are pulled out and dumped in the garbage. Lastly, the blood returns to the patient now with more room for the healthy cells to replicate. [Sens Foundation]
What if someone doesnt want to go through all that and just wants to switch out of the defected bodies into a newer, better body? What if you get into a car accident or a disease gets the best of you and instead of just dealing with the consequences, you can simply “change” them? Diseases like Diabetes and Cancer could be a thing of the past. Think about how that could change society if you could take the brain of someone and switch the bodies. Someone that is given a “bad hand of cards” could be given a second chance. This technology is not available today but may be available in the next future. No one knows what the next 50 years holds, so why not dream big?
While we are waiting for technology to catch up with our imagination, lets get back to technology that is available today. The two main things that kill humans are cancer and heart attacks. How do we solve this problem? First there was a remote controlled robot that walked through the colon in search of cancer that was used in Scuola Superior Sant Anna, Italy in 2009. Next in 2010, used at the Federal Institute of Technology, Switzerland was a flea-sized drone controlled by magnets and designed to go into a human eye to cure blindness. Can you see how brilliant this technology is? Not only with this technology is it possible for one to live forever but also for one to live comfortably forever.
I, along with seventy million other women and girls in the world, suffer from a reproductive and immunological illness called Endometriosis. Ive had Endometriosis since I was eleven but wasnt formally diagnosed until four months after my sixteenth birthday. Since then, Ive gone through menopause seven times, fought osteoporosis, suffer from bladder and bowel problems, Im infertile, and the list goes on. I will be turning twenty-three this coming February. I am at the “prime” of my life, so Im told. Why would I want to live forever when I suffer so much from an incurable disease? This is where I see the brilliance in these miniature robots. These robots could make the most common gynecological disease diagnosed disappear, changing the lives of so many women, including my own. [LurponDepots Understanding Endometriosis]
So while were on this breath taking road, why stop there? Scientist has created a drone that cures cancer, one of the most common killers of humans. Cancer chemotherapy and radiation helped life expectancy double in the past hundred years. How will this change our life expectancy for the next hundred years? We just got done recognizing Breast Cancer Awareness month. The American Cancer Societys most recent estimates for breast cancer in the United States for 2011 says about 230,480 new cases were created this year and 39,520 women died of breast cancer. Its wonderful to imagine how much this technology could change our lives, not only for the women that passed, but for the family who lost their loved ones. [Breastcancer.org]
What about people who suffer from mental illnesses? What can technology do for them? There have been lots of theories of how the mind of a serial killer is different than a “normal” person. Some part of their brain is abnormal so that is why they act that way and kill is what scientist has said. Could miniature robots go into the brain and possibly “fix” this abnormality? Could they also do this with mental illnesses? How about actually reversing memory lost? That, to me, would be crucial to living forever. Whats the point of living forever if you cant remember it? I believe it will be crucial for living for ever if science can figure out a way for us to keep our memories and create more storage in our brain for the memories well make during our time of life.
People who suffer from diabetes or have a heart problem could just have miniature robots sent into their system to cure their problems as well. Maybe even have the robots stay in their system like an extra immune system to help fight off illnesses that would normally kill us. For people like me who havent lived a normal life, this is the technology that seems to wonderful to be true.
Another thing someone could do is have their organs “printed” from a bioprinter if the idea of having miniature robots inside them freaks them out. In 2008, scientists were printing organs at