Remember that immortality talk we had?

Way back in November of last year I wrote up my thoughts on the current state of research towards immortality. There is still no doubt in my mind that it will be here, whether it take 10 years or 50. But some new research has just come to a head that bolsters hope for another avenue: just replacing or patching your biological parts when they start to fail.

Researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine...and I want you to pay attention to this...MADE BRAIN CELLS...OUT OF SKIN CELLS. Yeah, there's a hitch in that they only did it with mice, but still.

One of the greatest hindrances to medicine for decades has been that while we can heal/patch/repair just about any damn thing in the body through surgery, transplants, etc., we have never been able to do anything about the brain. It's always been taken as a kind of given that brain cells, and brains themselves, are simply too complex to do anything with. If there's damage, sorry, but it's gone for good. Diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, dementia, all of these have traditionally been seen as practically incurable despite the millions of dollars invested in finding cures.

With this latest development, it is more than likely that the cure for such diseases is about 20 years away.

I want every one of you reading to think about that.

In 20 years (optimistic estimate), any kind of brain damage can be repaired. Not only that, but it will be a relatively simple procedure where you take some skin cells, send them to a lab, and then a couple hours later you have brain cells. Not weeks, not even days, but hours. The longest part of the process will be sending the skin cells to the lab and waiting to get them back....or the surgery and recovery, but that's not the point. We have reached such a state of medical technology that a skin cell can literally become any other cell in the body.

This is also what has me worried.

I have always said that my view of technology is highly optimistic, though my view of humanity's future is highly pessimistic. We live in a fascinating duality where the faster that technology outpaces us, the worse shape we're possibly in. Every discovery heralds the dawn of a new age, but has ramifications that won't be known for decades.

Take for example this simple fact that I said above. A skin cell can become any other cell. Including sperm and eggs. That means all those extra skin cells you sluff off everywhere you walk could potentially be used to make children, or even clones. Maybe my head is baked from too much sci-fi, but is it unreasonable for me to think that some organization might try to determine the future of the human race through a genetic breeding program? They wouldn't even need the actual people. They just take skin samples from two people, make eggs and sperm, grow offspring that might not even need to come to term to get viable cells from, or would then go on and live their lives normally while the organization keept samples from their skin. For example, redheadedness is a recessive trait. Say a coalition of redheads wanted to save themselves from extinction and so obtained skin samples from thousands of redheads, who normally would never meet, and then make offspring with red hair.

I know it sounds crazy, and I realize I'm venturing a little into the absurd, but have no doubt...it will be possible. Unethical, and thus mostly black market, but still possible.

A lot of people still see these kinds of things as being very far away in time and certain they won't even live to see it. Yet every single month, hell even every week these days, there comes a discovery that was previously thought impossible or at least 20 years away. Be assured, everything you have ever thought of as "the future" or even "sci-fi" will be here not only within your lifetime, but within the next decade or two.

Barring destruction from 2012, an asteroid, global warming, or a regrown velociraptor.

For the article detailing the research behind changing skin to brain go here: http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1815152/scientists_create_brain_cells_from_skin_cells/index.html

Immortality is here

For a couple months now I have been heavily researching emerging technology for a class that I am teaching called "Current and Future Tech, or Why We Are All Doomed". We have discussed everything from robots and A.I., to fully immersive realities like The Matrix, to interstellar travel and much much more. Basically each topic centers around some kind of new announcement about a technology or an innovation that we thought wouldn't be here for another 50 years, and is here today.

Ladies and gentlemen...immortality is here. Or at least closer than we thought.

To our class, this is not necessarily big news. It's been fairly clear for a couple months now that with current research, people will be able to extend their lives by, say, 3 years fairly soon. The thing is, within those 3 years another life extension treatment will most likely come out that extends your life by 5 years, and so on and so on. Basically, given enough time to develop that initial treatment (they've already done it in mice), those people living today are going to be able to live forever.

However, the latest results blew even me away. Instead of extending life in small increments, scientists have literally become able to stop cell death. The whole process is a little complicated if you don't know cell biology, but basically when a cell divides it chops off this end portion of a chromosome called a telomere. When too much has been chopped off, after many many many divisions, the cell stops dividing and dies. This is basically the biology behind aging. And now scientists have found a way to introduce an enzyme called telomerase, which replaces the chopped off bits of telomeres, into cells that normally don't have it. The only problem is that while this stops cell death, it also means unlimited cell growth, a.k.a. cancer. But trust me, the cure for that isn't far away either (check for a later post!). Especially if they can find a way to turn telomerase on and off, the job becomes easy. It could also mean quick regeneration if paired with stem cell research.

In other related news, scientists have discovered a key protein that helps repair damaged tissue that appears to stop working with age. But reinsert that protein into aged/damaged tissue...and it repairs as if it were young again. So basically, those who are old can become young again. The research is in its preliminary stages, but don't be surprised if in the next 10 years we get a fountain of youth in pill form. Couple that with immortality, and we have a race of people living forever in the prime of their youth.

Sound like science fiction? It was. But it's quickly becoming fact.