A jellyfish species repairs almost all its cells and regenerates periodically, without aging. 3D printing has led to printing out a fully beating, three-dimensional human heart. The technology could be used to print organs and tissues and theoretically continue to exist forever.
A jellyfish species repairs almost all its cells and regenerates periodically, without aging. 3D printing has led to printing out a fully beating, three-dimensional human heart. The technology could be used to print organs and tissues and theoretically continue to exist forever.
A jellyfish species repairs almost all its cells and regenerates periodically, without aging. 3D printing has led to printing out a fully beating, three-dimensional human heart. The technology could be used to print organs and tissues and theoretically continue to exist forever.
The Amazing Spider Man? A scientic genius, mad beyond belief, who tries to re-engineer humans to become virtually immortal. He says, I spent my life as a scientist trying to create a world without weak- ness, without outcasts. I sought to create a stronger human being, but theres no such thing. Human beings are weak, pathetic, feeble-minded creatures. Why be a human at all when we can be so much more? Faster, stronger, smarter. Regeneration Turns out Dr. Connors wish could be closer to reality than we think obvi- ously with a far less dramatic effect. We arent far from the day when humanity will get past the physical limitations of our bodies, either by xing it beyond any damage, much like lizards that heal their epidermis. Research into undying jellysh with regenerative cells is helping scientists understand how to make the body last longer than its shelf life. Hydra, a jellysh species, repairs almost all its cells and regenerates periodically, without aging. James Vaupel, Director, Laboratory of Survival and Longevity at the Max Planck Institute for Demo- graphic Research in Rostock, Germany, claims its a fundamentally different survival strategy than humans. In an interview to the BBC, Vaupel explains, Hydras allocate resources primarily toward repair. Humans, by contrast, pri- marily direct resources toward reproduc- tion, its a different survival strategy at a species level. This only means that we cant self-heal without outside help. He also believes that senescence or biological aging can be slowed down rapidly in humans and gives a 50 per cent chance of close to negligible aging becoming a reality in our lifetime. But if all cells rust from oxygen exposure and are going to suffer from inevitable destruction, however delayed it may be, what could be the next best thing than harnessing the phenomenon of 3D printing to print your tissues and organs and theoretically continue to exist forever? Scientists have succeeded in achieving some amazing breakthroughs recently. Tissue engineering research has led to printing out a fully beating, three-dimen- Jayesh Shinde Our quest to harness the good things about technology to counter its negatives on our health and well-being doesnt just stop at buying new tness trackers or planning out a health regimen on your smartphone. Far from it. Humanitys in this for the long haul, and has its eyes rmly set on discovering the elixir of life and unlocking physical immortality. Heres some of the steps to prolonging our health to a whole new level. TO IMMORTALITY AND BEYOND Cover story 68Digit | May 2014 | www.thinkdigit.com sional, two-chamber mouse heart using a modied desktop, inkjet printer. By lling the ink cartridge with cells, theyve been able to publish functional human kid- neys. Were taking technology into places thats truly unlocking the secrets of our physiology like never before. Just in the last few months, we have witnessed scientic feats like growing human ears on the backs of mice and implant culture-grown lungs into rats. 3D printing ears, lungs, and even tissue samples for use in humans. Thanks to recent advancements in stem cell research, British scientists have successfully cre- ated articial blood that can be adminis- tered to anyone, by growing RBCs from broblasts that have been reprogrammed into mature red blood cells in the lab. The blood, developed by researchers at the University of Edinburgh and the Scot- tish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS), would be Type O negative, also known as universal donor blood, which currently comprises just 7 percent of the blood donor pool. Experts in the eld are unanimous in their prediction that in the near future, whenever we need replacement body parts, whether its a tissue culture or a major organ, well just use rejection-proof articial organs grown in laboratories using our own cells. By putting in the parts you need, youll be able to extend life by several decades, explains Anthony Atala, director of the Wake Forest Insti- tute for Regenerative Medicine. We may even push that up to 120, 130 years. Downloading memories The above mentioned techniques on our path to immortality have overwhelming odds restricted by our physiology. Our bodys programmed to degenerate. But is that also true of our mind? Less than a year ago, Berger and Sam Deadwyler at Wake Forest University suc- cessfully conducted experiments in which they actually inserted memories into the brains of rats by stimulating certain parts of the hippocampus with electrical signals. Berger said they have also been able to disable the hippocampus, in effect blocking the memory, and then electroni- cally stimulating certain areas to create a new memory. This has worked success- fully in rats and monkeys, while human trials are yet to begin. At the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- nology, Ed Boyden leads the Synthetic Neurobiology Group, which is building new tools to explore the brain. Boyden and his colleagues have found a protein in algae that is able to convert light into electricity. When this protein, called chan- nelrhodopsin, is introduced into certain neurons, its triggered by light to create distinctive patterns they can be trans- lated into electrical impulses and then mapped resulting in a computer code of a memory. This opens up a whole new range of technologies in the eld of brain and memory research, digitizing data and even ofoading it to some extent. The biggest roadblock to downloading memories right now is that they seem to disappear when not in use. Unlike memo- ries in a microchip which can be accessed any time, if the human brain isnt actively triggering a memory, one cant really download or copy it, according to Ted Berger, a neuroscientist at the University of Southern California. And unless we get past this hurdle, the reality of completely ofoading the contents of our brain cant be achieved. Even Stephen Hawking believes that downloading data from the brain is an inevitable eventuality. I think the brain is like a program in the mind, which is like a computer, so its theoretically possible to copy the brain onto a computer and so provide a form of life after death, he said, according to a report in Guardian last September. However, this is way beyond our present capabilities. But dont be disappointed just yet. The Avatar Project This is the most ambitious endeavour towards achieving immortality of the mind, perhaps not the body. And it hints Theres this whole other aspect of intelligence which is new thoughts, new ideas, creativity, these are things that we dont even understand fully among us humans yet, much less how to get that into a robot. - James McLurkin, Asst. Prof of Computer Science, Rice University, USA 3D printed or lab-grown organs and prosthetics will prolong our life Cover story towards cybernetics immortality, where we create a neo-humanity and truly take control of our evolution beyond the grasp of natures biosphere. And that, according to various schools of thoughts, is the only true way for us to become truly immortal. And the Avatar Project is the rst major step in that direction. The Avatar Project is the brainchild of Russian billionaire, Dmitry Itskov, who isnt unlike Peter Weyland from the movie Prometheus both want to be immortal. While Weyland looked at the stars for answers, Itskovs putting his trust in neuroscientists, neuroen- gineers and futurists to allow him to live forever. Not just him, but eve- ryone. Eventually. The Avatar Project seeks to conquer death in four stages by 2045. Stage one deals with the creation of a robot that can be controlled by our brains (through a brain-machine interface) by 2020; Stage two takes things further when a human brain can be transplanted into a synthetic body by 2025; Stage three is where the boundaries between humans and robots blur, and it will be achieved after the con- tents of a persons brain can be uploaded into a synthetic one by 2035. The last and nal stage of the project, slated to end by 2045, results with the completion of a full-blown Avatar, a hologram that will replace bodies completely and allow us humans to live forever. This may sound like a hoax, but it actually isnt. Itskovs vision is backed not only by his own deep pockets but also other tech luminaries Itskovs ambi- tious roadmap is supported by vision- aries like roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro, Googles director of engineering, Ray Kurzweil, and chairman of the X-Prize Foundation, Peter Diamandis. Even the Dalai Lama has given his blessings and endorsed Itskovs vision, when he said in a press release, We should carry out these experiments with a full sense of responsibility and respect for life that will only benet humanity, benet others. Ray Kurzweil, Googles director of engineering and a self-confessed futurist, said at a WSJ conference recently that Were going to expand who we are. Were going to become more non-biological. Calling the human body a software process, Kurzweil believes that in the future humanity will no longer be limited to its physical form and be able to upload our consciousness into a cloud and use nanobots to recreate our physical bodies at will. And as humans start becoming more like machines, AI advancements will make machines increasingly more human. This convergence is what Kur- zweil calls singularity. Food for thought So we are trying to achieve immortality by slowing down biological aging of the human body, by supplementing the human body with fresh, new lab-grown organs, and ultimately escape the con- straints of our physical cage arguably the best piece of intelligent life form that evolution has produced to rule the earth with and exist in the form of a digital entity for eternity. And from the looks of it, all this doesnt seem to be the stuff of sci- at all. So the question we put to you is this: Excited or petried? And how will you start preparing for your immortal life? Visit 2045.com to see how the Avatar Project is creating the stuff of sci-. Unbelievable. Cover story