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As some of you may be aware, the rate at which the number of transistors on a CPU chip increases over time is exponential. Every 18 months, chips get twice as complicated.

You could say the same thing about genetic technology. This field is advancing so fast that new discoveries are being made on a weekly, even daily, basis.

This brings me to transhumanism.

"Transhumanism is an emergent philosophy analysing or favouring the use of science and technology, especially neurotechnology, biotechnology, and nanotechnology, to overcome human limitations and improve the human condition." - Wikipedia definition.

So, with technology which would become available in the next few decades, humanity has the possibility for radical change at the genetic level. Here are some examples I've been researching:

Delaying Ageing:
Immortality is something which has always been a dream for some people, and extended life is a lot nearer than people think. Ageing is a process largely caused by the body's ability to repair damage and grow new tissue, fading away. In the chromosomes inside every body cell there are regions called telomeres, which are situated at the ends of the chromosomes. They consist of junk DNA which doesn't actually code for anything, but instead they act as buffers against damage to the non-junk DNA in the chromosomes. Every time a cell divides, not all of the DNA is copied correctly. The very ends of the chromosomes are not copied due to physical restrictions, and over time the telomere buffers are worn down. Eventually, the useful DNA becomes damaged and the cell first becomes unable to replicate, then eventually ceases to function.
Stem cells, however, are different. An enzyme known as telomerase is synthesised in stem cells, which repairs the telomeres. This makes stem cells themselves genetically immortal. The obvious solution to ageing of other cells then, would be to activate the gene responsible for telomerase synthesis in these cells. Then, BAM, immortal cells and longer-living people result.

Obviously, this raises a few questions. Would you advocate the activation of telomerase in order to extend the lives of people? Would it benefit us as a race? Maybe the most intelligent and skilled in society should have their lives extended, but what about overpopulation etc.?

For me this is an exciting area of science, and I just wondered what you guys' opinions were.

I'll add another example of transhumanistic tech. tomorrow (think humans being able to regrow their limbs like a troll).

hmm what about

Cybernetics - is the study of communication and control, typically involving regulatory feedback, in living organisms, in machines, and in combinations of the two, for example, in sociotechnical systems. The term cybernetics stems from the Greek Κυβερνήτης (kybernetes, steersman, governor, pilot, or rudder — the same root as government). It is an earlier but still-used generic term for many of the subject matters that are increasingly subject to specialization under the headings of adaptive systems, artificial intelligence, complex systems, complexity theory, control systems, decision support systems, dynamical systems, information theory, learning organizations, mathematical systems theory, operations research, simulation, and systems engineering.

eg: a nanomachine put into the lung witch right away changes the air into our lungs into oxygen/nitrogen

a nanomachine put behind the eye to give night vision and increases sight

nanomachines in the blood stream witch fight body anomalies, viruses, and infections

and my personal favourite: a nanite put into the brain witch distruputes data into our mind(replace teaching) .... that one would be cool, every hour we would learn something new and not have to go to school.... a 10 year old as smart as our average 30 year old

Nanotechnology is still a long time off. New genetic discoveries are much more applicable today although many people would protest their use.

Well.. I dont belive that living forever is so extremely fun.. ( Sitting around for centuries, millenias................... )

But genetics is good.. I would rather belive that we as the whole human race should use genetics more to fight diseases rather than to become immortal.. Maybe increasing our age a little.. But yes overpopulation is also a problem.

Though it would maybe benefit us as a race but overpopulation
Of course if wed perhaps learn how to clone, we could clone food lol..

But I dont think we should live forever..

The goverment has it's own opinion about this:
It would be wonderful to keep the smartest people working for the military.

The church (probably):
Only God creates life, only God decided how long should your life be.

The averege person:
Why somebody get their life extended while we don't ?

It does seem that overpopulation might become a problem, yes. However, we don't know what effect extending the human lifespan will actually have on the people who take pioneering treatment. A likely effect is that they will become more susceptible to cancer and will die of that instead.

My reasoning for them being more susceptible to cancer is because cancer is usually caused by DNA in cells becoming damaged as a result of replication errors which have accumulated over many divisions. Testicular and bowel cancer are common because the testicles and bowel are constantly creating cells (sperm or gut lining cells), so errors build up more quickly. Obviously, if somebody is going to have a much longer life expectancy, there is going to be more time for these errors to become serious enough to cause cancer.

Personally, I don't know how much of a problem overpopulation will cause. Other genetic technologies in the crop industry (such as genetically modified food crops) could lead to higher yields and therefore more food for the world as a whole. This would increase the Earth's carrying capacity as an ecosystem. As for lack of space... so long as we build upwards we can avoid problems.

But now, on to regeneration of limbs...

It has been known for a while now that human DNA can be modified while a person is still alive. When used to treat diseases such as cystic fibrosis, this modification is known as 'gene therapy.' The first step in the process is to find a virus or another suitable vector to carry the desired gene into the target cells within the human body. The virus is then genetically altered to make it harmless, and the desired genes are loaded into its genome. The person is then deliberately infected with the virus, which invades the target cells and integrates its DNA with their DNA. In this way, you can transfer genes into an adult human.

Now to how this could lead to regeneration... Basically, you have some animals which can regenerate lost limbs (like salamanders). There are genes which code for regeneration, and these could be inserted into humans. I doubt that this would work, as humans are a lot more complicated than newts, but it's something to think about.

One thing which probably would work would be inserting a firefly luciferase-making gene into human skin cells. This would mean our skin would glow like a firefly's abdomen.

What do you think of these developments? Obviously there are some who think that we're going too far with our genetic advancements, but I'm open to change.

Again nanotechnology isnt the same as genetics

DT you seem to fear overpopulation lol

Which isnt wrong..
But yeah if ppl would actouly get the fact that Earth our tiny little green planet cant produce enough to feed 11,500,000,000 people


And altering some1's DNA so much that it changes their looks, thats going too far.... Seeing as some people.. Would possibly create some mutant army or an abomination or w/e.. Though genetics is good. Genetic testing has helped to cure many diseases.

I dont know about the genetically modified food crops..

Lol clone the food!

But you can put this into a double edged sword, another proven way to extend life of flies and such is to delay puberty, if we did this instead of activation enzymes in people we'd be less distracted and learn more befroe our brains really become hardwired. Also, it would hit a big blow to unplanned young births. If people jsut got out of puberty when they're 25 and are leaving college they'll know more ways to keep the Earth clean and be mindful of a potential overpopulation crisis.

That or forced sterilization of the incompetent.

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However, It's my understanding that Will's way of life prolongation would ward off many many diseases.

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Genetic engineering is what makes me excited for the future, we'll have people running 200 metres in 9 seconds, jumping 19 feet in the air, and looking realy good while doing it.

And what will be the point of sports then ?

The point will be that they will finally be exciting to watch. Face it, sports at their current pace are boring when compared to a cross between cross country running, rugby, basketball, and fire. People now can't do it, but someday we'll give them the endurance.

Wow.. Of course eternal youth isnt a good thing.. Besides I belive id commit suicide if id live to be 200 years old lol..

So for you sports is boring now? Not for me.

It can be like:

A: who edited your gens ?
B: doctor C, in USA, that's why I beat you, my gens are better quality
A: OK, my doctor sucks, I'll go to USA & beat you next year

Ofcourse it may be exaggerated and not connected with the doctors in any way, but the idea remains.
Sports is not just for fun of those who watch it on TV/spectators, it's to show who's spirit & body is stronger.
What will be the point if all sports will be not about who worked harder, but about who has better gen modifications ?

(Allthow sports is allmost there with all those drugs)

Sports is pointless anyway, there's no real achivement in it... Nothing lost

Yeah I think it's a good thing, I want immortality damnit ^_^

New scientist has a good article on this (recent, this week's edition):
http://newscientist.com/article/mg19025511.500.html

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password: tempuser

There is so loss. You've obviously never torn a ligament.

Is anyone else interested in the prospect of computer programming for blank DNA?

I meant nothing would be lost by sports becoming obselete (due to people being able to pick physical attributes rather than having to rely on being born with em)

well, maybe there would be a little more violence, but that could be solved by compulsory aggression inhibitors for all men not in the military

A persons mind and body will not function well if it isnt healthy

And if you sit on your ass for the rest of your life learning nuclear physics lol..
Your body will just become so weak that you can do anything besides sit, and eat, drink through a damn straw.

No no, I'm not saying EXERCISE is bad... that's good.... but exercise can be done without sport, and it's often far more exercising than doing a sport (which usually only uses a couple of related muscles)

for sports becoming obselete, I'm referring to what was said earlier, that genetics/bioaugmentation/cybernetics will mean it'll be easy for people to get an advantage

tho, it might just end up with it being an arms race between robotics companies, sprinter legs etc - in the same way that race car companies do..

Obviously there would have to be rules and regulations in sport governing what augmentations a competitor can have. It would be pretty obvious if someone had a cybernetic implant or something of that ilk ('Your leg is made out of metal?'), and there could be tests for genetic enhancements.