sadly carbon based life forms cannot live forever and will eventually fail unless upgraded

Nah, Some disease will just wipe us all out and the world would continue like new.

Personally I don't know who would want to live forever. And I don't think there will ever be something to make anyone "immortal" something will kill them eventually. Now there might be something to increase your immune system and health to protect against diseases and illness but there will be some disease that can outmatch that and will kill that person.

Its already happened

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There is a 'Immorrtal Jellyfish' - [ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

and they are looking at its DNA so we can be immortal but meh.

UMP wrote Nah, Some disease will just wipe us all out and the world would continue like new.

Gotta happen sooner or lata...

Not sure of it ever being possible while remaining a Homo sapien, simply because I don't think we are built for it.
Maybe in an other 250,000 years of evolution or maybe in an other 10,000 of technological advancements it may be possible.
There may be some hope due to alligators being able to age forever or at least for a very long time since there isn't an offical record for how long one will last.
Immortality is no easy feint.

B3ASTiixRAMPAG3 wrote Not sure of it ever being possible while remaining a Homo sapien, simply because I don't think we are built for it.
Maybe in an other 250,000 years of evolution or maybe in an other 10,000 of technological advancements it may be possible.
There may be some hope due to alligators being able to age forever or at least for a very long time since there isn't an offical record for how long one will last.
Immortality is no easy feint.

You have just basically said it and measured it all up.

Rapt wrote I briefly talked about this is a post a while back so I'm just going to quote that...

A very smart physicist, Richard Feynman once said, "There is nothing in biology yet found that indicates the inevitability of death. This suggests to me that it is not at all inevitable and that it is only a matter of time before biologists discover what it is that is causing us the trouble and that this terrible universal disease or temporariness of the humans body will be cured."

While I do believe it is possible to live forever it will not be possible for a long time. In the book I'm reading, "Physics of the Future" it should be possible by the turn of the century. (2100)

Which is kind of sad because if you think about it, we might be some of the last people on Earth to die of old age.

Assuming its released to the public.

Unfortunately true immortality actually breaks the second law of thermodynamics. The second law of thermodynamics is very confusing, so I would advise you not to try and read into it, however it boils down to a very basic and core fact, that everything must die.

Extension of human life is a very possible outcome in the advancements we are making in human biology, but true immortality? No.

Even if we could stop our bodies from ageing, it would come down to that eventually, the very atoms that make up our body would die, this being a very very slow process, but however would happen.

Furthermore, I would disagree with the use of such technologies, if they ever were created, to extend human life by the amount people are talking about. Extending human life would not just require us to stop the ageing process, but prevent us from contracting health issues such as the most prevalent killer, cancer. These factors together would reduce the amount of deaths every year by millions, and would cause our already over populated planet, in certain areas, to skyrocket.

In my personal opinion, extending life like this would do far more harm than good. However of course it would not be up to us to decide whether it would be beneficial toi use it or not, if a technology such as this was found.

WAD3 wrote

Rapt wrote I briefly talked about this is a post a while back so I'm just going to quote that...

A very smart physicist, Richard Feynman once said, "There is nothing in biology yet found that indicates the inevitability of death. This suggests to me that it is not at all inevitable and that it is only a matter of time before biologists discover what it is that is causing us the trouble and that this terrible universal disease or temporariness of the humans body will be cured."

While I do believe it is possible to live forever it will not be possible for a long time. In the book I'm reading, "Physics of the Future" it should be possible by the turn of the century. (2100)

Which is kind of sad because if you think about it, we might be some of the last people on Earth to die of old age.

Assuming its released to the public.

Unfortunately true immortality actually breaks the second law of thermodynamics. The second law of thermodynamics is very confusing, so I would advise you not to try and read into it, however it boils down to a very basic and core fact, that everything must die.

Extension of human life is a very possible outcome in the advancements we are making in human biology, but true immortality? No.

Even if we could stop our bodies from ageing, it would come down to that eventually, the very atoms that make up our body would die, this being a very very slow process, but however would happen.

Furthermore, I would disagree with the use of such technologies, if they ever were created, to extend human life by the amount people are talking about. Extending human life would not just require us to stop the ageing process, but prevent us from contracting health issues such as the most prevalent killer, cancer. These factors together would reduce the amount of deaths every year by millions, and would cause our already over populated planet, in certain areas, to skyrocket.

In my personal opinion, extending life like this would do far more harm than good. However of course it would not be up to us to decide whether it would be beneficial toi use it or not, if a technology such as this was found.

Immortalization of human cells is often associated with reactivation of telomerase, a ribonucleoprotein enzyme that adds TTAGGG repeats onto telomeres and compensates for their shortening. We examined whether telomerase activation is necessary for immortalization. All normal human fibroblasts tested were negative for telomerase activity. Thirteen out of 13 DNA tumor virus-transformed cell cultures were also negative in the pre-crisis (i.e. non-immortalized) stage. Of 35 immortalized cell lines, 20 had telomerase activity as expected, but 15 had no detectable telomerase. The 15 telomerase-negative immortalized cell lines all had very long and heterogeneous telomeres of up to 50 kb. Hybrids between telomerase-negative and telomerase-positive cells senesced. Two senescent hybrids demonstrated telomerase activity, indicating that activation of telomerase is not sufficient for immortalization. Some hybrid clones subsequently recommenced proliferation and became immortalized either with or without telomerase activity. Those without telomerase activity also had very long and heterogeneous telomeres. Taken together, these data suggest that the presence of lengthened or stabilized telomeres is necessary for immortalization, and that this may be achieved either by the reactivation of telomerase or by a novel and as yet unidentified mechanism.