Technology Enabled Immortality

Do you want to live forever? This is obviously a rhetorical question because most people would answer, "Yes!". Death is such a horrible thought that most people want to quickly change the subject when someone brings up the topic. Whether it is the fact that all of us will most certainly face death someday or the uncertainty about what happens after death, few people want to spend any amount of time thinking about it. However, technology is bringing us closer to the point where someone may ask you if you want to live forever and it may not be such a rhetorical question.

Despite the immense complexity of human life, the past thirty years have brought great advances in our understanding of our physical make up. Projects like the Human Genome Project have made great strides in mapping human genes, and the application of this and other scientific advances have allowed the creation of drugs and food products that reduce the impact of common killers such as strokes and heart attacks. It can be theorized that such continued scientific progress will allow physicians to treat nearly any ailment. This will result in much longer life expectancies for those who can afford such treatment. However, the possibility of immortality comes into play when technological advances are paired with scientific increases in our understanding of human physiology. There are two main ways that I can see this playing out.

Organ Replacement
In general, we die when our organs start to fail, especially major organs such as the brain, heart, and lungs. However, the development of prosthetic devices such as the artificial heart have allowed human organs to be replaced with mechanical replacements. A researcher in Japan has demonstrated a robot hand that can be controlled by human thought alone. I can see this eventually leading to improved devices that can be used to swap out any human body part. If death is caused by organ failure, then can death be prevented by providing mechanical parts that never wear out, or, at worst, can be easily replaced? The great question, of course, is can the human brain be replaced by a prosthetic device? If so, are you still you if you now inhabit a manufactured body instead of one made of flesh? What if such a manufactured body is faster, stronger, and tougher than your old body could ever be?

Virtual Reality
If total replacement of the human body with mechanical devices is not possible, then an easier to achieve form of technological immortality may come in the form of virtual reality. The field of cryogenics has produced methods of preserving human cells by subjecting them to very low temperatures. However, problems with fatal damage caused by the freezing process have prevented scientists from finding a way to preserve entire bodies for later "thawing". Yet, what if the body can be subjected to temperatures low enough to slow bodily processes such as heart rate and oxygen intake but not so low that damage is done to our key organs? Perhaps a balance can be found where the body is in suspended animation, and the aging process is effectively halted. Well, what's the fun in being alive and partially frozen? That is where virtual worlds come into play. Online games such as World of Warcraft have millions of users logged in at once to explore a fantasy virtual world. As technology improves, these virtual worlds will become even more lifelike, and, in fact, indistinguishable from reality. If a cryogenically preserved brain can be connected to a virtual world, then it is possible that a person can fully experience that world in a way that is just like experiencing the real world. This is, of course, a key concept to the movie, The Matrix, but this would be a world people would voluntarily enter. While even a cyropreserved body will eventually die, it may be possible to stave off death for many centuries while the mind explores virtually unlimited worlds.

While these ideas sound far-fetched and in the realm of science fiction, I think they are closer than we think. In fact, I believe that there are people alive right now who may be presented with the option of transferring their consciousness into an immortal mechanical body or being plugged into "The Matrix" where they can fly like Superman or explore infinite "galaxies far, far away". Most of us look to religion to find comfort when faced with death. However, what will people do when technology offers a non-spiritual way of avoiding death? Where do moral values fit in if we have robotic bodies or do things in a virtual world? Could the use of technology to greatly augment our lifespans result in eternal damnation of the soul? Would you take your chance with God or with the computer? Do you want to live forever? If so, how?