Pentagon to Rewrite Evolution, Create Immortal Life

[Ham_authority95]

Yeah....

With the pentagon is making this...its probably going to be used to kill people/instill fear in them

its still pretty interesting although its gonna take a few more years to perfect it

 

[Ataxia]

Lots of responses here are pretty interesting like Ultracake's and a few others saying similar things like the guy who addressed our fears and said we're back in the middle ages practically (true, so true...) 'Immortality is not a realistic goal' and neither is trying to undo evolution, instincts, natural selection, FIGHTING AGAINST FUCKING NATURE, wasting money for stupid things, or y'know trying to do things that have so many ways of backfiring that even if it does work then it won't do what its supposed to do OH WAIT A SECOND!

This sounds almost like trying to get the desired effect from wishing from evil genies whou want to make your life a living hell.

 

[Ultracake]

Yeah....

With the pentagon is making this...its probably going to be used to kill people/instill fear in them

its still pretty interesting although its gonna take a few more years to perfect it

Its not going to take a few more years. Its going to take a LOT more time than that, If it's even possible.

 

[Ham_authority95]

Immortality is not a realistic goal. Aging is just cells replicating to a point where an essential part of them is divided so many times that it stops the cells working properly. IIRC the part of the DNA that does this is called a talamir. If we use genetic modification so cells have an increased talamir length, then they will, generally live longer. Until different parts of the DNA degrade instead of the talamir. It is theoretically possible to re-write the portions of DNA that cause the talamir to be important. But the sheer task is going to be nigh impossible.

Imagine if you will, the entire human DNA sequence. The scientists will have to comb through that, extensively testing every single DNA molecule to find the parts that make the talamirs necessary for cellular stability. This would mean thousands of expensive and time consuming tests on living cells.(most likely human embryo's) Not to mention the fact they have to CHANGE THE DNA in the cells to test it. As far as i can tell DNA is very, Very small, Coiled and prone to differentiation. One mistake would need the entire experiment to be re-done. Also there's the fact that talimirs are a necessary part of DNA. Finding a workaround for that is almost certainly NOT GOING TO HAPPEN WITHOUT A MIRACLE OR INSANE LUCK

If they get through that, Then holy hell. Good work. Now all they have to do is sequence the DNA combination they found into a living person, In-vitro fertilization. The chance that the DNA sequence wont work is extremely high. Meaning that they will have to start again, Essentially from scratch.

The process will require a FUCKTON of human egg cells, Time, Money, and intelligent minds. And even then the chances of it going right are nigh on impossible.


It's a big waste of money. in general. and the ethical debate will be horrendous.

The best I'm going to hope for this testing is potentially finding cures for genetic diseases. Or at least a way to keep future generations from developing them.

I, For one. Would like to see how they're going to attempt this. I'm sort of a mad scientist myself.

Also, pretty much this.

 

[ChocoFace]

That Walter Bishop is awesome. Such a great mad scientist.

Don't reveal information regarding The Pattern, it could endanger everyone around you.
(But yes i agree with you)

 

[The White Light]

Here come the Geth

 

[Mcface]

I'm glad I'm armed.. when these things go rogue, I'm ready for the war.

Agreed with above post, they should just rename this "Project Geth"

 

[Ham_authority95]

But then again, who wants to live forever?

I would get boring after while, thats for sure

 

[Ultracake]

One thing i think we should remember. "Mother Nature" and "Evolution" Are just ways to quantify things. There is no such thing as "laws of nature." Strictly speaking Nothing will stop us.

Evolution is NOT some foolproof system, in fact. Evolution is practically gone from the human species as a whole. Wait. Let me rephrase that. EVOLUTION IS GOING RANDOMLY NOW! This is generally because ANYONE can survive and go onto reproduce. Despite having genetics that are disadvantageous Or advantageous to humans. If people with genetic diseases have kids, then there kids can carry it on. The same is still true for good alleles as well.

In lay mans terms, Our survival from evolution is going to be purely based on luck. Unless everyone with disadvantageous genes is prevented from reproducing. This will not happen. Ever.
And It Godwin's law that this leads to the holocaust, Hitler was trying to sterilize the gene pool. Though his reasons differed to the point of madness (And wouldn't have worked. strictly speaking)

So unless. God forbid. another holocaust comes. The human race's survival is based entirely on luck

But then again, who wants to live forever?

I would get boring after while, thats for sure

This world is full of things to do. And chances are that if you spend your time doing most of them, you'll eventually wind up dead for some reason.

 

[Ham_authority95]

How long does the human race actually have left to it at this rate?

It seems that humans are making inventions to replace humans.

 

[Plurralbles]

"If there's one thing the history of evolution has taught us, it's that life will not be contained. Life breaks free. It expands to new territories. It crashes through barriers. Painfully, maybe even..dangerously, but and...well, there it is."

Malcolm sums it up quite nicely.

Great idea, but you have to be careful...

Jurrasic fucking park for the win!


Eh, whatever. I just know I'm doomed. Ohwell. Someone down the line won't be though, and that's awesome. But that just means we'll actually ahve to start worrying about the sun exploding : )

 

[Coltelement]

This really isn't new. I read about the whole "undead" thing about 5 years ago...

 

[Ham_authority95]

This world is full of things to do. And chances are that if you spend your time doing most of them, you'll eventually wind up dead for some reason.

Ah, but such is life.

And I'm just fine with that.

 

[RJ Dalton]

So, they're going to create creatures that have cancer from inception? Because what causes cancer is a lack of cell death.
Seriously, this shit will not work.

It doesn't work that way. Cancer is caused by cells with pretty much randomly damaged DNA replicating. What they are doing is not the random DNA fucking up that causes cancer. They are searching for the particular genes that allocate cell division damage, and trying to create a workaround for it.

I'd bet my life this is how they'll do it

Okay, so I did a bit of research on that and found the critical difference, but I still don't like it. There's something very wrong with all this, something that eats at me. Perhaps its the killswitch. Perhaps its my natural distrust of the government. Perhaps it's that this is a really badly written article and there's all kinds of information they're missing and misrepresenting. Whatever the case, I don't like where this is going.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Given Bush didn't even believe in Evoloution...I'm sort of reminded of Ronnie Reagan's Star Wars project.

-snip-
Is this a refrence to the Red Dwarf novels? I though I was the only person on the planet to read those.

Indeed it was a reference to the Red Dwarf novels

I knew that. Now come here little fishy.

 

[Fearzone]

$6 million at the pentagon gets gym privileges for your staff and catered lunches on Wednesday for a year.

 

[Georgie_Leech]

Being a bio-nerd, I can say this...

People get very excited when the word "life" is used. When you get down to how a cell opperates and functions, everything is incredibly mechanical. In fact, pretty much the only reason we consider cells to be alive in the first place and not, say, the organelles they are made from, is because we say so. Heck, most people think of germs being alive, but, fun fact, Viruses are technically non-living things. In other words, I'm not all that excited about them "creating" life. I am more interested in the fact that this sounds an awful lot like preliminary steps to creating organic robots.

Now, if they were artificially creating sentience, I'd be freaking out.

 

[Daggermonkie]

this is awsome.But i think instead of creating life we should alter our own dna making use immortal.That would make it so everybody in the world could settle their differances with politics instead of wars because no one can die!

 

[Feste the Jester]

This reminds me very well of going beyond what we should do to what we can do.

 

[internetzealot1]

A bb-...wh-...it..but...w-what...a-and...i-if...I...oh shit.