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eowl
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(Possible reason of this post: I may have had too many coffees today)

I can't believe that I'm actually showing it to someone, but here it is. I am not well educated in biology, in fact i hated it in school. But i think organic biology and medical science has long, eventful future. I wrote down some of my thought's about areas of this science that need a lot of work. I hope this is the right place to show it wink. Again since i am not aware of all current developments, i can judge only from common sense.

It may sound silly to you, but that's what i think about most of the time. Well a lot of topics on this forum make me laugh too, so i guess i found the right forum wink. If you look at biology as a form of engineering you will understand what i mean, it all makes new sense.

Here's the vital, from mine point of view, TODO list:

  • Prevent bodies from aging (our bodies regenerate all the time, but cell's don't have any means of precise verification about nature of repairs needed, only ruff general mechanisms control it. Over time cells get out of sync and repairs become ineffective or damaging. Possible solution here is to make cells work together, to be aware of other cells states and make more intelligent decisions. )
  • Master biological engineering and acquire full control of organism creation
    (biology will not be a serious science until we learn how to create living organism from non organic materials, until when we just studying somebody's work. I've herd research has stared on this, but right now they barely can create a simple living cell. Cloning organisms is not nearly as hard or important as knowing how to engineer whole organism from scratch, it's unlimited power. I wish everyone knew how vital this is, all other areas of science are of secondary importance. PERIOD. Why? Because our lives depend on it and that's all we have.)
    That leads me to the next item.
  • Recreate human organism in it's more efficient for modern life form
    (our bodies were generated by natural evolution(or whatever you like to think it was) long before we started
    shaping our civilization, however it's not working anymore and it's too slow anyway. Evolution shapes bodies by killing weak elements or preventing
    them from breeding. In today's world where physical or mental abilities don't really affect survival of individuals and where murder is
    outlawed, there's no any natural selection. Our minds may and will further evolve, but our bodies stopped developing automatically.
    However we could get involved with the process and shape our bodies us we want, once we understand biological processes to the point when we can reproduce them and affect them any way we want.

    We are so used to our bodies and how they work that people don't even question it. No wonder, it's easy to explain: their mind was formed inside
    those bodies, so they just take all it's problems for granted. People know why they sweat, why they have to eat and breathe, why they feel pain. They even know
    why they die after 80 years or so. What's amazing is that, they are not trying to change it.

    Current medicine only fixes problems, but instead of fixing, they should be busy improving! Why bothering fixing imperfect "machines" that keep breaking, when it would be more beneficial to build such "machine" that just won't break? They ether just don't care or wait until someone will solve the problem for them.

    And I fear that I'm no different, hoping that someone else
    will think it through for me and give me ready to use solution. And even if there was a solution i can't imaging how it's possible to convert my or anybody's existing mind into
    more stable, eternal form without accidentally erasing it in the process. However we can make future generations live longer or forever. It is accomplishable. It's as easy as messing with DNA.
    Whole new race could be created in couple generations. Of cause as always moral standards will get in the way of progress, but those standards never have tangible base under them and always get overwhelmed by innovative thought. I hope I will get to see it.
  • Let mind exist independently of conventional body
    (Bodies are just a container, a live support and manipulator, at last visual representation of identity. As soon as we take our bodies under FULL control it should not be a problem.
    Important thing here is to make people understand that by no circumstances their mind should vanish just because their body malfunctioned. If people spent less time believing
    into stories about "life after death", they would be more worried about preserving their minds and improving bodies, instead they all busy "living the present".)


All those things are not ripped off from some sci-fi novel, i think all those things should be our natural goal and there's nothing impossible about them. Just a fact that we can think is already unbelievable for me. So why making our bodies more efficient and durable is imposable?

Well, i sad that. If you think i am a nut, that's fine, then i will never open my mouth on this topic again. I was just sharing a thought, that's what forums are for, right?


Thanks for reading all this!

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Interesting post eowl. Do you want to live forever? If so--why? There seems to be a natural time span even in our technologically advanced society. There is a feeling of completion, of a life well-lived and a natural desire to accept an end that is peaceful eventually. Maybe prolonging this pattern would not in fact bring a happy life, merely a longer one.

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Hi, eowl.

"Prevent bodies from aging..."
"Master biological engineering..."
"Recreate human organism..."


- This is work in progress, even though it's in the earliest stage.

"Current medicine only fixes problems, but instead of fixing, they should be busy improving!"

- I guess you mean "as well as fixing". We're glad to be fixed from time to time.

"Let mind exist independently of conventional body"

- The nature of mind/consciousness is not yet understood, despite numerous non-scientific claims. Maybe consciousness will eventually be made manifest independently of the conventional (organic) body.

"Important thing here is to make people understand that by no circumstances their mind should vanish just because their body malfunctioned."

- As the nature of mind/consciousness is not yet known, it's also unknown if it can persist in some form after death. Scientific reasoning, based on current knowledge, opposes the hypothesis. Unless, and until, it is known, there are no relevant facts available to "make people understand".

"Whole new race could be created in couple generations."

- Even if that were possible, society needs time to adapt to change. Such rapid, radical, changes would probably result in destructive instability.

"...all other areas of science are of secondary importance. PERIOD. Why? Because our lives depend on it and that's all we have.)"

- Interesting. Would you like to expand on that? Do you see it as, for example, the answer to over-population and global warming?


"Time is what prevents everything from happening at once" - John Wheeler
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Could it be that this is a well-trodden path, only last time it was called eugenics?

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Originally Posted By: Ellis
Could it be that this is a well-trodden path, only last time it was called eugenics?

Yes, it's still eugenics whether or not some scientists care to admit it:

"...the western scientific community has mostly disassociated itself from the term "eugenics"" - Wikipedia

Eugenics is a dirty word but the practice is with us nonetheless. We are entering an age of genetic engineering. We can only hope that the direction it takes will reflect the highest ethical standards.


"Time is what prevents everything from happening at once" - John Wheeler
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unfortunately, from a practical standpoint, we are likely to see everything reduced to the least common denominator, namely greed. Ethics always seem to take a backseat to greed. When there is enough money involved, people will likely do anything.


If you don't care for reality, just wait a while; another will be along shortly. --A Rose

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Yes, indeed. And there's the argument: "If we don't do it, someone else will, so let's get on with it" - as with the Manhattan Project.


"Time is what prevents everything from happening at once" - John Wheeler
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Interesting, but not directly relevant article:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v457/n7227/full/457271a.html

"Let mind exist independently of conventional body"
Some of your other items are maybe approachable in a 100 years or so - maybe. But this one I think is much further out. It's not clear it's possible.

Not that there aren't serious issues with the other. It's not like gene X is good or gene X is bad in every case. It's a very complicated situation and it will probably often be the case that gene set X produces these characters that are desirable in situation Y, of no value in situation Z, and negative in situation W.

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TFF,
your link requires payment to read. Do you have any other link to the same material?


If you don't care for reality, just wait a while; another will be along shortly. --A Rose

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Boogers. Can't find an alternate site. Sorry about that.

The title is "Synthetic biology: The yin and yang of nature."
It's about oscillations in gene expression and the importance of positive feedback as well as negative feedback in regulation.




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