“Who wants to live forever?”

A few days ago I attended a tribute concert to the Queen group, who in a wonderful voice Freddie Mercury asked her a lot “Who wants to live forever”, that is, “Who wants to live forever?”.
For the moment the question is merely rhetorical, death inevitably follows life, but it is indisputable that science has extended human life span and continues to extend it exponentially.

Based on available scientific knowledge, a study (published in 2021 in Nature Communications) that a person can last until 120-150 years, when the complete loss of his resilience, that is, the ability to recover in the face of adversity such as illness, injury or trauma, is expected. Extending life beyond this point requires suspending cellular aging, a goal that is not an impossible and illusory concern with the frantic R&D activity we are witnessing not only in anti-aging but also against death.

For example, in July this year, a biotechnology laboratory, Altos Labs, opened in Cambridge, England, dedicated to delaying aging based on an investment of US$ 3 billion from various investors, such as Jeff Bezos, the famous founder of Amazon, Elon Musk bet and Peter Thiel, founders of PayPal and several other companies, respectively on Neuralink for developing brain-computer interfaces (CIs) and on the Methuselah Foundation whose mission is to transform 90 [anos de idade] In the new fifty “and the founders of Google seek to achieve their goals in this field through a start It is called calico (saga).

The styles are diverse. The vision of Eric Drexler, considered by many to be the father of nanotechnology, is based on molecular nanotechnology. Drexler envisions cell-regenerating nanodevices that will eventually allow immortality to be achieved. The University of Melbourne, Australia, is highlighting the possibility that nanotechnology should treat specific diseases, such as certain types of cancer, by removing cancer cells.

Another method is based on the so-called virtual immortality by performing a brain scan and then transferring the result obtained in this way to a computer or gradually replacing parts of the brain with chips. In other words, there is a transition here from human to cyborg where thinking happens through chips and not neurons (Schneider, You Are Artificial: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Your Mind🇧🇷

This solution raises complex questions. A person can be qualified as such if he lives in the machine🇧🇷 Is it the same person or a clone who has no knowledge of the clone’s thoughts, feelings and actions?

The answer, in my humble opinion, is negative, because this knowledge is accumulated at the level of consciousness that allows us, so medicine tells us, to think, observe and interact, as well as step back from our thoughts, examine them and judge them. for them. (Scientific American🇧🇷 In consciousness there is the feeling of being, including the idea that one thinks, exists and has a soul.

A more attractive path would be to extend life through biological improvements compatible with the survival of consciousness, thus preserving the essence of the human being, (Steel, Ageless: The New Science of Getting Old Without Growing Old🇧🇷

However, it is not intended only to extend life. The race is on to create a formula that will make immortality possible, in physical or digital molds. However, does it make sense to live forever on a crowded planet with limited resources? And would it be good to live forever? Fernando Pessoa had previously said that “whatever lives, lives because it changes, changes because it passes; and because it passes, it dies. Everything is perpetually living—becoming something else, constantly denying itself, shunning life.”

Sophocleto adds that “immortality is the art of dying in time.” Until then, until death takes us, it is important to view life as a gift, as a gift to be used well and whose value stems largely from its finite nature. “He is not immortal, for he is a flame, but let him be infinite as long as he lasts.” (Vinicius de Moraes)

Note: the author does not write according to the new spelling convention.

Patricia Exeter is Founder of GPI/IPO, Legal Advice and Partner at CIPIL, University of Cambridge

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