I brushed on this subject a couple of days ago, but there’s been a bit of scientific research recently which indicates that we might be able to live forever, or at least a lot longer than we do.
The research was done with rats and mice (and I’d like to go on the record as saying that if it leads to me living an extra 100 years or so, I don’t mind sacrificing a few mice…not even a little bit). Basically, they took neurons from mouse brains and transplanted them into rats. Rats live longer than mice. When the rats died (of old age – this was really a very PC experiment), the mouse neurons were still alive and kicking, so to speak.
Of course, there are still several steps to go before people can head down to the old longevity clinic and get their brains transplanted into a host organism. There are also questions about the host organism, and on that note things range from the nightmarishly unethical to the merely awkward.
If you want to live an extra lifetime as a normal human being, you have to find yourself a homeless teenager, who will not be missed by anybody, and you’re good to go. This has been done in a few science fiction stories. It’s kind of seriously evil.
If you just require a biological organism with a long life span, you could add 100 years or so to your life by having your brain transplanted into a giant sea turtle. There is a certain appeal to that, underwater paradise and all that, but it would certainly make it difficult to relate to other human beings. You would physically be a turtle, but psychologically a human being. Sex, with either species, would be really gross.
Robots would be my choice. If I could transplant my brain into a robot body, which lives on land and can go to all the places that people go, I think I’d go for it.
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