Holy Cow! Just saw this article about a scientific group that has just been given funding to try to bring 20 clinically brain dead people back to life: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/...ought-back-to-life-in-groundbreaking-project/ Both of my parents died from heart attacks that left them brain dead for a few days before passing away. If this technology is successful, they would still be here. Absolutely amazing if it works.
My husband and I have talked about what we'd want in that situation. I've always said to pull the plug, harvest the organs, those left behind get on with living. He's the one who talks about people coming back decades later and wants to be kept alive - this will give him hope!
I found this article fascinating. But I am even more interested in the "aging is a disease that can be cured" approach in the research community. They have already been able to artificially age a mouse and then bring it back to its original age by tinkering with its DNA. That may mean that they are beginning to unlock the key to these processes. Imagine if they figure out how to tweak your DNA and bring you back to the peak of adult health and keep you there? I have considered volunteering some PR/Marketing effort on that industry's behalf. Haven't gotten around to it yet, however.
"Bringing the dead back to life". I'm sure there are many banned members reading this thread, hoping to find the answer.
That's all well and good on an individual level but extrapolate that out to an entire population... only the rich get to live forever? criminals and the undesirables get prematurely aged once their productive lives are over? procreation has to be limited as the population booms so who gets to have babies? Women who "qualify" become commodities? Sci fi writers love that kind of stuff. It's what I expected when I read the thread title.
ROFLMAO! I had not thought of that angle when I posted this! Well, I think that those would be great problems/issues to have to solve/address. The same case could be made against the development of antibiotics which have greatly extended average lifespans and, therefore, increased the population size, etc. We humans have shown a pretty good capability of dealing with technological advances.
Agreed about the antibiotics Disagreed about our capability, we seem pretty incapable of living together without conflict, of coping with huge populations.