quote:

Originally posted by Fenris:

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
Biology won't allow it.

True, and we'll never be able to fly or go to the moon.

Telomere degradation has been experimented with for decades, it lead to uncontrolled cancer every time.

With lifetime appointments, there is an assumption that the person will eventually die. If immortality in humans were to be achieved, adjustments would have to be made to the lifetime appointment thing, perhaps a fixed term of service for X number of years. The person could also grow tired of it and resign, to go on to (hopefully) greater achievements.

Some organisms on Earth have very long lifespans, but there are none that are truly immortal.

 
Federal (including Supreme Court) and state justices can be impeached. It hardly ever happens, but the mechanism is there.
 

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
That will be a minor issue if practical immortality is achieved. Even the question of how long someone can collect an unending pension like Social Security or military retirement would be insignificant compared with all the other effects on society.

I don’t know anything about military retirement pension funding, but the Social Security Trustees are already reporting that the SS Trust Fund will be completely depleted in less than 20 years. If anything, they have been overly optimistic on all their projections so far. I’m betting SS is over before immortality shows up. You’re definitely right though, even if one sat down and thought about it for a while, I’d guess one would barely begin to scratch the surface of the problems that immortality would create.

Even if true immortality were ever achieved, everybody would still die: wars, murder, accidents, suicides-everything we die from now would still apply except old age and maybe some diseases. Sooner or later everybody's luck runs out. "Slipped in the shower and broke his neck. Too bad. He was only a young man at three hundred and twenty".

I do think with unlocking the genome/DNA codes we will likely see a double or tripling (or more)of average lifespans through genetic manipulation.

I'm not sure if that's going to be a good thing.

God how miserable would life be after a couple of centuries? "Really, steak and lobster...again? I've been eating that shit for two hundred years and I'm sick of it! Plus I gotta work tomorrow. Been working for two Goddamn centuries and under the same asshole boss for the last fifty years. Fuck my life".

As to lifetime appointments-I think they are a bad idea now.

quote:

Originally posted by OcCurt:...

God how miserable would life be after a couple of centuries? "Really, steak and lobster...again? I've been eating that shit for two hundred years and I'm sick of it! Plus I gotta work tomorrow. Been working for two Goddamn centuries and under the same asshole boss for the last fifty years. Fuck my life"....

"... 'til death do us part..."

Someone was thinking ahead, and realized, that immortality was a bigger curse, so the "antidote" was factored in the vow.


(Him: "...now where's my gun...? Her: "Hmmmm.... I'll just put these mushrooms in the soup...")

quote:

Originally posted by Fenris:

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
Biology won't allow it.

True, and we'll never be able to fly or go to the moon.

When's the last time anyone went to the moon?

What if the ocean didn’t have sponges? How deep would it be?

Abraham Lincoln's biggest regret is appointing Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the Supreme Court.