Thread: Could it be possible to live 1000 years?

Hello everyone, I'm new here and honestly I'm not exactly a smart person regarding science, I study humanities, so forgive me if any of what I'm about to say sounds stupid, anyways, to the point.

A few months ago, I watched a tv special on discovery channel with adam savage, and it was sort of sci-fi but it was interesting, he explained through the whole show how could a person live a thousand years, creating a fictional story it starts with him having a motorcycle accident,so here are all my questions.

So he loses his arm, and it gets replaced by a robotic prosthetic limb, it's all okay, but it's not as useful as a normal arm of course, so he gets another operation that somehow connects his arm directly to his brain so it has the same mobility as a normal one, apparently this has been done, would you mind to explain how? if possible at all.

then due to some problems with his arm and brain he has a blood clot on his brain, since opening his skull ( or whatever they normally do ) is too dangerous, they use "nanomedics" they're microscopic machines that get into your circulatory system and look for any problems, but that's fictional at the moment I think, still, could that be possible?

after that, he has aged obviously, so to reach the 1000 year goal, he must do something to extend his life span, so he does a procedure, in which he starts to get his blood drained, that blood goes to some sort of machine that has two ways, and what it does is to separate the healthy blood cells and white blood cells (sorry if this is wrong, English is not my primary language) from the bad ones, and they reinsert the healthy ones on his body so they start multiplying into new healthy ones, so after the procedure he has the stamina of a young man again, apparently this is a thing but has only been tested on rats and apparently it worked, but correct me if I'm wrong.

Now he is young but still looks like an old man (aesthetically) so he shows us some sort of little machines that rejuvenate skin cells, or something like that ( I watched it a long time ago so I can't really remember ) after the procedure he looks young again, this is fictional for all I know, but could it be possible?

So he keeps repeating this procedure, which I guess would cost a LOT of money, he's lived around 500 years or something and worked with the NASA to colonize the moon, in which they succeed, and a catastrophe occurs on earth and a lot of people go to the moon, but he stays in a bunker on earth, I don't really know how he manages to live more than a hundred years there if there's not people, but well this is all hypothetical, so two more complications occur.

The first one is his brain, since he lived around 500 years or more, he starts forgetting things, so he basically downloads all of his memories on to a computer chip so there's space for new memories, is this possible? does the brain really have a limit on to how much memories he can save? and could it be possible to transfer it to a computer?

Now the second one is his robotic arm, the arm starts to have problems and stops working ( I can't remember why ) so what he does is try to GROW a new arm by making a liquid exactly like the one inside a pregnant woman ( I can't remember the theory on to how could that work ) and lets the arm sit there for some months until he grows a new arm, and learns how to use it again, could this be possible in the future?

Anyways the people from the moon come back and they start rebuilding cities and all that stuff, and doing all the procedures every once in a while he manages to live a thousand years.

I'm sorry if this whole thread sounds stupid.

it was sort of sci-fi

Nearly correct.

after that, he has aged obviously, so to reach the 1000 year goal, he must do something to extend his life span, so he does a procedure, in which he starts to get his blood drained, that blood goes to some sort of machine that has two ways, and what it does is to separate the healthy blood cells and white blood cells (sorry if this is wrong, English is not my primary language) from the bad ones, and they reinsert the healthy ones on his body so they start multiplying into new healthy ones, so after the procedure he has the stamina of a young man again, apparently this is a thing but has only been tested on rats and apparently it worked, but correct me if I'm wrong.

Separating blood cells won't prevent your organs from wearing out, they are separate from the blood even though blood goes through them. This sounds like SCI-FI to me at this point in time and makes little sense. All blood cells are "healthy" unless a disease has gotten into them.

i know that the day after i die scientists will discover the cure for aging. that would be my luck.

Originally Posted by axillarypuma

So he loses his arm, and it gets replaced by a robotic prosthetic limb, it's all okay, but it's not as useful as a normal arm of course, so he gets another operation that somehow connects his arm directly to his brain so it has the same mobility as a normal one, apparently this has been done, would you mind to explain how? if possible at all.

I believe this will be possible, probably within 20 years or so. Because the brain is extremely adaptable, i think it will work around the flaws of the machine itself.

then due to some problems with his arm and brain he has a blood clot on his brain, since opening his skull ( or whatever they normally do ) is too dangerous, they use "nanomedics" they're microscopic machines that get into your circulatory system and look for any problems, but that's fictional at the moment I think, still, could that be possible?

It doesn't sound very convincing to me to start using nanobots to unclog a blood vessel in this way. It is possible this way, but why go so complicated with whole machines. They are already designing proteins that can dissolve bloodclogs quickly, and combine this with some temporary bypass and a person would be okay. I believe that these procedures will be available in less than 10 years.

after that, he has aged obviously, so to reach the 1000 year goal, he must do something to extend his life span, so he does a procedure, in which he starts to get his blood drained, that blood goes to some sort of machine that has two ways, and what it does is to separate the healthy blood cells and white blood cells (sorry if this is wrong, English is not my primary language) from the bad ones, and they reinsert the healthy ones on his body so they start multiplying into new healthy ones, so after the procedure he has the stamina of a young man again, apparently this is a thing but has only been tested on rats and apparently it worked, but correct me if I'm wrong.

Why has he aged? Those nanobots don't sound so good no more, don't they. Our blood does not age.... The blood of a 20 year old, has the same quality then the blood of a 90 year old.. Give and take the shorter telomeres in the white blood cells, but most white blood cells are not affected by this (only T-H cells i believe). Purifying the blood cells will not have any effect on the age. It's really the organs that can't handle aging, and replacing them is not possible in a way of extending life. You will never be as compatible with other organs than with your own, unless yours were diseased of-course.

Now he is young but still looks like an old man (aesthetically) so he shows us some sort of little machines that rejuvenate skin cells, or something like that ( I watched it a long time ago so I can't really remember ) after the procedure he looks young again, this is fictional for all I know, but could it be possible?

That's just weird. Why wouldn't a procedure that makes your body young, not make you look young as well.

So he keeps repeating this procedure, which I guess would cost a LOT of money, he's lived around 500 years or something and worked with the NASA to colonize the moon, in which they succeed, and a catastrophe occurs on earth and a lot of people go to the moon, but he stays in a bunker on earth, I don't really know how he manages to live more than a hundred years there if there's not people, but well this is all hypothetical, so two more complications occur.

At a time where we have invented these nanobots, i bet we already have colonized the moon, mars, build orbital power stations around the sun, commercialized harvesting water from the gas giant planets, and would be able to travel at speeds a quarter that of lightspeed.

The first one is his brain, since he lived around 500 years or more, he starts forgetting things, so he basically downloads all of his memories on to a computer chip so there's space for new memories, is this possible? does the brain really have a limit on to how much memories he can save? and could it be possible to transfer it to a computer?

Yes, this is probably possible in the future. I don't know how long something like this would take, and yes, you can only have that much active pathways at once. Space is limited, also in the brain (increasing space just increases chance of error)

Now the second one is his robotic arm, the arm starts to have problems and stops working ( I can't remember why ) so what he does is try to GROW a new arm by making a liquid exactly like the one inside a pregnant woman ( I can't remember the theory on to how could that work ) and lets the arm sit there for some months until he grows a new arm, and learns how to use it again, could this be possible in the future?

Stem-cells could really repair damaged tissues. And there is not a real limit to what it could do, so i believe this could happen in about 100 years, that we can regrow whole organs, limbs etc. But programming stem cells is very tricky, as nature does not program them at all.

Anyways the people from the moon come back and they start rebuilding cities and all that stuff, and doing all the procedures every once in a while he manages to live a thousand years.

Living a thousand years could be much easier. Just in semi suspended animation, wire the brain to a virtual world, monitor the aging of the body, minimize this aging, and voila, you can live much longer, as nothing you do will be unhealthy.

I'm sorry if this whole thread sounds stupid.

I don't find threads stupid, nor people. You did okay .

It's definitely possible to have every part of your body replaced. Your heart may stop beating, but technology will discover a way to make an artificial heart. Limbs, body, everything. Your brain will continue living on. It's not impossible.

Let's be philosophical! Is it still you who is living? There's no original part of "you" left. Only your brain and your consciousness. Can we consider it as "living" if 90% of the pers- well, thing is artificial? Can will anyone be able to afford such a thing? If not everyone can afford it, you'll be the only one with it, right? How will you bear to see everyone around you leave? All your friends, your friends' children, their children, all those great great great great great great great great great ... great great great grand children. They'll die. You'll be sending them off. I think people will end up committing suicide.

Maybe, if you were a tortoise or something like that.

I would think it is possible for some creatures to live 1000 yr lifespans. certain tree's and reptiles have amazingly long lifespans compared to humans so...It is a possibility in the genetic code for an intelligent creature in the cosmos to have milinium lifespans.

Humans however, I do not see it as possible. We have increased our own lifespans through the ages with advances in medicine, technology & knowledge regarding proper diet along with things to advoid. However so far 100 years is about the maximum the average person should look forward to (i know. some have made it to like 116 but thats the exception)

A future exists where technology improves to the point where your consciousness can be infused with computers to allow you (or rather your copy) to keep living, if you want to include that but the organic material will have long decayed away.

You could always go the poor mans time machine route and just freeze yourself for a millinium. You wont be able to experience the 1000yr journey but you will be alive.

Long life for the individual is bad for the race. Death drives evolution.
This is pure sci fi, none of these techniques are actually known to work. The big issue is the shortening of telomers in the chomosomes of body cells. That is, that the Clock of Aging is within each cell of the body and the ticks of the clock are the times that the body cell reproduces itself.
The human body is designed from the beginning to wear out. That is job one, it is written into the original specs. Death and replacement are not a problem to be solved, they are the solution to the problem of having other species out evolve us.
This reminds me of a family story: an ancestor of mine was an engineer designing a factory that had a large high temp reactor vessel of some sort, the process could go out of control resulting in a fire. So he designed the vessel with a heavy air tight lid that could fall under its own weight to seal the vessel in the event of fire. He tied the lid in the open possition with "gun cotton" which burns at 10000 ft per second. Soon one of his subordonates came to him to report an improvement he had made in the engineer's design. He had replaced the "flimsy" gun cotton string with some nice strong wire!