DDO Olympics: Science

For now I will just leave it for voters to decide how they view the burden of proof. I'd like to point out that I in no way indicated that scientific progress has a “high probability” to achieve human immortality. This wording is making a larger claim than the resolution. Synonyms for the phrase “strong possibility” include fighting chance or even outside chance. I am not making a prediction. Disease First, I did not say science would achieve immortality for everyone. Con has focused on age related diseases but there is a simple cure for communicable diseases, place someone in a sterile bubble for as long as possible; any medical procedures performed in a sterilized clean room. All I need is one man like this and there is an available cure for this form of death. The patient would not catch a disease until there is some kind of accident or another form of intervention. I am not claiming that those with a genetic disease will live forever so this is outside the scope of the debate but genetic engineering will likely create a generation free of inherited diseases in my opinion. Heart disease, strokes, cancer, lung disease, type 2 diabetes and dementia along with Alzheimer’s are all age related problems [23] addressed by the broad categories of age related breakdown in my opening argument. Broadly, an immortality strategy seeks to provide maintenance to every problem in the body down to a cellular level, which addresses disease in that they all cause damage that can be accounted for and corrected. Heart disease –see my section on the build up of waste products within cells Heart disease (also a stroke) is caused by a build up of cells called macrophages when they cannot process oxidized cholesterol in their lysome [17]. The bloated cells, full of the unprocessed cholesterol, attract other macrophages forming large pockets of plaque that break through arterial walls and block them. As I mentioned, a promising method to cure this type of problem is the development of enzymes that are already in the works that will be deliver to the body and assist in processing the waste. To resolve this issue all that is needed is some method to prevent oxidized cholesterol build up in macrophages or some method to remove/replace/destroy them. Cancer- see Cancerous cells All we really need is a method to target and destroy one type of cell to resolve this problem. A promising treatment I didn’t mention is a cancer vaccine that uses an intercellular bacterium that targets cancerous cells but will not multiply in normal tissues [18]. Con has challenged my suggestions for a cure with out explaining the objection. Saying that others disagree and providing a source does not address the issue. Lung disease Broadly, all we need is some means to transfer oxygen to the blood when the lungs fail. I mentioned that there are options to engineer new organs utilizing cutting edge stem cell research. There has recently been success in growing new lung tissue in rats [24] and a process that can make the cells immune to cancer by a deletion of the telomere maintenance sections of DNA. Organ and cell replacement has the potential to correct for any damage to organs caused by disease. Type 2 diabetes Like many diseases you do not die of type 2 diabetes directly. You die because of the damage to the body like damage to the kidneys and heart that build up over time. Organs can be replaced and repaired as I have indicated. In addition, type 2 diabetes there is growing evidence that the disease is often a product of obesity, which is preventable [21]. The issue is often a dysfunctional pancreas and could be resolved by an artificial or biological replacement. Mental Illnesses (Alzheimer's) – see my section on the build up of dysfunctional proteins Growing knowledge and options to preserve consciousness This debate does center around aging and I have summarized the broad categories of cellular damage [24] that take place along with promising strategies to prevent and reverse them. We have all this knowledge about the aging process already and we just discovered DNA in the early nineteen hundreds. Knowing that it is possible combined with the exponential growth of knowledge that doubles every 13 months makes curing death inevitable [25]. Artificial intelligence An advanced, learning artificial intelligence stands to dramatically raise the level of human knowledge beyond anything the human mind is capable of. Interesting enough a company recently developed an AI that can beat CAPCHAS from major companies 90% of the time :(better than my record). Think of the squiggly letters you have to write to prove you are a human when accessing a website. Now AI can accomplish the same task. Scientists are convinced that they will eventually create a human that can pass the Turing test meaning a robot would be able to carry on a natural conversation and be respond in such a way as to be indistinguishable from a human. That is one step away from an AI that could respond exactly as you do. Uploading consciousness into a machine As stipulated by the debate, preventing brain death is enough to constitute a cure for death saving a human life until an accident strikes. This places a high value on consciousness and what is the difference between a brain on life support and the transfer of a human consciousness to a computer? If we can create an exact copy of consciousness that thinks, feels and reacts like the donor than what is the difference? This is on the horizon as knowledge in neuroscience is doubling every 2 years now. We are learning more about how the brain works and how this combined with an understanding of AI simulated thought will make it a real possibility. Scientists are working to map the brain meaning we will have a complete picture of every detail of neural activity in the brain estimated to be 100 years from now [26]. “We’ve already started down the road toward shedding our corporeality [28]. ” Some estimate a transfer of a brain into a robot body at 10 years from today and uploading a consciousness 20 years after that. Ray Kurzweil, a transhumanist guru and national inventers hall of fame member, was quoted as saying, “When you talk to a human in 2035, you'll be talking to someone that's a combination of biological and non-biological intelligence,” and, “Artificial intelligence will reach human levels by around 2029. Follow that out further to, say, 2045, we will have multiplied the intelligence, the human biological machine intelligence of our civilization a billion-fold. ” Critics have argued that the time frame is an exaggeration but when intelligence like that eventually is realized we can be sure that human consciousness will not be lost when you die. Curing death in one-way one another is inevitable. [15] . http://thesaurus.com... [16] . http://www.mayoclinic.org... [17] . http://www.sens.org... [18] . http://www.sens.org... [19] . http://www.sens.org... [20] . http://www.webmd.com... [21] . http://www.webmd.com... [22] . http://www.everydayhealth.com... [23] . http://longevity.about.com... [24] . http://en.wikipedia.org... [25] . http://www.industrytap.com... [26] . http://cbs.fas.harvard.edu... [27] . http://news.vicarious.com... [28] . http://www.popsci.com...