Related notions

Immortality
Immortality: types

 in the memory of the living.

 i. of the soul.
 i. of supernatural beings.
 hydra – simple fresh water animal, 10 millimeters long; the cells of the
hydra continually divide. Consequently, it has been suggested that hydras
do not undergo senescence, and, as such, are biologically immortal.
 Senescence [sɪˈnɛs(ə)ns] = loss of a cell's power of division and
growth
 Cellular senescence = a phenomenon characterized by the cessation of
cell division.
 Organismal senescence [‘ɔːɡənˌɪsməl] = when the accumulated
damage to your body begins to interfere with the body’s ability to
function; this interference causes the effects we often associate with
aging.

Engineering biological immortality in humans

 Genetics: eliminating the Hayflick limit in the renewal of cells;

eliminating defects that accumulate during cell division and proliferation.

 The Hayflick limit, or Hayflick phenomenon, is the number of times a

normal human cell population will divide before cell division stops.
  The concept of the Hayflick limit was advanced by American
anatomist Leonard Hayflick in 1961. Hayflick demonstrated that a
normal human fetal cell population will divide between 40 and 60
times in cell culture before entering a senescence phase.

 Each time a cell undergoes mitosis, the telomeres on the ends of each
chromosome shorten slightly. Cell division will cease once telomeres
shorten to a critical length. Hayflick interpreted his discovery to be
aging at the cellular level. The aging of cell populations appears to
correlate with the overall physical aging of an organism.

 Mitosis [maɪˈtoʊsɪs] = A type of cell division that results in two

daughter cells each having the same number and kind of
chromosomes as the parent nucleus, typical of ordinary tissue
growth.
 Telomere [t'ɛləmir] = are the caps at the end of each strand of DNA
that protect our chromosomes, like the plastic tips at the end of
shoelaces. Without the coating, shoelaces become frayed until they
can no longer do their job, just as without telomeres, DNA strands
become damaged and our cells can't do their job.

 Computer science: digitize the mind and download it into a new or

artificial body.
 Michio Kaku - his latest book: The Future of the Mind - how realistic
it would be to digitally upload memories and consciousness.

 Cryonics: preservation of humans performed after the person is

pronounced legally dead; cryogenics: study the production of very low
temperatures and the behavior of materials exposed to them.
 The Cryonics Institute provides low-temperature freezing and storage
of human and pet patients, with the intention that future medicine and
technology will be able to restore them to youth and health.

Anti-aging: methods to delay, stop or retard the aging process

 There are many anti-aging strategies in development, which include

procedures such as:

 augmentation of autophagy
 elimination of senescent cells
 transfusion of plasma from young blood
 intermittent fasting
 food intake yielding less than 1500 calories
 enhancement of adult neurogenesis
 physical exercise
 antioxidant intake
 stem cell therapy

 Autophagy [ɔːˈtɒfədʒi] is the natural, regulated mechanism of the cell

that removes unnecessary or dysfunctional components. It allows the
orderly degradation and recycling of cellular components.