X-Message-Number: 18975 From: "George Smith" <> Subject: Re; Free of all disease. Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2002 10:25:32 -0700 Thomas, I think I am missing something here. In your Message #18967 "To Bob Ettinger on his comments about 'immortality' " You wrote in part: The very first point to be remembered is that the diseases we get depend not only on the structure and behavior of our bodies, but also on OUTSIDE effects which change that structure and behavior. When we get a cold it does not happen solely because of the structure of our body: a virus, specially adapted to deal with our PRESENT defenses, enters our body and happily multiplies. While it does so our nose runs, we don't feel good, etc etc. "To become free of ALL diseases we must not only understand the entire Universe but be able to use that understanding. I find that a very unlikely event. Sure, we can learn more and more, and thus deal with any fixed disease in a relatively short time (say a few hundred years is short?). But diseases do not remain fixed. I do believe that we'll have such problems less and less and we work on them, but that is not the same as total freedom from all diseases." There are some suppositions I am making. (1) DNA codes the healthy functioning of the body, essentially. (2) Nanobots will have the DNA "blueprint" for healthy bodily functioning. (3) Nanobots will correct deviations from the "blueprint" as they move through the body. If we use a practical definition of "disease" to mean NOT a submicroscopic beginning of a problem but instead the capacity to consciously note in one's body some symptoms or meaningful disfunctions, then I have a darn hard time imagining HOW all diseases would not be effectively ended from the perspective of the patient. If I never feel sick again and retain full function, I call that "free of disease". Let us suppose you have an invasion of viruses and microbes which are attacking various cells in your body. If you have an active nanobot "intelligent" immune system in operation repairing these attacks, the only other step in this scenerio which I can imagine is noting even ONE instance of any culprit in action, identifying the features of the virus or microbe and then also attacking these attackers. In other words I have always imagined there were TWO aspects to a nanobot "intelligent" immune system: (1) DNA "blueprint" repair of cells and systems for optimal functioning. (2) Identification of new attacking viruses and microbes followed by "search and destroy" ongoing missions. IF this comes about, HOW could disease "survive" from a practical and not just technical standpoint? And, of course, what I am discussing ASSUMES that this technology can and will be build (like everything else to date in man's technical imagination). Maybe there is something I am missing here. Confused, George Smith CI member and Immortalist Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=18975