X-Message-Number: 24771 Date: Thu, 07 Oct 2004 09:43:10 -0700 From: James Swayze <> Subject: Kurzweil's Quest For Eternal Youth Sets Group Abuzz http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11564-2004Oct6.html?sub=new Kurzweil's Quest For Eternal Youth Sets Group Abuzz By Leslie Walker Thursday, October 7, 2004; Page E01 CAMBRIDGE, Mass. Inventor Ray Kurzweil takes 250 nutritional supplements a day in his quest to live long enough to reap the benefits he expects from biotechnology. He says he's trying to reprogram his body, as he would his computer........ ........At MIT last week, Kurzweil described a future in which he's convinced immortality -- or a drastically longer life span -- will be possible thanks to emerging technologies. His new book, which will hit stores in a few weeks, outlines a special "longevity program" of diet, exercise and nutritional supplements aimed at slowing the aging process......... .........At the MIT conference, not everyone seemed enamored with this idea. During lunch the next day, Daniel McCurdy, chief executive of consulting company ThinkFire Services USA Ltd., said immortality didn't strike him as all that appealing: "I'm already periodically bored, and I'm only 48. Why would you want to live forever?".......... ........Kurzweil later conceded that radically extending human life could lead to a "deep ennui" if nothing else changed, but he believes we will grow smarter and vastly improve our quality of life. Nanobots, if we let them swim around our brain capillaries, will boost our brainpower, he said, as they chatter with our biological neurons over a wireless local network and the Internet, creating a hybrid form of super-intelligence.......... ........."This scenario will enable us to expand our mental faculties through these massively distributed neural implants with no surgery required," he added. Kurzweil said he doesn't think such changes will detract from our humanity. "The emergence of artificial intelligence is not an alien invasion of intelligent machines coming from over the horizon to compete with us," he declared. "Rather, it is emerging from our human civilization."........ .........For baby boomers, though, it's a safe bet many will resist the idea of tinkering with Mother Nature. That's the thinking of McCurdy, who believes part of what makes life a great adventure is knowing it will end. "I would rather continue the adventure by dying and going into a different plane," he said, "instead of having nanobots running around my brain."[cont.] **** I don't know what education level this McCurdy has achieved but I'm not impressed with either his intellect or knowledge. Again we have the tired old excuses for deathism. I'll get bored... what an utterly abysmal lack of imagination! Also again with the "other plane of existence". 'What other plane, can you prove this exists sir? Even if it does would it not be infinite compared to this physical existence of the universe so therefore wouldn't it obviously still await you once you'd have really exhausted your imagination and truly got bored with life or we all finally meet our demise along with the demise of the universe? Again what a truly utterly abysmal lack of imagination and add to that lack of critical thinking skills, lack of basic logic skills and a total absence of useful knowledge. I'll also add that he apparently lacks any instinct for survival. Baby boomers won't want to tinker with Mother Nature? He needs to watch "Dr. 90201" or Discovery Channel's "Body Works" or ABC's "Extreme Makeover". These are reality shows but even fictional plastic surgery makes for good viewing with FX's "Nip/Tuck". Baby Boomers and their children are spending over a billion dollars a year tinkering with Mother Nature to not only to correct perceived cosmetic slights but also disguise the effects of aging. Anti aging organizations should place pamphlets in plastic surgeon's offices and adds/articles in media concerned with plastic surgery. Growing in wide consumption even in non Transhuman circles are a wide variety of so called anti aging compounds some by outright charlatan hucksters pitched on late night infomercials and not of the level of dedication of organizations more closely involved in the Transhuman/Life Extension ilk. Baby Boomers are hitting the wall of aging and not liking it one damn bit. They should be and I predict will be coming to the ideas of agelessness, life extension and even body modification in droves as more media attention is placed on these technological possibilities. Kurzweil is indeed brave to step out so starkly exposed in mainstream limelight with so radical of ideas, as seen by the uninitiated, especially that they are so adamantly opposed by the biodeathicists on the current [but not for long!] President's Council for Bioethics. Not that he's been particularly stealthy about his convictions. But hopefully soon he'll feel comfortable enough to mention that he's a believer in the efficacy of and signed up for cryonic suspension as well. James -- Membership in order of joining - all comments on any subject are solely my opinion only and not reflective of the official positions of the following: Cryonics Institute of Michigan http://www.cryonics.org The Immortalist Society http://www.cryonics.org/info.html The Society for Venturism http://www.venturist.org Immortality Institute http://www.imminst.org Methuselah Foundation http://www.methuselahfoundation.org Methuselah Mouse Prize http://www.methuselahmouse.org [Give $$$ for life!] World Transhumanist Assoc. http://www.transhumanism.org/ WTA Portland Chapter http://home.comcast.net/~swayzej/pdxwta.html MY WEBSITE: http://home.comcast.net/~swayzej/jspage_main.html Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=24771