Re: Long term genome (was Re:Is crypreservation a solution?)

Joao Pedro (jpnitya@mail.esoterica.pt)
Sun, 21 Sep 1997 01:22:00 -0700


Hi!

There are actually two replies on this message (one for Henri Kluytmans
and the other to Prof. Jose Gomes Filho) but since they're small, I
decided to include them in just one message.

Prof. Jose Gomes Filho wrote:
> please, just do not gimme religious reasons...

No problem, I'm atheist.

> Well, for me, an individual includes its behavior and all its interactions
> with the environment...
> Be the stick used by a monkey to get some honey from a bee 's colmea or a
> particle accelerator, both are consequences of evolution... and... always
> natural... ( Always a self-relashionship of the whole universe )
> Can't admit an evolution dissociated from any of its consequences,
> including, of course, any individual actions, wich work like a feedback to
> the continued evolution...

We are all infinite proportions in the universe, we're dust when
compared to the cosmos. It can be said that everything is natural,
everything is part of the cosmos, the molecules that compose our bodies
are the same that compose the universe. Evolution shaped us into what we
are, therefore it has some logic that our achievements and creations are
also a product of evolution.
On the other hand, if someone invented the term artificially to define
some (not all) of our actions and achievements, he/she had something in
his/her mind. I don't know exactly what is the definition of natural and
artificial, I think that artificial is everything that our species had
created/invented. Based on that assumption, wearing glasses is
artificial but also a result of evolution.

I don't know if this was the reply you were waiting for but it's not a
very clear, easily defined subject.

> ================================================
> Prof. Jose Gomes da Silva Filho, M.Sc.
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> Interrelated Interests:
> Physics
> Cosmobiology
> Neurosciences
> Artificialization

What do you teach?

> Abracos para um "ancestral proximo".
Brazil, pais irmao, excepto no futebol.

Henri Kluytmans wrote:
> I thought your claim was "For extending the human life
> it is required to rewrite the DNA." ?
> i.e. not just correcting the errors, but designing a completely
> new DNA.

No, rewriting the DNA doesn't mean writing a whole new DNA, it means
correcting the existing errors. If one writes a completely new DNA the
consequences can be disastrous.

> Ok, we have read out all genes, but that doesn't mean that we understand
> the program that is written in the genes. I can print out the bits (or
> bytes) of a computer program. Everybody can read the ones and zero's,
> even
> copy them. But do they understand what they are reading, do they
> understand
> what the program will do? NO!!!

Some aging and senescence related genes have been mapped and some works
(like in Aeiveos, http://www.aeiveos.com/) are trying to map the genes
that influence and originate aging.

> Actually we're both presenting the same method to reach immortality.
> We're both assuming the cell will have to be repaired continuously.
> Only you're counting on designing new biological machines
> to do the repairing, using the programming language of the DNA.
> While I'm counting on designing completely new artificial machines
> (which are much more capable and also easier to design!).

Not exactly, my idea is not repair but to prevent damage, by correcting
the errors you prevent the damage in the first place and you won't need
to repair anything (well, .probably old persons already much 'damaged'
by time and age will need to be repaired)

> Why do I think artificial MNT cell-repair machines are easier to
> design? Because you don't have to use DNA gene programming !!

No but you will still have to know what to repair, there are countless
errors in our genome each of them creating it's own effect, there are
several defective proteins and you will have to know what these are in
order to repair them. MNT is highly dependent on microbiology to achieve
the purpose you propose.
As a conclusion, I think MNT might also play a role in achieving life
extension, to repair the damage done to our cells, perhaps even to
change our genes (gene therapy is still not achieving great results
lately) but the ultimate way to achieve life extension is by correcting
our DNA.

> They're all ONLINE !!! Here they are :
>
> <a href="http://www.asiapac.com/EnginesOfCreation">Engines of Creation
> </a>
> <a href="http://www.foresight.org/UTF/Unbound_LBW/index.html" >
> Unbounding the Future </A>
>
> <A HREF="http://www.merkle.com/merkleDir/techFeas.html" > The
> Feasibility of the Molecular Repair of the Brain</A>
> <A HREF="http://www.alcor.org/" > Alcor Life Extension Foundation,
> Cryonics, & Cryogenics</A>

Thanks a lot, I was thinking of ordering them from the US.

-- 
         Hasta la vista...

"Life's too short to cry, long enough to try." - Kai Hansen Visit my site at: http://mithlond.esoterica.pt/~jpnitya/