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Essay / Humans' Path to Immortality
Table of ContentsSummaryThe Path to ImmortalityWinning the War Against BacteriaFixing Our FlawsA ReplacementShould We Take This Path?Conclusions and Future StudiesReferencesSummaryImmortality is not a myth. Some people's unrealistic expectations are a myth. Immortality is more accessible than most people imagine. This article will discuss the steps to achieve immortality. From why we die and age in the first place to the details of how we die is a question that humanity has long pondered? There will be three sections on how we can achieve immortality. The first challenge of immortality would be to cure micro-organism diseases, the second would be physical injuries and the last would be to end natural deaths, such as aging. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The Path to Immortality As civilization advances, fewer and fewer people die from disease. Lifespan has increased and will continue for the foreseeable future. According to Harari, YN, Purcell, J. and Watzman, H. (2019), genetic engineers have succeeded in doubling the lifespan of Caenorhabditis elegans worms. What's stopping us from doing the same thing with humans? Statistics from Roser, M. (2013) show that human lifespan has doubled since the 1900s, and the latest medical scientific advances are promising in this regard. Life Expectancy Humanity has been able to exceed expectations and achieve what was previously thought impossible. In the past, people viewed illnesses as a necessary and mysterious evil, but today we view illnesses as technical difficulties that can be overcome. Perhaps scientists and doctors don't directly seek immortality, but medical advances open new doors in unknown and exciting directions. Winning the War on Bacteria Harari, YN, Purcell, J. and Watzman, H. (2019) mention in their book that in the 1700s, 150 out of 1,000 newborns died in their first year and a third of all children died before reaching fifteen in England. Currently, only 5 out of 1,000 newborns die during their first year, and only 7 out of 1,000 before the age of fifteen. Decades ago, parents had dozens of children in the hope that only one would survive, and they accepted it as a part of their daily lives. Who knows how our reality might change in the decades to come? However, our path is not easy. As medicine improves, bacteria thrives. One of the challenges we face is superbugs, or superbugs, which are bacteria that develop resistance to antibiotics; in a word, antibiotics are no longer as effective. However, scientists are working on treatments that will contain and hopefully prevent superbugs. The new treatment was included in an article published in CNB, C: The way this new strategy works is that the drugs are designed to target and disable the cellular machinery that causes these bacteria to resist antibiotics. If this approach is combined with other treatments, the likelihood of bacteria developing resistance could drop to zero. Fixing Our Flaws We don't always die from an external cause. Sometimes it's just our bodies. For example, cancer does not come from the outside, but from the inside. Cancer can be triggered bythe environment, but it can also be a simple error in the DNA of our cells that causes them to harm us instead of helping us. So, after protecting ourselves from invading pathogens, we must correct the errors occurring within us. We could divide our body's defects into mutations and aging. First, mutations. Mutations can occur in two ways: somatic mutations and germline mutations. Somatic mutation occurs in normal cells in the body and affects only part of the body. On the other hand, germline mutations occur in sex cells during reproduction, thereby affecting the entire body of the new offspring. Repairing somatic mutations could be a challenge because changing the genes of one cell does not change the DNA of other cells. DNA changed in a germ cell would spread throughout the body, because that cell will divide and divide until 'to constitute the entire body. If we want to modify the DNA of a germ cell, we will face ethical problems, because we would need to genetically modify human embryos. I brought this up because the probability of making a mortal man immortal is less likely than that of a newborn immortal. We could genetically modify a cell to divide, but it would be much more difficult to genetically modify the billions of cells in an adult body. So, if we had access to modifying an embryo's DNA, how could we save it from death? Our DNA has a protective coat at its ends called a telomere. Every time our cells divide, they lose some of their DNA, and telomeres are repetitive genes that serve no purpose other than to delay the process of damaging our DNA. Each time a cell divides, its telomere becomes shorter and shorter until it reaches its DNA and damages it, resulting in a fatal error. The molecular fountain of youth finds a way to lengthen the telomere or prevent its shortening. A Replacement Some people think that if we cured all diseases and genetically modified our DNA, we would be immortal. Conversely, the fountain of youth would not prevent environmental or physical accidents. In other words, even if we cured all diseases and ended aging, we could still die. A car could hit us or a bullet could pass through our heart. In such cases, death may seem inevitable. However, we could replace our damaged organs with artificially made parts. There are two ways to save lives with artificially manufactured body parts: the first is to replace damaged limbs with inorganic prosthetics, the second is to fabricate or 3D print internal organs with living tissue. Biomanufacturing involves growing living cells outside the body to create tissues and perhaps organs. 3D printing, a recent technological device, is also used for medical purposes. It involves adding layers of material on top of each other to create the desired design without the need for molding or an expensive factory. There is already a functional 3D printed heart that beats and pumps and you can explore it further on this website: Medical 3D Printing: Learn about the 3D printed heart. In the past, people thought the heart was magical and could not be reproduced. Here we are, printing a heart that could replace a real one. One day, we may be able to transfer our consciousness to entirely artificial bodies. Yes, a robot with a human mind,