Immortality

We are born with an earthly death sentence.  Grim, I know, but true.  Just how many of us think we will die one day and aren't really sure there's something after?  It is so common that its now a current trend to have death cafe's where that's all they talk about. There is some cool science that is bending our fundamental beliefs of death and life and what it means to be human.

There was a study that found there is consciousness after the body's death.  In the largest study of its kind subjects recalled seeing themselves outside of their bodies before they were brought back to life.  While these type of experiences might be dismissed as delusion the doctors who conducted the study found credible evidence and concluded that there is some functionality after death.

Researchers are also working to regenerate dead brain tissue and regrow it in brain dead patients. This trial is being done using a mixture of different technologies including stem cell technology.  Stem cells have come a long way from just being harvested from fetal tissue to now being found and able to be transferable in several adult stem cell lines.

Several companies store and harvest stem cells.  Within this new industry is the ability to keep a frozen battery of stem cells for each person alive.  When your heart fails it would be possible to grow a new one without the fear of rejection.  Using 3-D bioprinting as has already been seen in skin cells the new cells could be produced on a bioscaffold .  It might also be possible to keep you sedated for long periods of time and fill your vascular system with ice cold seawater as happened to several dogs during an experiment to induce hypothermia as a mock hibernation.

Beyond repairing failed organs there are rejuvenating effects and disease reversal effects of compounds that are either cost prohibitive, proprietary or not thoroughly researched.  As exemplified by a lung cancer sufferer who was miraculously healed when a drug was allowed to a few select people.  What cost is life?

Beyond reviving the whole self there is a movement to download all your interactions and have a program predict your reactions on a robotic model of yourself.  Not a replacement for a living person now. When will robots like these become conscious?  There is a belief that the google predictive algorithm that we all use on the internet is becoming conscious due to our interactions.  So will this robot become human the better the predictive capability makes it aware of itself?

Human simulation is not the only questionable method of immortality.   Scientists have announced the gestation of animal human hybrids with varying degrees of integration with animal systems.  The goal is to grow organs or simulate organ growth in an animal to understand disease.  Would brain tissue grown in a pig be a human brain or a mix of a pig and human brain?

Metaphysically I like the Serbian proverb “Be humble for you are made of earth. Be noble for you are made of stars.”  It is true from all the nutrients our parents found on earth we were formed from raw materials that are as old as the universe's first star.  Whatever happens to our consciousness after death our body will continue to be part of the universe for eternity. I believe our souls destination will be something beyond our understanding and always a mystery. 

(update to the weekly blogging, now its Story Saturday and will be talking about the stories I'm working on in the short story collection the 13th story )