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Monday, February 14, 2005

Live Forever?
From Wired:

Ray Kurzweil doesn't tailgate. A man who plans to live forever doesn't take chances with his health on the highway, or anywhere else. As part of his daily routine, Kurzweil ingests 250 supplements, eight to 10 glasses of alkaline water and 10 cups of green tea. He also periodically tracks 40 to 50 fitness indicators, down to his "tactile sensitivity." Adjustments are made as needed. The famed 56 year old inventor and computer scientist is serious about his health because if it fails him he might not live long enough to see humanity achieve immortality, a seismic development he predicts in his new book is no more than 20 years away.

Reality check. Kurzweil and I are very close to being contemporaries, in age at least. When I was a yute, the message of the day was that if you lived to see the year 2000, you'd live forever. Apparently, that milestone has been postponed for 25 years. Will it happen? Will we all get to live forever if we last another stinking 20 years? I don't know. If I had a regimen similar to Kurzweil's, it might just seem like forever.
# Permalink Posted at 2:24 PM 6 comments Email this Link

Comments on this Item:

Too much of a good thing.

Ray's total bombardment of his body with all those supplements, teas, waters, etc. are creating a two-sided issue. While the teas and such are healthy and can certainly solve acute or chronic illnesses, overdoing it can be toxic. Ask any naturopathic doc about the effects of overdosing on supplements.

Also, his body is going to get accustomed to that particular level of supplements and any future drop from his regimen could cause his body to go into a false state of vitamin deficiency.

There are many things that can be better in greater quantity (a lot of things!), but it's possible to push even good, healthy habits right over the edge into dangerous territory.

# posted by Jason in Oregon 5:42 PM

Nope not me. Let me live my life then die. It sounds like Ray isn't having any fun, just to busy being healthy.

# posted by JD 3:58 AM

I used to believe in Greg Bear's Eon. That we would some day be able to live in machines. That was when the human mind was estimated in the 10 to the 72nd memory range. Guess what a scientist re-did the calulations on connections not synapses and it's now 10 to the 8032. Yes 10 followed by 8032 zeroes. That's why we only use 1% of our brains it's still 10 to the 8000. Ain't happenin' anytime soon. A Terabyte is 10 to the 12th.

# posted by Anonymous 8:26 AM

Guess what a scientist re-did the calulations on connections not synapses and it's now 10 to the 8032. A Terabyte is 10 to the 12th.I think you've got some sort of mistake going on. Firstly, a terabyte is 2 to the 12th, not 10 to the 12th. There's a huge difference. Secondly, I fail to see how the (approx.) few hundred million cells in your brain could store that density of information. Even if every single cell was connected to every other, that would still falls short by over 8000 orders of magnitude. In fact, just to put that claim into perspective, multiple studies have estimated that there are only approximately 10 to the 80th atoms in the entire universe.

Finally, the well-known adage that we only use 1% of our brains was debunked ages ago. Look at an MRI and see how much of the brain lights up just because your eyes are open.

# posted by Anonymous 9:20 AM

Reminds me of the old Carson joke....

“I know a man who gave up smoking, drinking, sex, and rich food. He was healthy right up to the day he killed himself.”

---Sid---

# posted by Anonymous 9:47 AM

Sure you'll get immortality - all you have to do is live until the next date they give you for immortality, and when you reach it, live to the next one.. lather, rinse, repeat

# posted by Tim 8:54 PM

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