Will robots help us to be immortal?

The second method that, according to optimists, will help us achieve immortality, is based on the following idea:

We will soon be able to design tiny robots that, introduced into our blood, will attack and destroy every pathogenic microorganism, as well every cancer cell, leaving the normal cells of the body intact. When all diseases disappear, we will automatically be immortal.

I won’t deny that this may be possible in a few thousand years, but not as soon as some people expect. Our immune system has been perfecting itself for 600 million years. It is the result of an endless arms race with pathogenic organisms and cancer cells. Improvements are constantly taking place on both sides, as we can see when microorganisms adapt very quickly, and new diseases appear that cause harmful pandemics.

Is it reasonable to believe that, under these conditions, we will be able to design a new immune system better than ours in a matter of 30 years, as some people are announcing? I doubt it. On the other hand, as we saw in the previous post, if we want to be immortal, defeating all diseases is not enough. Maximum longevity, which is around 120 years and has not increased in the entire history of mankind, should be increased enormously.

Can maximum longevity be increased? Very recently, the media have been exhibiting some news that show (they say) that we are advancing in that direction.

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  Turritopsis dohrnii, medusa phase

  The immortal jellyfish reveals its secrets for eternal life (article in El País, September 1, 2022). The hydrozoan Turritopsis dohrnii can alternate indefinitely between polyp and jellyfish phases. What has been done is sequencing its genome. This is just one among hundreds of genomes from different species that have been sequenced. Honestly, it doesn't seem like such a big step forward. On the other hand, how can the fact that this hydrozoan alternates between polyp and jellyfish phases affect us? Perhaps, to achieve immortality, we should become polyps? Finally, can we really say that these coelenterates are immortal?

In their life cycle, they are born as larvae as a result of the sexual reproduction of two jellyfish; then they get attached to a substrate in the form of polyps; here they reproduce asexually, generating many clonal individuals, some of which become jellyfish and go on to live freely and reproduce sexually. Some of these jellyfish, before dying (usually devoured by predators) attach themselves again to a substrate, transform into polyps and, reproducing asexually, give rise to many jellyfish. But which of those jellyfish is immortal? Which is the first? We find ourselves in a situation similar to that of bacteria, which unless they are killed, never die. However, no one has proposed that sequencing the genome of bacteria will help us achieve immortality.

• A more promising path could be the attempt to increase the longevity of mice (published in March 2022). In this research, in the United States, gene therapy has been used to rejuvenate cells in some tissues of middle-aged laboratory mice by restoring the telomeres of their chromosomes. The problem is that these treatments could end up causing cancer in the mice. On the other hand, it does not appear that the procedure can be applied soon to humans. The differences are too great. It is enough to compare the maximum longevity of mice (6 years) with that of human beings (around 120).

In conclusion: Perhaps it is possible to extend the longevity of our species, although we are not close to do it. Will that make us immortal? Obviously not. To do this, longevity should be increased without limit. In all our history we have not managed to increase it by even one year; so how are we going to achieve an indefinite increase?

The same post in Spanish

Thematic Thread on What is Immortality?: Previous Next

Manuel Alfonseca