Comparing Cloning, Cryonics, And Calorie Restriction

The concept of life after death has been around practically as long as life itself. Our beliefs about life after death can have a profound effect on our attitudes toward life. Most individual's beliefs about life after death are directly related to their cultural or religious affiliations. According to Montagu, "Of all the many forms which natural religion has assumed none probably has exerted so deep and far – reaching an influence on human life as the belief in immortality" (1955, p.15).

The word immortal is hardly heard by one another unless speaking about a fiction movie or character. Immortal or immortality is defined as, eternal life or the ability to live forever. In the film, The Immoratalist, directed by David Alvarado and Jason Sussberg conduct a documentary. Containing two completely different individuals, scientists, with the same goal and dream in mind, to find a way to prove that immorality is possible and that it can be achieved in the next decades to come. Although a very intriguing subject and amazing achievement to the human race if ever discovered, I can not help to think, is immortality as good as it sounds? The idea that we can live for a longer or endless time is astonishing, but in reality that possibility may not be as great as it sounds. If the people in the world had a method to become immortal, the cost, population and ones mental health can be affected in a negative way.

Austrian-British philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once said, “The real question of life after death isn 't whether or not it exists, but even if it does what problem this really solves.” The idea that death is inevitable is well known by everyone, yet no one is certain as to what happens afterwards. Even though the subject of life after death has been argued for centuries by many philosophers and theologians. In the article Sign Here If You Exist, Jill Sisson Quinn adequately employs figurative language, rhetoric questionings, and personal anecdotes to demonstrate a controversial argument on the topic of life after death.

The discussion of immortality went all the way back to Adam and Eve because ever since they took from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, they were banished from the Garden of Eden. Being banished from the Garden of Eden put them out of reach of the Tree of Life, which would make them immortal and god-like. Chappell explained how the Tree of Life is a metaphor for human mortality. Humans can use science and innovation to prolong life, but they will forever be out of reach of immortality. Immortality, according to Chappell, is possibly a modern-day myth. Scientific possibly leading to immortal life is something that humans can only hope for much like finding the Fountain of Youth. However, this desire to find a way to live forever is something that only exists in the minds of human beings. I believe that animals do not have the same awareness levels that humans do, which can often leave humans jealous because animals most likely do not have the same fears of dying or growing old that humans possess.

With a respectable argument against the idea of pharmaceutical advances eventually leading to immortality, Lexchin uses multiple forms of rhetoric, mostly logos, to sway the readers. He sets our deep fantasies of someday being able to live forever against our rational minds and backs up his case with sound logic and viable examples that leave us no doubts about human limitation.

Immortality does not mean living forever in the present physical body. In Taoism, death is just the final step in achieving complete unity with the universe when Taoist draws closer and closer to nature throughout their life. Taoism has a goal to raise the immortal practise to a higher level which is spiritual immortality. To attain it, people have to transform all their qi into primordial qi and proceed to refine it to subtler levels. This finer qi will eventually turn into pure spirit, with which practitioners increasingly identify to become transcendent spirit-people. To achieve this, intensive meditation and trance training as well as more radical forms of diet and other longevity practices are needed. Immortality implies the overcoming of the natural tendencies of the body and its transformation into a different kind of qi-constellation. It is a bypassing of death so that the end of the body has no impact on the continuation of the spirit-person. In addition, practitioners attain super-sensory powers and eventually gain residence in wondrous otherworldly paradises (Kohn 2005).

1. What proof of live after death is there besides that everything has its opposites and one must follow the other can be presented? I am not sold by this argument, as a person of science I need more than wordy speculation to spend my life preparing for the afterlife and looking forward to it.

Living for ever is an idea that must stay in the movies. I don't think we should spread that idea because it gives people false hope. The Calico project aims to cure cancer, prevent disease, and eventually make people immortal. After reading Ben Popper’s article on the Calico project in the Verge magazine, I remained with the opinion that finding new treatments to diseases is a must for our future generations. However, making people live forever is overly ambitious.

Immortality has been a major subject of philosophical contemplation throughout the history of written language, but even with its popularity it has been held for the most part as impossible. Likewise, most cultures in the past and present acknowledge the fact that physical bodies have limits and will never be able to transcend to the level of immortality. In spite of these commonly held beliefs, many societies have some presence of belief that there is life beyond the physical realm that we are all accustomed to. In today’s society, a majority of people believe that there is life after death in the form of the soul living on, based on the dominant religions of the world (Lugo 9-13). Looking at Christian scripture, it can be seen that immortality of the soul is possible. 1 Corinthians 15:53 says, “ For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: Death has been swallowed up in victory.” This transfiguration from death to immortality has been present for

With that being said, however, religion has offered an alternative answer, one which most definitely appeals to many humans; and more importantly gives humans a way out of death. Before moving forward it maybe important to clarify the term death and what its meaning is for the purposes of this essay. Obviously not even religion can save an individual from dying, humans are biological beings, thus time is never on

Cryonics is one of the best methods of long term stabilization of a critically ill person, who is seeking to be cured by future medicines. Throughout the history of cryonics there have been repetitive discourses whether substance obsession can be viewed as a trustworthy or even predominant option. Cryopreservation of people or large animals is not reversible with current innovation, the expressed method of reasoning for cryonics is that individuals who are viewed as dead by law may not necessarily be dead according to more precise theoretic meaning of death. It is suggested that cryopreserved individuals may some time or another be saved by future technology. (Wolf)

For cryonics, I don't think it violates Damage Theory and Programmed Theory. Seems like after death some people would drain my blood, replace it with something that doesn't rupture cell walls when it freezes, freezes me in liquid nitrogen, and leave me there for a long time. At some point, probably after the development of nanotechnology, people would revive me, probably as a computer program. In the other

   In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, a new being was artificially created using the parts of others. That topic thus examines the ethics of "playing God" and, though written in 1818, it is still a relevant issue today. Genetic engineering and cryogenic freezing are two current technologies related to the theme in the novel of science transcending the limits of what humans can and should do.

Cryonics will not be possible in the future. People today view cryonics as unorthodox, but it will be a matter of is it worth it to spend $200,000 ($400 every year) to have a full body suspension or even $80,000 for a brain suspension when one may only be partially cognitive(being able to be conscious or fully aware). With the rapid increase in technology, theoretically, cryonics is possible, but only if we are talking about a materialistic point of view. The idea is to be able to download a brain onto a computer. The process is flawed because the cooling of the body damages part of the brain. With the damaged part of the brain, one could lose personality, knowledge, speech, and many other aspects of oneself (Harris). From a Christian standpoint, one could argue that it is useless to do such a thing because why would one want to come back from heaven? From a secular point of view, it seems that this is the answer to many problems. Immortality, sickness, epidemics, and extinction are all things that could come about or be prevented.

Life after death is a concept that has been around for many centuries. Many philosophers came to the idea that there had to be something after our life ends. For some, they believe in the afterlife. Another concept is that of reincarnation. Reincarnation is the believe that once the physical body dies, the soul is then reborn as a different being. Some religious teachings are actually said to have skewed some of the details about reincarnation.