"Paul Bramscher" <brams006_nospam@tc.umn.edu> wrote in
message news:cis4u1$hpk$1@lenny.tc.umn.edu...

Anthony Cerrato wrote:

That's a good point. And with the complete development

of

genetic engineering (or alien equivalent,) advanced ETIs

may

be able to avoid any such threats.

Of this I think the reverse will be true.  Our (inorganic)

engineering

while bestowing wondering benefits to many people, only

mirrors great

disparities between the social classes: have's and have

not's.  It's

clear that genetic engineering, at least for a politics as

primitive and

carnivorous as our own, will only serve to mirror the

classes as well.

There will be extensively (expensively!) engineered

super-humans (Rolls

Royce), and the more numerous middle-of-the-road

engineered individuals

and the great class of lemons.

Until we've achieved a perfect and fair ethical model,

tinkering with

our genome is on a direct path to Hitlerian eugenics.  We

can't even

equitably distribute antibiotics to the Third World and

manage health

care at home: imagine the can of worms we'd bring upon

ourselves by

tinkering the genome.

Now we might postulate that an intelligent (as opposed to

wrongheaded)

ETI would first hammer out its social problems before

hammering itself.

That's the whole point! We were talking of an ETI
far-advanced beyond us--think a million yrs. beyond...or
even just 100k yrs beyond. The usual assumption is they will
solve all these social problems by then either through
hi-tech or simply advanced social engineering (again,
speaking only for ETIs from "life as we know it."

  But if this were true, we should probably begin STI, or

the Search for

Terrestrial Intelligence -- because I'm not sure we have

it here at home

(thus the Longevity factor in the Drake Equation).

I think a lot of folks agree with that assessment of
humankind at the present moment (I do!)

As for immortality I used to retain some hope as well.

But check out

the process of apoptosis:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apoptosis.

Modern medicine appears to be learning that ongoing death

is required

for ongoing life.  So the quest for immortality, I think,

is a LONG way

off (if possible at all).

Oh yes, no doubt! I remember how distraught I was when I
first learned about the apoptosis problem--and also that
without telomer reduction with aging it (reversal being a
potential route to anti-aging) it appeared that cancer was
the inevitable result. But again there may be many ways
around the problem by extreme hi-tech...or even near tech:
e.g., stem cell or other
techniques where aging/dying cells are completely replaced
by fresh cells. Keep hoping! :)
...tonyC