Girl who never ages could hold secrets to immortality

[theHandpuppet]

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/health/2013/08/17/07/46/girl-who-never-ages-could-hold-secrets-to-immortality

Girl who never ages could hold secrets to immortality
ninemsn staff
7:46am August 17, 2013
Doctors believe an eight-year-old US girl who has the body of a newborn baby could hold the secrets to biological immortality.

Montana girl Gabby Williams weighs just 5kg and still needs to be cared for like a baby.
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Gabby's condition is so rare that it does not even have a name.

Medical researcher Richard F Walker said Gabby has a slowed-down process of developmental inertia, the process that allows the body to grow and change as it ages.
<snipping>
"If we could identify the gene and then at young adulthood we could silence the expression of developmental inertia, find an off-switch, when you do that, there is perfect homeostasis and you are biologically immortal," Dr Walker said.... MORE

[Warren DeMontague]

1. interesting.

I wonder if it's got to do with the telomeres.

[cantbeserious]

2. Thank You For Sharing

eom

[defacto7]

3. And what a world it would be too.

No one ages or dies. The ethics, psychology, and value of the entirety of humanity would change drastically to something we now would never consider but can only imagine. Nothing... repeat... nothing would be the same.

[theHandpuppet]

7. I'm not sure immortality would be all its cracked up to be

Fascinating to think about, though.

[Warren Stupidity]

8. You still die - hit by a bus, for example.

[defacto7]

16. Yes, this would be a problem since

There would be more buses! Buses would have to be eliminated.

[undeterred]

23. There are so many people under the bus

that they are no longer liable to hit anyone.

[DreamGypsy]

11. If you would like to explore one author's vision of that world, read The Postmortal...

...by Drew Magary.



This is the trailer for the book:

John Farrell is about to get "The Cure."
Old age can never kill him now.
The only problem is, everything else still can . . .

Imagine a near future where a cure for aging is discovered and-after much political and moral debate-made available to people worldwide. Immortality, however, comes with its own unique problems-including evil green people, government euthanasia programs, a disturbing new religious cult, and other horrors. Witty, eerie, and full of humanity, The Postmortal is an unforgettable thriller that envisions a pre-apocalyptic world so real that it is completely terrifying.

I thoroughly 'enjoyed' the book, though it definitely deflected any wish I might have had to live 'forever'. Here is an excerpt from a review that doesn't give away too much of the story.

In the early 21st century, a redheaded geneticist, Dr. Graham Otto, tries to isolate the gene responsible for causing red hair. Instead of finding a way to alter one’s natural hair color, Otto inadvertently discovers the gene that controls aging – and the world will never be the same. Broadcasting and publishing the news of his discovery, the American and international public soon clamor for “the Cure” – and while initially prohibited and limited to black market dealings, soon Dr. Otto’s discovery becomes legal and increasingly widespread. With the world’s “luckiest” generation receiving the cure, humanity’s priorities begin to shift. Marriages dissolve and take on a new form entirely (when one can stay young forever, what’s the use in planning for retirement before death, or mapping out exactly when to have children?). And, while one can stay looking exactly the same and never aging a day beyond date of taking the cure, people are still very much mortal creatures that can die of sickness, accident, suicide, or murder. As the population increases with a minimal death rate, the world’s finite resources show the strain. Pro-natural/anti-cure fundamentalists emerge as dangerous individuals with a singular agenda to wipe out as many “postmortals” as possible.

Read the rest of the review for more details...

[emsimon33]

5. Interesting ramifications

[Callmecrazy]

6. Immortality would lead to...

The downfall of all civilization. No drive to excel. Why go to school now? There's plenty of time for that.
Life and living would be meaningless if we each didn't owe a death.

[ret5hd]

9. So you think the fact of not dying would cure the Koch Bro's???

Usain Bolt wouldn't run?
I wouldn't enjoy math, CAD/CAM and woodworking?

Yeah, I will call you crazy.

[Callmecrazy]

10. Yes.

Death makes life meaningful. The drive to procreate would diminish without the survival instinct.
Of course this is all moot. We're all gonna die.

[NV Whino]

12. By the same token, the threat of an early death puts the brakes on ambition

I have a friend who was diagnosed with diabetes at age 13, and was told (by his, I have to say, incompetent doctor) he would probably die by age 30. Well, here he is, age 68, and he never married, never had kids, never developed his considerable talents, never set or realized goals. Just waiting to die… by age 30.

[Callmecrazy]

14. That's a sad situation...

But with all due respect, that's an isolated incident. A special case.
If everyone was immortal, society as a whole could deteriorate.

[NV Whino]

15. I totally agree with you.

[greiner3]

17. "...if we each didn't owe a death. "

I read that sci-fi short story also, however I can't think of the author or title.

I am referring to the story with the premise that one could have anything they wanted while growing up but how much they used before reaching adulthood meant what they needed to become in life in order to 'pay' for their early life.

The character portrayed thought he could get around what he thought was a flaw in the system by spending so much that he accumulated several lifetimes of debt to society.

On his 18th birthday he was brought to whatever ruling body that assigned the 'jobs'.

It was then ruled that since this person had so much debt that in order to have him pay it off his brain would be attached to the newest outer space probe, one that would take just as many centuries to complete its mission as he had debt owed.

The story is much more interesting than I can give it credit, bound both by space and my limited memory of a story I last read maybe a decade ago.

However, since the main plot has remained, it must have given me cause to remember as much as I did, all from a short story.

[Callmecrazy]

18. Never read the story but it sounds interesting...

And my premise comes from a lifetime of thought on the subject. I mean, if everybody's special, then no one is.

[qazplm]

21. except it wouldn't be immortality

it would just be anti-aging. Plenty of folks would die and given the percentages for each type of death, most folks wouldn't last more than 200-300 years, and I don't think that's going to lead to the downfall of civilization.

[Callmecrazy]

22. Except for the occasional car/plane crash...

and some sort of natural disaster, the only thing people would die from is boredom IMHO.

[Yo_Mama]

13. I'm not buying it

This girl also doesn't grow and develop. All of these people have massive defects. They're not "normal" very young people for their ages - they are profoundly impaired by this condition.

Even when you're older, you need to heal and restore those tissues. This seems to be a defect in growth which also must be a defect in repair, surely.

Here is another article about this syndrome, found in only a few people worldwide. Please note that it doesn't suggest that you will be immortal, just that natural aging won't occur.
http://www.medicaldaily.com/biological-immortality-gabby-williams-genetic-condition-prevents-8-year-old-aging-252081

It's unlikely that you could stop aging, because a lot of aging is due to just the damage of living. Our bodies keep replacing and renewing themselves, and when that becomes impossible, we die. If we were to materially slow that process, we might "age" more slowly, but we'd probably wind up being very impaired by our 40s.

[Orsino]

19. Behaves like an infant and won't die?

I'd say Dick Cheney had already stolen the secret.

[BlueJazz]

20. Give it to me...you hear?...Give it to me...it's mine...all mine...