Paths to Immortality

Jeremy's Research blog
8 min readSep 10, 2020

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Image Credit “IFLScience”

Emerging technologies are set to create change at a drastic rate. We have never experienced such an technological rate of change. We are now creating the most amount of data ever in the world. It went from Terabytes per day to Petabytes per day. We are only continuing this trend. With Yodabytes in the near future. Now when I say these terms its hard for even me to grasp just how big these sizes are. There are several paths humanity can take to immortality. It will probably be a combination of sectors of industry coming together. I’ve outlined some of the most promising from my point of view.

Bio-Digital Immortality:

Mixing resources DNA edits and Brain to Internet Connectivity device. Is synthesis the best of both worlds? What are pros and cons to being analog? Would you be able to sync your biological identity with your future self in order to preserve your Quantum information through Quantum Entanglement?

With CRISPR becoming more and more popular there will be strives behind the technology that lead to real breakthroughs. There should be a way to program your cells actively while connected to a brain to internet connection device. Locking the connection via DNA so that no one else can access the edits. Well on top of a password that even a Quantum Computer couldn’t break. Security is of upmost importance when it comes to anything linking the brain to the internet. Since you know that hackers would love to get their hands on someone else’s brain. That includes the governments of the world. They already manipulate as much as possible using their algorithms. Social media tends to hijack people’s dopamine pathways in order to sell them what ever ads have paid to be shown.

One thing you can change right now to improve your chances to making it longer is change the way you eat. Some foods kill you slowly. Processed foods have been shown to cause cancer and other diseases. Also keeping your brain healthy by adding Omega 3s to your diet will go a long way.

image credit “Cambridge.org”

AI and Data science helping with CRISPR:

Immortality through CRISPR: DNA editing comes with certain risks involved. Although CRISPR has been shown to be a lot safer than previous gene editing techniques. There would be various methods one could take to start on the biological path. First, would be to slow down the rate that your dna is damaged by the repeating zipping and copying of it. Telomeres are the ends of the DNA that get damaged.

“Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein DNA polymerase complex that maintains telomere length. Telomerase is a highly specialized reverse transcriptase that synthesizes telomeric DNA repeats at the ends of chromosome to confer cellular immortality. Unlike conventional reverse transcriptases, telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) contains an integral RNA component and uses only a very short region of the RNA as template. To add multiple DNA repeats processively, telomerase relies on a unique mechanism whereby the template RNA and the telomeric DNA dissociate and realign reiteratively during the telomere repeat synthesis. In spite of its essential role in tumorigenesis and aging, the detailed mechanism of telomerase action remains elusive.

Telomerase functions as a ribonucleoprotein (RNP) enzyme requiring minimally the catalytic telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) protein subunit and the telomerase RNA (TER) subunit. Assembly of functional telomerase ribonucleoprotein (RNP) relies on specific interactions between the telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) and telomerase RNA (TER) components.

Some cells have the ability to reverse telomere shortening by expressing telomerase, an enzyme that extends the telomeres of chromosomes. Telomerase is an RNA-dependent DNA polymerase, meaning an enzyme that can make DNA using RNA as a template.

The telomerase enzyme binds to a special RNA molecule that contains a sequence complementary to the telomeric repeat. It extends (adds nucleotides to) the overhanging strand of the telomere DNA using this complementary RNA as a template. When the overhang is long enough, a matching strand can be made by the normal DNA replication machinery (that is, using an RNA primer and DNA polymerase), producing double-stranded DNA. The primer may not be positioned right at the chromosome end and cannot be replaced with DNA, so an overhang will still be present. However, the overall length of the telomere will be greater.

Telomerase is not usually active in most somatic cells (cells of the body), but it’s active in germ cells (the cells that make sperm and eggs) and some adult stem cells. These are cell types that need to undergo many divisions, or, in the case of germ cells, give rise to a new organism with its telomeric “clock” 20).

Interestingly, many cancer cells have shortened telomeres, and telomerase is active in these cells. If telomerase could be inhibited by drugs as part of cancer therapy, their excess division (and thus, the growth of the cancerous tumor) could potentially be stopped.”

-https://healthjade.net/telomerase/

source: Calado, Rodrigo T. and Neal S. Young. “Telomere maintenance and human bone marrow failure.” Blood 111 9 (2008): 4446–55. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/cc3e/b79d4c3054d3f740af751a29692a55f35c66.pdf

With CRISPR expanding what is possible there should be a way to program DNA to have more protection against all types of damage. Taking Telomerase and expanding the ends of Telomeres. There are labs around the world studying what activates survival genes and extends ones life-span. Studies in the blue zone for instance that has more centennials concentrated there. They live off mostly a Mediterranean diet. A gene factor some labs are targeting now NAF1.

I created a company that would take machine learning models and research ways of developing different CRISPR vectors that would make our health last longer. Possibly leading to immortality. The issue I come to is finding any funding for this research. Most people I talk to don’t even understand the concepts behind the technology. I am not that good of a salesmen when it comes to investors. When I tried to start a GoFundMe I was blocked from accessing it. Either via man in the middle attacks or just by the platform itself. Trying to change the world is a lot harder than I thought when giant corporations don’t want to see you succeed. Although, for now I did create a website for my company you can check it out at:

https://healingvectors.org

That is why I decided to keep writing my ideas out. For one I won’t have enough time on this Earth to develop all my ideas. If I can plant seeds in people’s heads about it that is an overall good change in the world.

Yet, there is the other side of things where other companies will steal your ideas and develop it in a manner that is exploitative. Which is why I’ve come to so many issues when trying to develop my company. Not everyone wants to see you thrive. Some of the larger corporations will do everything they can to stop you. If you won’t work for them they won’t let you work for yourself.

Digital Immortality:

Would you be truly limitless in a digital world? What would be the restrictions around a digital consciousness? Would digital consciousness have the same rights as analogs? Should they be able to earn money? What are moral or ethical implications we haven’t thought about? Would it be safer than biological immortality due to the limited resources of this world? Would we be able to create other universes in the future where we could transition our consciousness there when the resources of this universe diminish?

There are so many paths we can take. The digital path to expanding consciousness is one that must be followed with care. I think that it would be because it would be much easier to get lost in an internal-expanding universe for a species. We many give up trying to find life outside in the external universe if that is the case. We may even find paths to other universes this way. What ever the future holds it is going to be pretty epic. Connecting our brains to the internet is the first step in evolving into a digital immortality. Some physicists would argue that we already have and are reliving a memory.

With the emergence of Quantum computing right around the corner we are going to start seeing shifts in reality never thought possible. Quantum computers will have an affect on our digital immortality for sure. I think that we may be able to create Quantum Dream simulations that we head into ourselves in the future if our world/universe has an expiration date. There is another theory that the universe starts again when it ends. Therefore some civilizations would be able to leave clues for the next epoch of consciousness to advance further and possibly find a way to save life for good.

Brain To Internet connectivity devices:

Neuralink is one of the most promising companies developing this technology. This technology will be pretty expensive at first. It is probably going to cost as much as a new car. I am thinking around 20,000 to 30,000 dollars. They are planning on making it cost almost as much as eye surgery though which would later place it around 2,000 to 5,000 dollars. The reason they are the highlight of this technology space right now is because Neuralink came out with a way to hit 1064 channels in the brain vs the Utah array which is only 4 channels. I recommend checking them out. The concept is amazing.

Neuralink also came up with a way to make it reversible. That is if you decide that being connected to the internet via brain is too much or just decide to upgrade in the future it is fully possible to do so with minimal affects on the brain. This was one of my main concerns last year when they came up with a prototype. Since last year Neuralink has redesigned the device.

image credit “aionsigs.com

They are recruiting people to work on it now. Here is a link to their latest update:

https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/8/28/21404802/elon-musk-neuralink-brain-machine-interface-research

Ways of saving your brain now: Brain to internet devices, Brain scanning equipment: EKG, invasive vs non-invasive.

A EEG Electrode Cap is probably the most affordable way of saving your brainwaves to reach digital immortality. There are all types in the market today.

One really cool piece of technology you can purchase is Dreem V2. It is supposed to help you with sleep. It uses artificial intelligence to stimulate your brain into deeper sleep the longer you use it. Since, I have insomnia this is a very enthralling piece of technology. I’ve been using it to preserve my brain waves and help me sleep. I was blocked from purchasing this equipment from with my own bank account. Which means I am probably heading in the right direction if there is an active persistent threat trying to undermine my actions. I still found a way to purchase it and have been enjoying deeper sleep as a result.

image credit “unknown”

If you’d like to check it out here is a promo code for 10% off: 8D75972A* Just enter it at checkout by clicking on the voucher field at the bottom of the summary block.

https://shop.dreem.com/north-america

I am not associated with any of these companies and all opinions are my own.

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Jeremy's Research blog

Quantum computing researcher, hiker, dog lover, intense gamer, artist and writer. I like writing SciFi hard science, and horror fiction..