Can immortality be real

But if our minds are online, do we even need robot bodies? We could all just live in a computer simulation quite happily, according to Dr Pearson. It would be all virtual, so you could have anything you want. You might still want to come into the real world. You could link your mind to millions of other minds, and have unlimited intelligence, and be in multiple places at once. So anyone 90 or under by So anybody under 50 has got a good chance of it, and anyone under 40 almost definitely will have access to this.

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips the-sun. The practical way out, the scientists say, is by making cells healthier and then pushing natural selection to choose between healthy cells over non-functioning cells. A detailed coverage by Down to Earth explored the approaches towards making cells healthy with the help of insulin signaling genes, sirtuins—a protein that may prolong life and rapamycin—a compound that has been known to extend lifespan in mice and yeast.

Some other strands of research have aspired to identify the rare genes or regions of genomes within cells, which comprise the entire sequence of genes in an organism, that have allowed some humans to live longer lives and use them to find the ultimate key to human immortality. Though many of these have yielded positive results on other animals, there is no conclusive evidence for a solution to human ageing.

There are also many ongoing efforts by companies and research groups to know more about human health and death. The Resilience project of the Icahn School of Medicine is working to understand the hidden factors that keep people away from disease. We are a voice to you; you have been a support to us. Together we build journalism that is independent, credible and fearless. However, their ability to switch back and forth between life stages in response to stress means that, in theory, they could live forever.

Hydra look a bit similar to the polyp stage of a jellyfish which makes some sense, given that jellyfish and Hydra are grouped together in the phylum Cnidaria : a tubular body with a tentacle-ringed mouth at one end and an adhesive foot at the other. Their claim to immortality? This seems to be thanks to a particular set of genes called FoxO genes , which are found in animals from worms to humans and play a role in regulating how long cells will live for.

Lobsters also do not experience senescence. Normally, during the process of DNA copying and cell division, the protective end-caps on chromosomes, called telomeres, slowly get shorter and shorter, and when they are too short, a cell enters senescence and can no longer keep dividing. They produce lots of this enzyme in all of their cells throughout their adult lives, allowing them to maintain youthful DNA indefinitely.

Telomerase is not unique to lobsters. It is present in most other animals, including humans, but after passing the embryonic life stage, levels of telomerase in most other cells decline and are not sufficient for constantly re-building telomeres. That takes a fair amount of energy. We'll need a sturdier vessel than our current bodies to ensure our survival long into the future.

Technology may provide the solution for this, too. As technology advances, futurists anticipate two defining milestones. The first is the singularity, in which we will design artificial intelligence A. The second milestone is virtual immortality, where we will be able to scan our brains and transfer ourselves to a non-biological medium, like a computer.

Researchers have already mapped the neural connections of a roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans. As part of the so-called OpenWorm project, they then simulated the roundworm's brain in software replicating the neural connections, and programmed that software to direct a Lego robot, according to Smithsonian Magazine.

The robot then appeared to start behaving like a roundworm. Scientists aren't close to mapping the connections between the 86 billion neurons of the human brain roundworms have only neurons , but advances in artificial intelligence may help us get there.

Once the human mind is in a computer and can be uploaded to the internet, we won't have to worry about the human body perishing. Moving the human mind out of the body would be a significant step on the road to immortality but, according to Schneider, there's a catch.

Schneider, who is also the author of " Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind " Princeton University Press, , describes a thought experiment in which the brain either does or doesn't survive the upload process. If the brain does survive, then the digital copy can't be you as you're still alive; conversely, the digital copy also can't be you if your brain doesn't survive the upload process, because it wouldn't be if you did — the copy can only be your digital double.

Related: What is consciousness? According to Schneider, a better route to extreme longevity, while also preserving the person, would be through biological enhancements compatible with the survival of the human brain. Another, more controversial route would be through brain chips.