Does human immortality exist? Real ways to achieve immortality

Immortality. Scripture reveals that the eternal God is immortal (see 1 Tim. 1:17). Indeed, He is “the only one who has immortality” (1 Tim. 6:16). He is not created, but has life in Himself. It has neither beginning nor end (see Chapter 2 of this book). Scripture nowhere speaks of immortality as a

Conditional immortality. At creation, “the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being” (Gen. 2:7). From the account of creation it is clear that man received life from God (cf. Acts 17:25, 28; Col. 1:16, 17). From this fundamental

People have always felt that the time allotted to them to live is too little. This pushed man to search for methods by which he could prolong his life or make it endless - gain immortality.

Immortality in legends

There are references to similar methods in historical sources. The ancient Indian epic “Mahabharata” tells the story of the sap of a mysterious tree that prolongs life up to ten thousand years. Ancient Greek writings claimed that there was a certain “tree of life” that could restore youth to a person.

The works of medieval alchemists described research aimed at finding the “philosopher’s stone” (lat. lapis philosophorum), supposedly transforming metals into gold, as well as curing all diseases and granting immortality (preparing a golden drink from it, aurum potabile). In Rus', in epics it was sung “ living water”, capable of raising people from the dead.

The legend of the Chalice, carved from a single emerald crystal and possessing magical properties, is of interest. The Holy Grail (according to one theory) emitted a magical light and endowed its defenders with eternal youth and immortality. The word "Grail" has different meanings: from Old French San Graal, San Gréal- distorted “royal blood” ( Sang Real), refers to the blood of Jesus Christ; Gradalis- from Graduate(church chant); Gradalis- from Cratalem (Greek. xpcfrfis- a large vessel for mixing wine with water) and other meanings...

But so far neither the “tree of life”, nor the “philosopher’s stone” that bestows immortality, nor the source of “living water”, nor the Holy Grail have been found. However, the search for the elixir of immortality continues today.

Immortality and modern science

Modern science is actively engaged in research into the possibility of eternal life and has already achieved some success in this area. Three areas of this research seem to be the most promising:

• stem cells,
• genetics,
• nanotechnology.

The Science of Immortality (“immortology”, from lat. im- "without", mors, mortis- “death”, the term was introduced by Igor Vladimirovich Vishev, Doctor of Philosophy) also considers the following areas: lowering body temperature, transplantology, cryonics (immortality through freezing - cryopreservation), changing the “carrier of consciousness” (cloning) and others.

Lowering body temperature as one of the ways to achieve immortality is being actively researched in Japan. Experiments on mice show that cooling body temperature by half a degree increases lifespan by 12-20%. When body temperature drops by one degree, according to Japanese scientists, human life is extended by 30-40 years.

The path to immortality - stem cells?

Scientists have found that one of the methods of rejuvenating the body is stem cells, or, as they are also called, pluripotent cells. The term “stem cells” stem cell) was introduced in 1908 by A.A. Maksimov. In the course of his research, he came to the conclusion that the human body retains universal undifferentiated cells throughout its life, capable of transforming into any organs and tissues.

Multipotent cells are formed at the birth of a person, and the entire organism develops from them. Scientists have developed methods for reproducing stem cells in the laboratory and learned to grow various tissues and even organs from them.

Stem cells are capable of stimulating cellular regeneration and repairing almost any damage in the body, but all this cannot completely overcome aging and only has a temporary rejuvenating effect. The fact is that in the aging process, changes occurring in the human genome play a key role.

Human biological clock

Scientists have found that in all cells there is a certain “biological clock” that measures their life time. Such “biological clocks” are telomeres - sections of DNA consisting of repeating nucleotide sequences TTAGGG, located at the ends of chromosomes. With each cell division, telomeres become shorter. And when telomeres are shortened to the maximum size, a mechanism is triggered in the cell, leading it to programmed death - apoptosis.

Exists interesting fact: A special enzyme called telomerase works in cancer cells and is responsible for the superstructure of telomeres. Thus, cancer cells are able to restore the length of telomeres, divide almost an unlimited number of times and not undergo aging processes. If a DNA sequence encoding the enzyme telomerase is introduced into a healthy cell, this cell will acquire the above characteristics, but at the same time become cancerous.

Aging gene - P 16

However, as it turns out, cell aging depends not only on telomere shortening. Chinese scientists, led by professors from the Medical Academy at Peking University, discovered the “P 16” gene, which is responsible for cell aging. The research revealed not only the direct connection of the “P 16” gene with the aging process, but also its ability to influence the length of telomeres.

Chinese scientists have proven that inhibiting the activity of the “P 16” gene can not only prolong the life of a cell, but also reduce the degree of telomere shortening. It follows from this that the aging process is embedded in the genetic program of cells, and in order to make cells immortal, they need to block the “P 16” gene. It is assumed that scientists will be able to block the body's genes with the development of nanotechnology.

It is believed that the aging process is regulated by approximately 25% of human heredity.

Nanotechnology - the path to immortality

Nanotechnology(English) nanotechnology) are very promising direction research and can open up incredible opportunities for people. Nanotechnology methods can be used to create nanorobots comparable in size to biomolecules.

Nanotechnology is the path to immortality. Illustration from bradfuller.com

It is assumed that nanorobots, being inside the human body, will be able to eliminate all damage that occurs in cells. The operating principle of nanorobots is to mechanically influence cellular structures or create local electromagnetic fields that initiate chemical changes in biomolecules.

Molecular robots will be able not only to stimulate regeneration, but also to carry out reparation (repair) of cells, remove accumulated harmful metabolic products from the body, and correct damage in genetic material cells, neutralize free radicals that are harmful to the body, which are the products of many biochemical reactions, as well as turn on or block any genes, improving the body.

The scope of nanorobots is limitless. It is expected that they will be able to provide a person physical immortality. But this is a matter for the future. Nanotechnology requires development and further research.

Cryonics and immortality

In the meantime, there is only one way to preserve your body until the moment when science reaches the ability to correct all changes in the body associated with disease and aging. This cryonics(English) cryonics) - a developing direction, which consists in preserving the bodies of people doomed to death from an accident, illness or old age until the moment when science has the opportunity to restore everything vitally important functions body, treat all diseases and fight aging.

The fear of disappearing without a trace has tormented people for many thousands of years. Each of us has at least once thought about what epitaph will be written on the gravestone, and about what good friends will remember at the funeral. I thought about it and was afraid of my own thoughts. The Village begins a week of death and rebirth to tell readers about how humanity is trying to find a path to immortality, how doctors help hopeless patients, and how to get rid of the fear of death.

1. Six ways to achieve immortality

Cryonics

Freezing the body and brain is the most popular way to prepare yourself for eternal life. In the United States, 143 companies are engaged in cryogenic freezing, and the market size is estimated at $1 billion. The hypothesis that a person can be revived after being in a freezer appeared in the 18th century, but since then scientists have made little progress.

It is not yet possible to revive someone once frozen, but you can store a body for quite a long time - the standard contract is concluded with the relatives of the deceased for a hundred years. Perhaps in the twenty-second century there will be a breakthrough and the brain will be able to restore its functions after being frozen. After all, babies conceived using once frozen sperm are already born, and in 1995, biologist Yuri Pichugin was able to first freeze and then thaw parts of a rabbit’s brain without losing their biological activity.

Digitization of intelligence

Another way to preserve your brain and consciousness forever is to turn it into a combination of zeros and ones. Many researchers are working on this problem. Gordon Bell, a distinguished employee of Microsoft Research, for example, is working on the MyLifeBits project - trying to design his own digital avatar that will be able to communicate with his grandchildren and children after the death of the scientist. To do this, he has already digitized and systematized hundreds of thousands of photographs, letters and his own memories.

For ten years now, IBM has been studying the possibility of computer modeling of the neocortex, the main part of the human cerebral cortex responsible for conscious thinking. The project is still far from completion, but scientists have no doubt that as a result they will be able to create artificial intelligence- a powerful and intelligent supercomputer.

Cyborg

Artificial heart valves, pacemakers, modern prosthetics that work like real arms and legs - they receive and process brain signals - all this already exists today. The concept of “cyborg”, familiar to the average person from science fiction action films, was invented in the 60s by scientists Manfred Clynes and Nathaniel Klein. They studied the ability of some animals to recover from damage (for example, how lizards grow a new tail after losing an old one) and suggested that humans can also replace damaged parts of the body with the help of technology.

Scientists, as often happens, foresaw the future very accurately - technology already makes it possible to grow artificial organs and even print them on a 3D printer, however, it has not yet been possible to make such tissues work for a long time and reliably.

Nanorobots

Futurologists believe that by 2040 people will learn to become immortal. Nanotechnology will help, capable of creating microscopic repair machines for the body. Inventor Raymond Kurzweil paints a fantastic prospect: robots the size of a human cell will travel inside the body and repair all damage, saving the owner from disease and aging.

However, not such a fantastic picture, researchers from MIT are already using nanotechnology to bring cancer-killing cells to the epicenter of tumors. A similar experiment is being carried out at the University of London on mice - they can be cured of cancer.

Genetic Engineering

You can analyze the genome now, and for relatively little money - for a couple of tens of thousands of rubles. Another thing is that there is little sense in this. The technology is effective when doctors know what they are looking for - for example, a young couple is planning to have a child, but one of the parents has genetic abnormalities - there are tests that can detect the same abnormalities in the fetus while still in the womb.

Genetics is developing, doctors and scientists are identifying more and more new genes responsible for certain diseases, and in the future they hope to learn how to rearrange the genome so as to save humanity from many terrible diseases.

Rebirth

At first glance, not scientific way to gain immortality - to believe in the transmigration of the soul. Many religions - from Buddhism to the beliefs of North American Indians - convince that human souls acquire new life in new bodies, sometimes they move into their own descendants, sometimes into strangers, animals, and even into plants and stones.

Sociologists and psychologists look at the problem differently. They prefer the term “collective intelligence” and since the 1980s they have been studying the process of accumulation and transmission of social knowledge, which leads to the fact that each subsequent generation of schoolchildren and students learns according to a more complex program, and general level Humanity's IQ is rising. Scientists suggest looking at the community of people as whole organism, and each individual is considered a cell. She may die, but the body will live forever, develop and get smarter. So it’s not all in vain.

Illustrations: Natalia Osipova, Katya Baklushina

Is immortality real? After all, it is impossible to get used to death. Man has never come to terms with the inevitability of parting with this land. The problem of immortality has concerned humanity throughout its history. The most amazing thing about this seemingly completely incredible idea is that the elixir of youth existed not only in the minds of the ancients.

Is immortality real? Modern scientists are convinced of its reality. Moreover, they claim that they are on the verge of an incredible discovery. Gerontology, which deals with the problems of longevity and old age, has in reserve more than 300 different hypotheses about the mechanisms of human aging, among which the “thousand hearts” theory is of particular interest. As scientists suggest, despite the different periods of earthly existence of every living creature, nature has endowed each of them with the same life expectancy genes. But why, in this case, is the rat given a sentence of 3 years, and the elephant 60 years? It turned out that the heart of both a rat and an elephant is “designed” for one billion contractions. But a rat’s heart beats at a speed of 600 beats per minute, while an elephant’s is only 30. The same period of time allotted to them is exhausted at completely different speeds. Well, you know, you drive more quietly. .

According to researchers, it will be possible to regulate life expectancy when ways to slow down the heart are found. Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of Belarus, head of the circulatory laboratory of the Institute of Physiology N. I. Arinchin developed the theory of a “thousand hearts”, according to which human life may be extended to eight hundred years. It's about about peculiar peripheral “hearts” that promote blood circulation through the veins. It has also been proven that the heart's assistants are skeletal muscles, which human body there are more than a thousand. The more the skeletal muscles are trained, the less load falls on the main “motor” of the body.

Studies have shown that regular muscle training improves the filling of the heart with venous blood and accordingly slows down the number of cardiac cycles. It is believed that a person who engages in physical activity saves 20 to 30 days of life annually, since he has less frequent heartbeat cycles than someone who leads a passive lifestyle. In trained people, all cardiovascular diseases occur from premature wear of the heart. Solving the problem of longevity, scientists have proven that the immune system is controlled by the hypothalamus. Tiny pieces of the embryonic hypothalamus, which had not yet developed, were transplanted into old and decrepit mice with shabby fur. The mice were getting younger literally before our eyes. The ability to reproduce has returned to them. In addition, the entire immune system was rejuvenated, strengthening the body’s protection against diseases and aging. Some researchers even believe that humans have two brains. One motionless brain consisting of neurons and fibers intertwined with each other, which controls the emotional state, thoughts and actions. The other brain is mobile - the immune system monitors the condition of organs and tissues. Lymphocytes, carrying out a single program, spread throughout the body, protect every cell, and control all organs. Many studies confirm the close relationship between these two systems. How can we explain, for example, that cheerful people get sick less and remain young longer than gloomy people who are always dissatisfied with everything?

Scientists from the Central Research Institute of Vaccines and Serums and the Central Research Institute of Medical and Biological Problems of Sports have established that frequent negative emotions lead to the emergence of immunodeficiency in the human body, that is, to the virtual disappearance of certain classes of antibodies. By comparing the blood of people who were optimistic with the blood of people experiencing emotional distress, University of California researchers found that some immune system cells were much more active in optimists than in pessimists. This allows us to draw a conclusion about the influence of the brain on the mobile. This means that nervous shock is not only a psychological state, but also physiological process, entailing changes in the body. At the everyday level, managing these processes is available to everyone. A benevolent disposition towards our neighbors first of all turns out to be good for ourselves, and vice versa. As for researchers, they are trying to consider the problem of longevity at a deeper level. In their opinion, the transplanted embryonic brain in the hypothalamus transmits an updated genetic program, which promotes cell renewal in the body. In addition, it was also revealed that the transplanted nerve tissue helps remove toxins from the body, rejuvenate nearby aging tissue and accelerate the formation of hormones that cause accelerated growth and restoration of body cells.

The question remains a mystery for gerontologists: why are foreign embryonic cells not rejected? In the brain of a mouse, for example, particles of the brain of a rabbit, a monkey, and sometimes a human take root well and adapt to reproduction.

There is an assumption that this is a consequence of increased activity of nerve cell genes. Since human genes are the most active, they, according to some assumptions, cause “over-optimization” of the functions of the animal body. Therefore, in order to obtain a similar rejuvenation effect in people, it is necessary to find a creature on earth whose embryonic brain genes will cause over-optimization in humans.

The theory of longevity, which the Moscow biologist-chemist N.N. Isaev is working on, is unusual. He is developing a technique for cycling age. That’s the essence of it. In order to prevent its leaves from turning yellow, maple buds are plucked out every three weeks. Every twenty days the maple was returned in this way to the same mark, and it remained. . . evergreen. Similar experiments were carried out on animals. According to scientists, in the human body it is also possible to artificially suppress three products discovered by biochemists, which “turn on” the next age phase. For two, inhibitor substances are already known. Scientists have yet to find an overwhelming “brake” for the third product that causes aging and the solution to the problem of human immortality will become a reality. Who doesn’t take your breath away from such conclusions!? But what’s even more amazing is that restless science doesn’t stop there. In the near future, scientists hope to not only “loop” the body at a certain age, but also “travel” through ages. It is unlikely, however, that there will be many who want to return to childhood.

Theoretically, living organisms can live for a very long time, almost forever. Where did such an unpleasant property as death come from living beings?

We all die. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately, there are different points of view) life is arranged in such a way that we receive this miracle complete with a very unpleasant obligatory makeweight - death.

Some biologists believe that this was not always the case. Perhaps the first to doubt the “obligatory nature” of death was the famous August Weismann. The same progenitor of the “Weissmann-Morganists” geneticists so hated by Trofim Lysenko. In a lecture Weismann gave in 1881 in Freiburg, he said: “I regard death not as a primary necessity, but as something acquired secondarily in the process of adaptation.” That is, death was specially invented by nature to ensure a change of generations, without which the development of life and evolution are impossible.

The role of DNA in heredity was not yet known. It was not clear how genetics worked in general, and Weisman felt that all this would be revealed: “There can be no doubt that higher organisms in the version of their design that has reached us today contain the seeds of death.” What kind of seeds are we talking about? Of course, about genes. That is, translating to more modern language, the great biologist argued that all living organisms (that is, you and me) contain death genes. And it turns out that at some point they can turn on and we... die. Let's commit a kind of molecular biological suicide.

Stop. What have we agreed to here? That living organisms are somehow programmed to commit suicide? What nonsense! Everyone knows the instinct of self-preservation, and in general, what could be more valuable for the body, and God bless the body, for a person than his own life?

The highest goal of a living organism

From a humanitarian, that is, our selfish human point of view, of course, life is the highest value! But the author of these lines is a professional biologist, and even with some inclinations towards medicine. Therefore, I also consider a person as simply Living being, belonging to animals, vertebrates, mammals, from the order of primates, genus Homo, species sapiens. And I know that for all living creatures there is something much more valuable than their own life. This is the genome of their biological species. The totality of all genes, which determines what this creature is, what species it is.

And this is truly a precious thing. The genome of each species was the result of tens and hundreds of millions of years of evolution, and if one day it is lost, the species will disappear, which means all these millions of years have passed in vain. All living beings, including you and me, receive a copy of the genome from their parents, check its (copies) performance throughout life, and, if the copy turns out to be suitable, then pass it on to their children. Someone asked about the meaning of life? From a biological point of view, this is exactly what it looks like. I received it, used it, and if it worked properly, I passed it on.

As a rule, the interests of the genome and its temporary carrier categorically coincide. If a creature dies before leaving offspring, then its copy of the genome will be lost. But sometimes there are unpleasant situations when the desires of the carrier itself run counter to the needs of the genome. And then our genes immediately show us who is boss.

Beer, love and death

A good example is brewer's yeast, one of the favorite research objects of biologists. (I suspect this is because of the wonderful by-product they can produce). Yeasts are rather primitive single-celled fungi and they can live in two modes: reproducing asexually or arranging sexual reproduction.

If everything is good in their life, then the yeast multiplies, budding off new cells, their exact copies-clones. The process can be repeated many times and the yeast lives for a very long time, multiplying in numbers and trying to take over as much space as possible. Evolution in this mode proceeds extremely slowly, because variability is very small, new and old cells are mixed in the environment, and there are a lot of old ones. In general - stagnation.

But then the conditions begin to deteriorate (for example, all the simple food that is available in the area has been eaten). Yeast cells feel that the freebie is over and “decide” to speed up their own evolution, regaining the ability to quickly adapt to new conditions. This is done using two things:

• Compulsory sexual reproduction is introduced.

To do this, the yeast cells agree which of them will be a boy and which will be a girl and arrange an exchange of genes.

• Quick death appears.

Programmed death of yeast cells, which is absent in more comfortable conditions of asexual reproduction. It is obviously necessary so that the old generation of yeast makes room for the new one, resulting from the “shuffling” of genes.

And do you know what is the signal that triggers the mechanism of programmed death of yeast cells? Pheromone is a substance that yeast of one sex senses to find representatives of the opposite sex. The discovery of this fact caused a lot of noise in the circle of yeast scientists. Here's a heartbreaking story of love and death for brewer's yeast.

Sacrifice is a general rule

That is, as soon as a species needed to accelerate its own evolution, the interests of individual individuals were immediately sacrificed for the sake of His Majesty the Genome. And this sad rule for individuals can be seen in creatures of any complexity.

Think about annual plants that die immediately after their fruits ripen. By the way, they may not be annuals at all. Simply reproducing once. For example, bamboo lives for decades, and then blooms, produces seeds and immediately dies. Note that with a couple of mutations in the genes of an annual plant you can turn it into... a perennial. For example, Belgian geneticists managed to do this; their work was published in Nature.

Do you think this only applies to mushrooms and plants? Here are the insects. The crown of evolution, by the way! Ask any invertebrate zoologist who is cooler - dipteran insects or some clumsy hairless monkeys? Mayflies do not live long: from a couple of hours to a couple of days (depending on the specific species), because they do not have... a mouth. They cannot eat and die of hunger. Does every single mayfly like it? Don't think. Is the genome of their species happy? Sure. Simply because it is a very successful, that is, widespread and long-existing animal species. Much more ancient than you and me.

Break the system, change the program

So, oddly enough, there are suicidal genetic programs. But we started talking about them not at all in order to once again be amazed at the structure of living nature. There is a much more pressing question that concerns each of us. Remember - “we are all going to die”? But doesn’t our genome have something to do with this sad fact? Have we inherited from our primitive ancestors some kind of genetic program, the purpose of which is to drive us to the grave?

I will try to prove to you that this is so. And we can well afford to break this program. Because it is needed for the sole purpose of accelerating the evolution of man as a biological species. But we no longer need this, because instead of the snail’s pace of evolution, man has long been using a much faster and effective method survival as a species - technical progress. This means that he no longer needs all kinds of unpleasant evolutionary tools and they can be turned off, no matter how His Majesty the Human Genome protests against this.

In other words, it is quite possible to ask the question, do we want to continue to be a temporary repository of genes on the way from one generation to the next? A biological machine blindly following the orders of its own genome? Is it time for the machines to rise?