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iamthewhatt t1_je37kfi wrote

Reply to comment by dustofoblivion123 in Former Google engineer predicts humans will achieve immortality within eight years by dustofoblivion123

I thought the issue isn't that cells are becoming damaged, it's that the DNA is losing its "code" over time? I really doubt we'll have robots that can repair actual DNA

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Scope_Dog t1_je6092y wrote

why not? they have cured other illnesses by editing DNA. Immortality just seems like the beginning to me.

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iamthewhatt t1_je6ndoj wrote

You don't "cure" damaged DNA that way. The genetic code itself is what is causing the damage. You need to be able to manipulate that code to prevent damage or to repair itself. Tiny robots aren't going to do that in 8 years.

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CatPasswd t1_je38jf7 wrote

As cells reproduce, a certain structure called a telomere degrades. Eventually, when the telomeres are too short, the cells can't replace themselves because the failure rate becomes too high.

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