On second thought, strong upvote for this answer because I think it’s key to pinpoint our divergence.
You think that we will likely be well into Greg Egan territory in a few hundred years, whereas new tools in biology are so fantastic we are a few decades to, yes immortality, but I guess you see that as a direct consequence of reaching biological universality (when we can basically at will make cells do whatever one cell can do).
To me (and, in a sense, echoing Vladimir_Nesov´s comment above) that’s the contrary: not only I expect new biological limitations to show up nearly as fast as we solve old problems (like decoding the human genome was fantastic, and fruitful, but not as fruitful as I was naively thinking at the time), but I also fully expect we will taste Greg Egan territory several decades before we will fully master our own biology.
Late late late disclaimer: I’m toying with the idea of starting a series of post called Road to amortality, so you should expect me to be biased and stubbornly attached to my ideas. 😉
To fight the latter, here’s one result that would move me toward your position: if we can print or grow any complex organ within the next decade. Do you accept this criteria as fair and to the point? Would you mind thinking of some results that would make you strongly update toward my position?
On second thought, strong upvote for this answer because I think it’s key to pinpoint our divergence.
You think that we will likely be well into Greg Egan territory in a few hundred years, whereas new tools in biology are so fantastic we are a few decades to, yes immortality, but I guess you see that as a direct consequence of reaching biological universality (when we can basically at will make cells do whatever one cell can do).
To me (and, in a sense, echoing Vladimir_Nesov´s comment above) that’s the contrary: not only I expect new biological limitations to show up nearly as fast as we solve old problems (like decoding the human genome was fantastic, and fruitful, but not as fruitful as I was naively thinking at the time), but I also fully expect we will taste Greg Egan territory several decades before we will fully master our own biology.
Late late late disclaimer: I’m toying with the idea of starting a series of post called Road to amortality, so you should expect me to be biased and stubbornly attached to my ideas. 😉
To fight the latter, here’s one result that would move me toward your position: if we can print or grow any complex organ within the next decade. Do you accept this criteria as fair and to the point? Would you mind thinking of some results that would make you strongly update toward my position?