Does this assume the earth isn't completely destroyed?

Mmmh velvet evenings

If you want to live in a world full of kindness, respect and love, try to show these qualities.

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Read a book by Dean Koontz years ago called Midnight.

Quote from the item posted, "Bridge Three, which he expects us to cross by the two-thousand-thirties, is nanobots—blood-cell-size devices that will roam the body and the brain, cleaning up all the damage that de Grey wants to fix with medical interventions. “I used to call it the killer app of health technology,” Kurzweil said, “but that’s not a good name.”

When we cross Bridge Four, those same nanobots will connect our brains to a neocortical annex in the cloud, and our intelligence will quickly expand a billionfold. Once that transformation happens, in 2045, the Singularity occurs and we become like gods."

Check out the synopsis to Midnight.

The book opens with four separate stories that quickly weave themselves together and become different viewpoints of one overarching plot. First: Janice Capshaw, a nighttime jogger, is pursued and then killed by a pack of mysterious and nightmarish beasts while she is jogging along the beaches of a coastal town named Moonlight Cove. Second: Twenty-two days later, Sam Booker, an undercover FBI agent, arrives in Moonlight Cove to investigate the suspicious deaths of Janice Capshaw and eleven other people. Third: Chrissie Foster, an eleven-year-old girl, witnesses her parents in a physically altered state- part human and part beast- and then must flee for her life, narrowly escaping death at the hands of her 'beast parents'. And fourth: Tessa Jane Lockland, sister of Janice Capshaw, arrives in Moonlight Cove to uncover the secret of her sister's unexplained death.

The search for the truth begins. Sam is searching for an all encompassing explanation for everything strange and deadly that is taking place in Moonlight Cove. Tessa is searching for the reason behind the cover up of her sister's death. And Chrissie is searching for someone, anyone, who can save her from her parents and any other creature that might be trying to kill her.

At the very beginning, Sam, Tessa, and Chrissie are all hunted- albeit separately- by the mysterious beasts and each survives their encounter. Chrissie believes the creatures are aliens invading the earth and taking over the bodies of humans. Sam has no idea what they are, but discovers that Thomas Shaddack, a brilliant computer scientist, is converting the citizens of Moonlight Cove into something unexplained. He also learns that the local police are involved in a massive cover-up of the strange and deadly events that are happening in Moonlight Cove.

Early on in the story, Sam and Tessa meet and realize that in order to survive they must work together. However, they find it nearly impossible to discover what is going on, because they are being pursued non-stop by both the police and the beast-humans. Because of a letter sent to the FBI by a resident of Moonlight Cove- Harry Talbot- offering information about the deadly events in town, Sam knows that he must find Talbot. Harry is a Vietnam vet, who was terribly injured during the war, and now uses a wheelchair. He has not yet been converted into one of the beasts. Because he spends most of his time watching the people of Moonlight Cove- through his telescopes- Harry has learned what is going on in town and also learns that Thomas Shaddack and the local police are behind it all.

Regardless of numerous attempts to kill them, Sam and Tessa learn the full story behind the secret of Moonlight Cove. Thomas Shaddack had created a means whereby a person can be converted into a super-human no longer susceptible to illness, injury, fatigue, or emotion. But the conversion has an unforeseen side-effect. From their super-human form, many of the people begin to regress into the deadly human-beasts that are prowling around the town. These creatures exist for no other reason than to kill others and to stay alive, themselves.

In the end, Shaddack descends into complete madness, his plan goes terribly wrong, most of the townspeople revert into super-creatures, and death fills the streets and homes of Moonlight Cove. The town has literally become a place of 'kill or be killed'. Seeing that nothing can stop the town's descent into chaos, the Chief of Police, Loman Watkins, vows to kill Shaddack, which will automatically and simultaneously kill every converted person in the community. As part of each 'conversion' Shaddack has placed a microchip inside each person that will kill them should Shaddack's heart stop (i.e. should he be killed).

The novel concludes quickly and very dynamically. Shaddack is killed, most of the town dies, Sam, Tessa, and Chrissie survive and the FBI is sent in to clean up the mess.

Spooky? Or are they just messing with our heads?

Systematically dragged down by the lawmakers

Awesome live!

Yep, but of course if you retard the aging process, the capacity for breakthroughs in Medicine and technology necessary to treat disease and physical trauma would accelerate (as you'd expand the length of time experts at the top of their field operate).

With time, you could effectively massively reduce the risk of accidental death, murder or disaster through breakthroughs that allowed the human mind to be backed up, and then installed to a new body (for example).

Something like nanotechnology could effectively render most forms of physical death obsolete - as it could repair damage faster than organ failure could induce brain death (or at least suspend animation whilst repairing catastrophic damage). With the right technology, you could pretty much restrict the impact or risk of death considerably.

You could in theory, develop 'disaster recovery organs' to prevent or delay injury that could be implanted (i.e. designed to keep the brain and head alive until such time as it can be transferred to a clone body or some such).

Arguably, the best approach to developing cures for most diseases, would be to first focus on retarding aging rather than finding 'a cure for cancer' - as you'd extend the period of time people at the cutting edge of Oncology could perform research towards treatments for cancer.

I think to reasonably having some form of 'immortality' and individual would have to accept becoming sterile.

"One Nation Under God, has turned into One Nation Under the Influence of One Drug"
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