The Book of Immortality

The Book of Immortality PDF Author: Adam Gollner
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439109435
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
An exploration of one of the most universal human obsessions charts the rise of longevity science from its alchemical beginnings to modern-day genetic interventions and enters the world of those whose lives are shaped by a belief in immortality.

The Book of Immortality

The Book of Immortality PDF Author: Adam Gollner
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439109435
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
An exploration of one of the most universal human obsessions charts the rise of longevity science from its alchemical beginnings to modern-day genetic interventions and enters the world of those whose lives are shaped by a belief in immortality.

Immortality

Immortality PDF Author: Stephen Cave
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0307884937
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
If you could live forever, would you want to? Both a fascinating look at the history of our strive for immortality and an investigation into whether living forever is really all it’s cracked up to be. A fascinating work of popular philosophy and history that both enlightens and entertains, Stephen Cave investigates whether it just might be possible to live forever and whether we should want to. He also makes a powerful argument that it’s our very preoccupation with defying mortality that drives civilization. Central to this book is the metaphor of a mountaintop where one can find the Immortals. Since the dawn of humanity, everyone – whether they know it or not—has been trying to climb that mountain. But there are only four paths up its treacherous slope, and there have only ever been four paths. Throughout history, people have wagered everything on their choice of the correct path, and fought wars against those who’ve chosen differently. In drawing back the curtain on what compels humans to “keep on keeping on,” Cave engages the reader in a number of mind-bending thought experiments. He teases out the implications of each immortality gambit, asking, for example, how long a person would live if they did manage to acquire a perfectly disease-free body. Or what would happen if a super-being tried to round up the atomic constituents of all who’ve died in order to resurrect them. Or what our loved ones would really be doing in heaven if it does exist. We’re confronted with a series of brain-rattling questions: What would happen if tomorrow humanity discovered that there is no life but this one? Would people continue to please their boss, vie for the title of Year’s Best Salesman? Would three-hundred-year projects still get started? If the four paths up the Mount of the Immortals lead nowhere—if there is no getting up to the summit—is there still reason to live? And can civilization survive? Immortality is a deeply satisfying book, as optimistic about the human condition as it is insightful about the true arc of history.

The Future of Immortality

The Future of Immortality PDF Author: Anya Bernstein
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691182612
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
A gripping account of the Russian visionaries who are pursuing human immortality As long as we have known death, we have dreamed of life without end. In The Future of Immortality, Anya Bernstein explores the contemporary Russian communities of visionaries and utopians who are pressing at the very limits of the human. The Future of Immortality profiles a diverse cast of characters, from the owners of a small cryonics outfit to scientists inaugurating the field of biogerontology, from grassroots neurotech enthusiasts to believers in the Cosmist ideas of the Russian Orthodox thinker Nikolai Fedorov. Bernstein puts their debates and polemics in the context of a long history of immortalist thought in Russia, with global implications that reach to Silicon Valley and beyond. If aging is a curable disease, do we have a moral obligation to end the suffering it causes? Could immortality be the foundation of a truly liberated utopian society extending beyond the confines of the earth—something that Russians, historically, have pondered more than most? If life without end requires radical genetic modification or separating consciousness from our biological selves, how does that affect what it means to be human? As vividly written as any novel, The Future of Immortality is a fascinating account of techno-scientific and religious futurism—and the ways in which it hopes to transform our very being.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks PDF Author: Rebecca Skloot
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0307589382
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The story of modern medicine and bioethics—and, indeed, race relations—is refracted beautifully, and movingly.”—Entertainment Weekly NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM HBO® STARRING OPRAH WINFREY AND ROSE BYRNE • ONE OF THE “MOST INFLUENTIAL” (CNN), “DEFINING” (LITHUB), AND “BEST” (THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER) BOOKS OF THE DECADE • ONE OF ESSENCE’S 50 MOST IMPACTFUL BLACK BOOKS OF THE PAST 50 YEARS • WINNER OF THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE HEARTLAND PRIZE FOR NONFICTION NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • Entertainment Weekly • O: The Oprah Magazine • NPR • Financial Times • New York • Independent (U.K.) • Times (U.K.) • Publishers Weekly • Library Journal • Kirkus Reviews • Booklist • Globe and Mail Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine: The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, which are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave. Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family—past and present—is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of. Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family—especially Henrietta’s daughter Deborah. Deborah was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Had they killed her to harvest her cells? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn’t her children afford health insurance? Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences.

Immortality, Inc

Immortality, Inc PDF Author: Chip Walter
Publisher:
ISBN: 1426219806
Category : HEALTH & FITNESS
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
"Veteran journalist Chip Walter takes us deep inside Silicon Valley's boardrooms and the world's most advanced biomedical labs to reveal the incredible new science of extending human lifespan. Here are the bold business moves funded by Google and made by Apple chairman and Calico CEO Arthur Levinson; the pioneering stem cell techniques developed by scientist Robert Hariri; the transformative enterprises established by genomics genius Craig Venter; and the mind-bending future envisioned by thought leader Ray Kurzweil--all pointing toward a time not too long from now when we will live without disease or diminished faculties far beyond the age of 100. It's an audacious cast of characters, and through their stories you will come to understand how groundbreaking discoveries in gene therapy, molecular biology, and artificial intelligence are cracking the aging process--and could even lead to immortality. As Walter reveals, the quest to cheat death isn't science fiction anymore. It's real, it's serious, and it will change absolutely everything--including our definition of what it means to be alive."--Dust jacket.

Immortality Or Resurrection?

Immortality Or Resurrection? PDF Author: Samuele Bacchiocchi
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Http://www.biblicalperspectives.com/books/immortality_resurrection/ What Christians believe about the make-up of their human nature largely determines what they believe about their ultimate destiny. Historically, most Christians have believed that human nature consists of a material, mortal body and a spiritual, immortal soul. This belief, known as dualism, is largely derived from Greek philosophers who regarded the body as temporary and evil but the soul as eternal and good. Dualism has led Christians to envision a destiny where immortal souls survive the death of the body and spend eternity either in the bliss of paradise or in the torment of a fiery hell. During the Middle Ages the belief in the afterlife was promoted through literary and artistic representations of hell as a place of absolute terror where the damned writhe and scream forever, and of paradise as a beatific place where the saints bask in eternal glory. Today, the belief in conscious existence after death is propagated through the polished image of mediums and psychics, the sophisticated "scientific" research into near-death experiences, and the popular New Age channeling with the alleged spirits of the past. These various methods are very successful in making people believe Satan's lie that no matter what they do, they "shall not die" (Gen 3:4) but become like gods by living for ever. The outcome is that according to a recent Gallup Poll 71 per cent of Americans believe in some forms of conscious life after death. In recent years the traditional dualistic view of human nature and destiny has come under massive attack by Biblical scholars, philosophers, and scientists who find such a view contrary to Scripture, reason, and science. In Immortality or Resurrection? Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi builds upon recent research and challenges Christians to recover the Biblical wholistic teaching that the body and soul are an indissoluble unit, created, redeemed, and ultimately restored by God. Immortality or Resurrection? is a most important book for today. With compelling Biblical reasoning, it unmasks the oldest and possibly the greatest deception of all time, namely, that human beings possess immortal souls that live on forever. It will help you understand how this deceptive teaching of innate immortality has fostered a whole spectrum of erroneous beliefs that have affected adversely Christian thought and practice. Most important of all, this book will increase your appreciation for God's glorious plan for your present life and future destiny.

Virtually Human

Virtually Human PDF Author: Martine Rothblatt
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1466847042
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
Virtually Human explores what the not-too-distant future will look like when cyberconsciousness—simulation of the human brain via software and computer technology—allows our consciousness to be present forever. Meet Bina48, the world's most sentient robot, commissioned by Martine Rothblatt and created by Hanson Robotics. Bina48 is a nascent Mindclone of Martine's wife that can engage in conversation, answer questions, and even have spontaneous thoughts that are derived from multimedia data in a Mindfile created by the real Bina. If you're active on Twitter or Facebook, share photos through Instagram, or blogging regularly, you're already on your way to creating a Mindfile—a digital database of your thoughts, memories, feelings, and opinions that is essentially a back-up copy of your mind. Soon, this Mindfile can be made conscious with special software—Mindware—that mimics the way human brains organize information, create emotions and achieve self-awareness. This may sound like science-fiction A.I. (artificial intelligence), but the nascent technology already exists. Thousands of software engineers across the globe are working to create cyberconsciousness based on human consciousness and the Obama administration recently announced plans to invest in a decade-long Brain Activity Map project. Virtually Human is the only book to examine the ethical issues relating to cyberconsciousness and Rothblatt, with a Ph.D. in medical ethics, is uniquely qualified to lead the dialogue.

Death and Immortality in Ancient Philosophy

Death and Immortality in Ancient Philosophy PDF Author: Alex Long
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107086590
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
Provides an accessible account of the variety and subtlety of Greek and Roman philosophy of death, from Homer to Marcus Aurelius.

Universe, Human Immortality and Future Human Evaluation

Universe, Human Immortality and Future Human Evaluation PDF Author: Alexander Bolonkin
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0124158013
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
Pt. 1. Universe. Who are we? Where are we? -- pt. 2. Human immortality and future human evaluation.

The Biology of Human Longevity

The Biology of Human Longevity PDF Author: Caleb E. Finch
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0080545947
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 640

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Book Description
Written by Caleb Finch, one of the leading scientists of our time, The Biology of Human Longevity: Inflammation, Nutrition, and Aging in the Evolution of Lifespans synthesizes several decades of top research on the topic of human aging and longevity particularly on the recent theories of inflammation and its effects on human health. The book expands a number of existing major theories, including the Barker theory of fetal origins of adult disease to consider the role of inflammation and Harmon's free radical theory of aging to include inflammatory damage. Future increases in lifespan are challenged by the obesity epidemic and spreading global infections which may reverse the gains made in lowering inflammatory exposure. This timely and topical book will be of interest to anyone studying aging from any scientific angle. - Author Caleb Finch is a highly influential and respected scientist, ranked in the top half of the 1% most cited scientists - Provides a novel synthesis of existing ideas about the biology of longevity and aging - Incorporates important research findings from several disciplines, including Gerontology, Genomics, Neuroscience, Immunology, Nutrition