In a recent interview with Business Insider magazine, Musk referred to the Optimus, a humanoid robot launched at Tesla's annual AI Open House last year, and said:
One day, we can download those unique things, such as personality and memories, into the robot body, which will be a different way of immortality.
Musk, who has always been known for his "big mouth", also made a violent argument in the interview, saying that human beings live too long and may be a disaster. It is difficult not to suspect that Musk issued a "sales talk" for the sales of his own humanoid robots.
But in fact, in many science fiction-related works have explored related topics, has always been the pursuit of human eternal life has never stopped, the development of modern medicine has also greatly promoted the growth of human average life expectancy. But unfortunately, in the foreseeable future, we will still not be able to get rid of the limitations of the mortal fetus of the flesh, and the continuous degradation of the functions of the organs and tissues of the body will eventually announce the arrival of death. One of the answers to this question given by science fiction authors is "consciousness upload."
The so-called "consciousness upload" means that human emotions, personalities, memories, experiences, etc. are dataized and uploaded to the cloud through a certain technology, and when needed, they can be downloaded to an independent and maneuverable mechanical body. In related science fiction works, most human beings can get rid of the limitations of fragile bodies in this way, and even achieve "immortality" in a sense. Unfortunately, based on the limitations of current computer computing, storage, transmission, etc., the so-called consciousness upload is still a concept that is neither hopeful nor out of reach.
This is obviously a question worth pondering and deeply investigating, since the "eternal life" of consciousness has not yet been realized, can the physical "how to live a life of healthier and higher quality" be realized?
Most anti-aging researchers do not expect to achieve immortality. They hope to extend "healthy lifespan," the period when people are free of disease and energetic, while shortening old age, perhaps adding another 10 to 20 years.
Elissa Epel, a psychiatrist and director of the Aging, Metabolism and Emotions Laboratory at the University of California, San Francisco, points out that the real question is not whether we can increase our average life expectancy to 100 years, but whether we can have a healthier, healthier lifespan. Senescent cells are the root of all "evil", so improving the number and activity of young cells and eliminating these senescent cells has naturally become the "top priority" of anti-aging.
With this level of understanding, scientists are gradually trying to solve this problem at its roots.
In 2013, Harvard University David Sinclair and Colorado scientists discovered a life extension factor (one of the core substances of "Selif" that can delay aging, and its full name is nicotinamide single nucleotide, which can help cells repair damaged DNA. After injecting the substance into the elderly mice for a week, the results were astonishing! There is almost no difference between the body cells of old mice and the body cells of young mice.
Musk once believed that it was impossible to achieve life extension through diet, exercise and even cure disease, and this study punched Musk in the face.
Musk has a net worth of about $243 billion as of January 2022, and according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List, Musk is currently the richest man in the world. Now, with neuralink, he has also begun to enter the field of health care, and he has made a surprising statement that longevity is a social phenomenon disaster, in addition to social problems, but also many problems, such as dementia, degenerative diseases, the incidence of cancer and so on.
Obviously, his views are too extreme. Indeed, aging is an inevitable life process, but scientists are doing a variety of high-tech research non-stop to achieve a beautiful vision of extending human life and living a more quality, and the development of technology will eventually bring a better future to more people who are plagued by aging.