Immortality is an ultimate goal that many people have been pursuing since thousands of years ago. Moreover, many kings in ancient China pursued immortality.
The most famous one is Qin Shi Huang, and legend has it that after the First Emperor unified the world, he felt that he was really cool and crooked to be the emperor, and he wanted to be forever, so he sent Xu Fu to lead his disciples and other people to find Xian Shan overseas and help him ask for elixir. There is also a wild history that Xu Fu has no choice, ran to Japan and did not dare to return, and then became the ancestor of Japan, of course, this is nonsense. Didn't find it anyway. When Jackie Chan filmed a "Myth", it was based on this story.
Another one is more famous is Tang Taizong Li Shimin, the legend about his quest for immortality is that it is said that he asked the medicine king Sun Simiao to help him refine the elixir of immortality, and it is said that Sun Simiao felt that it was a terrible thing to let an emperor live forever, so in order to prevent Li Shimin from succeeding, he flew away on a crane in the courtyard. And it is said that the cause of Li Shimin's death was poisoning with heavy metals by taking pills indiscriminately.
The other is even more absurd, the Jiajing Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he felt that it might not be enough to just take pills, and he creatively began to cultivate immortals, and he closed himself in the palace to practice with the old way every day, and also named himself the Purple Pole Immortal Weng. Later, he gave his Dao name more cattle, and his name was so long and long: Taishang Daluo Tianxian Ziji Immortal Saint Wisdom Zhao Lingun Sanyuan Zheng Ying Yu Void Chief Steward Five Thunder Great True Person Xuandu Realm Wanshou Emperor. This one is long, and the eyes can't keep up. However, this is all self-fooling, and the Jiajing Emperor lived to be 60 years old and gone.
Is the desire to live forever really hard? Yes, very difficult, it has been proven in the last century that the number of copies of human cell division DNA is about 50-60 times, and DNA is copied every two years on average, which is equal to the theoretical life expectancy of human beings at most 100-120 years. Why do so few of us reach this age? And why are DNA copies only 50-60 times? The average age of most people is less than 100 years old, because although the cells of our body can theoretically divide 50 times, because each person's physical fitness and physical conditions are different, the time of death is also very different. And why can't it break through 50-60 times? Because the number of DNA divisions is actually a thing called telomere, every time it divides, then the telomeres are less, if the telomeres are gone, then the DNA no longer divides, and the number of telomeres can consume is almost 50-60 times.
This question is too deep for me to explain. For example, a factory that makes computers, cells are equivalent to computers made in factories, constantly making identical computers out, and DNA is equivalent to an operating system, but only one system disc, and it cannot be copied, each computer needs to be installed with this disc once, but each installation will wear the disc, when the disc is worn to unreadable, then the factory will no longer produce computers. The example may not be appropriate, but telomerase is such a property that it can be replicated, with each copy it will be depleted, and it cannot be restored.
What happens if telomeres can be regenerated? Telomeres can get out of control, and cells will become cancer cells that will replicate endlessly. Some people say, if the cells of the whole body become cancer cells, can they live forever? In fact, no, the scary thing about cancer cells is not because he can divide indefinitely, but because his division has no limit, the famous HeLa cell, can be replicated once in 24 hours, this speed is terrifying, the replication process will also absorb a huge amount of nutrients, but also can evolve the genome. So it's scary.
So, I think this is actually the mysterious race that created human beings, it could be gods, it could be aliens, or it could be that human evolution itself determined the lifespan limit of human beings. Because if there are organisms that can live forever, then reproduction will lose its role, and with accidents, changes in the natural environment will definitely become extinct. Perhaps in ancient times, it is very likely that there were immortal creatures in biological evolution, but since they are immortal, they will gradually degrade the reproductive system, and extinction is certain. It is said that the lighthouse jellyfish is immortal because it can rejuvenate, but after research, this is also impossible, it can only be said that it can repair itself, but there is still a limit to the number of times.
Why limit human lifespan? Not only humans, but also animals have a limit to their lifespan. So why limit? According to the nature of living things, when the survival resources are very abundant, it will reproduce in large quantities, such as human beings, the human beings living on the earth have reached about 7 billion, if the life expectancy is longer, then the earth will soon be unable to fit, but if it is immortal, then the growth rate of human beings will double again, may not wait for our generation, thousands of years ago has been inhabited on the earth.
So even if you can't live forever, can you live forever? Personally, I think it is still possible, because as long as you find a way to make the telomeres longer during the fertilized egg stage through gene compilation, then you can not get more cell divisions? It's hard, but it's achievable someday.
The last question, if technology develops to a point where it can convert his brain data and thoughts into electronic data before he dies, and download it into a computer hard disk with special instruments, is it possible to achieve spiritual immortality? So is a person alive or dead?