I Wanna Clone Myself - Topic

AnimeFTL

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#31

Dec 26 2010 07:11am

then Satan will malest you orally.

lims101

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#32

Dec 27 2010 01:41am

Quote (bentherdonethat @ Dec 15 2010 04:19pm)

Yeah, that's probably true, but he was suggesting putting the old (i.e. not a cloned) brain into the new body. I'm not a biologist so I don't know what causes the aging process to begin (or more precisely, I know that it somehow involves a decrease in mitochondrial activity, but I don't know what triggers that), but if it's just a part of cells aging and replicating too many times, then swapping the brain into another body should undo that aging.

Though there is the problem of brain cell death. Could that be addressed by the introduction of some stem cells onto the old brain? Would they be able to generate new brain tissue to replace the dying cells?

You are partly right about decreased mitochondiral activity. It's presently thought to be oxidative DNA lesions which tend to accumulate in mitochondrial DNA which results in aging.

Aging generally involves the gradual degeneration of DNA. On a molecular level it's to do with the synthesis of the lagging strand of DNA. I won't go into too much detail because it will probably bore most people to tears (although I'm studying molecular genetics so I find it fascinating ) Basically, in order to synthesize DNA an enzyme known as DNA polymerase III needs an RNA primer before it can begin. Because of the oreintation and direction of sythesis, the lagging strand of DNA cannot fully complete synthesis. Cells have built in mechanisms to 'slow' the process of DNA degredation called telomeres. These 'caps' if you like contain a number of redundant base pairs that can protect the end of the chromosome.

As for the brain problem, I reckon you'd be better of getting a completely new brain, with the old memories/knowledge ect stored on a computer chip, then implanting the chip into a new brain. It's well known that the brain is much more malleable when one is younger. Imagine the possibilities if you could implant all your previous knowledge into the (new) brain of a ~3 year old. But I guess if we are talking about computer implants a matrix-like 'downloadable' brain would be an easier option.

Samapoil

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#33

Dec 27 2010 02:26am

Quote (Psycho- @ Oct 24 2010 11:42am)

eh cloned organs are one thing but cloning a full human for harvest is over the line.

Because you can't clone a soul.

bentherdonethat

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#34

Dec 27 2010 10:47am

Quote (lims101 @ Dec 27 2010 02:41am)

As for the brain problem, I reckon you'd be better of getting a completely new brain, with the old memories/knowledge ect stored on a computer chip, then implanting the chip into a new brain. It's well known that the brain is much more malleable when one is younger. Imagine the possibilities if you could implant all your previous knowledge into the (new) brain of a ~3 year old. But I guess if we are talking about computer implants a matrix-like 'downloadable' brain would be an easier option.

Well, they say a genius mathematician's best work is generally finished by the time they turn 25 or 30 because of the aging brain problem. New connections are more difficult to make in the older brain. If we could give our geniuses an infinite supply of youthful brains and allow them to keep their previous memories and knowledge, that'd be AMAZING. The problem, though, is that we'd probably need this technology in order to get people that are intelligent enough to develop this technology.

The rest of your post sounds familiar, too. I had two house mates in undergrad that were biology majors (one's going into ecology, the other's going into cancer research for their PhD's). Sounds like with the degeneration of DNA, it takes a long time to happen but once it does, it propagates for the rest of a person's life. That's why we can have 60-70 fairly youthful years, and then once that degeneration happens, it's never able to correct itself.

Quote (Samapoil @ Dec 27 2010 03:26am)

Because you can't clone a soul.

I hadn't realized we had discovered the soul?

This post was edited by bentherdonethat on Dec 27 2010 10:48am

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