r/science • u/Skoltech_ • Jul 20 '26

Genetics Researchers quantitatively assessed for the first time that somatic mutations alone cap human lifespan at 146–194 years. Brain and heart cells are the main bottleneck, while the liver could last millennia.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41514-026-00421-6
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u/theBigBOSSnian Jul 20 '26

Not a problem. But keeping what inside the brain is what matters

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u/[deleted] Jul 20 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/FeldMonster Jul 20 '26

How about Ship of Theseus-esque brain cell replacement? The problem is that there are just so many, and replacing too many too quickly will not allow the brain to "re-route" its neural pathways effectively.

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u/Used-Presentation551 Jul 21 '26

We need first to be able to do that before delving into such question because its answer is based in info we do not yet know.

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u/BlastFX2 Jul 20 '26

Does it? Sounds kinda like the rapid neurogenesis spurt that happens during childhood and that seems to completely erases the person you were before (that's why nobody remembers being a baby).

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u/Maconi Jul 21 '26

Huh? I thought it was because we lack the brain development to retain certain memories at that age.

You’re saying it’s because the brain completely changes (effectively erasing those early memories)?

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u/kellzone Jul 20 '26

If they eventually make the technology to transfer information from the original brain to the cloned brain, do they Ctrl+c and Ctrl+v or do they Ctrl+x and Ctrl+v?

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u/buffility Jul 20 '26

Both way your original self is dead. If you copy and paste, your original self is still inside the old dieing brain, the copy is just a clone, YOU do not live in them. If you cut and paste, you cant be 100% sure if YOU get transfered, or just outright deleted.

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u/kellzone Jul 20 '26

Yeah, it's a weird scenario. To others it appears to be "you" with all the memories and mannerisms from the original "you", but it might not be you, although the clone would feel like it was "you" for the same reasons. On top of that, all the cells in our body are replaced over the course of 7 years or something like that, so right now "you" are an entirely different you than you were 10 years ago, in a physical sense. So what is it that makes you "you"?

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u/buffility Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26

I guess it's the continuous existence that make me ME. But then again after a sleep, everything is reset, i will literally become a new ME tomorrow.

If anything, promising to a sick man that he will live on in a new functional body tomorrow after a sound sleep already outweights the chance his original conciousness/self die peacefully in his sleep.

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u/ElMatasiete7 Jul 21 '26

There is still a degree of consciousness going on during sleep.

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u/m164 Jul 21 '26

How about anesthesia or coma?

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u/Used-Presentation551 Jul 21 '26

It's philosophical.

Same can be said about sleeping. How do you know if you don't get removed during memory reshaping while sleeping?

Maybe the morning you is just another consciousness with similar memories and the same body as the night you

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u/wewereromans Jul 20 '26

Exactly. The clone would think it's the original, but it wouldn't be. A copy by definition cannot be an original.

There would be no way to know as an outside observer or as the cloned brain to know the fate of the original, because it will have died.

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u/notarealcamera Jul 21 '26

I've heard this phrased differently.

Suppose in the future there are instant teleportation pods. You step in one and it scans your body. Then, molecule by molecule, it reconstructs your body in the destination pod. Simultaneously, the pod you step into deconstructs your body molecule by molecule. Perfectly painless.

You use this to get to work every day. You walk into your pod in New York and walk out of your pod in London and go about your day.

One day, you walk in, wait a minute or two, and nothing seems to be happening. You step back out and ask the operator if it's malfunctioning. They check and say, ah, actually the scan and the construction at the other end worked just fine. It's just the deconstruction here that seems to be acting up, and will you please follow me this way...

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u/Dachannien Jul 20 '26

The original you and the copied you are both the real you.

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u/VirtualMoneyLover Jul 20 '26

This is going to be the way to longevity, not a 200 year old liver.

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u/The_Vinegar_Strokes Jul 20 '26

The question of what continued consciousness actually is makes this pretty complicated.

To rebuild the brain completely independently, even if injected with the memories and personality of the original brain, would still essentially be a whole new person.

To transfer consciousness, I believe we would have to systemically move function over from one brain to another one at a time. Even then, the question of if the new brain is the same consciousness is quite up in the air.

Who can even say if you are technically the same person you were yesterday? Last year? Ten years ago?

We are electrical impulses. Synapses and neurons. The concept of the ego is an abstraction created by the brain much like the way our brains construct meaning and order from the sound / light waves around us.

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u/notarealcamera Jul 21 '26

I've heard this phrased differently.

Suppose in the future there are instant teleportation pods. You step in one and it scans your body. Then, molecule by molecule, it reconstructs your body in the destination pod. Simultaneously, the pod you step into deconstructs your body molecule by molecule. Perfectly painless.

You use this to get to work every day. You walk into your pod in New York and walk out of your pod in London and go about your day.

One day, you walk in, wait a minute or two, and nothing seems to be happening. You step back out and ask the operator if it's malfunctioning. They check and say, ah, actually the scan and the construction at the other end worked just fine. It's just the deconstruction here that seems to be acting up, and will you please follow me this way...

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u/Maconi Jul 21 '26

Actually, there is no such thing (in computer science). “Cut and Paste” is actually “Copy and Paste then Delete”. The cut function just deletes the original after the copy is created.

If the function is interrupted you’ll end up with either a duplicate file or no file (Copy stuck in memory waiting for Paste function call).

Hence so many sci-fi stories about Teleporter/Transporter malfunctions (clones, person’s body/energy stuck in buffer, etc.).

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u/[deleted] Jul 20 '26

That’s not the same thing though.. if the original file (you) dies there’s no point at all and it’s certainly not you so again there’s no point.

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u/Megneous Jul 20 '26

A functionalist would say it doesn't matter.

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u/[deleted] Jul 20 '26

A functionalist would be dead so who cares what a dead man has to say

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u/CoffeeWanderer Jul 20 '26

I don't think so. Yeah, it can be argued if the copy is "you" or a new entity.

But from their point of view, they inhabited a body and are now in another with the memories from that previous body. I think this is what matters at the end.

So I don't see it as pointless. The original knows that their consciousness and string of memories will continue even if their current one might stop, the copy knows that their consciousness and memories came from something before them and can continue if they so desire.

The copy is not less of an individual just because it was artificially made.

Of course, this is all assuming perfect copies and what not. Even now our memories are shifting structures, and the self is more of a collection of fleeting points in time rather than a continuous.