Who wants to live forever?

Is a phrase that is seldom answered with “Here, Me!” simply because it is unthinkable and thought to be ultimately impossible. Which, it probably is. Even the question if one wants to become incredibly old is often answered with a firm and ignorant “No!”, again because old age is associated with being frailty and that perhaps isn't quite for everyone.

“Forever young, who wants to be forever young?”

That however, thats were people's opinion will be a bit more diverse. That is something that a lot of folks can get behind, much fiction has been written about it. Today, in the real world the quest and associated hashtag towards this is called “Longevity”. Some efforts are more serious than others, while many are unquestionable scams. Some have sound but very limited approaches in regards to aging, while others promise a lot but when it comes down to brass tacks, they flutter and distract with the usual tactics we know and love from the Crytobros and MLM fellows of old, delivering incoherent technobabble at best and the equivalent of “trust me bro” at worst.

Most researchers who research aging know that it is an incredibly complex field. By default our form of life has not evolved for the individual to attain an extra long and perhaps for all intends and purposes immortal life. Genes break, translation of genes changes, diseases come in between, etc. It is an enormous interplay of internal and external factors that goes into aging its for one person absolutely incomprehensible. Absolute immortality is perhaps impossible, I lack the imagination to think of a mechanism in which we can exist in absolute perpetuity without being subject to external forces (Such as famine, or war).

But when we accept that there are certain factors that are outside of our control and that this immortality is a biological one and that it needs to be sustained by food and continued application of the solution, its as an old comedy sketch put it “Immortality that rubs off after a while, so basically mortality with extra steps” Which let's be honest, is good enough for most. Personally, while I can imagine being 100, 200 or even 1000 years old. I am hard-pressed to think any further than that. Still, that is an improvement considering that our current life expectancy is between 40~75 (Depending on income level).

Many years ago initially I didn’t develop this theory with longevity in mind. It was born out of a desire to have a universal method to treat cancer. One that is applicable to all the different kinds of cancers, no matter where they are within the body and how far they metastasize. A method that could virtually cut or I should rather say burn it out. While this is the idea behind the transmitter, the rest came rather naturally. As I found it quite difficult to think of a method that would deliver enough energy to “burn” the cancer. I was then thinking if it could be used to activate a previously delivered compound to deliver a immune marker or a toxin. From there it didn’t take long for my passion and experience with Bacteriophages and Virology to put 1+1 together and I realized that if we apply what we learned from the field, this represents a truly revolutionary approach to medicine and of course longevity as a whole.

I have for the past few years tried behind the curtain to drum up some interest for the following concept to attain such a goal. I planned to continue with it, as I worked relatively hard to figure out the various parts of this ambitious project and i am somewhat proud of my unique approach, but my efforts have stalled significantly and enduringly over the past year or so. Time constraints resulting from a troubled and turbulent personal as well as professional life throws me from one “red alert life emergency” to the next, failure to attend any of these would result in the loss of everything and it is rather and regrettably unlikely that they will cease in a timely manner. This naturally leaves me with very little time to devote to this topic to develop it further. Sadly it does not pay the bills so to speak. So I will share it here in the hopes someone else may be inspired by it. This is somewhat comprehensive, but yet concise and edited down to maximize clarity and to avoid speculation as much as possible. If you have any questions, i will answer them, the above-mentioned time constraints also apply if you have very complex questions or requests. You may want to offer me a job first otherwise i will give simply point you in the right direction (in regards to sources for example)

Introduction

All processes in the human body are governed by our individual cells. There are many different cell types that have vastly different roles to play for our organism to function. These different cell types are created by its proteins, which are governed by a complex interplay of RNA, DNA and Proteins. To take meaningful control of our body means taking control of the cells and its transcription and translation machinery. This means, a cell must be able to receive a specific instruction and act upon it. There are few characteristics such a method must be able to fulfill to achieve this.

The source and specificity of the instruction.

In Order for an instruction for a cell to be executed. It needs to be send and received in some manner. This should ideally be possible at a cell level, in that singular cells and or a whole of celltypes can be targeted. Furthermore this instructions needs to be noninvasive and rapid. As such chemical delivery and delivery via common (viral) vectors is insufficient. As they do not offer the aforementioned abilities to any satisfying degree.

Ability to temporarily as well as permanently induce changes in the genome, the transcriptome and or the proteom.

In case of a viral infection or malignancy, a temporary injection of an instruction is necessary. To block viral transcription the temporary creation of suitable siRNA’s will likely be able to arrest a viral infection. However, there is perhaps no need for a permanent modification of the cell. Likewise a malignancy can be dealt with by the activation of Apoptosis genes or the transcription of a intracellular toxin that kills the cells. By its very nature, that is ideally an temporary act. Many other applications however require permanent modification of parts of the cells genome. There must be a method to induce these, from the single nucleotide to perhaps entire chromosomes.

The inoculation of the system

Such a system must be able to be administered in an noninvasive way. For ethical reasons it also must be highly affordable and offer its ability ideally lifelong. As to neither create a depency on supply nor to keep it out of access to the general public which is meant to benefit from it. Ideally, it is a single dose which must be able to offer full functionality regardless of age. Side effects of such a innoculation should be controllable and must be temporary.

The immune system

It must be able to do what it does without activation of the active and adaptive part of the immune system by its inoculation nor by its passive existence. An understood and in part desired risk of an immune response remains though if instructions to a cell are made negligently without testing prior for the possibility of an immune response. There are various methods to suppress an immune response, the system must be capable of doing so.

If all these requirements can be met, we attain a method that can treat any disease. Furthermore, it offers the ability to vastly change the user's entire body on a cellular level, for esthetic and life extension purposes. The only prerequisite is that we understand how to reach the desired effect on a cellular level.

This requires the creation of a novel protein complex based in large parts on lessons learned through the decades from fundamental research done in virology. As many crucial parts of this system take liberal inspiration and or are directly adapted. A protein complex is chosen because it has the ability to be replicated via cellular machinery. During inoculation it must be delivered to as many different cells as possible, after long and careful consideration of the many different options modified CMV Vector appears to be well suited as most known cell types are permissive and susceptible to infection by CMV. Not all cells will be accessible via the inoculation of a CMV vector alone. The System as such exists as a Viral DNA with extensive modifications taken from Pox viruses to create a protected viral factory or Viroplasm henceforth referred to as the protein complex (PC) like compound within the cytoplasm. Poxbased PCs are ideally chosen but if they prove nonviable, there are many other examples of such protected PCs in virology (Reoviruses for example)

During infection, a suitable number of PCs must be built, an innate function of it is the ability to detect if neighboring cells contain a PC or not. This is to aid in the systemic spread of the system as well as to prevent multiple entry into an already modified cell. Again, many viruses have this ability, to choose the right method further experimentation is required. Perhaps full systemic spread must occur in monitored stages to ensure success.

Instruction for the protein complex will be transmitted via multiple triangulated RF Lasers (aka Masers). Choosing the right wavelength is of utmost importance as for instructions to be transmitted with single cell resolution, a short wavelength is necessary. However, it must still be long enough to deeply penetrate to even moderately obese users. As such I believe a frequency of 800mhz offers a good compromise.

Instructions are then received by an antenna assembled inside the PC. The nature of this antenna is extremely complex and needs to be worked out via experimentation. As different tissues have different radio permissivity using FM modulation will introduce complexities that we are unable to properly model and account for with our current understanding. AM, Amplitude modulation though offers a great way as the instruction can only be received if a threshold value is surpassed. This is desired and a key design philosophy of the system as it protects from incidental delivery of instruction within the line of sight from the various masers. An instruction can only be read by a cell on a single point-like area in space. Which then can be routed to the various places it needs to go (For example to send an apoptosis signal to a tumor and its complex arrangement of metastases, while not affecting surrounding tissues). This pointlike area in space is the result of the various masers constructively interfering at a certain point in space. The threshold value then results in high resolution and as mentioned before, protects surrounding tissues.

A received instruction is then directly being transcribed into RNA by a novel protein complex. In essence, a Radiodependant RNA Polymerase (RadRNApol) that is able to codons matching the desired radio transmission to transcribe an mRNA, which then carries out the desired function in the cell. Permanent genomic changes can be made by transcribing Reverse-Transcribtase and supplying a suitable RNA to be reverse-transcribed into DNA, which then can be integrated again by proteins synthesized by the System. The creation of this RadRNApol will be the most challenging part of the system, but not impossible if modern bioinformatics tools are used. Yeast is a great choice to experiment on as it is an incredibly well-understood system. Bacteria should be avoided as their biochemical differences are great enough to present great difficulties when trying to transition with a successful model towards eukaryotes.

Limitations, Safety and Ethical concerns

Initially, this system is likely able to perform well, however, there are two concerns that need to be addressed in later iterations. First and foremost it is protection against malicious or incidentally received instructions. As described, this system and as such the user is susceptible to signals sent with malicious intent or by happenstance. It is unlikely that a cellular resolution can be gained, but it doesn’t have to. The threshold value simply needs to be crossed. As such, each user must have a unique and private personal identifier baked into the system. For example, a nucleotide is encrypted by a complex pattern of signals. This however introduces a great complexity that does not need immediate attention and can be as said before, improved upon in successive generations of this technology.

Secondly, the system must not be easily spread from person to person. This is a complex issue to solve as the system is designed to spread to non-infected cells and does not have the ability to necessarily differentiate between different organisms. It may infect a protist within the cell which then can escape the body and be ingested or inhaled by a different person (or animal) where it continues. This is a speculative risk because it is uncertain if it is permissible in such a different organism, but a valid concern as it must be able to function in many different organisms.

As such a system can be used to create a state of biological immortality, it will fundamentally disrupt society. It can also harm our society in very serious ways if a necessary limitation is not put in place innately. A user of this technology must become permanently infertile. If a single person is able to create an unlimited amount of offspring, who then in turn perhaps be immortalized at one point themselves and choose to do the same. It can quickly lead to extremely negative circumstances. As such it is of utmost importance to avoid this. This trade-off must exist.

This requires testing and validation to be done under very secure and isolated conditions. Perhaps a future Lunar colony will prove uniquely suitable as it represents an absolutely controlled system.

Conclusion

This system represents an incredibly powerful tool for medicine and to improve the individual user's life in ways unfathomable to anyone reading this now. What remains are practical challenges to every part of the system to guarantee reliability and to minimize and or eliminate potential adverse effects. These challenges are enormously complex, but as of today, solvable with our currently available technology. There are few true unknowns, as for each difficulty, many different examples from biology can be used as a starting point.

While it offers a revolutionary change in medicine its benefits to society and humanity at large are legion. There are also intrinsic risks and dangers involved that should be well understood and must under no circumstances be neglected.