Maybe someone with more knowledge can answer this for me.
Does evolution allow for the possibility of living forever? If so are there any lifeforms (of the hundreds of billions that exist on this planet) on this planet that never die?
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
Evolutionary theory certainly does, that's completely outside the realm of science.
Posted by Bob the Lawyer (Member # 3278) on :
quote:Does evolution allow for the possibility of living forever?
Yes and no. Forever will never come, so you can't really answer this. But yes, I suppose there's room for something to live a really, really, long time and maybe onward into "forever".
quote:If so are there any lifeforms (of the hundreds of billions that exist on this planet) on this planet that never die?
As yet, no. Not as we understand it, anyway. I suppose someone could argue that cells that reproduce by binary fission are still the same? Or something. And then there are million-year old spores that are revivable. How long could a spore last? Does that count?
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
If you meant living forever in a physical, non-supernatural sense, sure, though nothing we've ever seen has that we know of, and everything we've ever seen seems to have things that impede the occurence.
Posted by Jon Boy (Member # 4284) on :
quote:Originally posted by fugu13: Evolutionary theory certainly does, that's completely outside the realm of science.
Ha! So you admit that it's just a theory and that intelligent design has every right to be taught in schools!
*smug*
Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :
Don't feed the ignorant, JB, that's exactly the kind of thing that gets taken out of context.
As for living forever, sure, why not? It doesn't seem like a very useful attribute, evolutionarily speaking, but it could happen.
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
*throws Jon Boy off a cliff just to see if the theory of gravity's been changed*
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
I see no reason why evolutionary theory wouldn't permit the possibility of eternal life. Heck, didn't they just find a single fungus that had been alive for 10,000 years or so?
That said, I think a natural process capable of keeping any lifeform -- much less a sapient one -- continually alive would be a pretty remarkable achievement.
Posted by Sid Meier (Member # 6965) on :
the purpose of evolution is to reach sentience after that its up to science to complete/continue the process. Living forever IS within the realm of science since dying is scientific.
As each cell multiplies and copies itself there's an error in the genes that gets intensified each time which as well as oxydisation causes aging. Both of which is theotically imho can be fixed through genetic manipulation.
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
Sid, that may be your opinion, but its certainly not one involving evolutionary theory. Evolutionary theory does not attribute any purpose to evolution (the idea of "purpose" in any strong sense isn't scientific).