1. Hang in There: The 25-Year Wait for Immortality and 2. Inventor sets his sights on immortality

From 1.:

By then, people will start lives that could last 1,000 years or more. Our human genomes will be modified to include the genetic material of microorganisms that live in the soil, enabling us to break down the junk proteins that our cells amass over time and which they can’t digest on their own. People will have the option of looking and feeling the way they did at 20 for the rest of their lives, or opt for an older look if they get bored. Of course, everyone will be required to go in for age rejuvenation therapy once every decade or so, but that will be a small price to pay for near-immortality.

Your background is in computer science. How does that qualify you to spearhead a project on aging?

My background is enormously beneficial. There are really very important differences between the type of creativity involved in being a basic scientist and being an engineer. It means that I’m able to think in very different ways and come up with approaches to things that are different from the way a basic scientist might think.

And then from 2.:

The inventor and computer scientist is serious about his health because if it fails him he might not live long enough to see humanity achieve immortality, a seismic development he predicts in his new book is no more than 20 years away.

Why on earth are these computer scientists getting into this immortality thing? And, man, that beard! Metusaleh indeed.

But I have been thinking on this immortality thing, and I want some. I haven't, though, thought of the interesting consequence - that of the sudden increase in value of one's life when you decide to become...well...immortal. No more extreme sports. No more adventures. No more taking a stroll on the wild side.

There was something else, but it's slipped my mind (will have to look into some of those supplements Kurtzweil is suggesting). Will get back to this thread sometime.