From: gts (gts@optexinc.com)
Date: Thu Aug 29 2002 - 12:25:16 MDT
The quantum tunneling problem first came to my attention when reading a
book titled "Reversing Human Aging" by Michael Fossell, Ph.D, M.D.
Fossell earned his Ph.D in Neurology and his M.D. and Stanford
University.
Fossell makes a rough estimate that any given molecule in the body is
likely to decay via quantum tunneling roughly once in several decades.
This is very infrequent. However the body is course composed of many
billions (trillions?) of molecules, so such decay can be expected to
happen quite frequently in terms of the over-all organism.
Initially I dismissed the problem as insignificant. At the time that I
was reading the book I was not interested in transhumanism or
extropianism. And as I wrote previously, it will be hundreds or perhaps
thousands of years before quantum tunneling appears as a problem on the
radar screens of physicians, (and then only assuming that we have
achieved something close to immortality). We have many other problems to
solve before these quantum effects begin to make a difference.
However the problem of quantum tunneling does appear to put an absolute
and final limit on human life-span. This is not like most problems of
health and medicine. It seems this problem is built into the very fabric
of the universe.
-gts
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