Immortality Drive - How Would it Work

[FatherRob]

Another question for my story...

I am aware of the Immortality Drive that has been placed on the ISS. Forgetting for a moment that the ISS would fall from the sky if not properly maintained in short order, let's say someone found the disk, decoded it, and decided, "Let's recreate a human."

How would this be accomplished?

Would the created organism be identical (save for memories, voice, etc.) to whoever's DNA/RNA was stored on such a disk?

I also ask for a speculation from a purely scientific POV: if a human or other sentient race could be thusly recreated, would it possess sentience?

 

[Lindley]

At first I thought this was about an Immorality Drive.

Now that would be an interesting propulsion system.

 

[Myasishchev]

Another question for my story...

I am aware of the Immortality Drive that has been placed on the ISS. Forgetting for a moment that the ISS would fall from the sky if not properly maintained in short order, let's say someone found the disk, decoded it, and decided, "Let's recreate a human."

How would this be accomplished?

First they'd have to synthesize the DNA, and they'd need to determine the environmental factors the DNA needs to express itself into a healthy organism. Alternatively, they could emulate the organism the DNA would physically create in a computer simulation.

Would the created organism be identical (save for memories, voice, etc.) to whoever's DNA/RNA was stored on such a disk?

Barring mistakes in or corruptions to the data, and mistakes in the development process of the renewed human, yes.

I also ask for a speculation from a purely scientific POV: if a human or other sentient race could be thusly recreated, would it possess sentience?

Assuming, of course, they didn't make any mistakes, why wouldn't it? However, it would just be a twin brother or sister of someone presumably long dead, of complete uselessness to a human who found it, and for an alien who found it and wished to study it, it would be raised in isolation, and possibly unable to understand its creators' language. It may not be sapient in the same sense that we are, given the basis of our cognition is so dependent on language. Like how Molly O'Brien in DS9's Time's Orphan, with an abridged linguistic cognitive development, came across as grotesquely stupid. But it would be as fully sentient as any human being.

At first I thought this was about an Immorality Drive.

I'd take a ride on that pony.

 

[CuttingEdge100]

What's an immortality drive?

 

[WendellM]

At first I thought this was about an Immorality Drive.
Now that would be an interesting propulsion system.

The Void Captain's Tale?

 

[FordSVT]

What's an immortality drive?

Google is your friend.

 

[USS Triumphant]

At first I thought this was about an Immorality Drive.

I'd take a ride on that pony.

Ah HA! So that's Gaila's assignment aboard the Enterprise, eh?

Scotty's a lucky bastard. "Captain, I'm givin' her all I got!"

I'll bet you are, Scotty. I'll bet you are.

 

[ThunderAeroI]

You would think they would need to have some 30,000 DNA samples in order to actualy have any chance at repopulation. The question you then have to ask is why?

Why repopulate the sample. No one would be able to educate it, train it, or otherwise provide shelter for it.

I suppose one could assume that if who ever found it had the ability to even understand and use the information, they may have some ability to "see" what the DNA would need to grow.

Language isn't important, because as babies we learn whatever language our parents speak, we could be humans speaking alien.

 

[iguana_tonante]

At first I thought this was about an Immorality Drive.

Now that would be an interesting propulsion system.

I thought the same thing.

How would this be accomplished?

I'll let the biologists speak on that.

Would the created organism be identical (save for memories, voice, etc.) to whoever's DNA/RNA was stored on such a disk?

In theory, yes. However, our development depends both on DNA informations and the environment we are raised in. Nutrition, illnesses, accidents and toxins influence our growth and appearance. So they would be very similar, but probably not exactly identical even in a fairly similar upbringing.

I also ask for a speculation from a purely scientific POV: if a human or other sentient race could be thusly recreated, would it possess sentience?

Sentience? Yes. Intelligence? Again, it depends on the environment he will be grown. Let alone, without communication and nurturing, he will probably result intellectually stunted. But he will be sentient.

 

[T.Geiger]

I'm not sure that would work, unless they also have blueprints on how to construct a human cell. The thought of human DNA strand in a virus protein sheath is somewhat appealing though.

"I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you're not actually mammals."