This www.wired.com article (excerpts appear in this
post) is loaded with details and hope for what may
be the future of humankind in the next millenium and
beyond, affording us the opportunity to dream and
perchance to realize the edge of immortality in this
certain plain of existence:

- - -

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.01/forever.html?pg=1
Excerpt: "In the 20th century, doctors and researchers
have focused mainly on expanding the average life
expectancy, succeeding dramatically in the developed
world - adding 30 years in the United States, for
instance. Today, as a result of antibiotics, vaccines,
public sanitation, and preventive medicine, so many
centenarians are puttering around that Willard Scott
would have to say happy birthday to about 200 a day
just to keep up.

Until recently, it was assumed that these oldsters were
simply edging closer to a set-in-stone life-span limit.
But these days, a growing number of scientists agree
that humans are poised for a breakthrough in longevity
and what might be called "human repairability" - a new
era that will not only raise the maximum age, but also
deliver unimaginable new methods for preserving and
even redesigning our own bodies."

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.01/forever.html?pg=2
Excerpt: "Evolution plays the part of fickle lover to our
bodies, or somas. It loves our somas, nurtures them,
makes them strong in youth so we can pass on germ
cells - our eggs and sperm - to produce another generation.
Once we've accomplished this, evolution loses interest.

If we live, fine. If we die, fine. The good news is that
evolution doesn't require that we die, either. It doesn't care.
It simply lets our bodies run down like a car with an empty
tank."

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.01/forever.html?pg=3
Excerpt: "Human Genome Sciences, based in Rockville,
Maryland, is a $2 billion company that has partnered with
pharmaceutical giant SmithKline Beecham to the tune of
$125 million. It was founded by William Haseltine, a
former Harvard biochemist and cancer researcher who
helped decipher the structure of HIV.

Haseltine claims to possess sequences for almost all
human genes and to have a vast database of the products
those genes make - including the chemical signals that
direct stem cells. The company has three drugs in
clinical trials, one of which involves injecting a gene
into diseased muscle tissue to stimulate regrowth.

This is the beginning of what Haseltine calls 'regenerative
medicine,' a new era that, he says, will lead to 'practical
immortality - that is my concept.' Haseltine doesn't mean
in a few thousand years, either - more like 70 or 80.
Eventually, he says, stem cells and genetics will give
the human body 'a transubstantiated future.' "

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.01/forever.html?pg=4
Excerpt: " 'We are all born young,' Harley says. 'There is
a capacity to have an immortal propagation of cells. The
way we have evolved is to go from germline to germline,
with our somas the dead-end carriers. But that is not
inevitable.'

In other words, people don't have to die. ...

If Ingber is right, we'll be able to check ourselves in
for an overhaul late in life. Our new organs will be
manufactured the way Ford makes crankshafts. They
will have telomerase permanently switched on for eternal
youth.

In this way, says Haseltine, our bodies will perpetually
renew themselves."

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.01/forever.html?pg=5
Excerpt: " 'There is a huge future in biological body
manipulations - oh, yeah,' agrees UC Irvine's Michael
Rose. 'That's gonna happen. The future is now, with
respect to that.'

Vita-More has a few changes in mind. 'Maybe I can
look like a Renaissance painting for a while, or maybe
a pointillist image, or maybe Cubist, like a Picasso,'
she says. 'I'm a bodybuilder, so I love sculpting muscle.
Muscle is gorgeous, and our future bodies will have
streamlined muscles in all sorts of interesting shapes,
new types of limbs, new types of carved skeletal struc-
tures.'

It's conceivable that a significant number of people
(though certainly not Extropians) will choose not to
have these enhancements. Such people (Vita-More refers
to them as 'humanish - you know, like Amish') will elect
to age and stick with whatever cards nature and their
environment have dealt them."

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.01/forever.html?pg=6
Excerpt: " 'Fifty years ago, the structure of DNA wasn't
even known,' Harley says. 'Today we can manipulate it
and use it for everything from engineering better foods
to treating genetic disorders and tissue engineering. And
the ability to use pluripotent stem cells is just starting.
In 50 years we'll be doing things hard to even imagine
today.' "