January 28, 2024
Creatix, be creative in the matrix
Yes, artificial intelligence (AI) will help humans beat aging. Aging is the cumulative impact of DNA damages and errors accumulated over time. AI will monitor DNA sequences to detect errors and damages. AI will help humans research and develop technologies (tools and methods) to repair DNA errors and damages. These technologies may include nanosurgery, mRNA vaccines, CRISPR, and more.
Once humans figure out how to detect and correct genetic damages and errors, voilà! Aging will be in the history books just like so many other diseases eradicated by human knowledge. In this universe there are no problems or limitations other than ignorance. Of course, ignorance is not beaten over time as knowledge takes a long time to be produced and achieved. Ignorance is also a line or infinite continuum. Humans will never know it all. The more it is discovered, the more there is to know.
The medical technologies to beat aging will not reach all humans at once or the same way. Different humans and different societies will make different choices and face different problems dealing with the eradication of aging. Yet be sure that anti-aging technologies will be developed with the help of AI.
Beating aging will not mean achieving immortality. The young and the new "forever young" would still be vulnerable of dying from other causes. Living organisms will remain subject to the laws of physics and could die from lethal injuries and other diseases. To achieve immortality, humans or subsequent intelligent life forms will have to develop other technologies. For humans that may mean digitizing brains to upload their content and functioning into AI computerized systems. These AI-humans could survive digitally (or quantumly) insider computer servers where they could survive without an external physical body. The brain contents and functioning could also be downloaded into new bodies, be it organic, bionic, or fully robotic. This would eventually lead to practical immortality. It would not be complete or guaranteed immortality because those in power would decide who lives and who dies (e.g. deciding who gets unplugged or wiped out).
Within the next few decades, AI will help humans continue cracking the genetic "code". This will allow some humans to gradually begin growing young instead of growing old. In this universe, there are no problems other than ignorance. Every problem can be solved once sufficient knowledge is achieved about causality (cause and effect) and about how to change the cause and effect variables and processes.
Humans have long wished obtaining practical eternal youth and immortality. Humans will eventually crack that code with the assistance of AI. This will not be anything unnatural. In reality and for all practical purposes, life is already practically eternal and immortal. While individuals do die, and particular species do go extinct, life as a whole manages to adapt, replicate, and survive over time.
Big Bang Mechanics
In this universe, everything is in motion subject to competing forces. Since the beginning of time after the big bang, the universe has been engaged in a process of energy dispersion, moving from a state of higher energy accumulation and order into a state of lower accumulation and higher disorder. That is, the universe as a whole has been moving from high density / high temperature into lower density and lower temperature; moving from order into disorder.
Prior to the big bang, everything was tightly packed and densely organized in perhaps the highest state of energy accumulation possible at the planck size. Perhaps due to quantum internal instability, the big bang began to unpack and release (consume, transform) energy into a more dispersed and less organized state. As things cooled down and expanded in the universe, units or packets of energy (e.g. subatomic particles) combined into organized units (e.g. atoms and molecules). Although these units are more organized, all they do is accelerate energy consumption and dispersion in the universe system as a whole. For example, stars are relatively organized packets of energy, but what they do is accelerate energy consumption and dispersion. Life is part of this universal process, serving as a catalyst of energy consumption (transformation) and dispersion. Life is organized (i.e. organisms forming life systems) yet the overall effect of life in the universe is to accelerate energy consumption and dispersion) by the process of internal cellular metabolism and the external or environmental life-sustaining energy consumption needs of cellular living systems. The organization of the energy consumption machinery of life begins with two organic molecules in the nucleus of all cells, RNA and DNA.
RNA and DNA
Ribonucleic acid (RNA) and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) are the reactors of biological life. This form of life derives from organic (carbon-based) compounds consuming energy, seeking electromagnetic stability and the lower state of energy concentration possible. Life is part of the universe and is bound by the same laws of physics that rule the rest of the universe. Spoiler alert. There is no magic; it's all physics. The processes of biological life are completely dependent on the dynamic interactions and chain reactions initiated by RNA and DNA. RNA and DNA are polymers (long molecules) of organic (carbon-based) compounds. RNA and DNA cause chemical reactions with other organic compounds called amino acids. RNA and DNA interact with 20 amino acids that end up forming three dimensional (3D) structures that fold into many different forms and shapes. Those 3D amino acid structures are called proteins, and become the building blocks ("Lego" pieces) of cells, tissues, organs, and systems of biological life.
RNA and DNA can be conceptualized as electromagnetic strips or strands on which perpendicular "spikes" or vertical columns line on. The horizontal strands are made of carbon-based sugars (ribose in RNA; deoxyribose in DNA) that bind with a phosphate group. On top of those sugar-phosphate strands, nitrogenous bases land perpendicularly as vertical spikes or columns. Using a brush as a visual analogy, the handle or base of the brush would be the horizontal sugar-phosphate bonds, and the nitrogenous bases would be the hairs of the brush.
DNA
Each human cell contains about 2 meters (6.5 feet) of DNA in its nucleus. The nucleus of a human cell is only about 6 micrometers in diameter. The amount of DNA packed into the nucleus of a cell is the equivalent of packing 24 miles of thread into a tennis ball. DNA strands are made up of repeating subunits of sugar-phosphate-nitrogenous base pair combinations called nucleotides. Each nucleotide is a third (0.34) of a nanometer long. There are about six billion nucleotides over the 46 chromosomes in each cell. Multiplying six billion by 0.34 nanometers gives 2.04 meters in each cell. Since there are trillions of cells in the human body, there is a lot of DNA around. In average, humans have approximately 37 trillion cells. Human males have about 36 trillion cells. Females have approximately 38 trillion cells. If stretched out and combined, the total DNA in all cells in a human body would be enough to wrap around the earth over 10 million times.
While RNA is a single strand, DNA is a double stranded helix. In DNA, hydrogen bonds join two strands of DNA in what resembles a ladder. The side rails of the "ladder" are the sugar-phosphate bonds. The steps or rungs of the DNA "ladder" are the nitrogenous bases bound by hydrogen bonds. DNA curls into a double helix. DNA also wraps itself around protein structures histones. Using a yo-yo toy as a visual analogy, the DNA double strand helix would be the yo-yo string, and the histone would be the yo-yo hub. A bunch of these "yo-yo" histones are packed together into sacs called chromosomes.
A chromosome is a microscopic structure made up of DNA tightly coiled around proteins called histones. There are 46 chromosomes in each cell. Chromosomes bind together in pairs. Therefore, there are 23 pairs of chromosomes in each cell. Each chromosome contains a single DNA polymer strand. Chromosomes are different sizes, and histones allow them to pack up small enough to fit in a nucleus of a cell. The smallest human chromosomes contain about 50 million nucleotide pairs of nitrogenous bases. The largest human chromosomes contain about 250 million nucleotide pairs.
A nucleotide is the smallest unit of a DNA strand. Each nucleotide is composed of a sugar, a phosphate, and a nitrogenous base pair (e.g. A-T or C-G pair). The number of nucleotides in a gene can range from dozens to millions, depending on the gene's function. The average gene contains about 3,000 bases, and the human genome has around 30,000 genes. The average length of a human gene is about 53,600 base pairs. However, the shortest human genes are only a few hundred base pairs long, while the longest gene contains 2.4 million base pairs.
A sequence of nucleotides is called a gene. Genes are read three nucleotides at a time, in units called codons. Each tRNA has three unpaired nitrogenous bases (e.g. A-U or C-G) known as the anticodon that are complementary to the codon it reads on the mRNA. Each DNA strand (and therefore each chromosome) has many genes, ranging from dozens to thousands. In humans, it is estimated that there are 20,000-25,000 human protein-coding genes in a chromosome.
Nitrogenous bases
The nitrogenous base pairs (e.g. A-T, C-G) in DNA are the keys to life. The nitrogenous bases in DNA are adenine (A), thymine (T), cytonsine (C), and guanine (G). The nitrogenous bases in RNA are: adenine (A), uracil (U), cytosine (C), and guanine (G). The uracil in RNA is structurally similar to the thymine (T) in DNA.The nitrogenous bases get together in pairs. In DNA, A pairs with T, and C pairs with G. In RNA, A pairs with U, and C pairs with G.
The nitrogenous base pair combinations in DNA attract or repel different amino acids based on electromagnetic reactions of organic chemistry. RNA and DNA interact with 20 different amino acids. Based on the sequence of nitrogenous bases, the amino acids combine with one another into a vast array of different forms and shapes of self-folding 3D structures called proteins. The proteins fold into their different shapes while consuming energy, seeking the lowest energy state possible.
Proteins
Proteins become the building blocks ("Lego" pieces) that combine with one another to form cells, tissues, organs, and systems of biology. The shapes of proteins are "dictated" (caused) by the different order of nitrogenous bases in DNA. Life is the result of the specific order of protein shapes that randomly promoted subsequent functions. For example, a specific array of proteins end up creating a cell structure in which RNA and DNA stayed encapsulated and protected from elements exterior to the cell. There is no magic in this process other than random interactions over time. For the countless of protein configurations that did not lead to the formation of a cell, nothing happened. That is, no cell was formed and no one ever knew of those RNA and DNA strands that were not preserved or protected from the environment inside a cell.
The sequence of nitrogenous bases randomly leads to the formation of combinations of amino acids (proteins) that end up building a cell. The cell is critical to life, and all living organisms are composed of one or more cell. All life on Earth is cellular life. This because the cell operates as the shelter or house for the RNA and DNA molecules. Within the walls of the cells, RNA and DNA obtain protection from the external environment. The cell gives RNA and DNA physical protection from external elements affording an opportunity for survival.
The Cell
The cell interacts with the environment engaging in metabolic (energy consumption) reactions that lead to cell growth and replication. Within the nucleus of the cell, interactions between DNA and different types of RNA have the effect of replicating DNA. Cell growth leads to replication when each individual cell splits in two. The new cell carries forward the new DNA and RNA sets that resulted from the replication process.
Since the new cells also host DNA and RNA this means that the new cells will also cause the lining up of amino acids that leads to the formation of proteins. As DNA and RNA keeps replicating within the nucleus of the cells, and as cells continue growing and splitting in two, a living system of protein-building machines ensues. The cells thus operate as "factories" that "manufacture" proteins based on the patterns or sequences of nitrogenous bases in RNA and DNA.
DNA Damages and Errors
If the order of nitrogenous bases in DNA is changed (e.g. due to physical damage or copying error), the resulting amino acid configurations of proteins also change. Some changes in the structure of proteins can be beneficial while others can be detrimental in terms of biological functionality. The mutations or changes (random evolution) that result in functional advantages move forward by reverse elimination (natural selection). The mutations or changes that cause disadvantages in functionality can jeopardize functionality (e.g. diseases, disabilities) or can end survival altogether (individual death or species extinction). Whatever dies or goes extinct, disappears from existence without further impact on evolution and natural selection. Conversely, whatever survives, continues playing a role in future evolution and natural selection.
Changes in the sequences of DNA may occur due to physical damages (injuries) to DNA, or by error in the RNA-led DNA replication process. For DNA replication, certain types of RNA "eat up" or consume the hydrogen bonds that hold together the "steps" or rungs of the DNA "ladder". As a visual aid, this would look as if RNA were flying by, "unzipping" DNA strands. Once RNA opens or splits DNA in two open strands, other RNA strands fly by the open DNA strands interacting with the exposed pairs of nitrogenous bases.
The sequences of nitrogenous bases in the DNA strands get copied into the flying RNA strands. Additional RNA strands keep flying by the new strands of DNA having the effect of confirming (as in "proofreading" or double checking and correcting) the order of nitrogenous base sequencing. Hydrogen atoms bond the DNA strands into the "ladder" configuration. The DNA strands coil up in histones and chromosomes. Once the cell splits, the new chromosomes become part of the nucleus of the new cell.
The sequence of nitrogenous bases in the new DNA within the new cell will dictate the protein-building functioning of each new cell. If the DNA is exactly as it was in the previous cell, the protein building functions will be the same as they were before. If the organism was healthy and young, it stays healthy and young as it was. However, if the DNA was damaged (e.g. by ultraviolet radiation, by toxic substances, smoke, junk foods, etc.) or if the nitrogenous bases were not copied correctly, there will be changes in functionality. The damages or errors in the sequence of DNA nitrogenous bases will alter the shape of the resulting proteins built by the cell and thus affect their functionality. Significant damages or errors may lead to significant dysfunctionalities (e.g. diseases like cancer).
Aging
Each cell in the human body replicates anywhere from 50 to 60 times. With an average of 37 trillion cells, each replicating 50 or 60 times, the chances for replication errors are enormous. Replication errors are in fact very common. The cumulative impact of DNA replication errors over time is what humans refer to as aging.
Aging is the cumulative impact or aggregate effect of DNA damages and errors accumulated over time. DNA damages or injuries can be caused by physical lesions (e.g. radiation), poisonous substances, junk food, pathogens, diseases, etc. DNA errors can occur during the DNA replication or copying process. Once DNA is damaged, it stays damaged and it is copied damaged. Humans still ignore how to repair genetic damage.
Anti-aging DNA Repair
Powered by AI, human medicine will develop technologies (tools and methods) to prevent and repair DNA damages and errors. Preventing errors in the DNA replication process will stop aging. Correcting existing errors in DNA will reverse aging, allowing humans to grow young and healthy instead of growing old and ill. This will allow humans to effectively beat aging, and be able to stay forever young.
At about age 30, human development is complete. While most organs are well developed before that (e.g. after puberty), the brain keeps developing until about age 30. This means that humans could safely choose age 30 as the age when to stop the aging process. The genetic sequencing of adults over 30 can be gradually changed back to the sequencing at age 30. Humans in their senior years would have the opportunity to reverse aging over time, growing young and strong every night instead of waking up older and weaker every morning.
Needless to say, beating aging will bring an extraordinary amount of new problems to humanity. This is part of the Problem Paradox. Solving problems create even more problems to solve. Oftentimes, if not always, the new problems are harder to solve than the original ones. While intelligence is the ability to solve problems, wisdom is choosing what problems to solve and which ones to left unsolved.
AI the new problem solver
AI is quickly becoming the premier technology assisting humans in modern problem solving. AI is simply an extension of the computerization of everything. Just like computers and the internet changed everything and impacted every single segment of human society, AI will do the same. Within the next two decades, humans will experience the the AI of Everything. Every single industry and segment of society will be impacted by AI. Genetic research and development (R&D) will, of course, not be an exception.
AI is already playing a significant role in advancing genetic research and development. Here are several ways in which AI is involved in this field:
1. Genomic Sequencing and Analysis:
- Data Processing: AI algorithms assist in processing massive datasets generated by genomic sequencing technologies. They help identify patterns, variations, and mutations within DNA sequences.
- Variant Calling: AI tools improve the accuracy of variant calling, identifying genetic variations that may be associated with diseases or traits.
2. Disease Prediction and Diagnosis:
- Predictive Analytics: AI models analyze genetic data to predict an individual's susceptibility to certain diseases or conditions based on their genetic makeup.
- Diagnostic Tools: AI is used to develop diagnostic tools that can identify genetic markers associated with diseases, facilitating early detection and personalized treatment plans.
3. Drug Discovery and Development:
- Target Identification: AI helps identify potential drug targets by analyzing genetic data and understanding the underlying mechanisms of diseases.
- Drug Repurposing: AI analyzes genetic information to find existing drugs that may be repurposed for new therapeutic uses, expediting the drug development process.
4. Personalized Medicine:
- Treatment Customization: AI analyzes individual genetic profiles to tailor medical treatments and interventions, ensuring a more personalized approach to patient care.
- Pharmacogenomics: AI helps predict how individuals will respond to specific medications based on their genetic makeup, optimizing drug selection and dosages.
5. Gene Editing and CRISPR Technology:
- Designing Guide RNAs: AI assists in designing guide RNAs for CRISPR-based gene editing, enhancing the precision and efficiency of the gene-editing process.
- Off-Target Prediction: AI tools predict potential off-target effects in gene editing, improving the safety of CRISPR-based interventions.
6. Biological Data Integration:
- Multi-Omics Integration: AI integrates data from various 'omics' technologies (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics) to provide a comprehensive understanding of biological systems.
- Network Analysis: AI helps unravel complex biological networks, identifying interactions between genes, proteins, and other molecular entities.
7. Ethical and Legal Implications:
- Privacy Protection: AI contributes to developing secure methods for handling sensitive genetic information, addressing privacy concerns in genetic research.
- Ethical Decision Support: AI aids researchers and policymakers in navigating ethical considerations associated with genetic research and applications.
While AI holds great promise in genetic research, challenges include the need for robust ethical frameworks, addressing data privacy concerns, and ensuring transparency in algorithmic decision-making. Ongoing collaboration between AI experts, geneticists, and ethical experts is essential to harness the full potential of AI in genetic research responsibly.
CRISPRCRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) technology is a revolutionary gene-editing tool that allows scientists to precisely modify DNA within living organisms. It has transformed genetic research and offers potential applications in various fields, including medicine, agriculture, and biotechnology.
How CRISPR Works:
CRISPR relies on a guide RNA that is designed to complement the target DNA sequence. This gRNA is usually combined with a protein called Cas9 (CRISPR-associated protein 9). The gRNA is engineered to match the specific DNA sequence targeted for modification. When introduced into a cell, the gRNA seeks out the complementary DNA sequence. The Cas9 protein acts as molecular scissors. Once the gRNA locates the target DNA sequence, Cas9 binds to the DNA and induces a cut at that precise location. The cell's natural repair mechanisms, such as non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) or homology-directed repair (HDR), are then activated. These repair mechanisms can be used to introduce changes to the DNA. This may involve inserting, deleting, or replacing specific DNA sequences.
CRISPR has the potential to treat genetic disorders by correcting or replacing faulty genes. It enables the creation of genetically modified organisms for studying diseases and developing new treatments. The ability to modify human germline cells raises ethical concerns and requires careful consideration of the long-term consequences and societal implications. While CRISPR technology has shown immense promise, challenges include off-target effects, ethical considerations, and the need for precise control over gene editing outcomes. Ongoing research aims to enhance the precision and safety of CRISPR applications, ensuring responsible use in various fields.
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