The Fountain Of Youth: a promise of immortality.  What was once myth might soon become a medical reality.  Although there are many obstacles in the path, our pace has begun to quicken radically as we step into the 21st century. 

For a sobering yet inspiring introduction to the modern science of life extension, check out this presentation of Aubrey De Grey.  called “Rethinking the Future of Humanity”

As crazy as it sounds, researchers keep taking major steps forward on the path to human immortality, as the article below demonstrates.

Genetic pathway critical to disease, aging found

“The discovery of a gene expression pathway and specific enzymes that exert broad influence on the process of oxidative stress has clear clinical relevance, Anderson says, because it could potentially be manipulated to mitigate the damage oxygen does to cells…Oxidation can damage DNA, mitochondria, cell membranes, and other mechanisms and structures essential to the cell. Such damage underpins disease, including in the parts of the body — the heart, the lungs and the brain — that are heavy users of oxygen.

“We’ll be able to get at this new machinery and, hopefully, manipulate it,” says Marvin Wickens, a UW-Madison biochemist who was not involved in the study. New drugs that modulate the enzyme and control its activity could potentially blunt the stress that leads to disease.”

Again, we live in interesting times, and our ability to adapt to these changes is a function of our financial, mental/emotional, and spiritual vitality.  Money, Mission, and Meaning come from a mind, heart, and soul clear about its value and inspired to turn our world into a work of art.  May each new possibility trigger that inspiration and focus your attention on living your Life By Design.

Surfing the Future Shock Wave

Aubrey De Grey suggests that when we can extend human life for 30 years or so, that will give us another 30 years to figure out how to extend it another 30 years.  With the exponential increase in technology, it might just be that those born in the 21st century live to see the 25th…

Finnish patient gets new jaw from own stem cells

Scientists in Finland said they had replaced a 65-year-old patient’s upper jaw with a bone transplant cultivated from stem cells isolated from his own fatty tissue and grown inside his abdomen.

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Imagine everyone with contact lenses that are hooked to computers in their pockets, with an audio/video input that recognizes faces/voices and can give you information about the person you are interacting with that only you can see and hear…

uweek.org | Bionic eyes: Contact lenses with circuits, lights a possible platform for superhuman vision | University Week, Vol. 25, No. 12 | University of Washington

Engineers at the UW have for the first time used manufacturing techniques at microscopic scales to combine a flexible, biologically safe contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights.

“Looking through a completed lens, you would see what the display is generating superimposed on the world outside,” said Babak Parviz, a UW assistant professor of electrical engineering…
 Drivers or pilots could see a vehicle’s speed projected onto the windshield. Video game companies could use the contact lenses to completely immerse players in a virtual world without restricting their range of motion. And for communications, people on the go could surf the Internet on a midair virtual display screen that only they would be able to see.

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The times they are a changin…

Some lament the loss of innocence that human beings have experienced through advances in technology or encounter with technologically advanced cultures. They sometimes think that the solution is to protect themselves by shutting out the advances and shielding others from their effects.

I think these changes are more like a tidal wave.  Your real choices are only 1) learn to surf the wave or 2) be crushed (or increasingly inconvenienced by the way.  I suggest surfing. 

The latest news towards this end is cloning and bio-technology in general.  Although Gattaca was a questionable movie, in many ways, it speaks to very predictable consequences of our current technologies. Again, I suggest surfing…

FT.com / Home UK / UK - Human cloning work advances

Human cloning research took another step forward yesterday when US scientists reported the production of three embryos cloned from adult skin cells.

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have you seen what I have been up to?
A Ron Paul Site that I designed had built, did the videos on the site (especially proud of the video on the home page)
A Ron Paul Canvassing DVD that we are making 100,000 of and launched yesterday - we sold 25,000 the first day!
The Six Million Dollar Man - a parody ron paul video I did on the six million dollar man
Ron Paul Reveres Midnight Ride is a video I created for a new promotion to tap into the 80,000+ Ron Paul Internet supporters to get his message out to the world.

It is exciting to have someone to support for President that represents the principles of freedom, liberty, and creative work that I feel so passionate about!

May you live in interesting times… - Erik Frank Russell

There are a dozen world changing technologies on the brink of being created, each of which will require humanity to redefine and re-create itself. The future holds unimaginable possibilities, and will require unpredictable new skills to deal with them - mentally, emotionally, socially, and spiritually.

Our capacity to adapt to change and transform how we relate to our lives will become the central skill for thrival in the 21st century.  Make no mistake about it - the ride will not be comfortable. It will be exciting though.  AND, for those who are prepared to meet the challenges head on, the opportunities for wealth, contribution, and playing a HUGE game will be plentiful. 

I include a link to an article that describes one of the nascent technologies that will forever transform the human experience.  Below it, I include a video that many find helpful in opening their minds to the future that is coming.  I encourage you to watch it, and the other videos under the “mind blowing ideas” section of the http://AGameWeAllCanWin.com site. 

YEE-HAW!

Mark

Synthetic DNA on the Brink of Yielding New Life Forms - washingtonpost.com

Scientists in Maryland have already built the world’s first entirely handcrafted chromosome — a large looping strand of DNA made from scratch in a laboratory, containing all the instructions a microbe needs to live and reproduce.

I have been receiving so much inspiration and joy from Amory Lovins recent honors, I thought I would mention him again in the context of Money Mission and Meaning. Amory is an extraordinary example of someone who realized his unique contribution, developed his prodigious talents prodigiously, and set out to make money, through a mission that makes meaning - aka, the Rocky Mountain Institute. After decades of being on the fringe, his ideas and person are becoming a mainstream icon, which simply tickles me pink!

After receiving the Volvo environmental prize earlier this month, he and long time compatriot in profitable environmentalism Paul Hawken have been named the key figures of Ford motor companies new “Transformation Advisory Council“. The third named member is Peter Senge, Harvard management guru, author of The Fifth Discipline, and colleague to Fred Kaufmann, one of my virtual mentors from the Integral Institute. Very good company indeed.

Let’s cross our fingers and exploit our rolodex’s that Amory’s plan to triple the efficiency of cars, trucks, and planes by fully using existing technology, and “winning the oil endgame” get’s Ford’s full support, and revolutionizes the the transportation industry. Go Amory Go!

Choice. In this moment and every moment, we have an infinite number of choices available to us. Some enhance the quality of our lives while others reduce it, to different degrees. Making choices that enhance the quality of our lives is the obvious choice, even though it requires that we know what will enhance it. The less obvious choice is how to prioritize these enhancing choices.

This video from TED (http://TED.com is FULL of great resources) with Bjorn Lomborg considering how to prioritize the biggest challenges facing humanity, including global warming, and how we can enhance the human condition. Although his topic is global concerns, his thinking is equally important in our individual lives - the discovery and expression of our purpose. What are your biggest concerns and how will you prioritize them?

As we look ino integrating our Money, Mission, and Meaning, we can recognize that both money and mission are in service of meaning. As I describe in detail in my book “The Key Is In The Darkness:Unlocking The Door To A Spiritual Life,” it is our personal relationship with what I call “Divinity” (whether theist or atheist) that sources all of our values and meaning.

In order to discover, not what we believe or ought to believe about “God,” but what our personal relationship with Divinity currently IS, we must investigate our own experience to discover it.

At the link below is a series of videos that guide you, step by step, through a gentle process to discover the Divinity available to us in each moment. It does not tell us what God or consciousness is, but guides us to discover it for ourselves.  Ken Wilber describes it as one of the most powerful spiritual practices ever created.  I guarantee that if you simply watch them and follow the instructions, you will gain new insight into your Meaning in a way that can empower your mission and create more abundance around your Money.

Rational Spirituality With Genpo Roshi and The Big Mind Process

The new show on Abc 7 called icaught
explored a series of videos that went viral, including the
morphing between women in art
from youtube.com.  So, I decided to create our own morphing video, with the
hosts of Personal Life Media
themselves.  See it here first!