The Death of Death: The Scientific Possibility of Physical Immortality and its Moral Defense

In the book, The Death of Death, authors Jose Luis Cordeiro and David Wood outline the scientific possibility of immortality.

Exponential advances in artificial intelligence, the analysis of massive sets of data ("Big Data"), tissue regeneration, and genetic therapies provide the framework for reversing and preventing aging of the human body.

Until now, medicine has focused on attacking the symptoms rather than the causes of aging. The authors argue that to avoid the processes of aging, we need to focus on preventive medicine—as opposed to curative.

The ultimate goal is to increase both the quantity and the quality of life—to be indefinitely young, not indefinitely old.

The Death of Death offers an intriguing look into the advances in research that have led us to this point—as well as the scientific possibility of a future that overcomes mankind's greatest common enemy: death.

- Laurie Mathena

LE: What scientific progress has been made in the fight against aging?

Cordeiro and Wood: Scientists in different parts of the world are already investigating how aging works and how to reverse it.

For example, a group of scientists under the direction of Spanish biologist Maria Blasco, director of CNIO (the Spanish National Cancer Research Center) in Madrid, has created the so-called Triple mice, which live approximately 40% longer.

With totally different technologies, other scientists have also been able to rejuvenate mice by 40%.

Scientists have experimented with different types of treatments and therapies, among which we can mention, for now, caloric restriction, telomerase injections, stem cell exosome treatments, gene therapies, and more discoveries that we will continue to see in the coming years.

Two well-known North American scientists are Michael Rose, who has quadrupled the life expectancy of fruit flies, and Robert J.S. Reis, who has increased the longevity of nematode worms C. elegans by up to 10 times.

The scientists' goal is not to get longer-lived flies and worms, but to use these discoveries to apply them to humans in due course.

LE: What other discoveries have made extended lifespans seem possible in the near future?

Cordeiro and Wood: We see plenty of reasons why the present time is ripe for the idea that we can, and should, abolish aging. That idea can be backed up by a host of observations:

• Examples of animals that experience negligible senescence like the bowhead whale
• Genetic manipulations that can significantly extend lifespan (and healthspan)
• Fascinating possibilities from stem cell therapies
• The game-changing possibilities of CRISPR* genetic editing
• The increasing viability of nano-interventions, such as nano-surgery and nano-bots
• Early indications that synthetic organs can be created
• Research projects targeting each of seven identified underlying causes of aging
• Encouraging progress in new ideas for treating cancer, as well as other diseases of aging
• Promising results from big data analysis by increasingly powerful artificial intelligence
• Financial models that show the tremendous economic benefits of the longevity dividend
• Examples from other technological fields of unexpectedly rapid progress
• Examples from other activist projects of rapid changes in social mindset

These observations provide the environment in which the idea of the abolition of aging can thrive.

LE: What have been identified as the primary causes of aging?

Cordeiro and Wood: Despite the great advances of the twentieth century, there is still no universally accepted theory of aging. In fact, a large number of theories are currently competing, which can be divided in many ways.

For example, in a course at the University of California, Berkeley, four major groups were considered: molecular, cellular, systemic, and evolutionary theories, each group in turn, with three or more theories within the group.

Faced with this flood of theories, [biomedical gerontologist] Aubrey de Grey began working systemically from the end of the twentieth century to compile all the information in an inclusive system on aging.

His approach to life extension is called SENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence). The key meaning of the term SENS is the engineering of medical therapies to reverse biological aging in humans so that we can continue to accumulate years of age while remaining biologically young.

To that end, de Gray did a thorough study of the available research on aging and realized that there are seven main types of damage related to the aging process.

These seven causes of senescence are intracellular waste, intercellular waste, nucleus mutations, mitochondrial mutations, stem cell loss, increase in senescent cells, and increase of intercellular protein links.

* [a gene-editing technology that can be used to modify or correct precise regions of our DNA to treat serious diseases]

LE: How is longevity research being funded?

Cordeiro and Wood: Thanks to the important scientific advances in recent years, there are large and small companies that bet billions of dollars on scientific rejuvenation in humans. People are beginning to understand that this is a real possibility and closer and closer in time.

The question today is not whether it will be possible, but rather when it will be possible.

Therefore, billionaires like Peter Thiel, famous since PayPal, Jeff Bezos from Amazon, Sergey Brin and Larry Page from Alphabet/Google, Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook, Larry Ellison from Oracle, along with many others are investing in anti-aging biotechnology to reverse it.

Google created Calico (California Life Company), in 2013 to "solve death." Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan said they would donate virtually all their wealth to cure and to prevent all diseases in one generation.

Jeff Bezos started Altos Labs with other billionaires in 2021 to advance cell reprogramming technologies to allow rejuvenation treatments.

In 2022, Saudia Arabia announced the creation of Hevolution (Health + Evolution) Foundation to finance at least $1 billion of research about longevity per year over the next two decades.

And for those who don't know, Bill Faloon uses proceeds from Life Extension® supplement sales to fund highly efficient laboratory and clinical research on a variety of potential age-reversal interventions, including optimal ways of delivering Yamanaka transcription factors in mice, primates, and relatively soon, humans.

In 2022, three independent mouse studies demonstrated significant age reversal in response to delivery and controlled expression of Yamanaka factors in old mice.

LE: Will many people living today be able to take advantage of these future technologies?

Cordeiro and Wood: In 2004, American engineer Ray Kurzweil (co-founder of Singularity University and director of engineering at Google) and his doctor Terry Grossman, a longevity expert, wrote Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever.

To summarize, the book begins with the description of three "bridges" to the indefinite life. We can simplify and update the information by describing the three bridges as follows, according to our own interpretation:

1. The First Bridge consists of doing what your mother or grandmother would tell you (eating well, sleeping well, exercising, not smoking) with added medical knowledge.
2. The Second Bridge will grow strongly during the 2020s with the biotechnology revolution. As we continue to study the genetic code of our biology, we will discover ways to escape disease and aging so that we can fully develop our human potential.
3. The Third Bridge will correspond mainly to the 2030s and will become a reality thanks to the revolution in nanotechnology and artificial intelligence. The convergence of these technological revolutions will allow us to reconstruct bodies and minds at the molecular level. By 2045, at the latest, we will reach technological singularity and immortality, both biological and computational.

The subtitle of Kurzweil and Grossman's Fantastic Voyage is very suggestive: Live Long Enough to Live Forever. Implicit in this phrase is the idea that if we manage to live long enough in the next few years, until we cross the three bridges and reach rejuvenation, then we could live indefinitely (as long as we want to and that we don't perish due to an accident).

LE: Do they suggest ways to do that?

Cordeiro and Wood: In Fantastic Voyage, the authors promote lifestyle changes such as a low glycemic index diet, calorie restriction, exercise, drinking green tea and alkaline water, using certain supplements, and other changes in daily routines.

In the continuation of that book, Transcend, Kurzweil and Grossman propose a more complete program in nine steps corresponding to each letter of the word TRANSCEND:

T - Talk with your doctor
R - Relaxation
A - Assessment
N - Nutrition
S - Supplements
C - Calorie Restriction
E - Exercise
N - New Technologies
D – Detoxification

LE: You've discussed that extending human life is possible in coming years. But another question that often arises is whether or not it is ethical.

Cordeiro and Wood: It is not only ethical, but also our moral responsibility. The greatest cause of suffering in the world is aging and the age-related diseases that lead to death. Today, about 150,000 people in the world die every day. Two-thirds of those deaths are due to age-related diseases.

Aging is a tragedy difficult to compare with any other. The great enemy of humanity is death caused by aging.

LE: What is next?

Cordeiro and Wood: We already have reliable evidence that both the control of aging and rejuvenation are possible. Proofs of concept already exist in cells, in tissues, in organs and in model organisms such as yeasts, worms, flies, and mice.

We are witnessing the convergence of scientists, investors, large corporations and small startups working directly on issues of human aging and rejuvenation. We have science, we have money, and we have the ethical responsibility to end the major cause of human suffering.

Despite all the future problems, many of them still unforeseen and even unpredictable, today we can finally see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

If you have any questions on the scientific content of this article, please call a Life Extension Wellness Specialist at 1-866-864-3027.

Excerpted from The Death of Death by Jose Luis Cordeiro and David Wood. Copyright © 2023. Reprinted with permission by Springer.

About the Authors

Jose Luis Cordeiro, PhD, is an engineer, economist, and futurist. He is the founder and president of the World Future Society Venezuela, president of the Venezuela Node of the Millennium Project, and founder and executive director of the Ibero-American Futurists Network. Cordeiro has published more than 10 books.

David Wood is a full-time futurist speaker, analyst, commentator, and writer. He founded the UK-based Transpolitica and was a founding member of the Transhumanist Party UK. Wood is the Principal at Delta Wisdom, an independent futurist consultancy and publisher.