Against the backdrop of the latest biotechnological achievements, for some, death is no longer considered an inevitable fate. The topic of immortality became even more relevant after the conversation between China\u2019s leader Xi Jinping and Russia\u2019s President Vladimir Putin about rejuvenation strategies was made public.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the development of biotechnology, the constant transplantation of human organs may become possible, people may be rejuvenated more and more, and even achieve immortality,\u201d Putin told Xi Jinping. He also added that there is a chance to live up to 150 years. But is this truly possible, and what would it mean for the world if authoritarian rulers were to live forever?<\/p>\n
How is immortality imagined?<\/strong><\/p>\n Over the last few centuries, public health and medical innovations have increased human life expectancy (longevity) to an unprecedented level. Despite these achievements, for a group of Silicon Valley billionaire investors and technologists\u2014known as the Immortalists\u2014biological death is no longer regarded as an unavoidable destiny. Their vision includes solving the problem of aging (treating ageing as a disease) and achieving eternal life, for which they push global infrastructure change and technological accelerationism.<\/p>\n Within the pursuit of immortality, several major and conceptually different directions can be observed:<\/p>\n Technological singularity and post-human existence<\/strong> Slowing down aging through technological progress<\/strong> Moore\u2019s Law, proposed by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, states that the number of transistors on a microchip roughly doubles every two years, leading to exponential growth in computing power. A similar model of exponential growth is imagined in medicine and biotechnology.<\/p>\n The idea is that if scientific and technological progress accelerates the development of anti-aging treatments to the extent that every year the increase in life expectancy exceeds biological aging (e.g., each year adding more than 365 days of life), humanity will reach the point where all age-related diseases (dementia, diabetes, cancer) are curable before they appear. Thus, aging could be slowed, stopped, or even reversed, resulting in dramatic life extension.<\/p>\n Political and legal infrastructure changes<\/strong> Prominent figures in this direction\u2014including major investors and tech entrepreneurs\u2014seek to weaken state oversight. Their primary target is regulatory bodies such as the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration). The goal is simple: to accelerate the market release of anti-aging treatments, including those still unproven but promising.<\/p>\n Thus, they aim to create an environment for the privileged, where cutting-edge life extension methods are available to the wealthy elite, effectively accelerating the creation of a \u201cfountain of eternal life\u201d for only the chosen few.<\/p>\n The ethical dilemma<\/strong> Critics argue that this is a mistake, since technologists ignore the complexity of human nature and social determinants. The human body is not a product or computer code that can be endlessly \u201cimproved\u201d and regulated. Therefore, the ambition to defeat death requires humans to become more like machines, which risks the loss of human essence.<\/p>\n Added to this philosophical problem is a sharp social dilemma: the exacerbation of global inequality. Implementing this agenda requires the concentration of state resources on research, meaning funding would be restricted for healthcare programs for millions of elderly citizens. If life-extension therapies remain expensive and exclusive, this will cause a \u201cbiological class divide.\u201d The wealthy elite may be able to \u201cescape\u201d death, while the majority of the population remains trapped by the old biological laws.<\/p>\n This risk is especially significant in the political context: if authoritarian rulers such as Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin obtain biological means of immortality, it would lead to the permanent consolidation of power and make any political change an irrevocable obstacle. In the end, the Immortalists are creating a future where people are considered nothing more than complex machines that can be repaired. Our choice is whether to embrace this ideology, or to prioritize the mortal reality of life here and now, where social equality matters more than the eternal life of the elites.<\/p>\n Source: The Guardian<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Against the backdrop of the latest biotechnological achievements, for some, death is no longer considered an inevitable fate. The topic of immortality became even more relevant after the conversation between China\u2019s leader Xi Jinping and Russia\u2019s President Vladimir Putin about rejuvenation strategies was made public. \u201cWith the development of biotechnology, the constant transplantation of human […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6098,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1594,1659],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-technologies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6110"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6111,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6110\/revisions\/6111"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThis approach, often associated with transhumanism, rests on the belief of highly intellectual, mathematically minded philosophers and computer scientists in the life-extending potential of technology.<\/p>\n\n
\nThis concept, based on biogerontology, aims to maximize both lifespan and healthspan.<\/p>\n\n
\nThe third major dimension of the immortality project focuses not only on biological experiments but also on altering political and legal infrastructure. This approach is driven by techno-libertarian ideology, which demands the removal of global governance and regulatory barriers.<\/p>\n
\nDespite the Immortalists\u2019 vision, which is oriented toward technological singularity and deregulation, their project faces serious ethical and scientific criticism. Many scientists involved in biogerontology, including Nobel laureates, criticize the engineering approach that treats aging as merely a \u201ctechnical problem\u201d that can be \u201cfixed\u201d through technology.<\/p>\n