The Immortalists

A wild and entertaining adventure into the business of eternal life from ''a rare combination of academic, geek, reporter and fluent essayist'' Observer From the epic of Gilgamesh to the alchemy of the philosopher''s stone, humanity''s eternal quest for immortality - and its rejuvenation tricks, therapies and tinctures - has always been our most mortal endeavour. But now the giants of invention and investment are building a fountain of youth of their own creation: one they not only engineer, but also own and control. Death is simply their next problem to solve, the latest expression of a hubris that regards humans as appliances to be fixed and machines to be upgraded. By harnessing technology to ''cure'' ageing, and funding cutting-edge - and often controversial - research, today''s immortalists are locked in an arms race to be the first to pocket the profits of longevity. What was once a wild west of experimentation has wormed its way into Washington''s corridors of power. Award-winning broadcaster and academic Aleks Krotoski journeys from those cult fringes to the heartlands of government to meet the moguls, effective altruists, geroscientists and entrepreneurs who are disrupting death. Along the way she encounters radical life extensionists transfusing their teenage son''s blood, transhumanists who want to upload consciousness to the cloud, biohackers flogging AI-powered wellness apps and billionaire kingmakers building brand-new nations. This razor-sharp, powerful and at times chilling investigation empowers us to consider what we lose when death is treated as a glitch, asking: do we really want a handful of Silicon Valley powerbrokers to be the architects of our forever?

Autorentext
Dr Aleks Krotoski is an award-winning international broadcaster, author and academic. She has topped the ratings for the BBC and Channel 4, winning Emmy, BAFTA, Radio Academy and Royal Society awards, and has written and presented landmark technology and social science series for both radio (with BBC Radio 4's The Artificial Human and The Digital Human) and international television (with BBC World's The Virtual Revolution). Krotoski has held fellowships at the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics and received an honorary doctorate from the Open University. She currently teaches at NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

Klappentext

What does it mean for us all when death is treated as a glitch and Silicon Valley invests in the "science" of eternal life?

Telegraph Book of the Year

'A fascinating, deeply reported adventure' Oliver Burkeman
'Riveting' Daily Mail
'Utterly compelling' New Statesman
'Brilliantly troubling ... eye-opening, entertaining' New Scientist

From the epic of Gilgamesh to the alchemy of the philosopher's stone, humanity's eternal quest for immortality - and its rejuvenation tricks, therapies and tinctures - has always been our most mortal endeavour.

But now the giants of invention and investment are building a fountain of youth of their own creation: one they not only engineer, but also own and control. Death is simply their next problem to solve, an expression of a hubris that regards humans as appliances to be fixed and machines to be upgraded. By harnessing technology to 'cure' ageing, and funding cutting-edge - and often controversial - research, today's immortalists are locked in an arms race to pocket the profits of longevity.

What was once a wild west of experimentation has wormed its way into Washington's corridors of power. Award-winning broadcaster and academic Aleks Krotoski journeys from cult fringes to the heartlands of government to meet the moguls, effective altruists, geroscientists and entrepreneurs who are disrupting death. Along the way she encounters radical life extensionists transfusing their teenage son's blood, transhumanists who want to upload consciousness to the cloud, biohackers flogging AI-powered wellness apps and billionaire kingmakers building brand-new nations.

This razor-sharp investigation asks: do we really want a handful of Silicon Valley powerbrokers to be the architects of our forever?

'Entertaining and insightful' Financial Times
'Brilliant' Miranda Sawyer