Why Immortality Matters To You by Carl Carlyle - Essay

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Why Immortality Matters To You

(Co-written with Dinorah Delfin)

Soon, it is likely that you will find yourself cruising down a highway in a self-driving car and noticing a billboard urging you to support transhumanist technologies or a political candidate supporting life extension research.

As we develop new hopes and narratives for the future, publications like Immortalists Magazine strive to make conversations about life extension and transhumanism, widely accessible so that our vision for a healthier future is possible.

Throughout history, the notion of immortality, or finding the secret to the fountain of youth, has been man’s most coveted dream.

Underlying all scientific, spiritual, and religious beliefs is our deep desire to survive. In other words, survival is the primary motivator of all human activity.

Our survival instincts created our seemingly immortal mind, and today, this eternal mind is solving the mysteries of our biology so that we can extend healthy life beyond our few mortal decades.

Evolving our species to live for hundreds of years with the biological health of a 25-year-old person is expected to become one of the most controversial and debated topics in contemporary politics and everyday life.

Many politicians have given their support to longevity research. Including American gerontologist Dr. Robert Butler, of the National Institute of Aging, who was in correspondence with the Human Genome Project to learn about the DNA of aging, and all other diseases, for his research on healthy aging.

As a former publicist for the Committee on Anti-Aging Research, I arranged a meeting in 1979 with Dr. Butler, Dr. Ronald Bennett, and the then Mayor of Los Angeles, Tom Bradley, to support our research.

Below is a letter from Mayor Bradley, dated March 15th, 1979, which states the following: