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Breaking the trance? Enabling dissenting views on immortalism.

Article Excerpt
From ancient stories, such as The Epic of Gilgamesh, to modern snake oil merchants and science fiction enthusiasts, humans have long dreamt of overcoming death, or at least putting it off for a few years.* (1) Recent breakthroughs in the understanding of aging have led some to believe that aging can be dramatically slowed, and researchers, such as Cambridge-based Aubrey de Grey, are suggesting that it could be reversed or postponed indefinitely, allowing humans to live for up to several thousand years. (2)

These optimists have spawned a movement of like-minded life extension enthusiasts who call themselves immortalists. The immortalist community is growing steadily as anti-aging breakthroughs and commentary from Aubrey de Grey and other leaders makes headlines in the mainstream press. In de Grey's opinion, people are "beginning to realize that the certainty that aging has always existed and been inevitable is becoming more and more fragile." (3)

Immortalists are working hard to spread the life extension meme and involve more people in the project. Their goal is to elicit support of the mainstream scientific community and close the massive gap between de Grey's predictions of 5000 year lifespans and the more conservative 125-150 year estimates of most biogerentologists. (4) Perhaps their most promising tool in this respect is The Methuselah Mouse Prize, which offers cash bounties for various life extension milestones reached during research on mice. The current prize is...

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