We’re immortal, you and I. Well, not quite immortal as in “forever,” but if you count nearly a third of the age of the universe as forever, yes, we’re immortal. And when I say “we,” I don’t mean our bodies, what we usually think of as our selves. Along with all multicellular organisms, we consist essentially of two types of cells: germ and somatic. German biologist August Weisman pioneered the dichotomy 200 years ago.
Our germ cells have lived for around 4 billion years through countless bodies prior to the ones we’re now in. Every creature now living is the product of an unbroken line that stretches back to the first organism to appear on Earth, dubbed LUCA for Last Universal Common Ancestor. Meanwhile, biologists cite the Theory of Disposable Soma: Once we’ve reproduced, our bodies are dead weight, flesh and blood consuming precious resources. Before reproduction, the one essential job of our soma is to carry the germ plasm safely, feeding and protecting it before mingling it with germ plasm from the opposite sex.
All of which doesn’t stop wealthy tech bros like Peter Diamandis and Ray Kurzweil from trying to game the system, looking for ways for their somas to dodge the inevitable and live kinda-sorta forever. As a species, we’re actually doing pretty well, on average doubling lifespans since 1900, thanks mainly to vaccinations, antibiotics and sanitation. But, according to realists (or pessimists if you’re in the Diamandis-Kurzweil camp), we’re close to the biological limit of aging. Only one human is known for sure to have lived over 120 years.
Which is bad news, even if you’re a billionaire. True, America’s richest live about 12 years longer than the poorest, but there may be only so much tech can do to increase that. For one thing, the bros — virtually all the longevity enthusiasts are male — are up against the gender issue: Women live seven years longer than men (although they spend a greater portion of their lives in poor health). But life-extension enthusiasts are thinking about much more than closing that seven-year gap; they’re thinking in terms of centuries … or more.
Anti-aging approaches currently being investigated — or embraced if you’re in the “live forever” set — run the gamut from the obvious (vitamin supplements, exercise, eight hours sleep, weight control, meat-free diet) to exotic and expensive “biohacks.” Today, these include plasma exchange, personalized immune therapies, stem cell injections, telomere rejuvenation, rapamycin, metaformin and much more.
But perhaps the future of longevity lies in another direction, beyond biology. If the goal is preservation of consciousness, rather than one’s entire body, nanotechnology may be the answer. In a recent New Yorker article, nanotechnologist Michael Andregg of Eon Systems predicted that scans of human brains, based on subtle bioelectric signals, will result in digital brains waking up in the cloud: “This is a whole new body, a whole new brain — this is transcendence!” he gushes. I think his optimism may be premature (read: absurd) given our brain’s hundred billion neurons, each connected by axons to thousands of other neurons.
Meanwhile, the skeptic in me wonders, But what’s it all for? We’re the only species with an awareness of death, which surely gives lives meaning, each day offering an opportunity to appreciate the statistical unlikeliness of just being here. Or as the late biologist and author Lewis Thomas put it, “You’d think the mere fact of existing would keep us all in a contented dazzlement of surprise.”
Barry Evans (he/him, barryevans9@yahoo.com, planethumboldt.substack.com) considers anything over 80 a bonus to be thankful for. Every day.
This article appears in The Stopwatch.