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The yearning for immortality dates back at least to ancient times. As human brain size increased rapidly over the past million years, our ancestors began to think increasingly about the inevitability of death and the redemptive possibility of everlasting life. Ancient pharaohs, queens, and kings used every means to ensure their vestigial persistence through future ages. They had themselves enshrined in legends, songs, and poems; they had their remains preserved in vast pyramids.

Part of the reason for that yearning may lie in the fact that people already live so long and with such self-awareness. Our species is distinctive in its ability to remember and to predict future events based upon past experience. Before the invention of writing, and even afterward, reliable predictions required the presence of memories in a living person. People well past their reproductive years could add value to their tribe by remembering early warning signs of rare phenomena, such as drought, locusts, and disease.

In modern times our learning extends even further. It includes postdoctoral studies and on-the-job training that may continue well into our 60s. Like our ancient predecessors, we enshrine the most important bits of our collective knowledge, only in more sophisticated embodiments: scientific publications, books, music, video, websites. Nevertheless, when people die, their wisdomthe memories and mental processes that produced that knowledgedies too.

Throughout history, death was associated with assaults, sickness, and privation. Now an increasingly common cause of death is aging. As the wealth of nations increases and exposure to toxins and infectious agents drops, aging will become the cause of most disease, debility, and death. At the same time, many more people will remain active beyond the age of 100. So, beyond the fear of death, there are practical reasons to explore extending our healthy years.

Scientists have much to learn from the longest-lived humans, many of whom will have their DNA sequenced in the next two years. The effort to extend lifeand, even more, to extend lifes youthful, vigorous phaseis a clear opportunity for synthetic biology, the technique of extensively engineering the genome. [George Church is a leading researcher in this emerging field.] The cure for aging will probably require a thorough redo of our genome.

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The Recipe For Immortality | DISCOVER