There are many desires that we humans have and death is certainly not one of them. Of course, we are all aware of this inevitability and yet we live like we have all the time in the world.

The thing is, life is fickle and we could be taken away from our loved ones at any time, owing to unnatural causes like diseases or accidents. Even if we are lucky and end up having a normal life, we will still get old and die of old age.

Our biological bodies are literally designed to get old and die. I guess that’s how nature ensures balance where the old perish, making room for newer life to take its place.

We have all seen people in movies trying to conquer death and failing miserably. Such people are often portrayed as villains for trying to break nature’s rule. But what when we try to achieve the same goal ourselves. Right now, some of the best minds are working on methods to increase human lifespan and in the future, we might even reach immortality.

Human Longevity - Already A Reality

Thanks to rapidly advancing technology, human lifespan has already increased a lot in the past century. In 1900, the world average life expectancy at birth was just 31! Compare that to the world average of 71.5 in 2014.

Yes, the lower number a century back was majorly influenced by high infant mortality rate but it was only one factor amongst many. There was a lack of cure for diseases that we now consider common in today’s day and age.

Medical science has surely come a long way, equipping us with tools that help ensure that we live a longer life and are able to fight off diseases. Also, we have cutting edge surgical technology now, the latest of which includes robots performing complex surgery!

So, we have already taken major strides in human longevity and yet, we are just getting started. Longevity is not the final destination. We might one day end up being immortals.

Immortality - A Product In The Future?

Immortality sure sounds like something only a mad scientist would pursue. But so much work is being done on expanding human longevity that directly or indirectly, all of it may lead to us being immortals one day.

By now, I am guessing you must be aware of the development of nanobots that will one day swim in swarms within our body taking care of any ailments whatsoever and continuously repairing our cells and keeping us healthy as long as possible.

Then there are genetic modification technologies which are slowly becoming a reality. Remember I told you that we are designed to get old in the beginning of this post? Yeah, genetic modification will help us change that design if we would so wish to.

Then there will be cures for all the incurable diseases right now. In fact, if genetic modification is mastered, we could virtually be immune to any sort of diseases whatsoever.

Then there are bio-enhancements. Right now these are limited to only some parts of our body but in the not so distant future, we will be able to replace any organ or part of our body with an artificial one which would work just as good and could be replaced any number of times. It would be like upgrading your body parts just like we update our smartphones today!!

And then there is something so crazy and so distant in the future and so far fetched that even talking about it is making me feel a little crazy but nonetheless it is something that is being worked upon. I am talking about downloading your consciousness into a machine (robot for example) and essentially becoming an immortal.

Is It Ethical?

For a second let’s forget about when/if it will ever be possible for us humans to become immortal. Let’s discuss the ethics of such a thing. Immortality means indefinite time and I believe that the only thing that gives meaning to life is the limited time.

First of all, immortality will cause an obvious strain on resources. If everyone becomes immortal and the next generation of people are again immortal, where will we even all fit?

Then there are more abstract problems. What would one even do with an infinite life? When and if we do reach such a stage in our technological innovation, rest assured that the problems plaguing our current civilisation, will have been long solved. Who knows we might not even have to work in the future.

What would one do with such a long and frankly, a life that would get boring after the first 100 years on the planet. In my personal opinion, the only thing that could give meaning to an immortal would be to explore the entirety of the cosmos. Maybe one day we will all be doing just that.