The longevity boom is getting ahead of the science

Basal human desires never change: to be positively unique, sexually desired, to live in luxury, to be popular, to hold power, and finally, to achieve immortality. The idea of eternal life can be found in almost every religious text, and even the world’s oldest surviving literary epic, the Epic of Gilgamesh, contains poems detailing Gilgamesh’s search for immortality after confronting the inevitability of death following the loss of his companion, Enkidu. Nearly 4,000 years later, a hot microphone caught the presidents of Russia and China discussing whether advances in medicine and biotechnology might finally bring humanity closer to that ancient ambition.During the exchange, Russia’s Vladimir Putin spoke about advances in organ transplantation, while China’s Xi Jinping seemed cautiously optimistic, citing predictions that humans would be able to live up to 150 years of age this century. Russia has reportedly directed billions of dollars’ worth of funding towards organ transplantation research and regenerative medicine.In an era where genetic engineering and biological manipulation are possible, where actual artificial intelligence exists and space travel is a reality, how close are...