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Will Billionaires Share Life-Extending Tech With the Rest of Us?
Why a book about cyborgs sparked an existential crisis
I have just finished reading the book “To Be a Machine: Adventures Among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers, and the Futurists Solving the Modest Problem of Death” by journalist Mark O’Connell. I started it on our honeymoon in Santorini where the cyborg-tech-bro narrative felt at odds with my rosé fuelled post-marital euphoria.
In the book, Mark endeavours to enter the inner sanctum of the community dedicated to replicating the brain digitally, becoming one with technology and, by proxy, extending their lifespan indefinitely. For reasons I don’t yet know how to express, it made me feel at times deeply uncomfortable, and at others strangely contemplative about what it means to be human.
More recently, a swathe of billionaires have joined the life extension bandwagon with the likes of Bezos and Larry Page investing billions in anti-ageing organisations Altos Labs and Calico respectively. It is important to note at this point that these organisations are concerned with extending life by 50 to hundreds of years, not tens. There is unquestioningly enormous value in allowing for the trickle effect of technology to take place, perhaps enabling treatment for Alzheimer’s prevention and other age related…
