When Will Immortality Be Possible?

There is no bigger problem on planet Earth today than age-related death. Pandemics, genocides, wealth disparity, systematic torture — all of these pale in ethical comparison to the pure suffering that billions of sentient beings have gone through as a result of merely living to their expiration dates.

Yuval Harari, historian and author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, is famous for stating the following:

The leading project of the Scientific Revolution is to give humankind eternal life.

Many leading scientists and futurologists agree. Alleviating or completely eliminating the age burden would bring unprecedented social and economic prosperity, and significantly reduce world suffering.

So when will immortality be possible? No one knows for sure — but the best place to start is by averaging the top predictions from leaders in the field.

The leading (and most distinctive) biogerontologist today, Aubrey De Grey believes that robust human rejunevation (effective biological immortality), will be here by 2037. Once robust human rejuvenation becomes widespread, human beings will age slower than technology develops to combat it — at this point, we’ll be effectively immortal.

Average Immortality Date: 2037

Dr. Pearson, leading scientists and futurologist, thinks humans will achieve effective immortality by the year 2050 through cybernetic integration. He believes robotics and electronics are the most optimal path to an immortal future.

Average Immortality Date: 2043

Ray Kurzweil, author of The Age of Intelligent Machines and likely the most famous name in futurology today, predicts that by 2045, humanity will be “adding more than a year every year to your life expectancy”. This will render us effectively immortal.

Average Immortality Date: 2044

Patrick Tucker is a spokesperson for the World Future Society. He claimed that the convergence of “genetics, biotechnology, and artificial intelligence will expand human intelligence and allow our species to essentially defeat death”.

Average Immortality Date: 2061

Terry Grossman, medical doctor and esteemed colleague of Ray Kurzweil’s, also predicts immortality by 2045. He backs up his claims through years of anti-aging research and directed medicine.

Average Immortality Date: 2057

The problem with estimating immortality is that even in 2057, no one will know concretely whether aging has been fully eliminated or merely postponed.

As centenarians grow more common, evidence will certainly tend to the former — but a cornerstone of the scientific method is the inability to outright prove a hypothesis one way or another.

Either way, our species certainly won’t help immortality arrive any sooner by sitting around and waiting for it. The future doesn’t happen to us — it happens because of us. It’s imperative that we take action, whether through science or awareness, to help the tragedy of age-related suffering come to an end.

So spread the word! Join a laboratory. Donate to research that you find appealing!

Do something — so that one day, you and the rest of the world can do anything.