A wild and entertaining adventure into the business of eternal life from 'a rare combination of
academic geek reporter and fluent essayist' Observer 'A fascinating deeply reported
adventure' OLIVER BURKEMAN 'A wonderful read ... an essential parable for our digital times'
KEVIN FONG From the epic of Gilgamesh to the alchemy of the philosopher's stone humanity's
eternal quest for immortality - and its rejuvenation tricks therapies and tinctures - has
always been our most mortal endeavour. But now the giants of invention and investment are
building a fountain of youth of their own creation: one they not only engineer but also own
and control. Death is simply their next problem to solve the latest expression of a hubris
that regards humans as appliances to be fixed and machines to be upgraded. By harnessing
technology to 'cure' ageing and funding cutting-edge - and often controversial - research
today's immortalists are locked in an arms race to be the first to pocket the profits of
longevity. What was once a wild west of experimentation has wormed its way into Washington's
corridors of power. Award-winning broadcaster and academic Aleks Krotoski journeys from those
cult fringes to the heartlands of government to meet the moguls effective altruists
geroscientists and entrepreneurs who are disrupting death. Along the way she encounters radical
life extensionists transfusing their teenage son's blood transhumanists who want to upload
consciousness to the cloud biohackers flogging AI-powered wellness apps and billionaire
kingmakers building brand-new nations. This razor-sharp powerful and at times chilling
investigation empowers us to consider what we lose when death is treated as a glitch asking:
do we really want a handful of Silicon Valley powerbrokers to be the architects of our forever?
