Chasing Immortality the Technology of Eternal Life: an Interview with Ray Kurzweil by Craig Hamilton
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Magazine Reprint Series Chasing Immortality The Technology of Eternal Life: An Interview with Ray Kurzweil by Craig Hamilton Issue 30 Autumn 2005 © 2005 EnlightenNext Media www.wie.org PO Box 2360, Lenox, MA 01240 USA 800.376.3210 The Mission of What Is Enlightenment? magazine What Is Enlightenment? is dedicated to a revolution in human consciousness and human culture. Guided by the always- evolving vision of founder Andrew Cohen, whose tireless passion for spiritual inquiry continues to push the edge of contemporary thinking, we are in search of a radical new moral and philosophical architecture for twenty-first-century society. We believe that finding this framework for transfor- mation—rooted in the timeless revelation of enlightenment, reaching toward a truly coherent ethics for the postmodern world—is imperative, not only for the evolution of our spe- cies, but for our very survival. By asking the hard questions of the new science and the ancient traditions, of art and cul- ture, of business and politics, What Is Enlightenment? seeks to create a dynamic context for conscious engagement with the greatest challenges of our times, a groundwork for the ongoing liberation of human potential. CChasinghasing Immortality The Technology of 58 What Is Enlightenment? www.wie.org jj_30_kurzwiel_james3.indd_30_kurzwiel_james3.indd 5858 77/11/05/11/05 22:10:57:10:57 PMPM DO YOU WANT TO LIVE FOREVER? Chasing IImmortalitymmortality Eternal Life: An Interview with Ray Kurzweil by Craig Hamilton September-November 2005 59 jj_30_kurzwiel_james3.indd_30_kurzwiel_james3.indd 5959 77/11/05/11/05 22:12:24:12:24 PMPM The allure of eternal life has been tugging at the human imagination since we fi rst began to contemplate our fi nitude. From the Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest known literary work on earth to the Taoist cult of immortality to Ponce de Leon’s quest for the elixir of unending youth, the eration and decay that have haunted What would a person be without the desire to free ourselves from the Grim humanity for millennia to a screech- confrontation with mortality that has Reaper’s grasp has proven as persis- ing halt. Soon. defi ned life and culture as we know tent as the force it aspires to coun- How soon? According to Kurzweil, it? And as much as we all run from ter. But although we may have been two or three decades looks like the death, are we sure that doing away inspired to hear of Himalayan yogis magic number. And for him, and other with it would be a good thing? What who have been alive for centuries and aging boomers, the million-dollar would become of the fi rst species to although our collective obsession with question is: Will he be around and break the death barrier? When con- health, fi tness, and increased longev- in good health when the fountain of fronted with a prospect as radical ity seems to be at an all-time high, at youth fi nally starts fl owing? This is as immortality, questions like these the dawn of the twenty-fi rst century, where the subtitle of his book comes start to beg for answers. And given even the most optimistic among us in. Living “long enough to live forever,” the possibility that we might actu- have probably never seriously con- it turns out, may require a bit more ally be the fi rst generation in his- sidered the possibility that death than simply eating your vegetables and tory with the luxury of having to ask could become optional. Indeed, in an not smoking (although that’s defi nitely them, there are many who feel that increasingly chaotic and unpredictable a start). For Kurzweil, building the we might do well to give them some world, it sometimes seems like our “fi rst bridge” to radical life extension thought before we proceed much fur- mortality is one of the few things that means a radical shift in diet, a heavy ther down the road to Shangri-la. we can still be sure of. supplementation regimen (he takes But that isn’t stopping Kurzweil. Ray Kurzweil is determined 250 supplements a day), and regular Nor does it appear to be slowing him to change all that. In the book he checkups and rejuvenation treatments down. Widely regarded as one of recently coauthored with Terry to slow the aging process as much today’s leading futurists and inno- Grossman, Fantastic Voyage: Live Long as possible using today’s technology vators (winner of the prestigious Enough to Live Forever, the award- (and, of course, regular exercise and National Medal of Technology, his winning inventor and futurist lays out low-stress living). But even Kurzweil’s inventions include the fi rst read- a vision of “the science behind radical “longevity program” is, he admits, only ing machine for life extension” that makes most sci- a modest stay against the inevitable. the blind and the ence fi ction writers seem short on With a little luck, though, it will be fi rst synthesizer Our aim is imagination. And he’s not alone. Over enough to keep him kicking until the to duplicate the the past few decades, a growing body “second and third bridges”—biotech- sound of a grand piano), his unbridled of research into the aging process nology and nanotechnology, respec- enthusiasm for the omnipotence of has been accumulating in laborato- tively—emerge to secure him his place technology to surmount any obstacle ries around the world. And among in eternity. it confronts has him ready to embrace the more ambitious of the scientists Are human beings really ready whatever the future may bring. If even involved, there is, believe it or not, an to live forever? Do we have the psy- one-tenth of what he predicts comes increasing optimism about the poten- chological and spiritual resources to true, it will be the end of life—and tial of actually bringing the seemingly deal with such a profound shift in the death—as we’ve known it. irreversible mechanisms of degen- very fundaments of our existence? 60 What Is Enlightenment? www.wie.org jj_30_kurzwiel_james3.indd_30_kurzwiel_james3.indd 6060 77/11/05/11/05 22:12:59:12:59 PMPM DO YOU WANT TO LIVE FOREVER? WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT: In your new book, you assert that in nanotechnology revolutions come to fruition. Our aim is to live the not-too-distant future, we’ll have the capacity to extend long enough to live forever. the human life span indefi nitely. How long do you think we can expect to live? WIE: You’ve been following your own “bridge-one longevity program” for several years now. Do you have any indications RAY KURZWEIL: One analogy that life extension researcher that it’s working? Aubrey de Grey uses is, “How long does a house last? If you take care of the house diligently, and quickly address any prob- KURZWEIL: When I was forty, I took these biological aging tests lem that comes up, the house can last indefi nitely. If you don’t that measure forty or fi fty different biochemical indicators, and take care of it, it won’t last very long.” The reason that analogy I came out with a biological age of about thirty-eight. I’m now fails in regard to our own bodies is that we don’t yet under- fi fty-seven, and last year I came out at forty, so I’ve only aged a stand all the methods and we don’t have all the maintenance couple of years in the last sixteen years. That does refl ect how tools for our bodies like we do for houses. We fully understand I feel and look. I’ve overcome a major predisposition to diabe- how a house works, because we engineered the concept of a tes—I was actually diagnosed with it twenty-two years ago, but house. We don’t yet have all that information about our bodies as a result of using basically natural methods to reprogram my and brains, and we don’t have all the tools. But we will have biochemistry, I now have no indication of it. I also had a pre- them within twenty to twenty-fi ve years, so we will be able to disposition to heart disease. My father died at fi fty-eight of that indefi nitely maintain our bodies—and even anticipate, before disease, but I’ve never had it. So I have a completely different they occur, the kinds of issues that now cause us to age and biochemistry than I would otherwise have. die. We’re talking about putting your life into your own hands rather than leaving it in the metaphorical hands of fate. WIE: Can you give an example of what you mean by bridge one, of how we can extend the life span using our current WIE: How is science going to bring this about? medical knowledge? KURZWEIL: Terry Grossman and I have described what we call KURZWEIL: One aging process that we can control right now the “three bridges” to radical life extension. Bridge one has to has to do with the loss of phosphatidylcholine in our cell do with taking full advantage of today’s knowledge of biology in membranes. The cell membrane is typically sixty percent or order to dramatically slow down aging and disease processes. more phosphatidylcholine in a young person, but it can be This will enable us to stay in as good a shape as possible for when down to ten percent in the elderly, in whom it gets replaced bridge-two technologies become available.