Whether or not immortality is possible, whether or not one would like it for oneself, it’s important to keep in mind that it is not what biomedical research against ageing is about.
When doing science, it is crucially important to have clear, unambiguous definitions. These definitions must be firmly established to avoid confusion and misunderstandings and possibly to prevent people from going around telling everyone that you’re working on something that you’re actually not.
The I-word
It’s not uncommon, especially for outsiders of a given field, to use an inappropriate word to indicate a more complex concept than the word itself conveys—maybe because they think that the two are close enough or possibly because they just don’t see the difference.
Yes, it is hard to grasp the meaning of “to live forever” much less a few centuries. But I do believe humans will one day live a very much longer lifespan than imagined by many today.
I agree it would seem nice to be able to terminate at any juncture by choice, but then, maybe we wouldn’t want a termination button laying around for some undesirable happenstance.…..
I have interviewed David Wood, Aubrey de Grey and Liz Parrish for my Seeking Delphi podcast. At no time did any of them use the word “immortal.” Never mind the fact that there may be limits to rejuvenation–there will still be accidents, war, natural disasters and infectious diseases. Lifespan might become indefinite, but it won’t be forever.