The Immortality Conundrum

Abstract

Hypothetical future treatments aimed at “rejuvenating” the body, thereby keeping it young and healthy for an indefinite amount of time, could offer a form of biological immortality. This chapter explores whether such immortality would come with downsides that would eventually make it an immoral or an undesirable goal. In order to assess the desirability of an immortal life, a few key questions must be addressed: What would an immortal (or indefinitely long) life look like? What kinds of benefits and downsides would it provide? Some authors have suggested that an indefinitely long life would be unbearably boring, and thus undesirable. It has also been suggested that an individual living an immortal life would not be able to recognize it as belonging to them in particular, or even as a human life at all. This chapter addresses these and other questions about the nature and desirability of an indefinitely long life.