Portal To Immortality
Immortality – just the way the word rolls off the tongue is seductive enough to make us lust after its secrets. Since the ancient times, from the philosophers of Greece and the alchemists of Persia to the Dao scholars of China and the Rasayān sages of India, the quest for immortality has been regarded as the pinnacle of scientific pursuits. Even though the original essence of the quest had been set aside in favour of more practical sciences in the modern times, it clearly has not been forgotten. For there is now a pill being developed that may rewrite our concept of the typical human lifespan.
Dr. Nir Barzilai is leading a team of scientists at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York to research the possibilities of a pill that may extend human lifespan to 100 years or at least inhibit the onset of illnesses associated with aging. The research was initiated when three “super-genes” were determined by scientists to be essential to longevity.
One of the genes minimizes the risk of diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease while the remaining two are responsible for producing “good cholesterol”, thus providing a balance against “bad cholesterol” so as to prevent the danger of heart disease. Studies have shown that “people born with the genes are 20 times more likely to reach a century – and 80 per cent less likely to develop the senility disease Alzheimer’s”. (DailyExpress.co.uk)
Dr. Barzilai’s team is aiming for the pill to mimic the mechanics of the genes. He states that, “The advantage of finding a gene that involves longevity is we can develop a drug that will imitate what this gene is doing. If we can imitate that, then long life can be terrific.” (DailyExpress.co.uk). They estimate that it will take three years before they can start to conduct tests.
These are clearly quite ambitious claims and it remains to be seen whether they will be validated in the next few decades. However, if the pill is really able to successfully replicate these super-genes without any side effects, it could be the first significant step to perfecting the much-coveted “Elixir of Immortality”. And if such an elixir finally comes to fruition, the most difficult question would be: “To take or not to take?”
I am not shunning the possibility of any cures for the aging ailments. Hell, I would take the cure in a heartbeat if it positively guarantees that I will remain strong and healthy throughout my old age. But what if you are offered genuine immortality? What if you are presented with a chance to truly lock your physical prime in a stasis state from Time for all of eternity?
You would never suffer from any sicknesses or diseases. A pandemic could sweep across the world, but you would stroll around without batting an eye, completely immune. Nothing could harm you. A whirlwind of swords could slice you to ribbons or a hail of bullets could puncture your every organ, but you would get right back up to your feet as the wounds close themselves up within seconds. You would be invincible because there is absolutely no way you could die. Knowing that, you could do anything you ever dreamed to do and visit every part of Earth multiples of instances. You have all the time in the world.
Years turn into decades and decades grind into centuries. Yet, you still do not appear a single day older than that fateful day when you embraced immortality. You have made countless of friends, fallen in love after love, started families, and watched them all grow old and eventually pass away so that you could start the painful process all over again. Cities boomed and became ghost towns; nations grouped and regrouped; empires rose and collapsed. Everyone and everything kept changing and following the natural order of Time – except for you.
One day, you decide that you have had enough. You scream to the heavens and beg for an end to the endless cycle of isolation and despair. But your cries are only met with silence…for immortality is irreversible.
I have always struggled with this question and honestly, I do not know whether I would embrace immortality or not – I am simultaneously fascinated and fearful of it. I guess it depends on the circumstances I find myself in at the moment I am presented with the choice.
Nonetheless, there is no doubt that although the first few centuries or perhaps even the first millennium of immortality may be exhilarating, loneliness and despondency would eventually engulf the rest of an immortal’s eternal life. Because it is our very mortality that drives the human spirit and when that is removed, we lose our humanity.
