Book Review: The Immortalists

Written by: Duncan B. on 1 April 2026

(Photo supplied)

Aleks Krotoski is a psychologist, academic, broadcaster and journalist who has been reporting on technology for over 25 years. In her book The Immortalists -The Death of Death and the Race For Eternal Life she takes us into a world where what was once science fiction is becoming a reality.

Since ancient times people have dreamed of finding a way to defeat the ravages of old age and keep death at bay, possibly forever. The search for eternal life was once the realm of magicians and alchemists. Modern day magicians and alchemists are striving to develop treatments which will slow down, reverse or even stop the ageing process so that people will be able to live much longer. Many of these treatments have little scientific basis and would be unlikely to get approval by regulatoryauthorities.

If you think that this is crazy, the even crazier and disturbing part is that the many millions of dollars needed for this research are largely being provided by the same tech billionaires who are behind AI. People such as Musk, Bezos, Altman and Thiel. They are transhumanists, who believe that technology must be used to enhance the body and mind towards immortality.

They believe AI is going to give us everlasting life when we merge ourselves with superintelligent AI to form a singular, post-human artificially intelligent entity. This event is known as the Singularity. What will happen when this occurs, no one can predict, but the transhumanist creators of AI are rushing forward in their race to be the first, irrespective of the consequences for humanity.

They are giving no thought to what society would be like with a larger number of older people, for example the effect on medical and aged care services and
government expenditure on pensions.

Krotoski says, “the developers, the funders, the Silicon Valley machine are preaching a total upheaval of humanity. They say that their tools must be prioritised above all. And because they feel they’ve already disrupted everything else, now they believe they have the power to disrupt death.”

AI is something that affects the whole of humanity. It should not be left in the hands of the deranged megalomaniacs of Silicon Valley.

Print Version - new window Email article

-----