Immortality, Inc.: Renegade Science, Silicon Valley Billions, and the Quest to Live Forever

by Chip Walter

Overview

This gripping narrative explores today's scientific pursuit of immortality, with exclusive visits inside Silicon Valley labs and interviews with the visionaries who believe we will soon crack into the aging process and cure death.

We live in an age when billionaires are betting their fortunes on laboratory advances to prove aging unnecessary and death a disease that can be cured. Researchers are delving into the mysteries of stem cells and the human genome, discovering what it means to grow old and how to keep those processes from happening. This isn't science fiction; it's real, it's serious, and it's on track to revolutionize our definitions of life and mortality.

In Immortality, Inc., veteran science journalist Chip Walter gains exclusive access to the champions of this radical cause, delivering a book that brings together for the first time the visions of molecular biologist and Apple chairman Arthur Levinson, genomics entrepreneur Craig Venter, futurist Ray Kurzweil, rejuvenation trailblazer Aubrey de Grey, and stem cell expert Robert Hariri. Along the way, Walter weaves in fascinating conversations about life, death, aging, and the future of the human race.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781426219801
Publisher:	Disney Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/07/2020
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	410,604
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

CHIP WALTER is a science journalist, filmmaker, and former CNN bureau chief whose books include Last Ape Standing and Thumbs, Toes, and Tears. His writing has appeared in The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Scientific American, and National Geographic, to which he contributed the January 2015 cover story "The First Artists." He has been interviewed on "All Things Considered" and Michio Kaku's "Science Fantastic."

Table of Contents

Prologue: Never Say Die 11

Part 1 Need

1 The Big Wait 23

2 Boomers, Breakthroughs, and Fountains of Youth 37

3 The Drive to Survive 43

4 Drool Cups and Name Tags 53

Part 2 Will

5 Calico 61

6 The Dinner 69

7 Levinson 79

8 Kurzweil 89

9 Venter 103

10 A Life Worth Living 109

Part 3 Resources

11 The Human Genome 115

12 The Acceleration of Acceleration 125

13 Life Everlasting 137

14 Don't F*ck Up 149

15 Cage Match 157

16 First Principles 161

17 Human Longevity, Inc. 171

Part 4 Success

18 Cheating Death 185

19 Methuselahs 191

20 The Stars Were Remarkable 201

21 Here Be Dragons 205

22 Everyone Has Seen the Ads 211

23 Wobbling Weebles 223

24 Revolutionizing Medicine 233

25 Super Cells 243

26 The Seed of the Singularity 251

27 The New Oracles 259

28 Would It All Work? 265

29 Plan A 273

30 Unbounding the Future 277

Epilogue: The End of the End 285

Acknowledgments 291

Notes 295

Selected Sources and Suggested Reading 303

Index 315

Editorial Reviews

09/23/2019

Readers will find out where humanity stands in the quest to prolong life and outwit aging in this easy-to-read, journalistic work from Walter (Last Ape Standing), a journalist, documentarian, and former CNN bureau chief. He opens by describing Alcor, an institution dedicated to preserving, and possibly one day resuscitating, the recently deceased. However, his focus is elsewhere—on the goal of avoiding death in the first place. Walter reveals an ongoing effort spearheaded by a group of Baby Boomer Silicon Valley entrepreneurs—Aubrey de Grey, Ray Kurzweil, Art Levinson, Larry Page, and J. Craig Venter, among others. Having arrived at a rejection of death’s inevitability via various paths—computing, medicine, and hard science—together they’ve embraced a view of aging as a disease, and thus as being curable, or even preventable. So far, not much definitive has come out of their efforts, Walter acknowledges, but vast resources have been poured into researching the diseases associated with aging, by looking at DNA, stem cells, and the microbiome. Not deeply technical, Walter’s study works best as an admiring, if sometimes amused, look at these idealistic, possibly overreaching visionaries. His fascinating account will interest those who want to know more about Silicon Valley’s rainmakers, as well as where science now stands on preventing and curing disease. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Artificial intelligence is being heralded as the next big thing, but a cluster of scientists, technologists and investors are aiming higher. In the vernacular of Silicon Valley, where many of them are based, their goal is nothing less than disrupting death, and their story is at the center of “Immortality, Inc.” by science journalist Chip Walter…While “Immortality, Inc.” is focused on aging and the efforts to defy it, the book is also a gripping chronicle of private-sector experimentation and ingenuity in the face of inertia in Washington…An end to aging? Ponce de León would have been impressed.”—Wall Street Journal

"His fascinating account will interest those who want to know more about Silicon Valley’s rainmakers, as well as where science now stands on preventing and curing disease.” –Publishers Weekly

“Chip Walter’s new book is a deep dive into the very real efforts of Silicon Valley-funded scientists to develop therapies that might aid humans in living for hundreds of years and eventually in perpetuity. If Walter’s book is right, humanity may soon strike a profound blow against an adversary that so far still has a perfect record. The same people who disrupted media, commerce, transportation, entertainment, relationships and countless other sectors are now poised to disrupt the Big Sleep.” –San Jose Metroactive
 
“Chip Walter has written an extraordinary book. What a cast. What a story. What a book.”
—William Shatner
 
“Can we live forever? Maybe, maybe not. But either way, you’ll love the book. More than anything, Walter is a first rate story teller. He walks a fine line, delivering excellent science while mesmerizing you with the nitty gritty details behind the histories and personal stories of the book’s main characters. And at bottom are big and universal questions. You’ll never see the question of our mortality in quite the same way after reading this book. And you’ll never be bored.” - Judy Cameron, Professor and Director of the Healthy Brain Aging Workgroup, University of Pittsburgh

“The quest to conquer aging is one of the most extraordinary developments in science today. We may not live to see the end of it, but we can watch the beginning. Immortality, Inc. is a colorful, entertaining, and up-to-date tour of the frontier.” –Jonathan Weiner, [Pulitzer Prize–winning] author of The Beak of the Finch and Long for This World
 
“If you think everybody talks about immortality but few do anything about it, Chip Walter's bold examination of those who do is worth the read.”—Herbert Boyer, co-founder of Genentech, Inc., and professor emeritus, University of California–San Francisco
 
When future generations find themselves living in a world where life spans reach hundreds of years, readers can look back at Walter’s book to see how it all started. This book will age well.”
—Anthony Lake, former National Security Advisor and Executive Director of UNICEF
 
“Chip Walter has written a wickedly compelling account of an endeavor that seems ridiculously far-fetched—until you read it. Then it seems enticingly real. The book reads like a thriller, and has some of the clearest explanations of tough science I’ve ever read. I actually now believe these folks can do something like they imagine. Crazy! Or is it...?”
—Grant Oliphant, president of the Heinz Endowments and author of Ring of Years
 
“I don’t know whether I want to live forever, but in his captivating and informative book, Immortality, Inc., Chip Walter tells us how and when it might just happen. Walter’s crisp, clear, colorful prose and his compelling character portraits transform the illusive and unlikely idea of immortality into a vivid and exciting read.”—Lee Gutkind, editor, of Creative Nonfiction
 
“With a reporter’s energy and curiosity, Chip Walter has pursued . . . the scientists, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, and others who share a conviction, or a hope, that age is a curable disease.” —Jeffrey Frank, author of Ike and Dick: Portrait of a Strange Political Marriage
 
“Chip Walter has a unique talent for using humorous figures of speech and insightful factoids to turn the droll subject of death research into something curious and interesting [and] gives the reader a chance to be a ‘fly on the wall’ in the most important board rooms of Silicon Valley.”
—Martine Rothblatt, creator of Sirius XM and CEO, United Therapeutics Corporation
 

From the Publisher