The Immortal Lab: Is Our Quest for Longevity Just Alchemy in Disguise?
The search for immortality reminds me of the centuries-old pursuit of alchemy. Instead of turning lead into gold, we aim to turn our mortal bodies, long insulted by nature, into gleaming, immortal beings. In the eyes of the medieval alchemist, lead was not a fixed element but simply "sick" or "immature" gold. Hence the pursuit of the Philosopher’s Stone by many serious people in the Middle Ages. If it could cure the "sickness" of metals, they reasoned, why could it not also cure the ailments of the human body? Even Isaac Newton, the serious person’s serious person, spent much of his life in private study of alchemical manuscripts, viewing the Stone as a key to understanding the universe.
Other notable scientists in the past also hoped that death would be defeated. Many times, experts during the Scientific Revolution compared the body to a machine. Francis Bacon believed the prolongation of life to be the "noblest" objective of science, rejecting the notion that aging was inevitable. Descartes took this further with his "beast-machine" idea, arguing that if the body is simply a complex mechanism, its failure is only a matter of worn-out parts that can be re-engineered and repaired.
Another movement that captured the imagination of those seeking immortality was "vitalism," the belief that life was driven by a fundamental force or "vital heat." This led to practices like shunamitism, where the elderly would sleep next to the young in hopes of receiving their vitality. (No way this could go wrong, right?) Even though the idea that youth is a transferable thing seems outlandish today, it did set the stage for some useful modern medical concepts, such as experiments involving young blood plasma transfusions.
Yet there is nothing new under the sun. When I think of all the health supplements out there with claims supported only by the charisma of their purveyors, I can’t help but think of the pursuit of alchemy centuries ago. What else would you call using AI for drug research? The end result is a kind of Elixir of Life, a seemingly magic potion to keep one alive for centuries. And don’t forget chemical programming and the clearing of cellular “zombies” (more about this in the next post). I’m sure the Philosopher’s Stone, if ever found, would do all this but would have the good taste to spare us the technical jargon.
Of course, when I look at the condition of my biological vessel, abused by decades of fast food, I don’t know if it can be saved. But hope remains eternal, and I’ll investigate the latest breakthroughs in alchemy—err, the scientific research of immortality—in the next post.