Immortality

Kjetil Rommetveit

pp. 111-126

in: Simen Andersen Øyen, Tone Lund Olsen, Nora Sørensen Vaage (eds), Sacred science?, Wageningen, Wageningen Academic Publishers, 2012

Abstract

A common article of faith in Western civilization has it that there exists, and should exist, a sharp line of demarcation between science and religion. The general progress of the sciences, especially the empirical and experimental, is associated with or even seen as a "cause of", secularization and a general decline in religiousness. This theme is itself a variation of a strong commitment once made in the West: when scientific knowledge increases, faith and superstition decreases. Such views can hardly be attributed to 'science itself" or to "religion itself": many practicing scientists discover God in Nature, and many religious persons take a keen interest in science. Rather, the demarcation of science and religion is an outcome of longlasting efforts and practices intrinsic to Western societies.²⁷ This chapter explores an idea and phenomenon in which spaces between science and religion collapse: immortality. Recent years have seen a renewed turn towards engineered immortality as a serious goal for research and innovation, to the extent that it is becoming a leitmotif for the 21st century. Huge amounts of public and private money have been invested (especially in the US), and researchers have tuned their experiments towards new goals: delayed senescence, anti-aging treatments, cryo-preservation, up-and-down-loading of consciousness to computers and digital networks. The most ardent promoter of engineered immortality, transhumanism,²⁸ is a mixed bunch of social visionaries, techno-prophets, practicing scientists, entrepreneurs, businessmen and policy makers.