The Price of Immortality, Peter Ward
The Price of Immortality, Peter Ward
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The Price of Immortality
The Race to Live Forever

Author: Peter Ward

Narrator: Alex Boyles

Unabridged: 8 hr 50 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/19/2022


Synopsis

An absorbing and revelatory journey into the American Way of defying deathAs longevity medicine revolutionizes the lives of many older people, the quest to take the next step—to live as long as we choose—has spurred a scientific arms race in search of the elixir of life, funded by Big Tech and Silicon Valley.Once the stuff of Mesopotamian mythology and episodes of Star Trek, the effort to make humans immortal is becoming increasingly credible as the pace of technological progress quickens. It has also empowered a wild-eyed fringe of pseudo-scientists, tech visionaries, scam artists, and religious fanatics who have given their lives over to the pursuit of immortality.Starting off at the Church of Perpetual Life in Florida and exploring the feuding subcultures around the cryonics industry, Peter Ward immerses himself into an eccentric world of startups, scam artists, scientific institutions, and tech billionaires to deliver this deeply reported, nuanced, and sometimes very funny exploration of the race for immortality—and the potentially devastating consequences should humanity realize its ultimate dream.

About Peter Ward

Peter Ward studied journalism at the University of Sheffield before moving to Dubai, where he reported on the energy sector. After three years in the Middle East, he earned his master’s degree in business journalism from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. His work has appeared in GQ, Bloomberg, The Economist, and Newsweek. He lives in New York City.

About Alex Boyles

Alex Boyles has been acting pretty much his entire life. He got his BA in theater–acting/directing performance from CSU Long Beach and his MFA in acting performance from Ohio State University. He started narrating audiobooks in 2019 and hasn’t looked back!


Reviews

Goodreads review by Fennix on August 20, 2024

I saw a Forbes review bemoaning how mean this book is to billionaires, so of course I had to read it - many of the books in this genre end up more bootlicking and snake oil than anything else, so it's a refreshing change of pace. First off, know this isn't about philosophy - Ward is first and foremo......more

Goodreads review by Eric on August 20, 2022

Most books I’ve seen about “life extension” and immortality are written by advocates of various ways of living much longer, or even forever. These include Ray Kurzweil, the noted tech guru, and Dave Asprey, the inventor of “bulletproof coffee”, among many others. But this book is different. Ward is......more

Goodreads review by R.M. on June 18, 2022

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found it informative and interesting. Brilliantly researched, I found out things I had never imagined. It's not just about people who want to freeze themselves in the hope they will be thawed out and 'cured' in the future or those providing such services, but delve......more

Goodreads review by Sam on January 30, 2023

"People prefer to die. It is changing now, but it is changing slowly" I've never encountered such an accurate title for a book. This is not about the price of immortality from a philosophical perspective as I was expecting, although the topic is addressed in exciting ways in the final few chapters. I......more

Goodreads review by Eric on February 18, 2023

Fun book, ignoring the childish political rant presented as fact in the last chapter.......more


Quotes

“Obsession with longevity is nothing new, Ward notes, but as science has advanced, ‘immortalists were faced with a scenario most thought would never happen: they might be proved correct’…The writing is vivid and the author favors breadth over depth, making this a great intro to the topic…Those looking to get started on living forever would do well to begin here.” Publishers Weekly