Life extension has been happening since the beginning of mankind. The more appropriate question should be if significant life extension, let's say the opportunity to live 200 years, is achievable during the lifespan of somebody living today. Many transhumanists believe it is, but we need help to prioritize resources (e.g. funding, research) and lead change (e.g. policy, culture), hence why Xanathos was created. ​ I invite you to read this fun Thrilllist article to learn about upcoming breakthroughs that will help you live longer. On The Age of Spiritual Machines (1999), Ray Kurzweil, a Director of Engineering at Google, predicts that by 2099 some humans, at least as old as the Baby Boomers generation, will still be alive and well. While life extension is not a question of if but of when, one sure thing is that life extension will not happen soon enough unless mankind makes achieving it a priority. Minds need to be put to work on the science and technology behind it, society must come around to embrace it and plenty of funding needs to be available.

Mankind has been extending life since we started to exist. That’s why we sow up clothes, discovered fire, crafted tools; built houses, villages and cities; wrote laws; developed vaccines, and today we fight cancer, Alzheimer and other diseases with advanced pharmaceuticals and medical procedures. Even the toothbrush is a life extension invention! From the UN World Population Prospects 2017 report: Substantial improvements in life expectancy have occurred in recent years. Globally, life expectancy at birth has risen from 65 years for men and 69 years for women in 2000-2005 to 69 years for men and 73 years for women in 2010-2015. Nevertheless, large disparities across countries remain. The gap in life expectancy at birth between the least developed countries and other developing countries narrowed from 11 years in 2000-2005 to 8 years in 2010-2015. Although differences in life expectancy across regions and income groups are projected to persist in future years, such differences are expected to diminish significantly by 2045-2050. Full report can be found here. We have actually been extending life all along! Recent and future advancements in science may be able to exponentially increase lifespans, allowing people, for example those born in the 1980's, to live 150 or more. This is why we cannot sit still. This is why we need to take action today and support life extension initiatives like Xanathos.

All religions consistently offer a promise for eternal life, either by resurrection or reincarnation. Based on a comprehensive demographic study of more than 230 countries and territories conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life in 2012, there are 5.8 billion religiously affiliated adults and children around the globe, representing 84% of the 2010 world population of 6.9 billion. The Egyptians believed that if the pharaoh's body could be mummified after death the pharaoh would live forever. The tombs were designed to protect the buried Pharaoh's body and his belongings. That is why they build magnificent pyramids. Based on Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo's Historia general y natural de las Indias (1535) and other accounts, Juan Ponce de León, the first governor of Puerto Rico, was looking for the fountain of youth in the island of Benini in the Bahamas or somewhere in Florida. These are just a few examples of how mankind has and continues to manifest its desire to live forever. It is clear that mankind has always had a strong desire to extend life or even achieve immortality. But to answer the question at a personal level: to us life extension is about spending more quality time with your loved ones and doing the things you enjoy. See your children, grandchildren, and grandchildren's children grow, live and play. Watch the next movie. Read the next book. Listen to the next song. Meet new people. Travel to the next place. Tell a new story. Breathe. Dance. Live. And if for any reason you do not want to live forever, do not worry. There is consensus among transhumanists that life extension will and should be voluntary. The following simple yet powerful animated video published by YouTube user CGP Grey creatively summarizes how we have come to see death as something normal and acceptable, and conveys the urgency we should all feel to significantly extend life.

Similar to all new technologies and medical services quality, there is always the possibility that only a few will be able to afford it, especially in the early stages. New technologies tend to be more expensive in the beginning of their inception to the market, as developers and investors need to recover their initial investment and protect themselves from risks associated to new products. As technology matures costs naturally go down. Examples: The BMW 3-Series automobile was 13% cheaper in 2017 when compared to its price in 1998 (see this Washington Post article for more details). In 1973, Motorola showed off a prototype of the world's first portable cellular telephone, the Motorala DynaTAC 8000X. That phone measured more than a foot long, weighed almost 2 pounds, its memory could store 30 phone numbers, battery life was 1 hour of talk time, and cost $3995! But life extension technologies are not a car or a cell phone. Lives literally depend on them. Be assured that there will be efforts to generate legislation and financial assistance to make sure life extension is available to all, sooner than later. This is why one of Xanathos top priorities is to educate and influence leaders in government, business, education and communities, so we can drive this message together and prioritize resources to achieve life extension sooner, and make it affordable and accessible to all.