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The Immortalists: The Death of Death and the Race for Eternal Life
What does it mean for us all when death is treated as a glitch and Silicon Valley invests in the “science” of eternal life?
Telegraph Book of the Year
'A fascinating, deeply reported adventure' Oliver Burkeman
'Riveting' Daily Mail
'Utterly compelling' New Statesman
'Brilliantly troubling ... eye-opening, entertaining' New Scientist
From the epic of Gilgamesh to the alchemy of the philosopher’s stone, humanity’s eternal quest for immortality – and its rejuvenation tricks, therapies and tinctures – has always been our most mortal endeavour.
But now the giants of invention and investment are building a fountain of youth of their own one they not only engineer, but also own and control. Death is simply their next problem to solve, an expression of a hubris that regards humans as appliances to be fixed and machines to be upgraded. By harnessing technology to ‘cure’ ageing, and funding cutting-edge – and often controversial – research, today’s immortalists are locked in an arms race to pocket the profits of longevity.
What was once a wild west of experimentation has wormed its way into Washington’s corridors of power. Award-winning broadcaster and academic Aleks Krotoski journeys from cult fringes to the heartlands of government to meet the moguls, effective altruists, geroscientists and entrepreneurs who are disrupting death. Along the way she encounters radical life extensionists transfusing their teenage son’s blood, transhumanists who want to upload consciousness to the cloud, biohackers flogging AI-powered wellness apps and billionaire kingmakers building brand-new nations.
This razor-sharp investigation do we really want a handful of Silicon Valley powerbrokers to be the architects of our forever?
'Entertaining and insightful' Financial Times
'Brilliant' Miranda Sawyer
Telegraph Book of the Year
'A fascinating, deeply reported adventure' Oliver Burkeman
'Riveting' Daily Mail
'Utterly compelling' New Statesman
'Brilliantly troubling ... eye-opening, entertaining' New Scientist
From the epic of Gilgamesh to the alchemy of the philosopher’s stone, humanity’s eternal quest for immortality – and its rejuvenation tricks, therapies and tinctures – has always been our most mortal endeavour.
But now the giants of invention and investment are building a fountain of youth of their own one they not only engineer, but also own and control. Death is simply their next problem to solve, an expression of a hubris that regards humans as appliances to be fixed and machines to be upgraded. By harnessing technology to ‘cure’ ageing, and funding cutting-edge – and often controversial – research, today’s immortalists are locked in an arms race to pocket the profits of longevity.
What was once a wild west of experimentation has wormed its way into Washington’s corridors of power. Award-winning broadcaster and academic Aleks Krotoski journeys from cult fringes to the heartlands of government to meet the moguls, effective altruists, geroscientists and entrepreneurs who are disrupting death. Along the way she encounters radical life extensionists transfusing their teenage son’s blood, transhumanists who want to upload consciousness to the cloud, biohackers flogging AI-powered wellness apps and billionaire kingmakers building brand-new nations.
This razor-sharp investigation do we really want a handful of Silicon Valley powerbrokers to be the architects of our forever?
'Entertaining and insightful' Financial Times
'Brilliant' Miranda Sawyer
- GenresNonfictionEbooks
306 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 23, 2025
18 people are currently reading
145 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 8, 2026
A useful read for mapping the origins and current centres of power in the longevity scene. However, whilst some of Krotoski's observations were valid, many of her criticisms were entirely unconvincing and fallacious.
She claims that longevity advocates ignore the social determinants of health because they focus so heavily on internal biological parameters. I see it rather differently: the need isn't to regard social determinants as a unit irreconcilable with and irrelevant to inner biology, but instead to understand how those social factors affect our internal biology—something people are certainly thinking about.
She criticises health wearables as discriminatory towards, for instance, pregnant women, arguing that they show declining internal biological measures during women's pregnancy and suggest she is unhealthy and doing something wrong. This conflates absolute with comparative readings of data, and also deprives people of the ability to make sense of their situation. Of course a pregnant woman will have worse results than before pregnancy, but wearables can still help track comparative habits and behaviours, good and bad, even if these are far more difficult to disentangle given the body's vulnerability in this state.
Finally, Krotoski accuses some longevity groups of ageism by conflating actions aimed at shifting the statistical distribution of conditions usually observed in later life with diminishing the value of older individuals' lives.
Despite these fallacies, there are still some interesting data and observations, and the book offers much to learn about the scene.
She claims that longevity advocates ignore the social determinants of health because they focus so heavily on internal biological parameters. I see it rather differently: the need isn't to regard social determinants as a unit irreconcilable with and irrelevant to inner biology, but instead to understand how those social factors affect our internal biology—something people are certainly thinking about.
She criticises health wearables as discriminatory towards, for instance, pregnant women, arguing that they show declining internal biological measures during women's pregnancy and suggest she is unhealthy and doing something wrong. This conflates absolute with comparative readings of data, and also deprives people of the ability to make sense of their situation. Of course a pregnant woman will have worse results than before pregnancy, but wearables can still help track comparative habits and behaviours, good and bad, even if these are far more difficult to disentangle given the body's vulnerability in this state.
Finally, Krotoski accuses some longevity groups of ageism by conflating actions aimed at shifting the statistical distribution of conditions usually observed in later life with diminishing the value of older individuals' lives.
Despite these fallacies, there are still some interesting data and observations, and the book offers much to learn about the scene.
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February 20, 2026This book is a surprisingly grounded and well-structured exploration of longevity science.
The book does a strong job of translating complex biotechnology into language that does not feel diluted. It covers gene therapy, cellular reprogramming, AI-driven drug discovery, and regenerative medicine without turning into a textbook. The authors clearly want to inspire, but they also bring in credible scientists, ongoing trials, and real companies working in the space. That balance keeps it from drifting into science fiction.
What stood out most was the framing. This is not just about living longer for the sake of ego or vanity. The argument is built around extending healthspan, reducing suffering, and treating ageing as a solvable engineering problem rather than an inevitable decline. Even if you are sceptical about timelines, it is hard not to feel that something meaningful is shifting in medicine.
It is optimistic, yes, but not blindly so. There is a discussion of risk, cost, access, and the reality that breakthroughs take time. I finished it feeling more informed than persuaded, which is exactly what I want from this kind of book. If you are curious about the future of ageing research and want a big picture view without drowning in jargon, this is worth your time.
The book does a strong job of translating complex biotechnology into language that does not feel diluted. It covers gene therapy, cellular reprogramming, AI-driven drug discovery, and regenerative medicine without turning into a textbook. The authors clearly want to inspire, but they also bring in credible scientists, ongoing trials, and real companies working in the space. That balance keeps it from drifting into science fiction.
What stood out most was the framing. This is not just about living longer for the sake of ego or vanity. The argument is built around extending healthspan, reducing suffering, and treating ageing as a solvable engineering problem rather than an inevitable decline. Even if you are sceptical about timelines, it is hard not to feel that something meaningful is shifting in medicine.
It is optimistic, yes, but not blindly so. There is a discussion of risk, cost, access, and the reality that breakthroughs take time. I finished it feeling more informed than persuaded, which is exactly what I want from this kind of book. If you are curious about the future of ageing research and want a big picture view without drowning in jargon, this is worth your time.
December 7, 2025
Interesting book overall. Krotoski details how the rise of the fringe 'science' and untested treatments are entering the main stream of the longevity inc. That there are political drivers with substantial funds and clout pushing for deregulation and increased funding for aging treatments. Finally, Krotoski asks what are the consequences of a longer life and how focusing funding on healthy aging will take away important resources for the here and now. The author singles out the Silicon Valley and Peter Thiel in particular and details how the VC is a driving force behind the recent philosophy.
interesting book overall. and a nice companion to "Why we die" by Venki Ramakrishnan. I found the links to Silicon Valley particularly interesting. However, I feel that overall the book is not as accessible if you lack some of the background information.
interesting book overall. and a nice companion to "Why we die" by Venki Ramakrishnan. I found the links to Silicon Valley particularly interesting. However, I feel that overall the book is not as accessible if you lack some of the background information.
February 25, 2026
Thank you to Penguin Random House for the advanced listening copy.
Who wants to live forever? Well many people it seems. I didn't even know this was a thing until I started reading this book and now understand that our assumption that we've all got to die may not necessarily be true!
The market for longevity advice, gimmicks and tech is huge and vasts sums of money are being invested in it to make life expectancy significantly longer. Don't get the wrong idea though, this doesn't seem to be an altruistic movement on the whole and expect it to serve the few rather than the many.
Who wants to live forever? Well many people it seems. I didn't even know this was a thing until I started reading this book and now understand that our assumption that we've all got to die may not necessarily be true!
The market for longevity advice, gimmicks and tech is huge and vasts sums of money are being invested in it to make life expectancy significantly longer. Don't get the wrong idea though, this doesn't seem to be an altruistic movement on the whole and expect it to serve the few rather than the many.
March 18, 2026
Aleks Krotoski is an award-winning broadcaster, academic and author focusing on technology and social science. This is a really interesting overview of the tech bros’ foray into extending the human lifespan, that brings in libertarian desire to reduce regulation and build independent economic zones, effective altruism and, above all, profit but you get more from it if you are already familiar with some of these topics and can draw them together.
November 28, 2025
Solid insights into tech bros hubris over biology. Aleks does a great job of combining the fascinating subject with some tech, science, philosophy and politics. Just released so includes mid 2025 insights too. Well worth a listen.
January 2, 2026
'Don't Die' is currently a popular movement. The way these things go, the inverse will one-day be seen as cool. 'Only Die' will become a popular counter-movement in the 2040s, in which adherents literally just shoot themselves. Anyway, good book.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews