What do you think?
Rate this book
Immortality: How Science Is Extending Your Life Span & Changing the World
That arresting statement sounds as if it might come from a science fiction story. But it is astonishing, exciting fact-as explained by Dr. Ben Bova. In his distinguished career, Dr. Bova has predicted many scientific developments. Now he explores the future effects of science and technology on the human life span and discovers that one day, death will no longer be the inevitable end of life. Dr. Bova guides readers through worldwide research into the biochemical processes that causes aging and death, and shows what scientists are discovering about stopping, perhaps even reversing them. With crystal-clear prose, Dr. Bova explains how science could maintain the youth and vigor of a fifty-year-old indefinitely and the consequences for marriage and family ties. He also offers provocative thoughts on the tumultuous societal consequences of such biomedical breakthroughs, as greatly extended life spans and virtual immortality transform institutions like Medicare, Social Security, pension plans, life insurance, even the very foundations of work and retirement. Here is a compelling, startling, understandable, and vitally important study of humankind's greatest challenge -- and most tantalizing opportunity. The first immortals are already living among us. You might be one of them. That arresting statement sounds as if it might come from a science fiction story. But it is astonishing, exciting fact-as explained by Dr. Ben Bova. In his distinguished career, Dr. Bova has predicted many scientific developments. Now he explores the future effects of science and technology on the human life span and discovers that one day, death will no longer be the inevitable end of life. Dr. Bova guides readers through worldwide research into the biochemical processes that causes aging and death, and shows what scientists are discovering about stopping, perhaps even reversing them. With crystal-clear prose, Dr. Bova explains how science could maintain the youth and vigor of a fifty-year-old indefinitely and the consequences for marriage and family ties. He also offers provocative thoughts on the tumultuous societal consequences of such biomedical breakthroughs, as greatly extended life spans and virtual immortality transform institutions like Medicare, Social Security, pension plans, life insurance, even the very foundations of work and retirement. Here is a compelling, startling, understandable, and vitally important study of humankind's greatest challenge -- and most tantalizing opportunity. The first immortals are already living among us. You might be one of them. That arresting statement sounds as if it might come from a science fiction story. But it is astonishing, exciting fact-as explained by Dr. Ben Bova. In his distinguished career, Dr. Bova has predicted many scientific developments. Now he explores the future effects of science and technology on the human life span and discovers that one day, death will no longer be the inevitable end of life. Dr. Bova guides readers through worldwide research into the biochemical processes that causes aging and death, and shows what scientists are discovering about stopping, perhaps even reversing them. With crystal-clear prose, Dr. Bova explains how science could maintain the youth and vigor of a fifty-year-old indefinitely and the consequences for marriage and family ties. He also offers provocative thoughts on the tumultuous societal consequences of such biomedical breakthroughs, as greatly extended life spans and virtual immortality transform institutions like Medicare, Social Security, pension plans, life insurance, even the very foundations of work and retirement. Here is a compelling, startling, understandable, and vitally important study of humankind's greatest challenge -- and most tantalizing opportunity.
304 pages, paper
First published January 1, 1998
2 people are currently reading
59 people want to read
About the author
Ben Bova
715 books1,040 followersBen Bova was born on November 8, 1932 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1953, while attending Temple University, he married Rosa Cucinotta, they had a son and a daughter. He would later divorce Rosa in 1974. In that same year he married Barbara Berson Rose.
Bova was an avid fencer and organized Avco Everett's fencing club. He was an environmentalist, but rejected Luddism.
Bova was a technical writer for Project Vanguard and later for Avco Everett in the 1960s when they did research in lasers and fluid dynamics. It was there that he met Arthur R. Kantrowitz later of the Foresight Institute.
In 1971 he became editor of Analog Science Fiction after John W. Campbell's death. After leaving Analog, he went on to edit Omni during 1978-1982.
In 1974 he wrote the screenplay for an episode of the children's science fiction television series Land of the Lost entitled "The Search".
Bova was the science advisor for the failed television series The Starlost, leaving in disgust after the airing of the first episode. His novel The Starcrossed was loosely based on his experiences and featured a thinly veiled characterization of his friend and colleague Harlan Ellison. He dedicated the novel to "Cordwainer Bird", the pen name Harlan Ellison uses when he does not want to be associated with a television or film project.
Bova was the President Emeritus of the National Space Society and a past President of Science-fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).
Bova went back to school in the 1980s, earning an M.A. in communications in 1987 and a Ph.D. in 1996.
Bova has drawn on these meetings and experiences to create fact and fiction writings rich with references to spaceflight, lasers, artificial hearts, nanotechnology, environmentalism, fencing and martial arts, photography and artists.
Bova was the author of over a hundred and fifteen books, non-fiction as well as science fiction. In 2000, he was the Author Guest of Honor at the 58th World Science Fiction Convention (Chicon 2000).
Hollywood has started to take an interest in Bova's works once again, in addition to his wealth of knowledge about science and what the future may look like. In 2007, he was hired as a consultant by both Stuber/Parent Productions to provide insight into what the world is to look like in the near future for their upcoming film "Repossession Mambo" (released as "Repo Men") starring Jude Law and Forest Whitaker and by Silver Pictures in which he provided consulting services on the feature adaptation of Richard Morgan's "Altered Carbon".
http://us.macmillan.com/author/benbova
Bova was an avid fencer and organized Avco Everett's fencing club. He was an environmentalist, but rejected Luddism.
Bova was a technical writer for Project Vanguard and later for Avco Everett in the 1960s when they did research in lasers and fluid dynamics. It was there that he met Arthur R. Kantrowitz later of the Foresight Institute.
In 1971 he became editor of Analog Science Fiction after John W. Campbell's death. After leaving Analog, he went on to edit Omni during 1978-1982.
In 1974 he wrote the screenplay for an episode of the children's science fiction television series Land of the Lost entitled "The Search".
Bova was the science advisor for the failed television series The Starlost, leaving in disgust after the airing of the first episode. His novel The Starcrossed was loosely based on his experiences and featured a thinly veiled characterization of his friend and colleague Harlan Ellison. He dedicated the novel to "Cordwainer Bird", the pen name Harlan Ellison uses when he does not want to be associated with a television or film project.
Bova was the President Emeritus of the National Space Society and a past President of Science-fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).
Bova went back to school in the 1980s, earning an M.A. in communications in 1987 and a Ph.D. in 1996.
Bova has drawn on these meetings and experiences to create fact and fiction writings rich with references to spaceflight, lasers, artificial hearts, nanotechnology, environmentalism, fencing and martial arts, photography and artists.
Bova was the author of over a hundred and fifteen books, non-fiction as well as science fiction. In 2000, he was the Author Guest of Honor at the 58th World Science Fiction Convention (Chicon 2000).
Hollywood has started to take an interest in Bova's works once again, in addition to his wealth of knowledge about science and what the future may look like. In 2007, he was hired as a consultant by both Stuber/Parent Productions to provide insight into what the world is to look like in the near future for their upcoming film "Repossession Mambo" (released as "Repo Men") starring Jude Law and Forest Whitaker and by Silver Pictures in which he provided consulting services on the feature adaptation of Richard Morgan's "Altered Carbon".
http://us.macmillan.com/author/benbova
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
July 3, 2018
I'm fascinated by life extension. I appreciated Ben Bova examining not only the scientific research happening around life extension, but also with the questions and social implications around it. This book is a bit out-of-date, but I'm looking forward to reading his more recent book about this next.
May 29, 2023
I'm not buying it. The author is not wrong, but immortality won't come soon enough to help me and I am still waiting for FLYING CARS! WHERE IS MY FLYING CAR? I am sure we will eventually get flying cars, but not in my lifetime, probably not in my children's lifetimes, nor in my grandchildren's lifetimes, but perhaps in my great grandchildren's lifetimes. (Yes. I have great grandchildren.)
These advancements cannot be scheduled. The advances I've seen in my day came suddenly. I am often amazed how different medicine is today and how far we have come. They may come up with an immortality pill tomorrow, but I doubt it. They still can't cure alcoholism.
So... it was fun to listen and hope, but I've seen too much to believe it will happen soon. On to other things.
These advancements cannot be scheduled. The advances I've seen in my day came suddenly. I am often amazed how different medicine is today and how far we have come. They may come up with an immortality pill tomorrow, but I doubt it. They still can't cure alcoholism.
So... it was fun to listen and hope, but I've seen too much to believe it will happen soon. On to other things.
February 12, 2019
Bova does roughly go through the science of life extension, but the book falls short on any actual scientific premise. You get the idea that things are not going to be good when he begins the book stating that actual scientists would dismiss his claims, but scientists have been wrong many times before. ??! The writing that follows is rambling premature conjecture.
January 24, 2023
Good overview for the non-scientist who wants to know more. The book gives lots of information in an accessible writing style across many aspects of science, and he provides many social implications. My only negative is the book is now out-of-date. For a more detailed scientific journey, try Ending Aging by A. de Grey.
September 20, 2020
The hypothesis drags you in. But, the follow up is technical jargon and gobbledygook that is unappealing in audio form. The writing is rambling premature conjecture. Not my kind of book and not enjoyable reading for me. DNF, in fact, I did not get past about an hour of this 7.4 hour book. Bova wrote some cool sci-fi, but the non-fiction is not interesting.
September 27, 2025
I've read a fair amount of Ben Bova fiction but this is the first of his nonfiction I have read since he was an editor of the old OMNI magazine.
He's good at fiction or nonfiction.
He's good at fiction or nonfiction.
Read
December 4, 2014I think it will be pretty obvious that writing a review of this book is a little hard, if for no other reason than the fact it is a science heavy book in which some of the science is quite out of date.
This is a book written in the 1990’s, so this is something that can’t be avoided. I usually don’t like to read this type of book when so much time has passed between its publishing and the time I am reading it; however I still found it worthwhile and interesting to read. I have given it 3 stars, because it is a bit dated. I tried to kind of balance my review; the first half is mostly a going over the science related to the quest to extend the human lifespan, and this is the half that brings the rating for this book down. It is obvious that the science is behind what we now know, so I have to say it is hard to find fault in faulty research because the research Dr. Bova quotes at the time he wrote this book was the most up to date knowledge we had on these subjects. Keeping this in mind I didn’t down grade my review for this reason; rather I found the way Bova returned to subjects throughout the book to restate points he already had made, to be off putting. At times it seemed he thought the reader might be too uninformed to follow his train of thought, or the scientific information being put on the page.
The second half of the book shows Dr. Bova’s strong suit, the speculation about the reaction to and consequences of, human immortality. This may be easily chalked up to the many years he has spent honing his skills as a science fiction writer, but whatever the reason, it is in this area of the book where he makes his most impassioned, lucent, and powerfully persuasive argument against just thinking about human life expansion as either something silly and impossible, or completely undesirable. He points out the swift and accelerating advance of bio-science over the previous 50 years (in this case reading this book many years in the future actually makes his points even more persuasive) and presents the many examples of people constantly telling us something can never happen only to find it being done within the space of a few years.
He takes apart many of the political and – especially – religious objections to human life being extending. That is why this book is 3 stars; because Dr. Bova, above all else, makes his argument for the inevitable immortality of man in a completely convincing way. His most interesting point, for me anyway, was the way he examined human society in terms of backward looking institutions, and forward looking institutions. He explains that that political, social, and religious institutions are designed to keep the status quo, and maintain a stable society in which laws and ethics are the basis of that stable society, and then points out that science is different. Science is a revolutionary pursuit, which is always looking forward, while those other institutions are backward looking. Thus we find that, through the maintenance of the status quo, those other organizations allow us to have the ethics and morals we know, but that without science as a balancing influence for revolution on our society, we would stagnate and fall backwards eventually.
Read this book for the second half, and do some additional reading to see how far along we are on the road to immortality. See you on your 300th birthday!
This is a book written in the 1990’s, so this is something that can’t be avoided. I usually don’t like to read this type of book when so much time has passed between its publishing and the time I am reading it; however I still found it worthwhile and interesting to read. I have given it 3 stars, because it is a bit dated. I tried to kind of balance my review; the first half is mostly a going over the science related to the quest to extend the human lifespan, and this is the half that brings the rating for this book down. It is obvious that the science is behind what we now know, so I have to say it is hard to find fault in faulty research because the research Dr. Bova quotes at the time he wrote this book was the most up to date knowledge we had on these subjects. Keeping this in mind I didn’t down grade my review for this reason; rather I found the way Bova returned to subjects throughout the book to restate points he already had made, to be off putting. At times it seemed he thought the reader might be too uninformed to follow his train of thought, or the scientific information being put on the page.
The second half of the book shows Dr. Bova’s strong suit, the speculation about the reaction to and consequences of, human immortality. This may be easily chalked up to the many years he has spent honing his skills as a science fiction writer, but whatever the reason, it is in this area of the book where he makes his most impassioned, lucent, and powerfully persuasive argument against just thinking about human life expansion as either something silly and impossible, or completely undesirable. He points out the swift and accelerating advance of bio-science over the previous 50 years (in this case reading this book many years in the future actually makes his points even more persuasive) and presents the many examples of people constantly telling us something can never happen only to find it being done within the space of a few years.
He takes apart many of the political and – especially – religious objections to human life being extending. That is why this book is 3 stars; because Dr. Bova, above all else, makes his argument for the inevitable immortality of man in a completely convincing way. His most interesting point, for me anyway, was the way he examined human society in terms of backward looking institutions, and forward looking institutions. He explains that that political, social, and religious institutions are designed to keep the status quo, and maintain a stable society in which laws and ethics are the basis of that stable society, and then points out that science is different. Science is a revolutionary pursuit, which is always looking forward, while those other institutions are backward looking. Thus we find that, through the maintenance of the status quo, those other organizations allow us to have the ethics and morals we know, but that without science as a balancing influence for revolution on our society, we would stagnate and fall backwards eventually.
Read this book for the second half, and do some additional reading to see how far along we are on the road to immortality. See you on your 300th birthday!
August 21, 2009
Very readable. The first 75% of the book goes into detail of the biologie of the cell and DNA. Many parts are quite repetitive as if Bova doesn't belive the reader can grasp the infor the first time around. The last quarter of the book talks about the possible outcomes of life extension treatments in view of political, financial, religious, global pros and cons. My interest for this book stemmed from Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars Trilogy, in which they do invent and administer longevety treatments but do not go into the details of the conflicts that such a development would create. Pretty interesting book overall, especially if you enjoy biology and sci-fi-ish posibilities.
February 15, 2015
If you want an interesting book that argues that our lives will be extended into hundreds of years, and immortal in the extreme, this is the book for you. Unlike what you may think, the topic is approached from a scientific point of view. Yes, this isn't just some philosophical speculation; it is speculation based on recent advances in biological sciences and some potential outcomes. I think the author is way too optimistic but nevertheless, science is headed in the direction the author is forecasting. If you are interested in potential advances that may extend life, as well as issues that may arise, this book is a good overview of it.
July 15, 2015
Not bad, but dated. This book was written during the Clinton administration! My suggestion, unless you are a big Ben Bova fan, or are reading every life-extension book you can get your hands on, is to skip this and go directly to "Spring Chicken" by Bill Gifford. Newer and better.
July 6, 2008
Interesting ideas about how immortality will happen the consequences if it does. But the technology and methods mentioned in the book are a little dated at this point.
May 30, 2012
Sheer speculation and ridiculous fantasies. don't waste your time.
:(
:(
December 5, 2024
3.6
I mean it was readable. Started out okay but quickly became mostly non-sense and overly alarmist. Wasn't the worst and gave me a good laugh.
I mean it was readable. Started out okay but quickly became mostly non-sense and overly alarmist. Wasn't the worst and gave me a good laugh.
July 7, 2016
Bova's speculative nonfiction book is a dull rehash. I gave up.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews