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quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
A wild and entertaining investigation into the business of eternal life.
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 creation: one they not only engineer, but also own and control. Death is simply their next problem to solve, the latest 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 immortalises are locked in an arms race to be the first 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 those cult fringes to the heartlands of government to meet the moguls, effective altruists, geoscientists and entrepreneurs who are disrupting death. Along the way, she encounters radical life extortionists 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, powerful and at times chilling investigation empowers us to consider what it truly means to be human, asking: do we really want a handful of Silicon Valley power brokers to be the architects of our forever?
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.
I picked this up because I’ve long been interested by the tech sector and how individuals who got rich from tech have been moving into wellness and health spheres, something which has become particularly pertinent in the US following the 2024 presidential election.
I was not familiar with Krotoski’s previous work but she is an engaging writer, although I do think that it would have been better had the epilogue been a prologue as the way she discusses her father’s and stepmother’s deaths and the effect they had on her. She contrasts the way in which it spurs her to celebrate life and people with the way it spurs technologists to find a way of beating it. This was something that struck me through the book - all of the people she meets and the developments and research they carry out look at extending life and keeping the body ‘young’ but there is nothing there about quality of life. It’s also interesting that the focus is on avoiding death by not developing the illnesses and diseases that can shorten it and not by curing the diseases that people fall prone to.
If I had a criticism of the book, it’s that I would have liked to see Krotoski interrogate people about this, especially in the context of the chapter on effective altruism. This is because at times the book can get caught in the weeds of what the research means on a human biology level without going into what the practical effects of it are. For example, Bryan Johnson is a recurring character in this book given how he uses his own body as a guinea pig and yet for all his pronouncements on how he’s reduced the biological age of his body, I didn’t know what that meant in practice - does it mean he doesn’t get sick or when he does, it’s very mild? Does it mean he heals more quickly? There is no context to it, which means it all feels a little intangible.
This is a shame because Krotoski does a really good job of bringing together how the various political and philosophical drivers of the tech sector are driving this foray into human biology. While the scientists are interested in unpicking the mysteries of the human body, the funders are interested in the potential to extend life but also in what it means as a means of reducing regulation, establishing their own geographical areas of control where national laws do not apply and ultimately in creating something that generates profit. The chapter on effective altruism was particularly interesting here as it shows something about the psyche of the ultra rich investors who are constantly pointing to a long term greater good so impossibly cast into the future that it can be used to justify any short term immediate harm. Also good is the way in which she breaks down the way ageing works in human biology and the various things that scientist have discovered about cellular ageing.
All in all, while I didn’t find this book as successful as I’d hoped it would be, it was still an absorbing read that held my attention and from which I took a lot. However I do think you get more from it if you have separately read up on the tech sphere or the current wellness and health trends because it means you come into it with more context.
The Verdict:
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.
THE IMMORTALISTS: THE DEATH OF DEATH AND THE RACE FOR IMMORTAL LIFE was released in the United Kingdom on 23 October 2025. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
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 creation: one they not only engineer, but also own and control. Death is simply their next problem to solve, the latest 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 immortalises are locked in an arms race to be the first 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 those cult fringes to the heartlands of government to meet the moguls, effective altruists, geoscientists and entrepreneurs who are disrupting death. Along the way, she encounters radical life extortionists 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, powerful and at times chilling investigation empowers us to consider what it truly means to be human, asking: do we really want a handful of Silicon Valley power brokers to be the architects of our forever?
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.
I picked this up because I’ve long been interested by the tech sector and how individuals who got rich from tech have been moving into wellness and health spheres, something which has become particularly pertinent in the US following the 2024 presidential election.
I was not familiar with Krotoski’s previous work but she is an engaging writer, although I do think that it would have been better had the epilogue been a prologue as the way she discusses her father’s and stepmother’s deaths and the effect they had on her. She contrasts the way in which it spurs her to celebrate life and people with the way it spurs technologists to find a way of beating it. This was something that struck me through the book - all of the people she meets and the developments and research they carry out look at extending life and keeping the body ‘young’ but there is nothing there about quality of life. It’s also interesting that the focus is on avoiding death by not developing the illnesses and diseases that can shorten it and not by curing the diseases that people fall prone to.
If I had a criticism of the book, it’s that I would have liked to see Krotoski interrogate people about this, especially in the context of the chapter on effective altruism. This is because at times the book can get caught in the weeds of what the research means on a human biology level without going into what the practical effects of it are. For example, Bryan Johnson is a recurring character in this book given how he uses his own body as a guinea pig and yet for all his pronouncements on how he’s reduced the biological age of his body, I didn’t know what that meant in practice - does it mean he doesn’t get sick or when he does, it’s very mild? Does it mean he heals more quickly? There is no context to it, which means it all feels a little intangible.
This is a shame because Krotoski does a really good job of bringing together how the various political and philosophical drivers of the tech sector are driving this foray into human biology. While the scientists are interested in unpicking the mysteries of the human body, the funders are interested in the potential to extend life but also in what it means as a means of reducing regulation, establishing their own geographical areas of control where national laws do not apply and ultimately in creating something that generates profit. The chapter on effective altruism was particularly interesting here as it shows something about the psyche of the ultra rich investors who are constantly pointing to a long term greater good so impossibly cast into the future that it can be used to justify any short term immediate harm. Also good is the way in which she breaks down the way ageing works in human biology and the various things that scientist have discovered about cellular ageing.
All in all, while I didn’t find this book as successful as I’d hoped it would be, it was still an absorbing read that held my attention and from which I took a lot. However I do think you get more from it if you have separately read up on the tech sphere or the current wellness and health trends because it means you come into it with more context.
The Verdict:
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.
THE IMMORTALISTS: THE DEATH OF DEATH AND THE RACE FOR IMMORTAL LIFE was released in the United Kingdom on 23 October 2025. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
