12 replies to this topic

[stephen]

From a quick browse, it looks like 99% of the books mentioned in this forum are of the non-fiction variety. I've always been impressed with the impact that well-written fiction can have on someone's life. I clearly remember four books I've read that focused on issues of immortality:

1. The First Immortal by James Halperin: One we're all familiar with, which gives a good look at what cryonics holds.

2. Diaspora by Greg Egan: One of my favorite all-time books, which really helped me think about what the implications of immortality truly are. Fascinating book that explores a variety of issues, but it does an excellent job of showing the massive scope required to think about what it'd truly be like to live forever.

3. ____________. I can't remember the name of this one, but the story went like this: They could replace all the organs in your body and make you "new again", but the procedure cost $1,000,000 and you had to have it done every 10 years. And, if you were rich, you had to give ALL your money to the medical organization. In essence, you could buy immortality -- but you had to start anew every year. Anyone know the name of this (published in '81, I think)? The protagonist discovers that the 10 year time limit isn't necessary, and is an artificial creation to prevent wealth accumulation...

4. The Experiment by John Darnton. A typical "you have a clone" novel, but the life-extension themes are much heavier here than in other similar novels (like Chromosome 6 by Robin Cook). It raises the interesting question: What would you have done if you were born 50 years ago and devoted to life extension?

Any others out there where immortality / life extension play a central theme? Give a link and a description!

[advancedatheist]

Wil McCarthy's "Queendom of Sol" novels deal with the social consequences of extreme life extension and digital backups of personal identity, though in a way that didn't satisfy me. Why, for example, would someone want to hold a dead-end job for centuries?

[Live Forever]

Tuck Everlasting is a well known one. I saw the movie but didn't read the book.

[emerson]

Permutation city , also be Greg Egan. While it can be a bit meandering at times, for the most part I found it to be an enveloping look into what mind uploading might mean for the world. There's enough twists and turns that I wouldn't want to put much more into the description. But the fact that I feel such a need for silence, itself, says something rather wonderful about the novel.

[gwoodlewistown]

Number 3 sounds like Buying Time by Joe Haldeman

[caston]

3. ____________.  I can't remember the name of this one, but the story went like this: They could replace all the organs in your body and make you "new again", but the procedure cost $1,000,000 and you had to have it done every 10 years.  And, if you were rich, you had to give ALL your money to the medical organization. 

Relatives and offshore bank accounts anyone

[Shannon Vyff]

Oh my gosh--where is my book? "21 Century Kids" way better than "The First Immortal" ;-)

can't wait to hear some reviews by ya'll !

[Shannon Vyff]

I've read some Ben Bova books to my kids, he even wrote them back when we sent him an email!

[advancedatheist]

Robert Heinlein's Time Enough for Love features radical life extension, though in a really, really wrong-headed way.

First of all, even though Heinlein publshed it in 1973, its discussion of genetics sounds like Heinlein stopped reading about the subject by 1950 or so. Not one mention of DNA, for example, though it does feature some chromosomal engineering using crude-sounding techniques.

Two, the novel lacks extremely long-lived female characters. Understandable, given that the society's value system requires women to make a lot of babies. After a few dozen pregnancies, I can see why the women would refuse rejuvenation treatments and die.

Three, Heinlein, who to the best of my knowledge never had children, apparently couldn't postulate anything more imaginative for extremely long-lived people to do than make babies, over and over again. The novel's main character, Lazarus Long, has gotten bored with life precisely because he lives a human life over and over, instead of exploring ways to accomplish something more interesting with his time.

Four, the characters' time preferences don't make a lot of sense, given that they only think a couple decades ahead towards bringing their current batch of children to maturity and pushing them out the door. If you could realistically plan ahead for centuries, that would affect many of the day-to-day decisions in your life and how you use resources. You wouldn't need to colonize a new planet so urgently, for example, because you've exerted some rational control over where and when to produce new human life, if at all.

Time Enough for Love makes for good beach reading, I suppose, but Heinlein didn't put enough thought into his assumptions about the lifestyles of the negligibly senescent.

[gavrilov]

FOREVER AND EVER by Dan Baker:
http://longevity-sci...r-and-ever.html


FOREVER AND EVER is an absorbing reading: When I start reading this book I just could not stop, absorbing it for a whole night, like a kid. This book may awake and electrify the society sending a strong message that the horrific toll of the "inevitable" and "natural" aging process, and the passive resignation with which it is currently accepted, just should not be tolerated any longer in a technologically advanced society. We may hear about this book very soon in many places from many people, leading to a growing loud public demand to start a serious large-scale biotech war on aging.

[Shannon Vyff]

I'll have to read that one, thanks. Here is the link to the synopsis I did for my kids book...

http://www.imminst.o...=0

[JonesGuy]

John C. Wright's "The Golden Age" trilogy heavily incorporates the idea of immortality. Basically, it examines a society where immortality was expected and affordable, and where people have projects of various time-lines.

[claramenard]

Hello guys,

One great novel (Fiction) about human immortality is Destined for Oblivion: As Nature Intended it's by Mario Stinger and his site says that he will writing a series on the subject.

Clara