[Transcending death:the search for eternity]

In a society characterized by the denial of old age and death, people are not satisfied with the mere promise of a hypothetical immortal life in the future. They value beauty, youth and high performance and consider aging an anomaly or random misfortune that can be avoided. To this end, people focus on making their bodies immortal here and now, and on living as if they were never going to die. The race for power and personal empowerment, compulsive consumption, and escape into the virtual world all go on as though death does not exist. Although this approach to living can sometimes give people a feeling of omnipotence, even immortality, we still cannot escape our mortality. The two extremes of existence--birth and death--are seen as medical problems that science and technology can solve.