The jellyfish pictured above, Turritopsis nutricula, has a rather extraordinary ability: like a phoenix, it can repeatedly revert from adulthood to its immature, polyp form and restart the process of aging, functionally rendering the organism biologically immortal. If the jellyfish can avoid disease, starvation, and predation, it has a potentially infinite lifespan.

In the same vein, the ubiquitous, microscopic tardigrades are some of the most resilient creatures on the planet. At only about half a millimeter long, they can survive extreme radiation, temperature, pressure, toxins, and dehydration. In fact, in a 2007 experiment tardigrades demonstrated the ability to survive in outer space, bombarded by solar radiation in a vacuum, for the full duration of the 10-day experiment. They are prime candidates for the Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment, an experiment that will send selected organisms into deep space on a three-year round trip journey. More to the point, in addition to being incredibly resilient tardigrades are not senescent - that is, they do not age and are, therefore, biologically immortal.

These are just two examples of many organisms with potentially infinite lifespans. In comparison, we know that human beings are genetically programmed to age and die. But immortality is not out of our reach. Research in genetics, bioengineering, nanotechnology, cybernetics, and many other fields continues to yield promising prospects - cybernetic implants and mind-to-computer uploading to name a few.

There is little doubt that technology-enabled immortality is in our future. However, this isn’t a post about the myriad pursuits of life extension. Rather it is about such a technology’s effect on humanity. The human condition is defined by cognizance of mortality; our sociology, anthropology, philosophy, and theology are predicated on our impermanence. We worry about making the most of our time, use medicine to extend our lifespans, and speculate on the possibility of conscious existence beyond death. 

There are several major social issues associated with the advent of technology-enabled immortality:

1. Productivity increase: Collaboration among a growing number of immortal experts might quickly revolutionize science, technology, and industry.
2. Resource shortages: With a stunted mortality rate, the population spike would rapidly deplete resources and endanger access to basic necessities like food and water.
3. Social structure: A single person might have several families over the years, the concept of retirement would have to be reassessed, selection for employment would become far more competitive, etc.
4. Immortality divide: There will be those who can afford immortality and those who cannot. That line is likely to form on financial lines, exacerbating the divide between the rich and the poor; “democratic human societies might ossify into rigid, caste-based” society.
5. Blurred humanity: Physiological augmentation might engender an individual’s identity as a human being. How human is an individual who is more cybernetic than organic? How human is someone with altered DNA?

On a personal level, cognizance of immortality also poses sapient immortals with an existential quandary: with all the time in the world on their hands, they fall into Sisyphus’ dilemma. What happens when personal immortality becomes social immortality? A collapse of society or alignment on a social objective? We may just live to find out.