Death Is Not Inevitable: Sitting Down with Zoltan Istvan

“I’d be very surprised if a super intelligent AI a thousand years from now cannot recreate everything. Also, like so many other people, including Elon, I believe there’s probably a 50% chance we’re in a simulation. So, that would defeat the idea of death as well.”

Editor’s note: Zoltan Istvan joined Merion West previously for a pair of interviews in 2017, given the magazine’s long-standing interest in anti-aging technologies.

Death is a fundamental part of life. Or is it? Zoltan Istvan, a prominent transhumanist, believes our understanding of death is badly mistaken.

In this conversation with Istvan, the topic under consideration, technically, was the life-extension movement. It is an exciting time in this area, as scientists are continually making significant breakthroughs to turn back the clock on aging. For example, age reversal techniques were recently shown to restore vision in primates. Commenting on this news, Harvard Medical School professor David Sinclair noted: “Next up: age reversal in humans.”

While Istvan supports the anti-aging project, his perspective has shifted due to recent breakthroughs not in biological treatments but, rather, in artificial intelligence (AI). At the rate AI is advancing, he believes we will likely transform into digital beings—thereby thwarting death—even before we successfully reverse aging in our human bodies.

The following conversation, recorded via Skype by Merion West’s Peter Clarke, has been lightly edited for length and clarity.