Pix: Google’s Sergey Brin is funding the quest. Getty Image
Google are funding a bid for eternal life – popstar Taylor Swift could look like this
The anti-ageing industry is worth billions of pounds but it has now gone beyond wrinkle erasing cream and botox.
Tech moguls are leading the way in funding research into longevity, with Bill Maris, head of Google’s multi billion dollar investment arm, saying he thinks people could live to 500.
He said: “We have tools in the life sciences to achieve anything you have the audacity to envision.
“I just hope to live long enough not to die.”
His faith in technological advances is mirrored by Google co-founder Sergey Brin who believes one day death will be “cured”.
The computer wizard, who is worth £27.9 billion, is being joined by other tech heavyweights ploughing billions of dollars into research to defeat the ageing process.
Oracle founder Larry Ellison said inevitable death is ‘incomprehensible’
We have tools in the life sciences to achieve anything you have the audacity to envision
He called the acceptance of inevitable death “incomprehensible” while British gerontology theorist Aubrey de Grey believes the first person to live to 1,000 years old has already been born.
He believes genetic engineering of our bodies’ cells will be the key to avoiding ageing and people need to stop thinking ageing is inevitable by viewing the body like a vintage car – if maintained properly it can keep on going indefinitely.
While some may see his theories as outlandish, Peter Thiel, the multi-billionaire co-found of internet payment service PayPal, has given Mr de Grey £2.3 million towards his research.
However there are several scientists who have dismissed the idea of living ‘forever’ and have accused those researching it of hijacking funds which could be used elsewhere.
Sir Colin Blakemore, former chief executive of the British Medical Research Council, says there IS a limit to how much the human body can age and puts the boundary at 120 years, mainly because not many have survived longer.
But research centres around the world are working on revolutionary ways of extending our lifespan.
From genetic engineering and microscopic robots turbo-charging immune systems to injecting stem cells and blood transfusions from younger people, an incredible amount of cash is being pumped into making us live longer and appear younger.