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  • Published: 31 May 2022
  • ISBN: 9781612199528
  • Imprint: Melville House
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 288
  • RRP: $75.00

The Price of Immortality

The Race to Live Forever



In the tradition of  Jon Ronson and Tim Wu,  an absorbing and revelatory  journey into the American Way of Defying Death

In the tradition of Jon Ronson and Tim Wu,  an absorbing and revelatory  journey into the American Way of Defying Death . . .

As longevity medicine revolutionizes the lives of many older people,  the quest to take the next step—to live as long as we choose—has spurred a scientific arms race in search of the elixir of life, funded by Big Tech and Silicon Valley. 
 
Once the stuff of Mesopotamian mythology and episodes of Star Trek, the effort to make humans immortal is becoming increasingly credible as the pace of technological progress quickens. It has also empowered a wild-eyed fringe of pseudo-scientists, tech visionaries, scam-artists, and religious fanatics who have given their lives over to the pursuit of immortality.
 
Starting off at the Church of Perpetual Life in Florida and exploring the feuding subcultures around the cryonics industry, Peter Ward immerses himself into an eccentric world of startups, scam artists, scientific institutions, and tech billionaires to deliver this deeply reported, nuanced, and sometimes very funny exploration of the race for immortality — and the potentially devastating consequences should humanity realize its ultimate dream.

  • Published: 31 May 2022
  • ISBN: 9781612199528
  • Imprint: Melville House
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 288
  • RRP: $75.00

About the author

Peter Ward

Peter Ward was born in 1958 and grew up in different places all over the Far East, England and Germany. He has had a peripatetic career: before graduating from Leeds University with a degree in English, he earned his living as a swimming-pool attendant, hod carrier, joiner's mate, canteen assistant on a North Sea oil-rig, plumber's merchant store-picker in the US, van-driver, painter and decorator, antiques dealer and sales room assistant at Sotheby's in Bond Street. After graduating he worked in the media and communications industry and in the property services. He is now self-employed. He lives with his wife, daughter and two sons in Putney, south-west London.
Dragon Horse is his first novel.

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Praise for The Price of Immortality

Praise for The Consequential Frontier: Challenging the Privatization of Space
 
”A lucid, bright and essential work of reporting, analysis and genuine care. Peter Ward has given us a new way to think about private endeavors in space. Superb.”⁠ —Rivka Galchen, author of Little Labors
”A very useful primer for understanding the current state of space policy and the predicaments of its neoliberal turn.” —Fraser MacDonald, author of Escape From Earth
“A deeply-reported and endlessly entertaining journey through the cosmic gold rush that will, one way or another, define commerce—and life—on Earth for generations to come.Atossa Araxia Abrahamian, author of The Cosmopolites: The Coming of the Global Citizen

”Ward’s fascinating exploration of the possibilities of privatizing interplanetary activities comes at the perfect moment. . . . This savvy work gives readers valuable insight into the ramifications, good and bad, of allowing business into space.” —Publishers Weekly
”Ward’s research is impressive, as in the breadth of his detailed resources, and readers fascinated by the exploits of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos will be particularly intrigued by his findings.” —Booklist