How science and the rich are looking for ways to cure aging and avoid death
In early September 2025, a microphone accidentally turned on recorded a conversation between Russian and Chinese leaders Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping about longevity. But dictators aren't the only ones who want to live forever. Representatives of the immortalist movement no longer consider death inevitable, writes "Habr".
"With the development of biotechnology, human organs can be constantly transplanted, and people will be able to grow younger and younger, even achieve immortality," Putin told Xi, adding, "There's a chance to live to 150." This conversation, reminiscent of a passage from a science fiction novel, reflects the belief in overcoming death through technology, shared by world leaders and Silicon Valley tech moguls. Their goal is not simply to prolong life, but to conquer aging, relying on scientific progress.
Thanks to medical advances, today's children are living longer and healthier lives than ever before, but for immortalists—the so-called "immortalists"—this isn't enough. They dream of eternal youth and are considering two approaches to solving the problem: merging with artificial intelligence to create "posthumans" or slowing aging through biotechnologies such as young blood transfusions and gene therapy.
The Science of Longevity: From Worms to Young Blood
Modern longevity research began in the 1990s, when molecular biologist Cynthia Kenyon and her graduate student Ramon Tabtiang discovered that a single gene change in the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans doubled its lifespan. This breakthrough, presented at a lecture at Stanford, inspired scientists to search for the "key" to aging.
Why do all tissues—muscle, liver, brain—age simultaneously? "It doesn't matter whether the tissues are external or internal, whether they're under stress or simply existing. With age, everything seems to go to hell," Kenyon noted. She suggested that some signal coordinates the aging process, passing through the body's systems, such as the circulatory or nervous systems.
On the subject: Eternal life: 4 ways people can achieve immortality in the near future
In 2003–2004, Irina and Michael Conboy conducted experiments with parabiosis—connecting the circulatory systems of old and young mice. After five weeks, the older mice with young blood showed accelerated regeneration of muscles, livers, and brains. "The muscles recovered quickly, unlike the typical regeneration seen in older animals," explained Mike Conboy.
In 2005, their findings were published in the journal Nature: young blood rejuvenates tissue, but the mechanism remained a mystery. "What if we inject young blood from an old mouse? Or combine a young and an old mouse so that blood flows between them?" they reasoned. Experiments confirmed that young blood restores the tissues' youthful properties, giving rise to the hypothesis of a "youth signal" in plasma.
Historical attempts at rejuvenation date back to the 19th century. In 1889, physiologist Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard reported at a meeting of the Société de Biologie in Paris that injections of a mixture of blood, sperm, and testicular extract from dogs and guinea pigs had restored his energy. "I experienced a rejuvenation of my muscles and an increase in my abilities in the bedroom," he claimed. His student, Serge Voronoff, transplanted monkey testicles into elderly men in the 1920s. In 1923, at the International Congress of Surgeons in London, he announced the procedure's success, and the Pasteur Institute built a chimpanzee breeding facility for him in West Africa. Over two decades, 45 surgeons performed 2000 operations, and the press called the results "miraculous." Voronoff claimed, "Life can last more than 140 years." In Brazil, carnival songs were even written in his honor. But by the 1930s, scientists recognized that it was more likely a placebo effect.
However, these experiments, despite their errors, laid the foundation for modern research.
Modern experiments and ethical controversies
In 2016, Stanford Medical School graduate Jesse Karmazin founded Ambrosia Health in California, offering transfusions of young plasma to people over 35 for $8000. Clients received a liter of plasma from donors aged 16 to 25. Their biomarkers were measured before and after the procedure. Karmazin declared, "It works; it reverses aging. I'm not saying it will give you immortality, but it's very close."
Irina Konboy refused to participate in the experiments: “There was insufficient evidence to suggest that young blood slows down aging.”
By 2019, Ambrosia had opened five clinics in the US, but the FDA banned the procedures, calling them dangerous due to the risk of infections and allergic reactions. Karmazin countered: "The FDA never reviewed our data... It's entirely possible they were referring to our competitors who were acting less conscientiously."
Conboy clarified: "If you think you can just get a procedure and look younger, it doesn't work that way yet. But if you invest wisely, we'll get there soon."
These experiments have sparked ethical debate. Plasma transfusions raise issues of exploitation of young donors and inequality of access: only the wealthy can afford such procedures.
In 2023, biohacker Brian Johnson, developer of the Blueprint protocol, received plasma transfusions from his teenage son, Talmadge, calling him "blood boy." He later switched to albumin: "like an oil change, only for longevity." Johnson claims his body in 2023 aged 277 days per year thanks to diet, supplements, and exercise.
Such personal experiments show how the rich test ideas that are inaccessible to most.
Techno-optimism and escape velocity
In 2004, gerontologist Aubrey de Grey coined the term "escape velocity from old age": extending healthy life by 30% provides 20 years for new technologies, which will add another 30%, and so on. "Even a 30% increase in healthy life expectancy will give the first beneficiaries of rejuvenation therapies another 20 years—an eternity in scientific terms," he argued.
It's like a rocket defying gravity: slow down aging, and medicine will be able to cure age-related diseases. Moore's Law, which states that technology doubles in power every 18 months, fuels optimism: "In 20 years, medicine will be able to treat dementia or diabetes before they even occur," immortalists believe.
But Nobel laureate Venky Ramakrishnan, in his book Why We Die (2024), criticizes the "arrogance" of engineers: "Too much faith in engineering causes one to miss the value of the unknown." Physician Seamus O'Mahony added at a 2025 conference: "They're only interested in biomolecular technologies and what can be monetized... Aging for them is just a technical problem."
Political theorist Elke Schwarz explains: "We are strange. We are disordered. Our bodies are mortal... This impulse to improve ourselves means we must become like machines." The World Health Organization defines "healthy aging" as "the process of maintaining functional abilities that ensure well-being in old age." But immortalists don't simply want to live to 80 without disease; they want to achieve eternal youth, ignoring the complexities of biology.
Political support and social risks
In 2025, the Donald Trump administration supported longevity research. Leaders of tech companies promoting AI and immortality attended Trump's inauguration.
Peter Thiel, a longevity investor, helped his allies gain public office. Jim O'Neill, the new head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2014 proposed approving drugs without evidence: "Letting people use them at their own risk." This paves the way for unproven methods, including blood transfusions.
The administration cut hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicare and canceled the Conference on Aging, redirecting resources to AI and immortality research.
These decisions have drawn criticism. Cuts to Medicare limit older Americans' access to healthcare, and the cancellation of the Conference on Aging, held since 1961, deprives society of a discussion of the real problems of the elderly. Meanwhile, funding for AI and longevity research is growing, supporting the dreams of the elite but not the majority.
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Xi Jinping and Putin, like the tycoons, believe in technology as a savior from the times. Their ideas reshape science and politics, but ignore ethical issues.
The rich have access to cutting-edge technologies, but their dream of immortality reduces humans to code, leaving millions without support in the fight against aging. While they pursue eternity, the question remains: is immortality worth the loss of humanity?
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