Nigeria-South Africa based Charles Awuzie, the CEO of Gemsbok Group (Pty) Ltd, a South African technology and green energy conglomerate, and co-founder of Transhuman Coin, shared an article on his Facebook page about the possibility of immortality becoming a reality by the year 2045, according to two genetic engineers. The engineers, José Luis Cordeiro and David Wood, presented their new book, “The Death of Death,” in Barcelona, where they claimed that humans will only die in accidents, never of natural causes or illness, by around the year 2045. They added that it is “crucial” that old age starts to be classified as an “illness” so that publicly-funded research into its “cure” can extend.
The process will involve turning “bad” genes into healthy ones, eliminating dead cells from the body, repairing damaged cells, treatments with stem cells, and “printing” vital organs in 3D. Nanotechnology is key, among other new genetic manipulation techniques, the engineers said during the presentation at Barcelona’s Equestrian Circle.
Cordeiro and Wood believe that within 10 years, illnesses such as cancer will be curable, and that major international corporations such as Google will be “entering the field of medicine” because they are “beginning to realize that curing ageing is possible.” Microsoft has reportedly already announced the setting up of a cryopreservation center, and a scientist is researching the possibility of cancer being completely curable within a decade.
The engineers explain that although “people generally do not know about it,” it was discovered in 1951 how cancer cells are immortal. When Henrietta Lacks died from cervical cancer, surgeons removed the tumor and kept it, and it is still “alive” today.
Immortality will not necessarily mean the planet becomes overcrowded, the scientists say. There is still plenty of room for more people on Earth, and these days, people do not have anywhere near as many children as they did in past decades and centuries; plus, “it will be possible to live in space by then.”
The cost of anti-ageing treatment was compared to that of the latest smartphones. “At first, it’ll be expensive, but with a competitive market, the price will gradually fall because it’ll be something that benefits everyone,” Cordeiro says.
Their book, “Death of Death,” has been published in four languages at first – Spanish, English, Portuguese, and Korean – and all proceeds from its sales will be plowed back into the authors’ research. However, the engineers have been employing their techniques illegally in Colombia, where there are fewer regulations covering genetic manipulation.
