A brilliant young neuroscientist explains how to preserve our minds indefinitely, enabling future generations to choose to revive us
Just as surgeons once believed pain was good for their patients, some argue today that death brings meaning to life. But given humans rarely live beyond a century – even while certain whales can thrive for over two hundred years – it’s hard not to see our biological limits as profoundly unfair. No wonder then that most people nearing death wish they still had more time.
Yet, with ever-advancing science, will the ends of our lives always loom so close? For from ventilators to brain implants, modern medicine has been blurring what it means to die. In a lucid synthesis of current neuroscientific thinking, Zeleznikow-Johnston explains that death is no longer the loss of heartbeat or breath, but of personal identity – that the core of our identities is our minds, and that our minds are encoded in the structure of our brains. On this basis, he explores how recently invented brain preservation techniques now offer us all the chance of preserving our minds to enable our future revival.
Whether they fought for justice or cured diseases, we are grateful to those of our ancestors who helped craft a kinder world – yet they cannot enjoy the fruits of the civilization they helped build. But if we work together to create a better future for our own descendants, we may even have the chance to live in it. Because, should we succeed, then just maybe, the future will love us enough to bring us back and share their world with us.
About the Author
Dr Ariel Zeleznikow-Johnston is a neuroscientist at Monash University, Australia, where he investigates methods for characterising the nature of conscious experiences. In 2019, he obtained his PhD from The University of Melbourne, where he researched how genetic and environmental factors affect cognition. His research interests range from the decline, preservation and rescue of cognitive function at different stages of the lifespan, through to comparing different people's conscious experience of colour.
By contributing to research that clarifies the neurobiological, cognitive, and philosophical basis of what it is to be a person, he hopes to accelerate the development of medical infrastructure that will help prevent him and everyone else from dying.
Industry Reviews
Dear future, we love you too. This book elegantly handles the why and how of ending death, with engagingly described specific details and compelling responses to standard concerns about overpopulation, social stagnation, and unnaturalness. This thorough dive into the "why" truly primes us for the "how", which also delivers the goods
-Professor George Church, Harvard Medical School & MIT
Everything that makes you mentally unique is encoded in the structural and molecular details of your brain’s connectome. To map animal connectomes, neuroscientists have developed incredibly effective preservation methods. The emerging science of brain preservation seeks to adapt these methods to preserve human brains for centuries-long storage. This brilliantly written book provides the first comprehensive overview of what brain preservation is, how it could be used to stop people from dying, and how it could be made to work verifiably and at scale. As a neuroscientist who has been working in this field for decades, I am delighted that Zeleznikow-Johnston has produced a work that is scientifically rigorous while being simultaneously extremely accessible for all readers, whatever their background
-Dr Ken Hayworth, Senior Scientist at Howard Hughes Medical Institute
With this highly readable and informative book, Zeleznikow-Johnston provides a valuable addition to the general-audience literature on medical research to extend life. Leveraging his neuroscience background, he eloquently describes and promotes the novel and rapidly-advancing concept of vitrifixation, while also expertly placing it in its societal and philosophical context
-Aubrey de Grey, longevity pioneer
In an era of unrivaled change we must heed dangers and warnings, but not be gloomists. Millions have striven – and still strive – for a better life, for all. So … why not more life, as well? Every yin comes with yang, but this appeal for love-driven life extension adds plenty of fact and passion to the fiction
-David Brin, author of The Postman and Existence
Zeleznikow-Johnston’s enthusiasm is intoxicating
-Simon Ings, Best Science Books of 2024, The Telegraph
this book will change the way you think about death
-Andrew Steele, author of Ageless
an engaging description of modern brain science
-Steven Poole, The Telegraph
This is an optimistic book ... What makes it an extraordinarily interesting book are the four chapters on the nature of death, identity, consciousness and memory. They are richly informed and full of fascinating detail
-James McConnachie, The Times
in an instant, what was once believed impossible can become just another fact of life
-Michael Segalov, Observer
kicks off a debate of massive importance… a book that changes (your) entire idea of mortality and what science is capable of
-Daniel Keane, London Evening Standard
thought-provoking
-Gunnel Minett, author of Exhale
