Speculative Fact #344: Who Wants To Live Forever?

The idea of immortality has tempted us even back in the days of myth and continues to tantalize us in modern speculative fiction. It is littered with examples ranging from the fantastic to more rooted, with characters like Peter Pan, The Highlander, and Robert Heinlein’s Lazarus Long.    
        Research on an anti-aging enzyme called nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) showed results with lab mice in an experiment in Australia – with human trials not far in the future. This healing enzyme is also closely related to a suite of new drugs aimed at combating Alzheimer’s, Diabetes, and others diseases. It could be that humanity is finally approaching immortality.
      If you are skeptical, cynical, or looking for ways to introduce conflict in a story with such a theme, perhaps you can explore less utopian aspects of this technology.
          What are the social and economic ramifications? Would such a drug only become readily available to the wealthy? Could immortality become a statement of achievement in itself and a status symbol? Wouldn’t the Earth become overpopulated and stripped of its resources if nobody ever died? What if world leaders and influential minds never died? What if despots and dictators never did either?

Jonathan Hernandez