Who Wants to Live Forever?

Do you want to live forever?

That’s the question Reader’s Digest has asked of online survey respondents.

(Reader’s Digest? Since when does the favorite bathroom magazine of senior citizens start asking transhumanist questions? This must be an indicator of something, although I’m not sure what.)

In any case, here’s what they reported:

So much for eternal youth! Most respondents to our latest global survey are just fine with their limited shelf life here on earth. Not even the younger crowd consistently chooses immortality. In fact, more than 50 percent of those 45 and under in seven countries (including the United States) report that they don’t want to live forever. Brazilian youth buck the trend, with 74 percent preferring no expiration date. Two surprises: In the Philippines, everyone over 45 wants life everlasting; in China, not a single older survey-taker does.

And here is a graph showing percentages of people from 17 countries who answered, Yes, they would like to “live forever.”



Follow this link to see how the responses broke down along male and female lines.

Obviously, this is not a scientific survey, and it’s also not clear if we can learn anything valuable by asking such an unadorned, unqualified question. It does seem to show, however, that the possibility—and desirability—of a radically prolonged healthy lifespan is taken more seriously by more people than some of us might have thought.