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Sunday, February 19, 2012

The Immortalists

So I may or may not have a bit of a secret fascination with People Who Want to Live Forever. The idea of immortality is something I've personally never understood: as Einstein said "I do not believe in immortality of the individual" 

This being said, I do have a fascination with immortality-questors, bio-hackers and transhumanists. Blame it on my degree (or, more correctly, my roommate's take on our degree) or on my already there fascination with open source and information access, but I've always loved the idea of loving the idea of living forever. This being said, it was a no-brainer for me to have picked up this book at Chapters a few months ago. It got pushed a bit to the way-side during my last few months of only reading Urban Fantasy (judge away).

The Immortalists is about the famous aviator Charles Lindbergh and his somewhat macabre scientific collaboration with Dr. Alexis Carrel and their shared quest of conquering death and attaining immortality. It's an honest look at the two men who achieved brilliance in their own rights, trying to achieve the impossible while not ignoring the character flaws and fears the each man had. The book looks at Lindbergh & Carrel attempt to challenge nature's oldest rule, and examines the personal, professional and political consequences that this resulted in. 

I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, it reminded of one of my favourite books, The Professor and the Madman (Did YOU know the Oxford English Dictionary comes in now small part from a retired American army surgeon who was incarcerated in an insane-asylum in England?) (You really should read the book).

1 comment:

Jennifer said...

I did know that because I'm a smarty-pants. And probably you were the one who told me. Who knows.