Longevity: We All Want to Be Vampires and Live Forever
We're almost to 2025, and the cultural conversations I've been monitoring over the last few years surrounding age and longevity are reaching a tipping point.
Longevity isn’t just another health and wellness trend—it’s our modern-day elixir of life.
For those unfamiliar, longevity is the pursuit of extending the human lifespan, using every tool at our disposal—technological, biological, and lifestyle interventions.?
It’s a market that’s grown to over $8.3 trillion as of 2022 and is expected to expand even further, with a compound annual growth rate of 6-7% through 2030.?
From biotech to anti-aging supplements, wearables to precision medicine, the desire to live longer and better is no longer science fiction; it’s an industry.
Companies like David Ek’s Neko Health , Google’s Calico Life Sciences , and Jeff Bezos-backed Altos Labs are pouring billions into longevity research. They’re chasing breakthroughs in cellular aging and aiming to combat diseases like Alzheimer’s and diabetes—anything to buy us more time.
But this pursuit of longevity is more than just about adding years to life. It reflects a fundamental human fear that has always been with us: the fear of death.
Why Are We So Afraid to Age and Die?
The fear of death is primal, embedded deep in our psyche. Thanatophobia, as it’s known clinically, comes from both psychological and philosophical roots.
Psychologically, we’re deeply tied to our sense of self — our identities, our memories, our stories. Death confronts us with the obliteration of that self, a complete erasure of who we are. It’s what psychologists call ego death—the dissolution of everything we’ve built, everything we’ve known. That’s why people cling to anything that promises to stave off aging, because to age is to inch closer to that ultimate loss.
Philosophically, death presents the unsettling prospect of non-existence — an end to consciousness. Sartre viewed death as the ultimate challenge: a reminder that our time is finite, and with that finiteness comes the responsibility to live authentically.?
For many, it’s easier to avoid thinking about it, to seek out solutions that promise immortality, even if only for a few more decades.
Yet, in our quest to live forever, we ignore one unshakable truth: we all die.
The Price of Immortality
We’re willing to do almost anything —and pay almost anything — not to die. Whether it’s biohacking, anti-aging treatments, or personalized health interventions, we’re chasing longevity as if it were the holy grail. In reality, it’s driven by a need to feel in control, to stave off the inevitable, to fight back against the unknown.
The industry is booming because we’re scared. We want to believe that the right diet, the perfect supplement, or the latest technology will let us outrun time. And while we can extend health span—live better and longer—there’s a darker side to this pursuit.?
Longevity and the Reflection of Our Times
The longevity boom isn’t just a health trend—it’s a mirror reflecting the modern psyche. We live in a world obsessed with control, optimization, and the illusion that we can bend nature to our will. The desire for longevity is deeply intertwined with these cultural trends. The more we chase the fountain of youth, the more we reveal our fear of fragility and mortality.
But let’s be real. No matter how many pills we pop, how many cells we reprogram, death is still coming. We can’t beat it. The question is, are we chasing life, or are we running from death?
Where Does This Leave Us?
The truth is, we’re living in an era where science, wellness, and technology are offering us more control than ever before. But even as we embrace these advancements, we need to ask ourselves: Why are we so desperate to avoid the inevitable?
Longevity, at its core, taps into the fear that none of us will be enough. And in that, the market will continue to grow. We want to live longer, but more than that, we want to live meaningfully. And maybe that’s where the real conversation begins—not in how to live forever, but in how to live well for as long as we’re here.