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Our desire to thwart death drives progress

See more: An illustrated version of this article will be published within the next two weeks on our CultureLab books and arts blog

By S. Jay Olshansky

3 April 2012

Stephen Cave’s Immortality: The quest to live forever and how it drives civilization is a must-read exploration of what spurs human ingenuity

EVERY once in a while a book comes along that catches me by surprise and provides me with an entirely new lens through which to view the world. My surprise is even greater when that “aha” moment comes within my own field of expertise. Such is the case with Stephen Cave’s bookImmortality.

Having written a book called The Quest for Immortality, I am intimately familiar with Cave’s theme. However, where I found that the “quest”…

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