Are you sure you're not projecting there? The idea we might live forever turns technological development into a path that might one day lead to 'salvation.' And

Are you sure you're not projecting there? The idea we might live forever turns technological development into a path that might one day lead to 'salvation.' And, most tellingly, that day of salvation invariably tends to lie just within one's life expectancy, again as with Ray Kurzweil - though there are endless other examples. By appealing to advanced tech you can convince yourself anything is possible, when that's obviously not the case. I think this was an issue, even in the distant past. The Fountain of Youth would have been being 'thought up' about the time mankind was discovering all sorts of strange wonders in the world, like what happens if one chews on the bark of the willow tree. You will feel a bit odd, but all of your pain and discomfort will just magically fade. Of course that is where Aspirin comes from. And similarly for all other sorts of other seemingly magical discoveries. In this context it's easy to convince oneself that even the waters of immortality are just one more discovery away, but really there's no reason to really think it was, or is.