Immortality: Is it actual, possible, or impossible?

A logical analysis of a scientific report

Edina Abena Jackson wrote an intriguing essay titled “There’s no limit to how long people can live, researchers say.” The essay you are reading now is a sidestep from Ms. Jackson’s main concern, but it is nevertheless all about her essay, and not a change of subject. If you want to fully understand my essay, you might want to read hers afterwards. My main point is that her title is a bit click-baity, because it describes a discovery far more exciting than the actual content of the article. (I don’t think that’s a problem. I wish I could have come up with as click-baity a title for this article.) I’m going to be glancing into some philosophical questions which are far more trivial than the literally life-and-death questions that Ms. Jackson is concerned with. Nevertheless, thinking about these side issues will sharpen our minds and make us more skillful at dealing with arguably more important issues. And it is also, in my opinion, fun, in a nerdy sort of way.

Ms. Jackson seem to conflate three closely related concepts. Her title seems to imply that science has proven that people can live forever. Now that we know there’s no limit, then the skies the limit. Immortality, here we come!

Her subtitle walks back from that, however, saying “Research data compiled from a recent study suggests no practical method to determine how long people can live.” That seems to imply that the jury is still out, and nobody…