Ray Kurzweil is perhaps the most famous immortalist, insisting there is no reason to believe death can’t be stopped or reversed, a feat that would only contribute to overall human productivity.

“Our initial reaction to hearing that someone has died is a profound loss of knowledge, skill, talents and relationships,” he said. “It’s not the case that there are only a fixed number of positions, and if old people don’t die off, there’s no room for young people to come up with new ideas. Larry Page and Sergey Brin didn’t displace anybody — they created a whole new field.” […]