Author Gennady Stolyarov II is raising $5000 to distribute 1000 copies of “Death is Wrong” – the ambitious new children’s book on indefinite life extension – to children, free of cost to them.
Gennady Stolyarov is afraid to die, and not afraid to say so. He also strongly believes that human beings don’t have to die, or at least, will live much, much longer in the future. A writer and transhumanist activist, Stolyarov sees death as something that can be “solved” by technology and science, and one day it will possible to extend life indefinitely. To that end, he’s trying to buck the cultural perception that mortality is inevitable, and he’s starting with kids.
Stolyarov published the children’s book Death Is Wrong in November and is now promoting it with an Indiegogo campaign, trying to crowdfund $5,000 to print and distribute 1,000 copies of the book and get the anti-death word out. “The mainstream of society remains pervaded by the old death-acceptance arguments,” the campaign page explains. To get rid of these “pro-death prejudices,” the book gives an overview of the major reasons that life extension is feasible and desirable. It makes the case for immortality—for ages eight and up.
The life-extension movement is one faction of the transhumanism creed—the idea that we can transcend the limitations of being a human being by embracing technological progress. Both radical ideas are certainly gaining traction, thanks in no small part to Google’s Calico moonshot project announced last fall, an initiative to study and defeat aging, and eventually even mortality itself.
Google, which also raised eyebrows by hiring renowned futurist and AI expert Ray Kurzweil as its director of engineering, has breathed new life into the H+ movement. So much so in fact that just this week, a handful of transhumanist activists gathered outside the Googleplex with signs saying ‘Immortality now,’ ‘Viva Calico,’ and ‘Google, please, solve Death.’”
“This is merely the beginning,” wrote the blog the Proactionary Transhumanist about the “protest.” “This was the first ever street action to occur for Transhumanism in the US, which will soon turn into a stepping stone for future actions. Transhumanism is a growing international social movement, gaining speed as more and more people begin realizing the full potential of scientific and technological advancements toward humanity’s next evolutionary steps.”
But Stolyarov’s strategy to groom the next generation to grow up thinking they might not have to die is unique—and more than a little bit creepy. The way he sees it, the biggest hurdle to conquering death isn’t that it’s physically impossible—biotech is working on taking care of that—but rather a pervasive cultural perception that it’s not natural, not “right.”
View the crowdfunding campaign for ‘Death is Wrong’
