We’re already beginning to extend the human body, but no matter how much we enhance ourselves, there is one snag that’s difficult to avoid: our brains and bodies are built of physical stuff. They will deteriorate and die. There will come a moment when all your neural activity will come to a halt, and then the glorious experience of being conscious will come to an end. It doesn’t matter who you know or what you do: this is the fate of all of us. In fact, it’s the fate of all life, but only humans are so unusually foresighted that we suffer over this knowledge.
