Americans don’t want to live to be 120—even if they could

Radical life extension—pushing humans’ maximum age well beyond the natural average—is all the rage. Self-proclaimed futurist Ray Kurzweil wants us to hit the supplements and reset our biochemistry, while theoretical gerontologist Aubrey de Grey says one of us alive today will live 1,000 years thanks to new anti-aging techniques that he believes will soon emerge. Russian media millionaire Dmitry Itskov says we’ll be able to upload our minds to technological “carriers,” while other so-called transhumanists point to a mix of nanotechnology, cryonics and various medical advances as being imminently available means of extending our lives to 120 and well beyond.