Where biodemographic theory and demographic data meet: a review of the Quest for Immortality (by Olshansky and Carnes). Essay review.

Abstract

The Quest for Immortality has three central theses: (1) Humans are not immortal; (2) Demographers predicting large future improvements in life expectancy are mistaken; and (3) Those who promote products as reversing the aging process (or restoring youth) are perpetrating fraud. The book is an interesting read, and those without a background in evolutionary theories of aging and biodemography will find much of interest in the book. Some of the book's strongest attractions include easy discussions of relatively difficult evolutionary and biodemographic hypotheses, including the Hayflick limit, Medawar's genetic dustbin, antagonistic pleiotropy, and the free radical theory of aging, among others. These concepts are interesting and well presented. Those with an academic background, however, may find this discussion somewhat lacking, because there is little in the way of serious discussion about how actual data are or are not consistent with these perspectives. Scholars may also have problems with several of the semantic games that are played by the authors and with the dismissal of demographic research on the basis of straw man arguments or circular reasoning.