Vårt første felles feltstudie (både projektleder,phd student og post doc) ble gjennomført i California, under RAADfest (evolution against aging and death festival) i oktober 2022 Denne festivalen samler flere hundre godt over gjennomsnittet bemidlede amerikanere som ønsker å høre det siste nytt fra farmasøytisk industri, bio-tek forskere og den generelle livstilsindustrien i USA. Her er også kryonikk-entusiaster, både de som ønsker å lære mer, og forskere og representanter fra organisasjoner som tilbyr kryonikk (nedfrysning i nitrogen ved erklært juridisk død). Mange av intervjuene vi gjorde viser glidende overganger mellom ideen om å «eldes vel» og kryonikk , samtidig som retorikk rundt å «aldri dø» og «udødelighet» oppleves som ekstrem. Grensen mellom det som er vitenskapelig mulig; å senke tempo i aldringsprosessen, og å muligens (når gjennombruddene kommer), reversere aldring, på den ene siden, og ideen om at man skal kunne leve evig på den andre, blir viktig å befeste. Den ene oppleves som rasjonalt og vitenskapelig det andre noe mer religiøst eller spirituelt.
Technological innovation in human-computer interfaces, breakthroughs in biotechnology, and the emerging notion that aging is a disease seriously challenge established understandings of what a human being is, or might be. A substantial reason for current popular interest in emerging technologies is the possibility of living forever; the prospect of human immortality. This project will explore contemporary pursuits of immortality in order to enhance our understanding the social and cultural basis for these developments.We might distinguish between three different approaches to the field of immortality, taking three different questions as a point of departure: Firstly, what is possible, through technology and science? Secondly, what is the social and cultural significance of it, and thirdly: is it desirable? The first question is an established research area in biology (anti-aging medicine, bio-technology etc) and AI (humanoids, "mind transfer" etc), and the third question is often dealt with in the field of ethics, mainly from philosophy, religion and theology etc. The second however, is only to a very limited degree developed. With this project we want to explore the socio-cultural significance of the immortality movement, looking specifically at kinship relations. How are relations developed and imagined in contexts where mortality is sought overcome? Concretely, we propose with this research to develop comparative analysis of ethnographic case studies of immortality practices in Russia and in the US. Due to particular historical contingencies rooted both in the histories of the late nineteenth-century religious modernism and experimentation, and the Cold War technoscientific imaginaries and science-based competition between the Soviet Union and the United States, these are the two locations where immortality projects like the ones described above are most developed and vocal.
