It's bad news for people who are already bored to death on planet earth, for the death of death is reportedly near.
Dying will be "optional" within just 27 years and the ageing process will be "reversible", according to two genetic engineers during the presentation of their new book, The Death of Death, in Barcelona.
According to the website thinkspain, Jos Luis Cordeiro, born in Venezuela to Spanish parents, and Cambridge (UK) mathematician David Wood, founders of the operating system Symbian, say immortality is a real and scientific possibility that could come much earlier than originally thought.
Humans will only die in accidents, never of natural causes or illness, by around the year 2045, say Cordeiro and Wood, who say it is "crucial" that old age starts to be classified as an "illness" so that publicly-funded research into its "cure" can extend.
Nanotechnology is key, among other new genetic manipulation techniques, the engineers said during their presentation at Barcelona's Equestrian Circle.
The report said the process will involve turning "bad" genes into healthy ones, eliminating dead cells from the body, repairing damaged cells, treatments with stem cells and "printing" vital organs in 3D.
Cordeiro, who is based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US, says he has "chosen not to die" and that in 30 years' time, he will be "younger than he is today".
Ageing is the result of DNA "tails", known as "telomeres", in chromosomes - of which every cell except red blood and sex cells has 23 pairs - becoming shorter, and reversing ageing involves lengthening the telomeres.
Telomeres become damaged and shortened with the passage of time, a process that speeds up in the event of toxins entering the body - smoking, alcohol and air pollution are among elements that reduce the length of telomeres, thus accelerating ageing, the thinkspain report said.
Cordeiro and Wood believe that within 10 years, illnesses such as cancer will be curable, and that major international corporations such as Google will be "entering the field of medicine" because they are "beginning to realise that curing ageing is possible".
Microsoft has reportedly already announced the setting up of a cryopreservation centre in which a scientist is researching the possibility of cancer being completely curable within a decade.
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