Do we have to die?

One neuroscientist thinks the answer is no

- DANIEL KEANE

This book is dense and complex, but it kicks off a debate of massive importance

Who wants to live forever?" asked Freddie Mercury in 1986. Well, as it turns out, most of us don't. Ever since the dawn of humankind, death has been accepted as the only inexorable fact of existence, a final act which gives our life meaning.

Neuroscientist Dr Ariel Zeleznikow-Johnston, a research fellow at Melbourne's Monash University, does not agree. Death is not inevitable and it should be resisted, he argues.

Instead, life should be prolonged for as long as possible, and technology will eventually enable us to live for centuries.

A quick disclaimer: this is an incredibly challenging book. It is not something you can bring on holiday or read half-heartedly on a train. Those who do persist will find a book that changes their entire idea of mortality and what science is capable of- even though I found myself disagreeing with much of its fundamental argument.

Zeleznikow-Johnston begins by attacking the idea that death is inevitable. People should "have the power to make decisions about life on their own terms", he writes, accusing philosophers of "palliative philosophy" by normalising the acceptance of death. In the past, philosophy provided "comfort when there was no cure that could be offered".