I’m Paula Santolaya, reporting live from SANTOLIVE in my virtual reality. Have comments, questions, or suggestions? Post them in the comments section or email me at info@santolive.com. 

According to the legend,  the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León, when conquered Puerto Rico, heard the natives talk about the existence of a fountain of youth. In its search he undertook an expedition in 1513 and, although he did not find it, discovered the current state of Florida.

The idea of evading death is no longer a fiction. In recent years, technology and science have worked together to address the last and most significant problem of humanity: death.

The reality is that the cells of our body are renewed every so often and age. But, currently, there is a whole line of research devoted to achieve the key to ‘eternal youth’. The researcher Saul Vileda and the famous neurologist Wyss-Coray have experimented with young blood transfusions in old mice, the University of Cardiff has treated people with anti-aging pills, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Arizona State University have studied nanorobots to fight bacteria and viruses in the blood, and even the startup Humai has investigated the transfer of consciousness to artificial bodies with the aim of resuscitating people! In this sense, professor Stephen Hawking was convinced that «the brain is like a programme in the mind, which is like a computer, so it’s theoretically possible to copy the brain on to a computer and so provide a form of life after death.»

For the moment, although the secret of immortality has not yet been revealed, a scientific consensus has been reached to defeat death: to be in a good health. To get this, it is not necessary to use high-end technology, but simply to maintain a balanced diet, do daily exercise, sleep well and have a calm and enriching social, labora and personal life. And that’s what the classics said: «mens sana in corpore sano».