There's a fantastic book by anthropologist, Yuval Harari. He's written two, actually. The first is better than the second. "Homo Sapiens" is a rough history of our species + a bit of exploration of moral and existential issues. The follow-up is "Homo Deus" which is just a skosh speculative for my taste but nevertheless quite good. Some amazing scientists (Edward O. Wilson) write magic when they talk about their field (in Wilson's case, insects especially hymenoptera). But then he chose to write a book, "The Future of Life" where I think he packaged too much of what he wants to see true into what is rational as a prediction about the future.
I digress.
In "Homo Deus", Harari explores the very real fact that the unspoken rule of medicine is to cure death. Not explicitly so, but its implicit in its existence. We won't cure all of the diseases we know of (cancer, infections, etc.), alleviate all physical suffering then say, "Okay. Medicine is done. We'll stick with this." Medical sciences will continue exploring and chipping away at the fringes, identifying one cause of death and addressing it. Eventually the combination of nano-technology, genetic engineering and personally-tailor-made medicines, will increase human life into the centuries ... provide we survive that long as a species, which isn't altogether assured.
