To some extent, Elon Musk warns, death serves a purpose, and that without it the world could become stagnant and lifeless.
DAVOS, Jan 25, 2026: Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has said that aging is not an unsolvable mystery and that science may eventually be able to slow, stop, or even reverse the aging process.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum 2026 in Davos, Musk stated that aging follows a specific biological system rather than being a random or mystical process. According to him, once scientists fully understand the root cause of aging, the solution may turn out to be simpler than currently believed.
Musk explained that the human body appears to age in a coordinated manner, suggesting the existence of an internal biological “clock” that signals trillions of cells to grow old simultaneously. “I’ve never seen someone age in one arm while remaining young in the other,” he remarked, emphasizing that aging operates under a unified mechanism.
He added that identifying and understanding this internal system could open the door to effective treatments for aging in the future. However, Musk did not provide any specific plan or timeline for achieving this breakthrough.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO also revisited his earlier idea of “digital immortality,” a concept in which people could store their memories, life stories, and experiences in computers. He suggested that such data could even be transmitted into space in the future.
Despite his optimism, Musk warned of potential downsides to extreme longevity. He cautioned that if humans live for excessively long periods, societies could face stagnation, with power and ideas becoming concentrated in the hands of a few. “To some extent, death serves a purpose,” he said, adding that without it, the world could become stagnant and lifeless.
While Musk remains hopeful about science’s ability to tackle aging, he acknowledged that much research remains to be done before such ambitions can become reality.