Who wants to live forever?

by Adrian Rigelsford, London based writer
Press Release October 2009

It’s a simple question that’s easy to dismiss, because any rational mind knows the answer; It’s not going to happen… But, what if there was a possibility, just a slight sense of a there being a second chance? What if there was something that could offer an escape clause, not only for the individual but for mankind as a species? Let’s just suppose for a moment that there was something that could put evolution on pause as it stands right now, and genetically give humans, animals, plants and even trees a chance to be saved from any further erosion or decline. The Deep Storage Project isn’t the ultimate answer, but it is an opportunity to believe in a sense of hope. The Danish artist Kristian von Hornsleth has created a sculpture; Some say it looks like the outline of a star, so find it talismanic, and although it conjures different meanings for whoever looks at it, its journey is still clear. Built on a large scale, some eight metres high, and carrying thousands of human, animal and plant DNA samples, sealed safely within the heart of its structure, it will be lowered into the deepest part of the Marianas Trench, where it could be sealed beneath the waves for centuries like a time capsule waiting for the right moment to be found. Some predict that far in the future, perhaps hundreds of thousands of years away, science will have reached a point where these DNA samples could have their original hosts recreated and hypothetically, be brought back for a second chance… But, beneath the idea, is there a level of urgency that makes the whole thing more relevant than it first appears? Medical experts are already predicting that with pollution closing in, atmospheric decay and the declining health levels within society now, the Deep Storage Project actually represents far more than a second chance… This is a chance for survival. By storing human DNA right now, it could be as soon as five to seven hundred years before the Deep Storage Project is called upon, with genetic science utilizing these.