239 AN INTRODUCTION TO IMMORTALIST MORALITY Marc Geddes The desire for immortality is one of the deepest, most endur- ing dreams of humanity. But is it a noble dream? Advanced technologies such as biotech, nanotech and infotech appear to  hold  great  promise  for  extending  human  life  spans  and restoring youth at some point in the not-too-distant future. But even assuming that radical life extension is possible, some people find the idea disturbing. There are philosophers who argue that the quest for immortality is morally wrong, that we should accept aging and death as a necessary part of life. In this essay an argument for the opposite conclusion is presented. It shall be argued that not only is the quest for immortality morally good, it is in fact the very foundation of morality! MORAL THEORY Any theory of morality has to begin somewhere. We shall here  begin  with  something  known  as  ‘moral  intuitionism’. Moral intuitionism is the idea that some moral precepts are understood through direct conscious awareness, rather than through logical arguments. Appealing to the intuition of read- ers then, the proposed starting precept is very straightforward: “life is better than death.”