Only one in six Britons want to live forever

Only one in six Britons would want to live forever, according to a new poll marking a major exhibition exploring the future currently on in London.

The Future Starts Here at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A).examines how British people feel about the future, with visitors being “guided by a series of ethical and speculative questions to connect the subject matter to the choices that everyone has in their everyday lives”.

To mark the exhibition the V&A teamed up with YouGov to find out British attitudes to ageing and immortality.

Just 17% of those polled would choose to live forever, even if good physical and mental health were guaranteed.

In fact, 40% of people do not even want to live past 100, while 24% want to live for longer than a century, but do not want to live forever.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, younger people are more attracted to the idea of extended life spans than older demographics, with only 5% of over-65s choosing to live beyond 200.

Men are noticeably more likely than women to want to live forever (21% to 12%).

Respondents were also broken down into six distinct attitudinal groups based on their attitudes towards the future.

Of these, one group in particular had a different view from the population as a whole. 'Tech Disciples', who make up 14% of the general population, are noticeably more likely to say they want to live forever (30% compared to 17% for all Britons).

In line with the other findings this group is male-dominated (62% are men) and they are most likely to believe that there is a technological solution to all of humanity’s problems.

They also consider technological progress to be a force for good, and the majority feel that they have the power to shape the future, and that they have a good idea of what and who drives change in society.