Absolutely. My 8 year-old has been asking a lot of questions and expressing concerns about death lately. In an effort to reassure him, at one point I explained to him that the pace of scientific discovery is accelerating rapidly and that there's a good chance that by the time he's older people will be able to live as long as they want.

A few nights ago he says, out of the blue, "Dad, if they do invent some medicine that let's people live forever, I hope they do it before you die."

"Me too", I said.