“We’re not thinking about the key gene of immortality or the formula for immortality,” says Pascual Torner. Not even the immortal jellyfish is invincible to death, come to think of it. “It is mortal because it has predators; sea snails or sea worms can eat it, and viruses or parasites can kill it,” Pascual Torner says. Systems need entries and exits, as Pascual Torner puts it—by this point, we’ve already established that. That said, there are mysteries—like that of human consciousness—whose totality cannot be reduced to chemical equations, Pascual Torner admits.