The desire to live forever appears to be a near-universal trait in human culture. It might seem like only "fringe" religions like those mentioned in yesterday's article: Terasem, Transfigurism, Cosmism etc. explicitly aim to attain immortality but in fact, nearly all the major world religions do. See this list from the Wikipedia article on immortality

4.1 Ancient Greek religion

4.2 Ascended Masters

4.3 Buddhism

4.4 Christianity

4.5 Hinduism

4.6 Islam

4.7 Judaism

4.8 Rastafarianism

4.9 Taoism

4.10 Zoroastrianism

In this light, people today who are working towards or waiting patiently for God/Technology to deliver them from death (myself included) are just the modern practitioners of an ancient tradition.