I believe immortality is a wonderful thing and that all of the reasons for it being bad are just not strong enough to convince me otherwise.
I get that living forever can seem scary; the unknown is. But that is just individual perceptions of immortality. This is not what humanity as a whole agrees upon. People who don't want to live forever or only want to live to a certain age can just kill themselves when they are tired of living.
Earth's overpopulation would be the only problem to worry about on a large scale. But with more time to tackle this issue, we can keep working on them. I don't know the solutions yet - maybe we'll live on Mars - but that's the whole excitement of living to see the ever-changing future: We can keep trying things and learning and pushing for improvement. Imagine what great achievements would come about if humanity's greatest minds (eg, Newton, Einstein, Tesla, etc) were given immortality?
I don't agree with the argument that "without death, humans can't grow". Where did people get the idea that the longer life is, the less meaningful it becomes? Why do some people seem so adamant that continuing on and foregoing the mental and physical degradation we currently deem acceptable is such a bad thing? Remember that humans nowadays can and have the conditions to achieve far more than we ever did because the we don't have to struggle for most basic necessities like ancient humans did. Being freed from bothering about those kinds of inconveniences, we have been able to concentrate on enriching our minds.
In 1900, the average human lifespan was 47 years. By 2000, they lived to 76. Are middle-aged people today wishing they could speed through the next few decades and get them over with? Do those pushing 100 feel like they've been dealt a bad hand?
Not-dying is what we strive for with medical advances, after all. And if you don't think we should continue striving to live as long as possible, where's your cut-off line? Reaching a point where we can live for as long as we want seems like a pretty natural conclusion. Immortality doesn't seem like such a big dream.
The "no progress" argument assumes that death is the only struggle humans do/will ever face in life. This is immortality, not invincibility. There will always be new challenges, new horizons to reach, eg, will we be able to become an interstellar species?
21 December 2018
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I'm also quite fascinated by the idea of immortality. Of course, in future, in order to maintain a immortal and healthly body will probably be quite costly and expensive, but if we manage to achieve it without dangerous side effects, who is me to deny it. I don't believe in any nowdays religious god, and doubt any exists at all.
ReplyDeleteI think it's more complicated than "immortality is fantastic in every way" or "immortality is terrible in every way". Immortality and mortality both have their pros and cons. Most importantly, the type of immortality is important. Have you heard of the Tale of the Cumaean Sibyl? She was granted immortality by the god Apollo, but she forgot to ask for eternal youth. She soon rotted and became a voice in a jar. And that kind of immortality probably sucks, right?
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, people who are alive today often face mental issues with regards to loneliness and depression. There are many cautionary tales that imply that there is such a thing as living too long, for perhaps the human mind as it is may succumb to madness. The cheer and hope and innocence of a child usually disappears further and further until jadedness as an adult, where one must deal with taxes and work and heartbreak and war etc. Even these geniuses you mentioned often found themselves in isolated, depressed positions. Plus, there are "evil" geniuses that come about alongside "good" geniuses. Living doesn't guarantee happiness. So maybe immortality's only cool when you never get tired of the world and live in your 20s and have a bunch of loved ones and never get tortured and diseased and lonely and bored.
But that's a bit too convenient, no? And who knows how it'd be practical. Death usually acts as a motive to all biological organisms to survive. A tactic of fear to drive living things to truly live. That's why we developed medicine and luxury in the first place, because we fear death and pain. But what happens when we remove death entirely? Will we become nonchalant and unmotivated? What happens when we get bored and can't find things to do after millennia? The empty mind is often the devil's workshop. Do humans have the mental maturity to not exploit immortality or go mad? The world is at the brink of war half the time already. And looking at history, clearly when the wrong people get too much power, they misuse it. We need to be responsible before obtaining this sort of luxury. Even if we have productive challenges to work on, who's promising we'll work on those and not other sick, freaky things? You're right, prosperity and long lives free of pain and death is beneficial to our race's development. But that doesn't mean societies with good medicine and lifespan are completely happy. Most of these places (take Japan or Scandinavia) struggle with motivation and loneliness, which manifests as depression and even suicide.
So I think all-in-all, it's complicated. Physically, mentally, and practically. And I personally don't think we're ready yet. Perhaps when we transcend beyond humanity and achieve higher mental stability and enlightenment.
Very interesting topic though, I appreciate your writings.