Oftentimes, we see death as a great misfortune that sometimes we question why we have to die. What if you live forever? Wouldn't it be awesome to have perfect immortality where you are completely immune to any kind of physical destruction? Instead of saying “life is short”, you chant “life never ends”. But, how good is life that never ends?
We all die. Oftentimes, we see death as a great misfortune that sometimes we question why we have to die. What if you live forever? Would it be desirable to never die?
Perhaps, as you think of the alternative of death, that is immortality, you carefully lay out the conditions and circumstances where you can enjoy an existence prolonged to eternity. Wouldn't it be awesome to have perfect immortality where you are completely immune to any kind of physical destruction? You have no fear of accidents, crimes, diseases, and old age. You have all the time in the world to do all the things that you want to do. You have an infinite time to accumulate wealth and material possessions, and you will always be around to enjoy it. Instead of saying “life is short”, you chant “life never ends”. But, how good is life that never ends? Somehow, when you think through living a never-ending life, it can get scary. Just as we fear death because we don't know what it means to be dead, immortality is also frightening because we don't know how it is to live forever. There is no model of immortality in this world. What could go wrong if you live forever? One thousand years is a long time. One million years, one billion years, one zillion years. These are long long years but forever is way a lot longer. Are there good things in our human life that will persist forever? Immortality magnifies the uncertainties of a finite life countless fold. Today, we have disasters, conflicts, and all sorts of global crises. You will witness how all these world problems inflict pain, suffering, and death upon mankind. You will survive the horrible anguish of seeing your loved ones die, one by one. Perhaps, you will become super rich and mega famous because of your ability to live forever. Perhaps, you will gain great power that comes with also great responsibility. You will have forever to rule the world. Wouldn't immortality be cool? But, this will last forever. Can you handle forever in your human capacities? Can a human have desires that will propel him or her into the future forever? Will it take forever before you get tired of living a human life?
Zefram Cochrane of Star Trek said: “Believe me, Captain, immortality consists largely of boredom.” In his article The Makropulos Case: Reflections on the Tedium of Immortality, Bernard Williams argued that immortality would lead to boredom. Williams believes that as long as the desire to live exists, we do not want to die, but there will be a point in time when we would be better off dead. He thinks that it is good that we are not immortal because humans cannot remain meaningfully attached to life forever. According to Williams, “an endless life would be a meaningless one” because “we could have no reason for living eternally a human life.”
It is good to live as long as we want to, but it would be a curse if we cannot die when we want to end our human life. As we ponder on the alternative of death – immortality, an endless human life – we may begin to appreciate life's end. Death is a doorway to something new while immortality is a prison in human life.
The limitations of the human mind cannot process the expanse of eternity. In Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Ludwig Wittgenstein, an Austrian philosopher, wrote:
[6.4311] “Death is not an event of life. Death is not lived through.
If by eternity is understood not endless temporal duration but timelessness, then he lives eternally who lives in the present. Our life is endless in the way that our visual field is without limit.”
[6.4312] “The temporal immortality of the soul of man, that is to say, its eternal survival also after death, is not only in no way guaranteed, but this assumption in the first place will not do for us what we always tried to make it do. Is a riddle solved by the fact that I survive for ever? Is this eternal life not as enigmatic as our present one? The solution of the riddle of life in space and time lies outside space and time. (It is not problems of natural science which have to be solved.)”
Death and immortality lie at opposite ends but they can both remind us of the importance of living in the present. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: “With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now.”
What if you live forever? The nature of human life is you cannot live forever but if you live in the present and you live eternally.
Perhaps, as you think of the alternative of death, that is immortality, you carefully lay out the conditions and circumstances where you can enjoy an existence prolonged to eternity. Wouldn't it be awesome to have perfect immortality where you are completely immune to any kind of physical destruction? You have no fear of accidents, crimes, diseases, and old age. You have all the time in the world to do all the things that you want to do. You have an infinite time to accumulate wealth and material possessions, and you will always be around to enjoy it. Instead of saying “life is short”, you chant “life never ends”. But, how good is life that never ends? Somehow, when you think through living a never-ending life, it can get scary. Just as we fear death because we don't know what it means to be dead, immortality is also frightening because we don't know how it is to live forever. There is no model of immortality in this world. What could go wrong if you live forever? One thousand years is a long time. One million years, one billion years, one zillion years. These are long long years but forever is way a lot longer. Are there good things in our human life that will persist forever? Immortality magnifies the uncertainties of a finite life countless fold. Today, we have disasters, conflicts, and all sorts of global crises. You will witness how all these world problems inflict pain, suffering, and death upon mankind. You will survive the horrible anguish of seeing your loved ones die, one by one. Perhaps, you will become super rich and mega famous because of your ability to live forever. Perhaps, you will gain great power that comes with also great responsibility. You will have forever to rule the world. Wouldn't immortality be cool? But, this will last forever. Can you handle forever in your human capacities? Can a human have desires that will propel him or her into the future forever? Will it take forever before you get tired of living a human life?
Zefram Cochrane of Star Trek said: “Believe me, Captain, immortality consists largely of boredom.” In his article The Makropulos Case: Reflections on the Tedium of Immortality, Bernard Williams argued that immortality would lead to boredom. Williams believes that as long as the desire to live exists, we do not want to die, but there will be a point in time when we would be better off dead. He thinks that it is good that we are not immortal because humans cannot remain meaningfully attached to life forever. According to Williams, “an endless life would be a meaningless one” because “we could have no reason for living eternally a human life.”
It is good to live as long as we want to, but it would be a curse if we cannot die when we want to end our human life. As we ponder on the alternative of death – immortality, an endless human life – we may begin to appreciate life's end. Death is a doorway to something new while immortality is a prison in human life.
The limitations of the human mind cannot process the expanse of eternity. In Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Ludwig Wittgenstein, an Austrian philosopher, wrote:
[6.4311] “Death is not an event of life. Death is not lived through.
If by eternity is understood not endless temporal duration but timelessness, then he lives eternally who lives in the present. Our life is endless in the way that our visual field is without limit.”
[6.4312] “The temporal immortality of the soul of man, that is to say, its eternal survival also after death, is not only in no way guaranteed, but this assumption in the first place will not do for us what we always tried to make it do. Is a riddle solved by the fact that I survive for ever? Is this eternal life not as enigmatic as our present one? The solution of the riddle of life in space and time lies outside space and time. (It is not problems of natural science which have to be solved.)”
Death and immortality lie at opposite ends but they can both remind us of the importance of living in the present. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: “With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now.”
What if you live forever? The nature of human life is you cannot live forever but if you live in the present and you live eternally.
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