Everything we have witnessed that arises also passes away. Every living thing, every dead thing - even stars and planets - arise and pass away.<p>I feel it’s the ultimate hubris to think we can cheat death.<p>Moreover, why would you want immortality?<p>Many books of fiction and poetry discuss the curse of immortality.<p>Here are a few:<p>The Immortal, Jorge Luis Borges (1947)<p>A man discovers a source of immortality, but eternity eventually destroys the significance of individual experiences. When everything can happen infinitely, nothing feels particularly important.<p>The Mortal Immortal — Mary Shelley (1833) - also wrote Frankenstein<p>A man drinks an elixir and lives for centuries without substantially aging. He watches his wife grow old and die, and becomes increasingly alienated from humanity. Shelley focuses on loneliness and the psychological weight of endless time.<p>All Men Are Mortal — Simone de Beauvoir (1946)<p>An immortal man lives through centuries of history, relationships, and political upheaval. Gradually he discovers that even extraordinary achievements seem meaningless when time is unlimited.<p>The Makropulos Affair — Karel Čapek (1922)<p>A woman lives more than 300 years through an elixir. She retains her youth but becomes emotionally exhausted, cynical, and incapable of finding pleasure.<p>—<p>There are more. Sure, these are fiction. But use your imagination. Why would you want immortality, even if you could retain perfect health indefinitely?
Great list. Also, Anne Rice's Vampire stories.<p>I like Alan Watt's view on death: "it's absurd to worry about death because when you're dead, you've got nothing to worry about, so you'll be alright".<p>And Neil deGrasse Tyson, I think in reference to life after death: "it's the same as before you were born". Kind of mindblowing perspective - you've already experienced the state of not existing, it's the same as before you were born.<p>This brings it home that really it's the now you should learn to live and appreciate to the fullest instead, not some future you have no control over. Still struggling how that translates into worrying about my future health, but I suppose there is still the now of the future to worry about.
<i>I feel it’s the ultimate hubris to think we can cheat death.</i><p>And if we were meant to fly we'd have wings, and diseases are the gods punishing us for our sins.<p><i>Moreover, why would you want immortality?</i><p>I don't know about immortality, but I'd definitely like more than 80 years, and I'd like to be in good health for as long as I am alive.<p><i>Many books of fiction and poetry discuss the curse of immortality.</i><p>Yes, and those are almost entirely cope.
Not everything; only 93% of humans have died, for example. Past != future.
Because one lifetime is not enough to experience everything the world has to offer.<p>If one doesn't have to watch ones spouse, friends and family grow old and die, because it is available widely, that removes some of your objections.<p>Personally I don't subscribe to the idea that things lose meaning in a longer life, I find it a 'just so' story of self comfort in the face of the inevitable.
That is a really wanky, lazy, cliched, annoying trope - to a longevity advocate, of course. For the many people who inexplicably think death is friendly and wonderful, these tired old storylines are <i>utterly insightful.</i> (see also: Doctor Who, they did stories about immortality-seeking villains a few times.)
Why would someone want to live 100 years? 80? 60? 40? 20? Were ultimately just saying we like living and would like to keep living until we decide we don’t want to anymore. The thought that people might like living longer than they get is pretty well supported by every dying person who doesn’t want to die rather than just some speculative fiction.
Well if one can live to the heat death of the universe I'll count it as prevented, not postponed, death.