#biology #transhumanism #longevity # [[Epistemic status]] #shower-thought # Immortality is [[Death 💀]] desirable? So who does not want immortality? ![[DALL·E 2022-06-23 18.53.10 - Immortality, digital art.png]] >There is a doctrine whispered in secret that man is a prisoner who has no right to open the door and run away; this is a great mystery which I do not quite understand >~ [[Bertrand Russell]] >If you came from somewhere that no-one had ever even heard of death, and I suggested to you that it would be an amazing wonderful great idea for people to get wrinkled and old and eventually cease to exist, why, you'd have me hauled right off to a lunatic asylum! So why would anyone possibly think any thought so silly as that death is a good thing? Because you're afraid of it, because you don't really want to die, and that thought hurts so much inside you that you have to rationalize it away, do something to numb the pain, so you won't have to think about it ~ [[Eliezer Yudkowsky]] A key question is what exactly it means to be alive. To some people, it simply means to be conscious and have a sense of self. Others may require more, such as the ability to interact with the world around them. Still others may require even more, such as the ability to reproduce. There is no single answer to this question, as it is subjective. However, it is worth considering what it would mean to be immortal. If one were immortal, they would never die. This would mean that they would never experience the death of a loved one, or the pain of loss. It would also mean that they would never experience the joy of new life. In essence, they would be stuck in a single moment in time, forever. There are both good and bad aspects to immortality. It is up to each individual to decide whether the good or the bad outweighs the other. ## Eventual immortality renders [[Death 💀]] more fearful >This is a logical fate for the utterly helpless person: the more you fear death and the emptier you are. >~ [[Ernest Becker]] # External links <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ykY69lSpDdo" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>