Homo Deus 1 - Immortality
From the past to the present, many individuals have feared death the most, and many have believed that death is an inevitable way of ending life. However, today, scientists all around the world are striving to conquer death and the “Gilgamesh Project” aimed for immortality is on the top of the human agenda. But I don't think we can truly reach immortality, and even if we manage it will this power make us more content and the world more peaceful?
Firstly, Homo sapiens live in nature, and nature has a way to balance things. When one species become too strong and tip the scale of nature towards them, nature will strengthen another thing to maintain the balance. That applies to humans as well, we cannot escape nature currently and not for a while in the future. Nature has already begun to realize that humans are too devastating and too powerful. For example, as everybody know, as antibiotics become stronger, so as harmful bacteria. Today, many bacteria are resilient towards antibiotics such as the “Staphylococcus aureus”, which cannot be killed by methicillin easily because it has already devised an immunity in response to it. If humans are to plan for immortality, nature will devise something that equilibrate the scale and prevent us from being immortal.
Secondly, since most people crave to escape death, there will be virtually everyone trying to get the power to defeat death when some new potion that makes death evitable is placed on the market. No doubt it will cause a huge amount of fortune to attain one and the world will be tangled in an argument on who should own this tempting power. All this strife can result in serious conflicts between individuals and states and might even cause wars to occur. Before anybody ever drink the potion, the potion is gone and the labs to make or research the technology have a good chance to be bombarded or destroyed. Therefore, it stands a possibility that warfare will eliminate everything.
Thirdly, even if by some way humans reach the state of immortality, will it make us more content? Looking back at history and looking at our current world will give us the answer. It is psychologically human for us to want more, and this pattern is embedded deep in our body. We are never content. Let's examine the phone industry today. Why does Apple or Huawei or any other famous phone producer keep pushing out new models of phones when they already possess 8 or 9 models? Why would Apple design iPhone 11 when the company already own 9 previous versions? The answer can be that Apple wants to make more money by producing new iPhones and tempting the public to purchase them in large numbers even though Apple achieved 1 trillion dollars of fortune in 2018. Therefore, when humans become never dying, they might focus on the ability to become true immortals, without dying even if they are severely harmed. And when we reach that state, who knows what we want next?
Lastly, will the state of immortality provide with a more peaceful and incorrupt world? It is nearly definite that different leaders of countries around the globe will have the privilege to experience immortality first. But what if one leader is corrupt? Let's think if Adolf Hitler's life became eternal, can you picture the damage he could bring? He eventually committed suicide when Germany lost the war, but it might stand a chance that he would not lose his morale when he was immortal, he still had the potential to lengthen World War II by several years or brew a new war plan in his head. And who knew how much more casualties and damage would it bring. To conclude, the power of eternity cannot make the world more peaceful and incorrupt in the future if one leader or influential or power-hungry politician loses his mind. That scenario is absolutely possible.
In conclusion, I don’t think that reaching immortality is that easy as we think. We might attain the technology to become immortal, but nature or even ourselves can destroy our dream. Moreover, since we are never content and corrupt or power-hungry politicians always exist, we cannot think ourselves safe when our leader of our country drinks down the magic potion. The evil side of humanity can produce terrible results, and we must be extra careful and really consider about it before any decisions are made.
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