Why Do People Fear Immortality?
Anyone who reads this blog knows that I think death should be optional. Yet I always encounter resistance when introducing this idea to others. Why is that? There are many reasons. For some the idea that we should choose whether to live or die contradicts religious beliefs or seems impossible. For others death is thought natural or what gives life meaning. And fiction influences others by often portraying immortality as bad. It is bad because:
1) You will be bored.
2) You will be unable to die.
3) You will hurt others to attain it.
4) You will lose your humanity.
5) You will turn into a monster
6) You will destroy the environment.
My guess is that negative views of the future are more exciting, and sell more books and movie tickets than descriptions of utopias. But think of it this way. About ten generations ago the average life expectancy in most of the world was about thirty years. If someone told you then that they could triple that lifespan, would you voice the above concerns? I doubt it. Maybe people will be bad or bored or destructive because they live longer. But maybe not. Perhaps with age comes new interests, kindness, and the wisdom. Yes there are bored, horrific people in the world, but that is not connected with how long they live. Some people are just horrible.
Now suppose we tripled the lifespan again? Say an average healthy lifespan becomes about 250 years. What would change? I can’t say for sure but I see no reason to think any of the bad futures would ensue. In fact the knowledge that our lifetimes were relatively long might force us to better cooperate with others and better preserve the environment. If we are going to be alive when the ecosystem is ruined, we might be more likely to care for it.
Of course if we had the option to live forever that would be different. That would create different problems some of which I’ve tried to answer previously. But as long as we could opt out of immortality if we wanted, even objection 2 is overcome. So let’s continue to increase our lifespans and see what happens.
