Who Wants To Live FOREVER!

Published May 22, 2018 · Updated July 6, 2022

Never thought I’d message you guys, just not my bag, but then you said, “maybe you’re much smarter than we are” on the deep dive, and I assumed you were talking directly to me, so here we go.

Regarding Immortality:

I totally disagree with the idea that if you lived longer, maybe functionally immortally, that you would somehow have less drive to live your life. That life means something only because it’s finite, as Big D said. I think this is only a “common sense” feeling today because the alternative has never been a possibility. Not really anyway…

If we look back historically to when the average age was 20 or 30 or 40 years old. People at that time, might have said that life has meaning because it’s hard, it’s impartial, it’s unforgiving, and it’s finite. Because of that we better live like it matters, cause it DOES!!!! And 30 year-old elder-philosophers in that time might have said that looking back on their many years it was all worth it….

But then we fast-forward to today and reflect on that lifespan, and it’s almost a tragedy that we allowed the infant mortality rates, famine, sicknesses, wars to do to mankind what it did in those times. That from our new 80+ year vantage, a life spent by age 25 would be the WORST sort of sin. We barely consider a 25 year old to be an adult now, ask a 60 or 70 year old what they think of the average 30 year old ‘nowadays’ lol.

We’ve moved the needle on what death means (from cessation of breathing and eventually to cessation of heartbeat to currently you not being ‘dead’ until brain death), we moved the needle so far, that we can look back and think, “WOW, they used to let you die if you just stopped breathing when you fell in a lake. We were idiots and monsters”. But how much more silly might it be a thousand years from now, for our children to think, “WOW, they used to let you die if you were braindead! Or if you had cancers! THEY LET STEPHEN HAWKING DIE FROM SOMETHING AS SIMPLE AS ALS! Were they idiots or monsters”.

Regarding life only having meaning if it’s finite, let’s say I granted you that was true, and I don’t. But if I did, ok. Then ask a healthy 40 year old back in the day if it made sense to kill them because we want younger, fresher, more liberal minds to prevail. I think they would object. And I think WE SHOULD, today, object as well, considering we currently have lifespans double of that…. But what if you could be healthy till you were 130 years old? Or 300 years old? Would you think of putting a cap on humanity’s technological advancements, that have ALREADY been increasing our lifespans, if you could be healthy and happy till 1000 years old?

I’ll leave it at that for now, but I disagree with the idea that we would lose drive, I’d be happy to comment on it if you like. The future could be less like wall-e and more like living the 1st 100 years or so, like a child: Exploring, loving, learning. I believe we LEARN to do the lowest amount of effort from corporate america and our school systems, and that there’s no 7 year-old that has a problem wanting to live every moment fully.

Likewise, I only slightly disagree with the idea if people were still alive that had fought for the south (OR THE NORTH) during the revolutionary war (as a black man in America) that the landscape of our lives would be worse somehow. I might concede maybe a cap on voter age, much like there’s a minimum, but I won’t agree that there might need be a cap on humanity’s lifespan. Again, I’m open to elaborating.

Regardless, I’ve never followed a podcast before, I love you guys and your shit humor. Listened through all of american gods, and taboo as well. Keep up the good work!

Rage, rage against the dying of the light,

The other Big D.

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