How To Achieve Immortality In The Digital Age.
I Think, Therefore I Fear Death.
“The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman philosopher and lawyer.
After an uneventful evening filled with toy trains, cartoons, and a healthy supper consisting of a vanilla Easter Bunny, I learned that not only do other people die but that I was going to die one day as well. If all went according to nature’s plan, it would be of old age instead of accident or malice. A mature, primary-school-aged kid would’ve responded to the news in a professional fashion; being the naive, innocent, and the decidedly immature primary-school-aged kid that I was, I didn’t take the news well. I couldn’t have been more than six or seven.
In addition to learning about the first of two things in life that are certain — I would learn about taxes later —I was also upset that I was learning this news from my childhood-sitter instead of my Mom and Dad. They were off having a happy evening, most likely eating at some nice restaurant or watching the latest Robin Williams film (this took place in the late 1990's). Despondent and inconsolable, I wrapped myself in a massive blanket and hid under my favorite hiding place: the living-room table. Death can’t get me under here! I reasoned.
“Samuel!” the sitter called out. “You need to come out from under the table!”
“No!” I replied. “I’m never coming out! And I’m not going to die either!”
“Samuel, I’m sorry but sometimes it’s something…that happens…to people!”
I can’t remember what started this or how we even started talking about it. My childhood sitter meant well but she didn’t always know how to easily prevent elementary-school-level meltdowns…let alone steer the conversation away from upsetting topics. These topics contained even more of an impact since the vanguard protection of MOM AND DAD INC. were off undergoing ‘date-night’ maintenance.
The poor woman was flailing but I couldn’t see it. I couldn’t see anything except the blanket drooped over my head. I bent down and buried my head in the floor.
“I don’t wanna die!” I yelled. “I want Mom and Dad!”
—
I don’t remember how the situation resolved itself. I do remember Mom and Dad coming home and I was a screaming idiot, blubbering about how the sitter talked about how ‘we are all going to die.’ Dad thought it was funny but Mom was mortified; the sitter was a long-time family friend and she had numerous good-referrals from other people who’d used her services in the past. Like I mentioned earlier, this could have been a misunderstanding on my part but I don’t remember the details.
I do remember the pain, though.
And with that pain — and realization — suddenly the laws of the universe made sense. Dying wasn’t only something that happened to Simba’s father in The Lion King, or Charlotte the spider in Charlotte’s Web. It was something that happened in the real world to real people. It was something that devastated kids my age and even happened to kids my age. What had seemed an intangible story-telling-device found in books and movies now suddenly felt very real. It was something I had to account for.
This, in turn, made the various stories about people searching for eternal life make sense. The promise of eternal life found in Christianity, Islam, or the reincarnation found in Hinduism seemed very aligned with one of the most primal fears a human being can have.
Which is why I find it astounding that in today’s world — the world I currently live in — we have found a way to keep ourselves alive forever.
Even if it may not be through the most direct means possible.
Who Wants to Live Forever?
“To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.” — J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
The Elixir of Life.
The Philosopher’s Stone.
The Fountain of Youth.
The Holy Grail.
The Waters of Rejuvenation.
Across continents and cultures, spanning centuries and lifespans, the quest for eternal life has always been a key part of humanity’s lust for existence beyond the norm. Whether kings commissioned alchemists to find the correct ingredients or legends were passed down to give future generations hope, the thought of life continuing indefinitely has been a subject of interest since time immemorial; both the earliest prose fiction and religious texts are key identifiers in man’s obsession with everything holy, unholy, and immutable.
Fast-forward to the wonders of modern science and you will find the desire manifests itself in a more complicated form. Engaging in cryonics is the way for those living today to attempt immortality tomorrow. Once a patient has died, their body is stored in chambers built to freeze — and preserve it — until the fateful day comes when humanity discovers the technology to reanimate bodies. While many have opted in to take a chance on this route, other scientists and researchers have dismissed these acts as harboring in the realm of pseudoscience.
Other researchers, philosophers, and scientists are putting more stock into researching transhumanism — the idea that human consciousness and thought can be uploaded into a digital shell, or even copied into a non-organic format. The questions of ethics and cultural-protocols aside, it is fascinating that even after conquering almost every conceivable barrier against human interaction, we are still striving to make ourselves go beyond our prescribed expiration date.
Thinking about this can bring about the next realization.
What if the secret to immortality wasn’t in reanimation or consciousness-uploading…
…but was instead a few mere clicks on our desktop away?
—
Kicking and Screaming Into the Future.
“Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters inside your skull.” — George Orwell, 1984.
The birth of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and others may have seemed a fad, novelty, or a lively example of the Internet’s connectivity. What was not on the forefront of the social-media takeover was the ability for everything you post to be recorded — even if you took measures to delete the physical post, the evidence could still be unearthed through various methods.
Whether you create a piece of content through video, the written word, or photography, the fact that an entire library of messages, thoughts, and feelings can be recorded has taken the quest for immortality by storm.
The vast immutability of the online realm can give even the weakest idea room to grow. A simple video upload might as well stay on the internet forever — regardless of governments blocking certain websites. This video in turn — whether it’s a daily vlog chronicling the life of a would-be-artist, or a simply failed attempt at wedding-dancing — can provide an immortal snapshot into someone’s life.
Furthermore, let’s assume you’ve done something influential — you invented something, created a company, broke records in a professional league, or did something worth mentioning. You may create a Wikipedia page for yourself by accident — even if your home country deleted all records or mentioning of your birth, the Internet will stand fast in confirming your existence. No longer will you have to rely on the conquering of nations or imperial scribes to document your victories — other people may do it for you.
—
Present in Spirit If Not in Body.
“All men’s gains are the fruits of venturing.” — Herodotus, historian in Ancient Greece (484 B.C.E — 425 B.C.E).
If freezing ourselves doesn’t work and we can’t seem to find a way to upload consciousness, we can at least take comfort that our influence can still be felt long after we physically leave the Earth. Even if we never achieve ‘great things’ or ‘change the tide of human history,’ it may be something as simple as writing a book or crafting a sculpture; gain enough attention and it may not matter that your body is physically decomposed.
We still read works from people long dead. In schools, universities, popular culture, adaptations, or commentaries, the influence of people such as Plato, Socrates, Confucius, Joan of Arc, Mother Teresa, Harriet Tubman, Albert Einstein, etc. are still felt and studied today. It is safe to say that the only freezing or uploading these people did was in changing their circumstances.
You can also go on the other side of the coin and run down a list of people who changed the world for the worse.
So in all things, regardless of how we handle our newfound immortality…
…we’d do well to make sure we craft a positive influence instead of a negative one.
