“WHY WE ARE ESPECIALLY UNFORTUNATE TO DIE, WHEN OUR NEAR-DESCENDANTS COULD BE IMMORTAL
WE ARE THE LAST MORTALS.”
“If this were so, we would be forced to confront an unprecedented shift in one of the oldest philosophical problems. When death ceases to be inevitable, can it still mean the same thing to lose your life?
Our great-great-grandchildren will not be gods, but they may also not be mortals like us.
To be precise, the kind of immortality I have in mind can be called biological immortality.
A biologically immortal organism does not die from illness or ageing – though they may still die in a plane crash. If humans acquired biological immortality, our expected lifespans would jump to enormous lengths.
Almost everyone would still eventually die; statistics dictate that if you fly on planes every few weeks for eternity, eventually one will crash.
If not that, there’s nuclear apocalypse or the heat death of the Sun.
So the type of immortality I have in mind is not a magical one where death is strictly impossible.
But it is the practical removal of death’s certainty.
Biological immortals would no longer expect to die within any relevant time frame.”
