The Necessity of Death

A simple film triggered everything

I went to watch the Robocop the other day and came out of the movie theater in a rather strange mood. In the story it showed the greed of a company and the strayed  ambition of a CEO overshadowing the good of human nature and the fate of the small family of Alex Murphy. Sometimes people get so lost in their little jobs and start to forget that no matter how much profit their work was generating, it is still just a job. To lose one's soul and the basic human decency for something so trivial just doesn't seem to be worth it. Personally I would prefer to live in a better world if it only costs a few billions (in term of missed improper business opportunities) to get there.

 

In some rare cases, individuals abuses their power and influence in society and are seemingly unstoppable. In the Robocop film, the story changed when these individuals died. And this bring us to the main topic of this post - the importance and the necessity of death.

Death as a blessing for this world

Kings, emperors, tyrants, man that have too much to lose have throughout the centuries looked for ways to prolong their lives. In some instances (including our recent world wars) the death of individuals allows the world to reset, the world continues as it always have, with time washing away the scars and disturbances caused. When looked from this perspective, isn't death more like a kind blessing to this world? Lives are given time to proceed their deeds. The average human beings are given enough time to learn, to understand their purpose, to love, to bring about changes to this world, to contribute towards the human consciousness, but  it all comes to a natural end. No one escapes, kings and peasants alike.

Now imagine a world where there is no death. There will be no natural resets. We could still be fighting Hitler and many others before that. And the world would not be able to close the chapter and move forward.

Second thoughts on life prolonging medical sciences and technologies

Before this strange evening, I believed that science and technology which contribute towards fighting disease and saving lives are the noblest of works that someone can do. What else can beat saving billions of lives for centuries to come right? Now perhaps the emphasis here is all wrong. The idea is not to seek immortality,  as we have seen, that could easily turn out to be a disaster.

Technologies for cloning and transferring our thoughts now starts to sound like disastrous inventions for the 22nd century akin to the  invention of the nuclear bomb of our time. Just because we will have the means to do it, doesn't mean that we should.

More emphasis on the relieve of sufferings

The emphasis of our medical technologies should perhaps be on the relieve of sufferings. Individuals, especially children should be given the opportunity to live out their lives until the "natural end". Diseases are perhaps an inevitable part of evolution but we should aim to reduce the pain and suffering of patients, and prevent the spread of disease (the suffering) where possible.

A natural conclusion

It is important to live, and it is just as important to die when the time comes (but hopefully not sooner).

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