In 'Sapiens', Yuval Noah Harari writes that unlike Gilgamesh, who goes on a quest for immortality and in the end realizes it's not for man to live forever, science is currently "busy investigating the physiological, hormonal and genetic systems responsible for disease and old age. They are developing new medicines, revolutionary treatments and artificial organs that will lengthen our lives and might one day vanquish the Grim Reaper himself.
[...]
Even if killing death seems a distant goal, we have already achieved things that were inconceivable a few centuries ago.
[...]
In the two centuries since the battle of Waterloo (1815) (when limbs were sawn off even in case of minor limb injuries, fearing gangrene), things have changed beyond recognition. Pills, injections and sophisticated operations save us from a spate of illnesses and injuries that once dealt an inescapable death sentence."
I find this very fascinating: looking at death not as an inevitable end but rather as another condition that might turn out to be preventable after all. And it's amusing to me how this pursuit of immortality as a desirable thing stands in contrast with how Ashwathhama (in the Mahabharata) was cursed (not blessed) to be immortal 😆
Other implications aside, on a personal level, if you could, would you want to live forever? (I'm currently in camp Hell no, unless I get to have a permanently still, serene mind)
