Things coming to an end can often be seen as sad or painful: That last sliver of light before the sun sets, driving back home from vacation, saying goodbye to a loved one. And while something ending too soon can feel unfair, it is also the inherent knowledge of everything being finite that makes these things that much more valuable. That is why this article will deal with the concept of immortality and raises the question if something endless can still be enjoyable or if, at some point, it becomes purposeless.
Things coming to an end can often be seen as sad or painful: That last sliver of light before the sun sets, driving back home from vacation, saying goodbye to a loved one. And while something ending too soon can feel unfair, it is also the inherent knowledge of everything being finite that makes these things that much more valuable. That is why this article will deal with the concept of immortality and raises the question if something endless can still be enjoyable or if, at some point, it becomes purposeless.
Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash
Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash
“On paper, this is paradise. All your desires and needs are met. But it’s infinite. And when perfection goes on forever, you become this glassy-eyed mush-person.” This is how the series The Good Place describes the afterlife, meaning heaven or the good place. Spoiler alert: The characters in the series overcome many obstacles before they finally arrive in ‘the good place’ in the fourth season. And the struggles were worth it: it is a good place indeed, where whatever you wish for is just one call away, a true paradise. But what the characters of the series come to discover, much to their dismay, is that everyone living in the good place for a while has become dull and indifferent towards the world around them. They realize that this perfect afterlife place has one flaw: it is infinite, and that infinity is unbearably boring.
This conclusion is also supported by the so-called ‘boredom argument’, first formulated by Bernard Williams in 1973, which states that human mortality is good and necessary since otherwise, infinite life would become boring to us humans. He sees life as being about pursuing purpose and one’s deepest desires, and these will inevitably be fulfilled one day. An endlessly extended life with no more desires to satisfy will become insufferable (Gorman, 2017). That is exactly how the residents of the good place describe their feelings: “I came here, where time stretched out forever and every second of my existence was amazing, but my brain became this big dumb blob. I used to be cool, man! I studied so many things, art and music and math…” Because everything had been enjoyed and explored at some point, this infinite happy place was no longer exciting to them and their good life was no longer worth living. We might also know this feeling from being on vacation: You explore this unknown place where everything seems exciting and amazing, you eat tasty food everyday and soak everything in you meet. But after a while, it becomes all too common and normal. Suddenly, those Italian beaches that were “to die for” are becoming more and more mundane and the Aperol Spritz is not spritzing like it used to on the first evening.
“Our own mortality can be seen as a gift, as something that gives us pressure to find a purpose and live for it, in the small as well as big life-changing moments.”
Support for the boredom argument can be found in the Terror Management Theory that revolves around how people cope psychologically when they are reminded of their own mortality (Greenberg & Arndt, 2012). Humans have realized that their own death is inevitable, and they cope with this mortality salience by turning to their cultural worldview. We as humans try to achieve some sort of ‘symbolic immortality’, where we connect to the future through our actions (Vigilant & Williamson, 2003). This can be compared to wanting to leave a legacy behind. For some, this may mean living according to the guidelines of their religion in order to get to heaven or be reincarnated, for others that may mean immersing themselves in their ideology or paying large amounts of money to freeze their corpse. Even though the term ‘symbolic immortality’ implies that it revolves around some sort of extension to your own life, it is actually more about giving your present life meaning, about building something that can give us purpose while making an impact.
Fisher and Mitchell-Yellin (2014) argue against William’s boredom thesis by saying that life and our purpose are not like a library that is finite, where at some point every book will be written and read, but rather that there will always be new challenges to overcome and new projects to engage in. Death is not seen as the force that gives us purpose but something that hinders us from completing everything we still want to learn, explore and acquire, it rips us away from our lives, sometimes very unexpectedly and suddenly (Burley, 2009). Now, if we even consider nihilism (“nothing has meaning”) or even absurdism (“trying to find meaning in an absurd meaningless world will lead to conflict”) as philosophical orientations – arguably a different side of the same coin – we see that it has always been about finding some kind of meaning and purpose in our world, even if those deliberations end in the conclusion that nothing makes sense and that there is no purpose.
There is no need to agree with either view. Some people might think there is no sense in doing anything at all and others might work their whole life on building a legacy or convincing others of their worldview. Nevertheless, I still believe that we can take something away from all this. In The Good Place, they solve the dilemma around the ‘happiness zombies’ by introducing a portal, where one can go through as soon as they feel ready and they see their time in the afterlife as fulfilled and finished. They touch upon this kind of ‘voluntary’ concept of immortality that includes an endless life, but only as long as you want it. Maybe that can give us direction for approaching our own life in some way. Our own mortality can be seen as a gift, as something that gives us pressure to find a purpose and live for it, in the small as well as big life-changing moments. Enjoy your last day of vacation, your last scoop of ice cream in the summer, or the last hug you give your friend before they drive off. It is in those little moments that pain us that we find assurance – that there will be more of them. <<
References
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Burley, M. (2009). Immortality and meaning: Reflections on the Makropulos debate. Philosophy, 84(4), 529-547.
-
Fischer, J. M., & Mitchell-Yellin, B. (2014). Immortality and boredom. The Journal of Ethics, 18, 353-372.
-
Gorman, A. G. (2017). Williams and the desirability of body‐bound immortality revisited. European Journal of Philosophy, 25(4), 1062-1083.
-
Greenberg, J., & Arndt, J. (2012). Terror management theory. Handbook of theories of social psychology, 1, 398-415.
-
Vigilant, L. G., & Williamson, J. B. (2003). Symbolic immortality and social theory: The relevance of an underutilized concept. Handbook of death & dying, 173-182.
“On paper, this is paradise. All your desires and needs are met. But it’s infinite. And when perfection goes on forever, you become this glassy-eyed mush-person.” This is how the series The Good Place describes the afterlife, meaning heaven or the good place. Spoiler alert: The characters in the series overcome many obstacles before they finally arrive in ‘the good place’ in the fourth season. And the struggles were worth it: it is a good place indeed, where whatever you wish for is just one call away, a true paradise. But what the characters of the series come to discover, much to their dismay, is that everyone living in the good place for a while has become dull and indifferent towards the world around them. They realize that this perfect afterlife place has one flaw: it is infinite, and that infinity is unbearably boring.
This conclusion is also supported by the so-called ‘boredom argument’, first formulated by Bernard Williams in 1973, which states that human mortality is good and necessary since otherwise, infinite life would become boring to us humans. He sees life as being about pursuing purpose and one’s deepest desires, and these will inevitably be fulfilled one day. An endlessly extended life with no more desires to satisfy will become insufferable (Gorman, 2017). That is exactly how the residents of the good place describe their feelings: “I came here, where time stretched out forever and every second of my existence was amazing, but my brain became this big dumb blob. I used to be cool, man! I studied so many things, art and music and math…” Because everything had been enjoyed and explored at some point, this infinite happy place was no longer exciting to them and their good life was no longer worth living. We might also know this feeling from being on vacation: You explore this unknown place where everything seems exciting and amazing, you eat tasty food everyday and soak everything in you meet. But after a while, it becomes all too common and normal. Suddenly, those Italian beaches that were “to die for” are becoming more and more mundane and the Aperol Spritz is not spritzing like it used to on the first evening.
“Our own mortality can be seen as a gift, as something that gives us pressure to find a purpose and live for it, in the small as well as big life-changing moments.”
Support for the boredom argument can be found in the Terror Management Theory that revolves around how people cope psychologically when they are reminded of their own mortality (Greenberg & Arndt, 2012). Humans have realized that their own death is inevitable, and they cope with this mortality salience by turning to their cultural worldview. We as humans try to achieve some sort of ‘symbolic immortality’, where we connect to the future through our actions (Vigilant & Williamson, 2003). This can be compared to wanting to leave a legacy behind. For some, this may mean living according to the guidelines of their religion in order to get to heaven or be reincarnated, for others that may mean immersing themselves in their ideology or paying large amounts of money to freeze their corpse. Even though the term ‘symbolic immortality’ implies that it revolves around some sort of extension to your own life, it is actually more about giving your present life meaning, about building something that can give us purpose while making an impact.
Fisher and Mitchell-Yellin (2014) argue against William’s boredom thesis by saying that life and our purpose are not like a library that is finite, where at some point every book will be written and read, but rather that there will always be new challenges to overcome and new projects to engage in. Death is not seen as the force that gives us purpose but something that hinders us from completing everything we still want to learn, explore and acquire, it rips us away from our lives, sometimes very unexpectedly and suddenly (Burley, 2009). Now, if we even consider nihilism (“nothing has meaning”) or even absurdism (“trying to find meaning in an absurd meaningless world will lead to conflict”) as philosophical orientations – arguably a different side of the same coin – we see that it has always been about finding some kind of meaning and purpose in our world, even if those deliberations end in the conclusion that nothing makes sense and that there is no purpose.
There is no need to agree with either view. Some people might think there is no sense in doing anything at all and others might work their whole life on building a legacy or convincing others of their worldview. Nevertheless, I still believe that we can take something away from all this. In The Good Place, they solve the dilemma around the ‘happiness zombies’ by introducing a portal, where one can go through as soon as they feel ready and they see their time in the afterlife as fulfilled and finished. They touch upon this kind of ‘voluntary’ concept of immortality that includes an endless life, but only as long as you want it. Maybe that can give us direction for approaching our own life in some way. Our own mortality can be seen as a gift, as something that gives us pressure to find a purpose and live for it, in the small as well as big life-changing moments. Enjoy your last day of vacation, your last scoop of ice cream in the summer, or the last hug you give your friend before they drive off. It is in those little moments that pain us that we find assurance – that there will be more of them. <<
References
-
Burley, M. (2009). Immortality and meaning: Reflections on the Makropulos debate. Philosophy, 84(4), 529-547.
-
Fischer, J. M., & Mitchell-Yellin, B. (2014). Immortality and boredom. The Journal of Ethics, 18, 353-372.
-
Gorman, A. G. (2017). Williams and the desirability of body‐bound immortality revisited. European Journal of Philosophy, 25(4), 1062-1083.
-
Greenberg, J., & Arndt, J. (2012). Terror management theory. Handbook of theories of social psychology, 1, 398-415.
-
Vigilant, L. G., & Williamson, J. B. (2003). Symbolic immortality and social theory: The relevance of an underutilized concept. Handbook of death & dying, 173-182.
