Monday, May 23, 2011

Gift in a Black Box

Hello again dear reader. I have a question for you: how many times were you thankful for your life? I suppose many, but then... How many times have you felt glad that you will die? Strange question, I know. But it certainly deserves that we take a deeper look at it: what would happen if people, and for that matter animals, and every lifeform we know, simply stopped dying just like that? Just how chaotic and scary can that get?



Overpopulation, resource exhaustion, socioeconomic chaos, biotic unbalance...



Living forever would literally become a curse, an infinite hell as experienced by Tantalus. Our brain was not made for thinkign of infinity, and that is why imagining an infinite universe is so hard. We were made to think of temporary, finite things, and we can't base decisions, behaviors, actions and even thoughts on an infinite timeline. We would never feel compelled to anything, not even living! Besides, if there was no death, there was no justifiable reason for protecting life, and ethic values would be awkwardly improper and inadequate for the human condition. Living beings would maybe evolve into ones that don't reproduce at all to avoid overpopulation, sexual organs and functionality would be lost, the mental processes of socialization and affection, related to the natural sexual needs as a thriving mechanism among species, would disappear. Full-fledged feeling, thinking, reasoning humans would live mixed with cold, stupid and inert ones.









Life has gifted us with some ingenious emergency mechanisms. Our brain will shut down if extreme pain, confusion, or emotional overload occur, both temporarily (comma), or even permanently (brain death). More interestingly, still, our brain will tell us to do it ourselves, inducing feeling of suicide when life becomes unbearable and mental stress is beyond what our system can endure remaining sane and viable. If this is taken from us, imagining a world of constantly wanting to suicide but always failing will resemble the tantalizing agony as well, and pretty much becomes a paradox: if you go crazy enough, you die to prevent being a dysfunctional being, but since you can't die, you become a living "not-supposed-to-be-alive" thing; if you can't eat, you become biologically dysfunctional and you die, but since you can't, you become a huge question mark again.



Isn't it scary? Are you so afraid of dying, or is it a blessing that something makes you feel that what ends is more enjoyable, and that you have a reason to live well while you can? I feel glad that one day I will die. It gives my offspring a chance to live as well or even better as I did, and it preserves this wonderful spinning cycle of life. Exactly... death is necessary for the existance and viability of life.



Have a good day everyone and enjoy your life, 100%.


Citrinitas

No comments: