This book explores the relationship between death, eternal life, and happiness, examining from various perspectives whether eternal life can bring true happiness to humanity, or whether it can lead to unhappiness. It also examines different theories about the nature of happiness and its determinants, and provides an in-depth analysis of the impact of eternal life on happiness.
The question of death is one of humanity’s oldest problems. Since ancient times, humans have been afraid of death and therefore dreamed of eternal life. Death itself is an unknown territory, an end to all things, and as such, it has always been a terrifying prospect for people, who have constantly searched for ways to continue living. Even the oldest epic poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh, contains references to eternal life, and reincarnation and the afterlife in actual religions are thought to be a manifestation of the fear of death and the desire to prolong life. The ancients created immortal beings in mythology, and modern humans have begun to explore the possibility of eternal life through science and technology. In this context, eternal life seems to bring happiness to humanity. But will eternal life make us happy? To answer this question, we first need to understand what happiness is.
According to ‘Sapiens’, scholars have studied happiness and found that money, health, community, etc. do indeed affect happiness. But more importantly, it’s our expectations. “Happiness is determined by the correlation between objective conditions and subjective expectations,” he says in the book. The more you expect, the harder it is to be happy, and the less you expect, the easier it is to be happy. For example, a person living in poverty would be very happy to receive 1 million won, but a rich person would not be very happy to receive that amount of money. Furthermore, human happiness is adaptive over time. This means that as we get used to new circumstances or conditions, our happiness decreases over time. For example, a person who wins the lottery may initially feel immensely happy, but that happiness diminishes over time. So even if you win eternal life, the happiness that comes with it is bound to diminish over time as it ceases to be something special.
Others say that happiness is determined by the biochemical systems inside the body, such as serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin. According to them, happiness is highly dependent on innate factors. People who are born with a biochemical system that makes them more happy are happier, and people who are born with a biochemical system that makes them less happy are less happy. This is not to say that psychological and social factors don’t play a role, but they do so within the context of the biochemical system. Therefore, the biochemical system is the most important, and manipulating it to make it feel better is the way to achieve happiness. From this point of view, an individual’s biochemical system is the key determinant of happiness, regardless of whether or not they are immortalized.
However, there are many people who disagree with this view. In their opinion, happiness is not the same as sensory pleasure. Happiness is the feeling we get when we consider life as a whole to be worthwhile, which has important cognitive and ethical components. A meaningful life can be happy even if it is full of hardships, while a meaningless life will be hard no matter how comfortable it is. As Nietzsche said, “If you have a reason to live, you can endure any suffering.” In other words, if you can be convinced that your life is meaningful, you can find happiness through that conviction. In this context, the happiness of eternal life is not just about extending life, but rather about how we give meaning to life and realize it. This is why even if mankind were to attain eternal life, it may not immediately lead to happiness.
The above views all share the premise that happiness is a subjective emotion. However, there is a counter argument. If we study the happiness of drug addicts and find that they feel happy when they do drugs, does that mean that drugs are the key to happiness? This idea that subjective feelings are not very reliable has led some people to reject the idea that happiness is a subjective feeling. Buddhism, in particular, believes that the way out of suffering is not to experience fleeting pleasure, but to understand the impermanent nature of all emotions and stop craving them. In other words, the secret to happiness lies in stopping the pursuit of emotions and recognizing your true self. The concept of eternal life should also be examined in depth to see if it can be considered as a fleeting emotion.
As you can see, there are many different views on the question “What is happiness?”. Furthermore, the study of happiness is still in its infancy. With all these different ideas about happiness, it seems difficult to answer the question, “Will humanity be happy if we live forever? We don’t even know what happiness is, so how can we think about the impact of eternal life on happiness?
Nevertheless, I don’t think eternal life is a very important factor in happiness. There are many different ways to look at happiness, but no matter how you look at it, eternal life doesn’t have much of an impact on happiness. Happiness is closely related to quality of life, not just living longer. What we must remember in our pursuit of eternal life is that it should be a means to an end, not an end in itself. If it becomes an end in itself, we run the risk of missing out on true happiness in the process.
If we adopt the view that happiness has a lot to do with psychological factors, then those who are satisfied with their lives will be happy, and those who are not will be unhappy. If everyone could have eternal life, then people’s desire for eternal life would be fulfilled, so paradoxically, eternal life would not have a significant impact on happiness. If eternal life is universalized, people will take it for granted, and what matters is whether they are satisfied with their lives, and if they are, they will be happy, and if they are not, they will be unhappy.
If happiness is determined by biochemical systems, then again, eternal life would not have much effect on happiness. If happiness is determined by biochemical systems, then eternal life would not have much effect on happiness. Eternal life has nothing to do with biochemical systems.
Even if you follow the view that happiness is determined by living a “worthwhile life,” this is also largely irrelevant to eternal life. If a person can give value to their life, they will be happy, but if they cannot, they will be unhappy. In this view, what matters is not eternal life, but the ability to give value to life. Even if you have eternal life, you can give meaning to your life, and if you have a finite life, you can live a meaningless life.
Even if happiness is to be free from suffering and realize oneself, it is not related to eternal life. This is because a person who is free from suffering and realizes his or her own happiness will not care whether or not he or she has eternal life. Those who are not free from suffering, even if they were to attain eternal life, would not be able to attain happiness by pursuing fleeting pleasures.
Of course, there are counter-arguments. Heidegger, for example, believed that eternal life would make people unhappy. According to him, only by living in the face of death can people live their original lives, and only by living their original lives can people be happy. By recognizing that life is finite and accepting death, one can escape from the unoriginal life and achieve happiness. Therefore, Heidegger’s argument is that if life becomes infinite, people will be unable to face death and will be forced to live an unnatural life, and as a result, they will be unhappy.
But I disagree. Is it necessary to live an original life to be happy? I think that obsessing over this “original life” can actually lead to unhappiness. Ironically, I think we can be happy when we let go of our ‘attachment to happiness’. Even if you live forever and never face death and live a non-original life, you can be happy if you let go of your attachment to ‘original things’ and ‘existence’. On the contrary, if you are always facing death and are obsessed with ‘original things’ and ‘existence’ and pursue them, you will be stressed by your obsession, and happiness will not come as a result.
Overall, I don’t think there is much of a relationship between happiness and eternal life. It’s good to pursue eternal life, but it’s better to take a deeper look at happiness and find a way to reach your own definition of happiness. The fact that we don’t live forever can actually make us cherish every moment of our lives and make our current happiness more valuable. Rather than fearing death, living life to the fullest in the present moment will bring you closer to true happiness. Ask yourself the following questions What is my idea of happiness? Is eternal life what I want to achieve, or is it just an endless amount of time?
