Based on the conflict through the eternal life of the protagonist who comes to use 100% of his brain in the movie ‘ Lucy,’ this paper discusses the possibility of human eternal life and the resulting happiness due to the development of science and technology. The movie explores three aspects of how eternal life does not guarantee true happiness: the finiteness of human life, the repetitive suffering of everyday life, and the resource problems of the earth.
In the movie ‘ Lucy,’ the protagonist, who is able to use 100% of his brain due to an accidental accident caused by a drug called C.P.H.4, developed through the advancement of science and technology, gains absolute immortality, or eternal life. In real life, the possibility of human eternal life is being talked about due to our advancement in science and technology. However, it is important to consider whether this path to eternal life is the path to human happiness. In Greek mythology, Tithonos became immortal at the request of the goddess Eos, who loved him, but he was unable to obtain an immortal body, so he grew old and turned into a cicada. In this article, I will consider the question of whether eternal life is a path to human happiness from three aspects.
First, if humans enjoy eternal life, there will be no will that makes humans think they should live hard. One of the biggest reasons why humans feel compelled to live hard is the finiteness of our lifespan. Because we have a finite lifespan, we want to do as much valuable work as possible in that finite time and return to nature. However, if the constraints of finite time were removed and humans could enjoy eternal life, humans would be like Tithonos in mythology, growing old without will. And humans try to realize their values by doing something worthwhile. However, it is questionable whether the realization of these values would be the same in an infinite life. We tend to stop working hard and concentrating on tasks that don’t have a deadline, and I wonder if the realization of human values will be the same.
In addition, if we live forever, there is no guarantee that we will have only happy things to do, so eternal life is not necessarily about happiness. If humans were to live forever, it would be very difficult to pursue happiness in a routine that is always repeated. If you think about it, even in a life of a few decades, you go through the same things over and over again, but if you live forever, you will have to repeat those things infinitely. In this situation, humans who try to find new pleasures will become lazy and ignore morality in favor of new pleasures, and it will be impossible to live a generally ethical life.
One of the biggest practical problems is that if all humans were to live forever, the Earth, a finite planet, would not be able to support the population, and since resources are also finite, the excess population would consume them all.
The first premise is that the sustenance produced by humans, food, follows the law of exponential growth. In other words, the same amount of food grows in the same amount of time. This means that the rate of increase per hour decreases when calculated as a percentage. The second premise is that population, on the other hand, follows an exponential growth law. Like compound interest, the population grows exponentially because the underlying number of people changes over time, even at the same growth rate. The third premise is that the majority of people in the working class or lower classes increase their fertility rate to improve their material living conditions.
