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Short answer is entropy. The long answer is that to be alive we need to sustain a series of very complex processes going and failures and mistakes accumulate over time until that's not possible. Reproduction is the only mechanism that allows resetting all those processes.
But in the end even planets, stars and even atoms will "die".
We sure can live longer than a meager 80 years though.
Check out sens.org.
Isn't there a type of medusa that can "rebirth" itself and essentially live forever? Why can't we?
Jellyfishes are much simpler than mammals. And modern medicine can effectively bring people back from the dead in some cases when the damage is not too extensive and doctors can act fast enough. But even if you could repair severe damage to any dead human being to make them alive again, the lost information in the brain caused by dying would mean they wouldn't effectively be the same person - we already have some cases like that when people survive significant brain trauma.
The death was a gift from Eru to humans, like the immortality was to elves. It's Melkor's mischiefs, why we do fear it. (Source: elven stories.)
Just statistically we're all going to get damaged beyond repair eventually, whether getting hit by a bus all at once, or accruing DNA damage over time on a cell-by-cell basis. Nothing lasts forever, I mean fuck, the sun's going to burn out eventually.
And y'know, short lifespan = lots of evolution. Planned obsolescence keeps a constant demand for the latest model, without which we'd all still be bacteria. Adapt and grow, and move into the space vacated by your dead ancestors. Immortality is a hell of a dead end, ironically enough.
Also, ever been to disneyland?
You get there in the morning and you are HYPED. There's all these things to look at and do omg. The idea of leaving when you just got here is too horrible to even imagine.
But as the day wears on into afternoon, the FOMO slowly thins out. You're getting kind of tired, sitting down seems nice, you certainly don't want to go yet, but you'd be more disappointed than distraught if you had to.
By late afternoon, your feet hurt, your leg is all sticky where someone dropped milkshake on it, everything's looking kind of the same, oh yay another queue for another ride, come on lets make ourselves enjoy it - but honestly your enthusiasm is starting to require effort, and the grade of emergency needed to justify going home early is dropping quite rapidly.
Come night time, you're tired, you're exhausted, you don't really care, you'll stay for the fireworks I guess, but that's mainly for everyone else's sake. You never want to see sugar again, you just want to go home, take your shoes off and stare at the ceiling. You had a good day, but you are done.
I'm rapidly approaching 5pm, and honestly if I learned I had something terminal, I'd only really be sad for my family, not for myself. I've certainly got no plans or desire to go yet - but ehh. I've done most of the things, and we're getting into diminishing returns territory here.
You tell me I need to do this forever, I'mma scrag you.
Man, you said it way better than I did. I love your metaphor.
I kind of think a lot of this has to do with the combined physical stamina deterioration and loss of hormones. If our bodies stopped aging at, say, 30-ish, I don't know if we'd get quite as world weary. Eventually. Statistically, dying from mishap would prevent it from going on forever. The author Asher Royce has a universe where people are effectively immortal; there's a common theme that around 200, people go through a second mid-life crisis where they become highly risk-seeking; they take up risky hobbies, like wingsuits or free-climbing; some large percentage of the population never make it through this phase. It sounds like a reasonable prediction, to me.
Not sure why this post is getting so much hate
Nothing that moves can run on nothing. It needs a cause. And when that cause dies, so too does the effect.
I can give you a few reasons for my divorce court judge specifically
We don't have the medical treatment yet. But we're getting close.
joke: obby 1
my belief: you are a ghost?
For all we know this is only our first stage of life and we transition into a being of pure energy as we leave our body.
For all we know unicorns exist and walk on rainbows
My anti-lion spray is certainly working wonders. Havenβt seen a lion since starting to use it.
Shhhh we don't talk about that part in public.
Because no one would treasure a truly eternal life.
Agree to disagree. I know many people think this way, but honestly eternal or much prolonged life would boost out progress as a species significantly.
Imo there's so much to do and see, idk how you'd burn out like people predict.
Also worst case, legalise assisted suicide past a certain age (and for certain diagnoses either way) so folks can check out.
Imo there's so much to do and see, idk how you'd burn out like people predict.
I'm burnt out already and I'm not even middle age.
That's not the way I meant that lol.
I'm speaking purely hypothetical utopian best case scenario here. In theory, just like with robots and ai (lol), advancements could mean less work per individual, leaving much more time for learning, creating, exploring.
realistically though, Musk would probably soon monopolize oxygen or some shit.
You could argue that people would burn out on eternity, but I doubt you could make the same argument for life extension / stopping of aging. People would be free to live for a long time, and when each person decides it's enough, one can check out voluntarily.
Exactly what I mean too. Voluntarily checking out should be an option in that system.