Can eternal life through science and technology make us happy?

If science and technology advance and eternal life becomes possible, will humans be happy?

 

Over the past 100 years, the average human life expectancy has increased by more than 30 years. This is thanks to the discovery of antibiotics like penicillin and the development of new drugs. Thanks to the remarkable advances of modern medicine, child mortality has fallen from 33% to less than 5% in just two centuries. Humans have also unraveled the structure of DNA, revealing much about life that was previously shrouded in mystery. Advances in genetic engineering have allowed humans to manipulate the characteristics of unborn life to their liking, and the abilities of already born individuals can be adjusted through these techniques. We are getting closer and closer to the realm of the divine. How will science and technology affect humans? If humans are able to live forever thanks to these technologies, will humans be happier? I don’t think humans will be happier because they will have eternal life. Of course, I agree that human life has become more convenient thanks to science and technology. However, I don’t think eternal life will contribute positively to happiness, for the following reasons.
First, consider the nature of the emotion of happiness. To define happiness, we can look to Aristotle’s perspective. The Nicomachean Ethics is a book written by Aristotle to his beloved son on how to live happily ever after. In this book, Aristotle says that happiness is “a way of looking at life” or “an adverb, not a noun”. If happiness is the ultimate end in itself, then the things we think of as money, honor, pleasure, love, etc. do not fulfill the conditions of true happiness. These things require something else even if they are present. When a person acquires money, they do not feel happy or complete in and of itself, but instead immediately go on to pursue another value, such as honor or pleasure. This proves that these conditions are not true happiness. On the contrary, happiness as a “perspective or orientation toward life” means being “happy” no matter what you do. Happiness is an attitude of life in which you can do economic activities to earn money with a ‘happy’ heart and feel happy when you spend time with your loved ones, and even after parting with your loved ones, you can say, ‘I am happy because I loved them without wanting to’. If we define happiness in this way, we can think about whether humanity will be happier or not when we have eternal life through science and technology. Just as human happiness cannot be bought with money, I don’t think it can be easily obtained with eternal life through science and technology. It is the mindset that determines happiness, and in this respect, humans can be happy even if they are imperfect beings who are bound to die even without money.
Of course, one could argue against Aristotle’s view of happiness. The philosopher Epicurus argued that there is one absolute way of happiness and proposed the concept of ataraxia. Ataraxia is a state of equilibrium in the soul where there is no pain. Epicurus divided pleasure into two types: physical and mental, arguing for the relative superiority of mental pleasure by arguing that excessive physical pleasure causes pain and should be minimized. Epicurus believed that the state of ataraxia was the secret to absolute happiness that was universally applicable to everyone. However, the idea that there is an absolute recipe for happiness that works for everyone is a bit of a stretch. Everyone has a different way of living, and no two lives are the same. There are different ways of being happy that suit different people at different times in their lives.
On the other hand, if we think about it from the perspective of forgetting and adapting, which is one of the characteristics of human beings, we can predict that the impact of eternal life on human happiness will be fairly short and limited. Consider when penicillin was first discovered. It was less than 100 years after the discovery of antibiotics and the discovery of the principles of immunity that underlie vaccines. The invention of these antibiotics and vaccines made us safer from microbial threats like smallpox, measles, and tuberculosis than we had been in the past. However, humans soon realized that microbes could develop resistance to antibiotics and declared war on new microbes once again. Medical advances have opened the door to cures for leukemia, cancer, and AIDS, diseases that were once thought to be incurable, but the euphoria and relief are short-lived. After each scientific breakthrough, humans would leave the euphoria behind and move on to new goals. To save humanity from more dangers. This trait has helped us evolve from a weak species of primates to a species that has made tremendous progress. However, in light of our ever-changing and ever-longing existence, which is characterized by gazing at the unattainable, the human being who has been granted eternal life will be just as longing and unsatisfied as before. Wouldn’t a human being who gained eternal life probably struggle to gain another ability? For example, flying has always been a human desire. According to biblical accounts, humans in the ancient world tried to build the Tower of Babel to reach the sky, and later invented airplanes to indirectly fulfill this wish. Considering these human characteristics, it is likely that humans who have been granted eternal life will spend another period of dissatisfaction in order to acquire new abilities that have never existed before.
On the other hand, some things seem more beautiful because they are finite. If happiness is related to our attitude toward life, and if a happy life is “living well,” then the process by which we feel the beauty of life and realize its value will also contribute to our happiness. If humans were to be granted eternal life, the value of life would be diminished. The movie “In Time” tells the story of people in a world where time has a monetary value. In the movie, the rich can buy time and live a near-eternal life, while the poor can only extend their lives by selling their labor. Hamilton, a millionaire with access to eternal life, chooses to commit suicide after confessing to Will, the poor protagonist, that “even if I’m not aging physically, I feel mentally drained.” Will, on the other hand, who lives in poverty and regrets every minute of his life, asks Hamilton what he would do if he had as much time as I do. “I would never waste it,” he says.
In this sense, Heidegger’s philosophy of death and existence has a meaningful message for us. As imperfect beings, we long for immortality, but we also value our finite time and try to fill it with worthwhile endeavors. For humans, life is more valuable and precious because it is finite. If life were to lose its finiteness, its value and the happiness it can bring would diminish.