Was watching The Man From Earth for Nth time, yesterday, with a good friend. I had been asking this question of a lot of people - "If you could live forever, would you want to ?". The friend agreed with my opinion on this (I was surprised because this was the first time somebody agreed with what I felt about this), however, my opinion is very subjective on this matter. The fact that I am very attached to all the people I love and care about explains my views on this topic. However, thinking about it objectively, one has to realize that if everyone and everything you cared about, or were attached to, is transient with respect to you then, eventually, you will need to move on. However, it is easier said than done.
Still, if you did not age and lived forever, what would it be like ? Would you want it ? What would be your goals ? Can, under such circumstances, we be truly selfless ?
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I had no idea you have watched it N times, because surely I have seen it N+1 times.
The concept of forever in that movie is quite incomprehensible to us because you talk of being attached to your parents / friends / family which is understandable and leaving without an explanation after 10 years is a hard thing to do without questioning your own existence. But once you are past that, I daresay, it is almost mundane.
But the part of the movie that struck me most was the discussion that says all religions at their core are a good code of ethics, a simple set of rules to lead a good life, but have become embellished with so much mysticism and woven within fantastic stories that it is hard to separate the message from the allegory.
Even Eddie Izzard's stand up routine about God and Religion is something to think about.
I tried very hard to find a way to say this without sounding like an blunt and insensitive jerk, but I came up with nothing, so here it is.
It is already the case that, statistically speaking, half the people you know and love will die before you.
The only way to avoid it is to die as soon as possible.
'At another point in the discussion, a man spoke of some benefit X of death, I don't recall exactly what. And I said: "You know, given human nature, if people got hit on the head by a baseball bat every week, pretty soon they would invent reasons why getting hit on the head with a baseball bat was a good thing. But if you took someone who wasn't being hit on the head with a baseball bat, and you asked them if they wanted it, they would say no. I think that if you took someone who was immortal, and asked them if they wanted to die for benefit X, they would say no."'
-- Eliezer Yudkowsky, Overcoming Bias
@akshay I found the discussion on religion, in the movie, not so interesting because I, unarguably, agreed with Oldman.
@rahul I find yudkowsky's comment amusing, and questionable. since none of us have truly encountered an immortal, I would rather not hypothesize about what he/she would say. however, his views do make sense. the fact that we treat death as inevitable, and accept it with a justification, which is, again, woven out of this "inevitable" nature, makes me realize that maybe we are not thinking out of the box here.
Oh... I agree with Oldman wholeheartedly too. Just replacing Edith's character (who is a Christian Literalist) by any Hindu or Muslim Fundamentalist would yield essentially the same argument.
If the Gods come among us today, they would unquestionably look at everything that was being done in their name and say, 'This is not what I had in mind.'
As for immortality, (if it was me) I would accept the fact that everyone I know will die and I will have to move on. But I would never tell the woman who has just confessed her love for me and who knows that I will not die (or age) that she will only get 10 years. Her concept of forever is a blink compared to mine, but that would be no reason for me to pack up and leave when the clock strikes 10.
@akshay the ending was sort of open to interpretations. maybe having seen his child die and realizing how much Will missed him (Will kept on bringing the 'father' issue again and again), he realized that he is responsible towards the ones who care about him and that he was being selfish by running away from them.
1. I think you are ignoring Yudkowsky's central point, that death is like a baseball bat to the head.
2. If you lived in a time and place where everyone was dying of smallpox at age 25 and someone came along and said to you, "Would you like to be vaccinated against smallpox?", what would you say?
3. Logically, the assertion "I prefer death to immortality because of reason X" is equivalent to saying "I would rather die than face not-X". And it seems to be the case that (for most X) people in real life who face not-X tend to bear it and move on rather than preferring to die instead.
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