The Commited MAY 2015 | Page 36

TED ANKARA COLLEGE / 8-P Immortality Selen YALÇIN 34 We mostly consider death as a frightening thing, right? “Is there really an afterlife? Am I going to go to hell or heaven?”. These are the questions we all probably ask ourselves. But what if we didn’t have to think about them? What if there was a way not to die? A way like immortality… If you had to choose right now, how long would you like to live? 70 years? 80? Or maybe…forever? The first time you hear it, immortality may sound pretty exciting, but when we start thinking a little more realistically, we can easily realize that it is not that exciting at all. So, let’s take a closer look, shall we? What may be the possible results of immortality? First of all, as nobody would die, the world wouldn’t be enough for all the people. And since all the resources are limited, governments would make a law about not to pullulate anymore. If they don’t make a law like this, we would probably be living on Mars or the Moon. Nobody would care about being a good person, because they are not going to be judged about what they did on earth, simply because they won’t ever die. For example, think of a little girl playing outside, and her mom tells her to come and sleep. She wouldn’t want to go, right? But not because she wants to play that game forever, just because she wants to play a little more. So maybe if we expand our lifespan just a little more for those who want to live a little longer, it would be better than immortality. To conclude: should we develop technology which makes us immortal? When we gather all these pros and cons together, it is evident that immortality isn’t exactly as good as it sounds. Because after all, isn’t living “efficiently” more important than living “longer”?