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    Immortality: The Quest to Live Forever and How it Drives Civilisation
    Unavailable
    Immortality: The Quest to Live Forever and How it Drives Civilisation
    Unavailable
    Immortality: The Quest to Live Forever and How it Drives Civilisation
    Ebook400 pages6 hours

    Immortality: The Quest to Live Forever and How it Drives Civilisation

    By Stephen Cave

    2.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    There is a cloud-capped peak where gods and immortals while away their infinite days, and since the dawn of humanity everyone - whether they know it or not - has been trying to climb that mountain. But there are only four paths up its treacherous slope. Throughout history, people have wagered everything on their choice and fought wars against those who've decided differently. Each of these four paths - simply staying alive indefinitely, through magic or medicine; being resurrected; persisting as a soul; or living on through one's legacy - is revealed to us by a historical figure who serves as our guide. It is through these diverse individuals - such as the Egyptian queen Nefertiti; vitamin-obsessed Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling; author Mary Shelley; and Alexander the Great - that we come to understand how many of civilisation's greatest achievements have been born of our need to see our essence endure. As optimistic about the human condition as it is insightful, Immortality takes the reader on an eye-opening journey from the beginnings of civilisation to the present day. Bringing together history and philosophy, this fascinating book both enlightens and entertains, investigating whether it just might be possible to live forever, and whether that's something we should actually aspire to. But its most powerful and arresting argument is this - that it is our very preoccupation with defying mortality that has made our civilisation what it is.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBiteback Publishing
    Release dateApr 17, 2012
    ISBN9781849543477
    Unavailable
    Immortality: The Quest to Live Forever and How it Drives Civilisation

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    Reviews for Immortality

    2.5/5

    3 ratings3 reviews

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    • 1/5
      A ghastly superficial book. When he called Islam a "cousin" of Christianity is when I stopped reading. Moron
    • 3/5
      Cave has decided that he doesn't agree with the possible ways of seeking immortality as he understands them, and that they basically do more harm than good anyway. This is not the book described in the cover blurbs. I do wish that people who don't want religion for themselves would just ignore it, rather than insist that it is meaningless. He is so busy with his polemic against religion that he doesn't really get around to how the search for immortality drives culture, even though that is what the book is sold as.I read this book in the German translation.
    • 4/5
      A pithy review of this book would be “Immortality: not going to happen” maybe followed by “Deal with it (here are some ways)”. Cave looks at various ideas of immortality and philosophically analyzes them. He finds them all lacking and suggests some alternative life-strategies. I would imagine that there’s not too much new here as Cave ponders ideas of religion, resurrection and the soul. It’s clearly presented and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to someone interested in the topic though this isn’t a book to get excited over. At times, I questioned his interpretations but they are usually interesting. I hoped Cave would look at pursuits of immortality in various cultures but except for a couple cases, he mainly references Western history, religion and well-known narratives (Frankenstein, Ozymandias). There’s more emphasis on the philosophical and theoretical aspects.Cave divides “immortality theories” into four distinct ideas – one of literally living forever, one of a physical resurrection, one the existence of an immortal soul and the last the idea of an everlasting legacy. Each section is further divided – often into a religious/spiritual section and a scientific/biological one. Cave associates a historical or fictional story with each chapter. I was hoping there would be more examples but I can’t fault Cave for using history more as an illustration of ideas since that’s clearly what he interests him. Often, he comes off as an enthusiastic professor who really admires certain religions or ideas because of their successful “advertising” while also showing a bit of a stereotypical condescension.In “Staying Alive”, the author describes the pursuit of the elixir of life by referring to the story of the king of Qin, the first Emperor of China. I wasn’t necessarily convinced that immortality was the driving force of civilization as Cave states in this section. However, this chapter does cover a number of ideas about the elixir which I found interesting. The other half of the idea of living forever looks at the scientific pursuit of immortality, illustrated by Linus Pauling’s attempt to cure his wife with vitamins. Advances in science and medicine that led to the current longevity are discussed, then Cave focuses on the ideas of the transhumanists who believe science will be able to cure aging through genetic engineering, nanotechnology and stem cell technology. He points out the problems with the engineering solution and the fact that longer lives wouldn’t necessarily be healthy ones. It would also create tension between those with access to the technology and could exacerbate overpopulation problems.In the “Resurrection” and “Soul” sections, Cave looks at Christianity – noting that initially part of its appeal was the idea the that the dead would bodily return but that later the idea of a soul, which had been around long before Jesus, became more popular. He analyzes the idea of the dead being resurrected in detail – as I have not given that too much thought, it was interesting. Some problems – if a cannibal eats you, can you still be resurrected? Will it have to be the exact atoms you had when you were living? Would it be your 5 year old or 20 year old self? The problems, Cave concludes, led to its current unpopularity though bodily resurrection is still a tenet of some religions. Even the idea of digitally downloading your consciousness or cloning, the scientific version, would only create something like an identical twin. The soul has had more traction. Cave reasons that there’s nothing that could be a soul, as the mind and body are inextricably linked, and that specific brain functions are responsible for all of you. The science seemed simplified in some cases, but this is a short book. As for heaven – Cave thinks the current idea of heaven as a family reunion/mall/orgy can’t hold up as no one could take that for eternity and the idea of heaven as nonstop God-worshipping would only be a static disappointment.I had the most problems with the “Legacy” section as religion and philosophy aren’t my areas but here Cave describes fame-seeking and child-having today. His arguments against looking for fame are that the “you” that survives through fame is not you (this is obvious and Cave goes over this a bit too much), that fame can come at the cost of unhappiness or death, and that those who seek fame often do evil. I thought many of the arguments were hardly as final as Cave claimed and his idea that the side benefits of fame (wealth, power) were negligible doesn’t seem correct in the current environment. Achilles, while not a bad metaphorical example, isn’t the best choice to illustrate Cave’s points as rarely does a person know, as Achilles did, that the choice is between kleos and death or a long, happy life. In pinning our legacy on children, tribe, nation or giant Earth consciousness, Cave notes that a person is barely remembered after a few generations, nationalism can lead to xenophobia and Nazis, and Gaia consciousness doesn’t look likely. Also, the universe is going to end. The idea of becoming a part of something bigger than yourself is also too close to one of Cave’s solutions. Another one – reading Gilgamesh. Other than that, Cave has familiar ideas – life is valuable because it is finite, death is an end but not frightening, self-absorption contributes to death anxiety so cultivating selflessness, gratitude and living in the present moment will help.