Humanity's War Against Death

“The Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the UN after the Second World War - which is perhaps the closest thing we have to a global constitution-categorically states that ‘the right to life’ is humanity's most fundamental value. Since death clearly violates this right, death is a crime against humanity, and we ought to wage total war against it. ”

I have been reading the book Homo Deus, by Yuval Noah Harari, one of the most influential authors of modern times. This is his third book in a series about humanity's existence. Homo Sapiens, the first book, talks about our past, and how we’ve evolved into what we are. 21 Lessons for the 21st Century talks about the present, and how we should think and generate morals in today’s society. Homo Deus talks about our future, and what plausibly lays ahead for humanity.

Not even halfway through the book, I am extremely worried about humanity’s future. Apart from various challenges that we might face in the coming few decades and centuries, immortality draws my attention the most.

In the following write-up, more than my own thoughts, ideas, and opinions, I have laid down what Harari wrote in his book word-by-word. My main motive, for whoever reads this, is to generate at least a faint apprehension for where humanity is headed.

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Famine, plague and war were always at the top of human agenda. For generation after generation humans have prayed to every god, angel and saint, and have invented countless tools, Institutions and social systems - but they continue to die in their millions from starvation epidemics and violence.

Yet at the dawn of the third millennium, humanity wakes up to an amazing realization. Most people rarely think about it, but in the last few decades we have managed to rein in famine, plague and war. Of course, these problems have not been completely solved, but they have been transformed from incomprehensible and uncontrollable forces of nature into manageable challenges. We don't need to pray to any god or saint to rescue us from them. We know quite well what needs to be done in order to prevent famine, plague and war - and we usually succeed in doing it.

Now, we know that the three main problems humanity faced in the past have been solved. Do we still have problems? Sure. But they are not as prominent as they used to be, and they do not take up majority of the human agenda.

Humans are rarely satisfied with what they have. Hence, when the moment comes to choose between economic growth and ecological stability, politicians, CEOs and voters almost always prefer growth.

When humankind possesses enormous powers, and when the threat of famine, plague and war is finally lifted, what will we do with ourselves? What will scientists, investors, bankers and presidents do all day? Write poetry? Bill Gates, equally impressed by this book, wrote a blog just about this. What if people run out of things to do? It sounds stupid at first. But when we think about it, we’re probably just a few decades away from achieving this state.

Coming to immortality, humans don't die because a figure in a black cloak taps them on the shoulder, or because God decreed it, or because mortality is an essential part of some great cosmic plan. Humans always die due to some technical glitch. The heart stops pumping blood. The main artery is clogged by fatty deposits. Cancerous cells spread in the liver. Germs multiply in the lungs. And what is responsible for all these technical problems? Other technical problems. The heart stops pumping blood because not enough oxygen reaches the heart muscle. Cancerous cells spread because a chance genetic mutation rewrote their instructions. Germs settle in lungs because somebody sneezed on the subway. Nothing metaphysical about it. They are all technical problems

And every technical problem has a technical solution. We don't need to wait for the second coming to overcome death. A couple of geeks in a lab can do it.

An increasing minority of scientists and thinkers consequently speak more openly these days, and state that the flagship enterprise of modern science is to defeat death and grant humans eternal youth. Notable examples are the gerontologist Aubrey de Grey and the polymath and inventor Ray Kurzweil. In 2021, Kurzweil was appointed a director of engineering at Google, and a year later Google launched a sub-company called Calico whose stated mission is ‘to solve death’. Such dreams are shared by other silicon valley luminaries. PayPal co-founder Peter Theil has recently confessed that he aims to live forever. Some experts believe humans will overcome death by 2200, others say 2100. So there’s a chance some of you reading this might be living forever.

During the second half of the 20th century the Law of the Jungle has finally been broken if not rescinded. In most areas wars became rarer than ever. Whereas in ancient agricultural societies human violence caused about 15% of all deaths, and in the early 20th Century violence caused only 5% of deaths, and in the early 21st century it is responsible for about 1% of global mortality. In 2012 about 56 million people died throughout the world; 620,000 of them died due to human violence (war killed 120,000 people, and crime killed another 500,000). In contrast, 800,000 committed suicide and 1.5 million died of diabetes. Sugar is now more dangerous than gunpowder.

In truth, so far modern medicine has not extended our natural life span by a single year. Its great achievement has been to save us from premature death, and allow us to enjoy the full measure of our years. But advancements in genetics and nanotechnology will give us the power to regenerate organs and tissues, giving us the ability to re-engineer our bodies.

Just try to imagine religions in a world without death - which is also a world without heaven, hell or reincarnation.

In the twentieth century we have almost doubled life expectancy from forty to seventy, so in the twenty-first century we should at least be able to double it again to 150. Though falling far short of immortality, this would still revolutionize human society. For starters, family structure, marriages and child-parent relationships would be transformed. Try to imagine a person with a lifespan of 150 years. No matter whether you are a scholar, journalist, cook or football player, how would you feel if your boss were 120, his ideas were formulated when Victoria was still queen, and he was likely to stay your boss for a couple of decades more? If people live to 150, then in 2016 Stalin would still be ruling in Moscow, going strong at 123-year-old, and princess Elizabeth would be sitting on her hands waiting to inherit from the 121-year-old George VI. Her son Charles would not get his turn until 2076.

This is just the tip of the iceberg and the beginning of the chaos. Although we think we are winning a war by defeating death, we might just be creating multiple battlefields for ourselves.

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Although most of the content you read was directly taken from the book, I hope I did my job of making you think about whether humanity is headed in the right direction. It's a 500 page book, but in my opinion, worth the read.