“Man is the only being that knows death; all others become old, but with a consciousness wholly limited to the moment which must seem to them eternal” - Oswald Spengler
Ive never been a fan of absolute statements about life like “The four paths to englightment” or “the Ten Commandments”. The idea that something as complicated as achieving enlightmentment or understanding how to act could be distilled down into a finite set of exact statements is ridiculous. Unfortunately, as we explored in the previous chapter, we humans like finite things. We like pattern and structure and if you don’t think about it too hard you can sometimes take comfort in these sort of simplistic exact statements about the world.
The reason I try to make this point is because I would like to use one of these such numerically absolute statements, but with the caveat that I recognize from the outset that it is not a complete or exact list by any means. Think of it as a convenient way of organizing an idea in your head. When you undoubtably think of contradiction, just know that I understand; you are not wrong, and yes we probably missed something, and maybe its a combination of two or more of the items on this list, but no need to worry because we recognize its flawed - its just a place to start.
Okay here we go. So you want to live forever right? Well you probably weren’t conscious of this fact before, but its the truth, and I’m here to tell you can do exactly that. Don’t worry this isn’t a cult or budget-rate cryogenics, this is simply a framework for helping you understand all the various ways you can live beyond your mortal self. Best part is that you’ve already been pursuing this whether you recognized it or not.
There are many ways to live forever and it’s best to think of these pursuits as projects; we call them Immortality Projects. Like regular projects you can have many on the go at the same time, switching between them when they require your attention. However unlike regular projects, you can never truly complete them. They’re the painting that is never quite done, or the report you can always keep revising. They are:
- The Biological Project: The original and most popular Immortality Project; the pursuit of health, longevity, and immortality through offspring.
- The Status Project: The pursuit of immortality through the memories of others; synonymous with legacy or fame.
- The Creative Project: Leveraging creative motivations in art, science, literature, etc as a means of discovering/reflecting on the world/life in order to reconcile one’s own mortality.
- The Community Project: Effectively achieving immortality through association with a group, whether it be a religion, nation, sports team, political ideology, etc.
- The Natural Project: Reconciling one’s own immortality through a connection with nature, resulting a belief of being part of one large “life force”.
Now, before we get any further, I have to make a point that I will continue hammering home: No one project is any better or worse then the other - they are all equal. If you’ve understood 05 - The Immortal Replicator, then you’ll remember that life truly has no meaning, but that we should still make the most of it. The order of the projects above is of no relevance, it is not a ranking. The projects do however tend to have a relationship to their adjacent counterparts, which means the best way to represent them is probably more like this:
Once again, this whole system is a gradient, I’ve chosen to represent it with 5 projects but you could very well try and do it with 3 or 10. Remember, any time someone tries to apply a finite number to anything as abstract as psychology they are usually kidding themselves. The point here is that each of these 5 projects have overlap, as we will talk about in each of their respective chapters. Most people have multiple projects on the go at once and so a pie chart proves to be a useful way to represent each person’s current immortality projects.
Immortality Pies
Each of the five projects are equivalent in the sense that no one is better or worse then they other. Our projects motivate us to action but aside from that, they have no higher purpose. They are projects we can never complete and our progress on them really doesn’t matter either. The hope here is that by understanding everyone’s different projects we are better able to empathize with those around us.
Introducing the Immortality Project Pie Chart:
Everyone has a pie chart, whether they realize it or not. When we enter this world, our only instinct/motivation is to survive, meaning our pie chart looks like this:
It basically doesn’t change from this for at least the first 5 years of our lives. Even our early Grade 1 crushes fit into the project. At around this age, children may begin to be introduced to religion (community), art (creative), and/or sport (status); their pie chart may begin to look like this:
Every child has different experiences and therefor their pie charts may look vastly different. If your family is not religious then you probably wouldn’t have as large of, if any, a community project. Same goes for if you are not exposed to art or sport. Pie charts can change very quickly; for example, it’s common for kids to become obsessed with a sport. I believe professional sport is encompassed by two primary projects and one secondary. The primary ones are Status and Creative, and the secondary is Biological. While many athletes would struggle to admit it, the social status lift (fame) that comes from being good at a sport is highly motivating and is a large reason that people play sports. Once again, I am not saying this is a bad thing. We have a tendency to look down on people who openly admit their desire for fame. We love the humble superstar and cringe at the boastful bragger. However we have to remember that it really doesn’t matter, projects are “not good, not bad, not better, not worse, just is”. The other primary project for sport is Creative, and this is the one that encompasses the “love for the game”. This is the part of sport that encompasses the love of the challenge. One can make the argument that “sport is an art”; the best players look like artists in the way they run/kick/shoot.