Meditations on immortality

Capsuleers. Contrary to baseliner belief, we are not eternal. But we are not quite mortal either. Our immortality is a potential to endure in time, but it is to be sharply distinguished from eternity as is found in mathematical truths or in God[1]. To put it plainly: we can be killed and erased from existence, just not by the mere passage of time.

What does our immunity to aging mean for our life? What becomes of this transhuman condition?

We are probably still too “young” to know. It is not clear yet what will happen to the inner, contemplative aspect of our existence, to that intimate realm of thoughts and love and meditations considered by many theologians to be superior to the worldly realm of actions.

But in the realm of actions and interactions, for capsuleers already a first hint of a change has manifested itself in that small span of time since we came into being: A disproportionate number of capsuleers retire from public life.

Humans in all ages - before this one - enter the public life, not merely because bringing things into the public confers reality to them[2], but more so because it is the only way mortals can attempt to give permanence to things beyond their own finite lifespan. Our deeds, our words, the artifacts we make, they perish with us if we do not share them with others. But when potential lifespan knows no limit, there is no longer a need for a public to guarantee the permanence of such things.

In no other race is this retraction from the public to the private more evident than in the Jove, the oldest race to have conquered mortality. The need to engage with each other and with a common shared world seems to have dissipated in them altogether. The Sleepers have locked themselves out of the public sphere for good. And the Jovian disease I consider to be an extension of this condition from their active life to their inner or contemplative life - a hint of what lack of mortality does to the mind, in the end. 

[1] The Great Fall and subsequent coming of the Dark Ages has deeply rooted in our common subconsciousness the conviction that nothing humans can make lasts forever and that only God offers the eternal.

[2] Consider the question “Did you hear that too?” A perceived sound is only real when it is confirmed through shared experience. Note that reality and truth are not the same – while it may be very true that the person asking the question hears a sound, they consider that sound real only if others hear it as well.