Immortality: The Quest to Live Forever and How It Drives

Immortality: The Quest to Live Forever and How It Drives Civilization

A fascinating work of popular philosophy and history that both enlightens and entertains, Stephen Caveâ€™s Immortality investigates whether it just might be possible to live forever and whether we should want to. But it also makes a powerful argument, which is that itâ€™s our very preoccupation with defying mortality that drives civilization.

In drawing back the curtain on what compels humans to Â“keep on keeping on,â€ Cave engages the reader in a number of mind-bending thought experiments. He teases out the implications of each immortality gambit, asking, for example, how long a person would live if they did manage to acquire a perfectly disease-free body. Or what would happen if a super-being tried to round up the atomic constituents of all whoâ€™ve died in order to resurrect them. Or what our loved ones would really be doing in heaven if it does exist. Or what part of us actually lives in a work of art, and how long that work of art can survive.

Toward the bookâ€™s end, weâ€™re confronted with a series of brain-rattling questions: What would happen if tomorrow humanity discovered that there is no life but this one? Would people continue to care about their favorite sports team, please their boss, vie for the title of Yearâ€™s Best Salesman? Would three-hundred-year projects still get started?

Immortality is a deeply satisfying book, as optimistic about the human condition as it is insightful about the true arc of history.
Country USA
Brand Skyhorse
Manufacturer Skyhorse
Binding Paperback
ItemPartNumber 9781510716155
ReleaseDate 2017-05-02
UnitCount 1
EANs 9781510716155

Country	USA
Brand	Skyhorse
Manufacturer	Skyhorse
Binding	Paperback
ItemPartNumber	9781510716155
ReleaseDate	2017-05-02
UnitCount	1
EANs	9781510716155

Immortality: The Quest to Live Forever and How It Drives Civilization

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