Time ends.
It is usually viewed as this infinite thing that cannot be defined. Science and religion have tried to tell us how it all began and even how it might end. But on a cosmic level, it is not something we can see end. It is not something anyone alive now can hope to see end. But time ends.
The individual knows that; he has seen it happen to his ancestors and she has felt the hurt of its end for a loved one. It starts and goes on for a while. And then it ends, sometimes abruptly.
We can think and write songs and tell tales about why, but it is just something that happens.
Some even think it shouldn’t, that it is a flaw, a technical problem that needs a technical solution.
The Gilgamesh Project, for instance, aims to find a cure for that inevitable end. Immortality, or as Yuval Noah Harari calls it, “Amortality“, where homo sapiens is not indestructible, meaning they can still die when accidents happen. But in the absence of accidents, they wouldn’t be able to die of “natural causes”. Why? Because there would be a solution to the problem of ageing and failure of organs.
Is there a point to this? I don’t know. I’m reminded of Icarus, though; maybe we’ll be our own undoing. Or maybe it will succeed in the future.
But today, it is what it is. The end of an individual’s time serves a purpose. It reminds us that any moment is precious, that if we do not pay attention, time will end before we can make good use of it.
It helps us feel. It doesn’t matter if we lose a newborn or an old person or a pet. It helps us connect to one of the few things that make us who we are as a species.
I often find myself thinking about what that end would look like for me. I’m not scared, I’m not necessarily looking forward to it, I just accept that it’s something that must happen.
And that’s okay. For now.
Prompt: Death
