Gattaca Review

 

When reading Harari's Homo Deus, I didn't know what to expect. When reaching to page 29, I feel like a part of me changed, especially when reading about 9/11 and the metaphor of terrorists being like a fly trying to attract a bull to take care and destroy a Chinese shop. It was perhaps one of the best explanations about terrorism, fear, and the war of the Middle East that I've ever read in my entire life. Aside of that small passage, the historical background of how humans have failed against diseases and how we've succumbed to war due to the trickery of others determines why men have failed to become immortal. Harari claims that we should all achieve immortality as to show human superiority, kind of like if men conquered Nature and became Nature (I'm capitalizing the n in Nature because I'm referencing Baruch Spinoza's argument that Nature is God). 

As for my personal beliefs, I think that immortality could be a beautiful reality, especially if we're able to be happy forever and remain close with our friends and family, but I don't know if it's just me or how I've been programmed by life to see mortality as a death wish in Earth. I'm not a Christian or religious, despite considering myself agnostic, since I don't like to associate myself to a specific type of religion, and one of the reasons why is because I, and no offense meant, I think that life is too precious to wonder about the afterlife. If one is not grateful of the life they can fulfill in the present, what tells us that the afterlife is going to be even better? Plus, if one doesn't get to struggle in life, how can they appreciate the act and beauty of both living and dying? What tells us that immortality, with how the world is becoming, is even a great idea to achieve? What if older generations wish for a pleasant death when robots have taken over their past, when AI has taken over our off springs' future, how can they quickly adapt to a society that treats them like relics from an ancient past?

Personally, I don't want to die anytime soon, but I love life, and death awaits us all equally. Perhaps it's true that I have certain privileges that others don't. I don't necessarily feel guilty because I'm grateful for my parents' sacrifices every day, as well as to destiny itself. I'm satisfied with my life, of its challenges, because without them, we're not able to grow nor feel good about ourselves. Without challenges, we become unproductive, lazy; a deplorable way to kill long-term happiness and success. Life makes us suffer in order to fill a purpose that resides within us. Without a purpose, we're all useless. If you don't believe me, ask Vincent Freeman, who challenged science and himself every day to achieve his dream.