Would you live forever...?
A while ago I found this amazing interview with Neil DeGrasse Tyson on the internet which I just find too inspiring not to share!
Especially one sequence when Neil asked Larry King, if he would live forever and Larry responded without second thought with a yes.
The explanation Neil deGrasse Tyson gave on why he would not want to live forever just struck me.
Listen for yourself...
It is the knowledge that I'm going to die, that creates the focus that I bring to being alive. The urgency of accomplishment, the need to express love. Now. Not later.
If we live forever, why ever even get out of bed in the morning? Because you always have tomorrow. That's no the kind of life I wanne lead. - Neil DeGrasse Tyson
This really got me thinking. We all want to achieve something in life and we all want it as early as possible.
But all that urgency is just created cause we know, that there is a limit and we don't have forever.
The thought of never having to leave that earth and living for every is an attractive idea, as Neil said in the interview. But to what price. You would wake up and there would be no urge to do something, cause you have as long as you want and so you can just take your time.
Some of you might say... "yeah but I would still do something, even though I knew I would life forever...".
I'm not so sure about that. Think back to the last exam you had or paper you had to turn in. Chances are very hight, that you did it just on time, even though you had several month time to study.
The Parkinson's law
Have you ever heard of the Parkinson's law? It's exactly that. If you never heard of it, basically it says, that you you'll need exactly the amount of time that you give yourself for the task at hand.
For example you give yourself 3 Weeks to learn for an exam. Pretty sure you'll need all three of those weeks. But if you would just give yourself 1 week time you would get the same results with just 1/3 of the time.
But back to the Interview. The Parkinson's law underlines Neils statement. If we would have unlimited time we wouldn't achieve anything. We would just life one they after the other without really having a purpose or a need to have a purpose.
What we can learn from that is:
Set yourself timestamps/milestones by when you want to achiev what. If you give yourself "unlimited" time chances are high that you will never achiev your goals.
We are not forever here
I find the thought of not being here forever empowering. The knowledge that I have to do something now. Not later. It just gets me going.
It's in our hand and it's up to us, what we do with that one life.
It's like an actor who writes his own book. Your live is your book and you should write your own and you should write it that way that you are proud of you when the book comes to an end.
Don't get me wrong. Living forever would also be amazing. Imagine being here in 300 year and knowing what our future generations will do with the earth and how much humanity evolved and so on. That would be astonishing!
Seeing how we would solve all those "unsolvable" problems we have right now would be reason enough to live forever.
But in the end thats not reality. So we have to make all we can with the one life we have :)
Live your life to it's fullest
Don't waste your life away. Be aware that you just have one and start living it to its fullest. Yes, thats easier said than done. If we go a little deeper, then we find out there isn't really a way to live life right. No one can assure us what is right and what is wrong.
But that is what makes life worthwhile. If everything was certain and if we would know everything then there would be no room for faith and hope. Life would simply be boring.