We Are All Immortality Projects

If we look the entirety of the human history there is a recurring theme of heroism. Humans adopt a theme of their choosing and then they carry one fulfilling it. In a way, every single human endeavour aims towards immortality.

Whether we examine religious ideas that aim towards paradise and redemption — or even recently scientific endeavours that aim to prolong life and ultimately become immortal — the idea of serving an idea bigger than ourselves dominates our psyche.

Personally, I don't find a significant difference in how humans choose to give meaning in their lives. Perhaps the most prominent idea, love, demonstrated that at the end of the day we all seek the same things, the same form of fulfilment and purpose. Whether this is tunnelled through religion or science, economics or politics has little significance. At the end of the day, these illusions merge together to favour a specific group against another.

We are the expression of those who lived before us. We are the result of a series of immortality projects whether one is aiming to create a family or conquer the next fertile land. Evolution provided us with the basic blueprint and we all helplessly build from there up like mindless drones. We are not doing anything more other than making sure that our variations of DNA propagate throughout the planet.

We will never be united in peace about anything. We will continue falling in love with specific people that hold specific attributes and hate or ignore others. Those who are less successful in regards to one thing will find a way to shine through another.

A handful of members from our species have provided for each and every one of us all the tools we have today so we can shape meaning. Everything we know as real and meaningful is nothing more than the propagation of their own immortality projects. Many have chipped in to make their goals happen but those particular ones shined because they happened to be there when the tipping point of their innovation manifested. Newton, Cleopatra, Einstein, Jesus, Lao Tzu, Genghis Khan — all are circumstantial players that others have laid the road before them. We are just so entangled into the hero narrative we only appreciate the surface. We are prisoners of the immortality narrative. The hero's glory.

Our brains cannot bear to ponder upon the future without picturing our own demise. We need stories, illusions to keep us going. There is a vast array of choices one could entertain but at the end what will make that illusion more believable is the number of people that will follow. Those around us are the only ones that can create a meaningful narrative.

This is the reason you see televangelists struggling to gather up more members. This is the reason Muslims try to convert non-believers and defend their "holy land". This is the reason we have initiatives to gather up people in science for the "good of the planet" even though technology and innovation, as much as religious quests have caused so much death and anguish.

Everyone has at heart good intentions until their own immortality project gets challenged from someone else. We feel threatened by our own existence because when we lose meaning in our illusion we lose ourselves. This is why loneliness is such as devastating state for those who don't seek it. When you are alone, you are as good as dead. The sense of belonging works much like any other instinct.

Political parties, activist groups, religious followers and science advocates push their own agenda in hope that their own illusion will shine above everyone else's. Much like we are proud of our offspring, our own DNA, we seek fulfilment through the group. This is also how those massive friend lists on facebook are created. This is why your profile picture is so carefully crafted, like an advertisement board, so you can connect with specific people around you.

For most of us, the immortality project is accomplished through the basic means of having a family. For others is having their name printed on the spine of a hardcover. For some others is embracing a religion and dedicating themselves to the greater whole.

A human's tragedy lies in the fact that we are tormented from our own illusions. We can't live without them but having them entails suffering. We are prisoners of our own choices. In our blind quest, belief is our ally but also our greatest foe.