So Why We Were Not Created Immortal?

Abstract

The logic of nature in not providing us with immortality has been that from a system perspective it is better to have generational refreshment, than allowing individuals to carry useless information with them forever. Successive generations are preferable to immortal humans as long as the preceding generation can pass the relevant information it has gained through life to the next generation. The human tool for this is language, and it can be argued that nature’s investment in language is at the expense of further longevity. The greatest threat of immortality might not be eternal repetition, but overwhelming tiredness. As Plato said ‘But our creators, considering whether they should make a longer-lived race which was worse, or a shorter-lived race which was better, came to the conclusion that every one ought to prefer a shorter span of life, which was better, to a longer one, which was worse’.