The Gravity of Immortality: Exploring the Human Drive for Power and Transcendence
Forever moving we are, away from but also toward, a fate we are carried to not by ourselves, but the governing forces of nature. But what does she want?
The fear of death and the drive for power is the cornerstone of every man who has ever walked this earth. Every organism seeks to avoid death, but we humans- we humans seek to conquer death, to do the impossible. Our illusion of control has left us feeling as if we may overcome nature herself. Behind the charming pull of self-improvement, which reflects the pursuit of power, lies a fuel too often ignored - the aversion of one's own mortality. In our aversion of this uncomfortable truth, we feign acceptance, while our actions paint a vivid picture of a being which is struggling to accept his inevitable fate. By way of this tussel emerges the desire for transcendence, for having a causal relationship with beings of the future.
Immortality at the surface is often thought of something only belonging to nature herself, and this seems true - but what are we humans actually up to? Our consciousness generates grand, or not so grand visions of our futures, and it leads us to act in certain ways in the present. It seems the very fiber of our being desires to go beyond what we are, to not only survive, but to thrive. This desire has lead to a vast array of technological advancements, religions, medicines, philosophies and knowledge which have far outlived its origins. These improvements and artifacts once existed in someone's mind, where they manifested themselves in the physical world as a type of gravitational force. Is consciousness not a form of GRAVITY?
Why then, do the favorite among us appear to be the largest - the most SALIENT? The powerful and influential are comparable to miniature solar systems, having a magnetic attracting force which results in a cloud of orbiting weaker forces. Think of a CEO, where all of his employees are like planets of ever smaller sizes, forming a system of higher to lower causal relationships. Some planets have multiple moons, and some have none, reflecting the ability for weaker gravitational forces to still garner a pull to anything less than itself. Perhaps this force is not from gravity, but what if gravity encompasses more than just planetary order? If the universe itself groups matter based on its size and influence, why would humans not also submit to this order in the form of ideas, behaviors and beliefs?
Assuming we do submit to natural laws such as this that we cannot see or predict, what is the purpose of this raw, primitive drive we embody? Perhaps we are meant to harness the energies bestowed to us to TRANSCEND the finite human condition. The greatest among us are already immortal in the sense that they have lived on through their contributions to society. It's not only through great innovation that one lives on, but through the creating of family or offspring. Your entire family tree only exists because two people came together at some point in the distant past, which then lead to hundreds or THOUSANDS of FUTURE DESCENDANTS which retain remnants of a being who once carried the same responsibility as we. We who are living today, are the great FORGERS of tomorrow, the bestowers of life not yet lived.
We are all drawn to such high aims without thinking much about the forces unseen or known to us, foolishly labeling them as death, power or genetics. It's not WE or our BIOLOGY that allows us to float, it is the unidentifiable energy which we owe our gratitude. This gravity-like force which labors every day and night, drawing us near to either our unfortunate demise or our extraordinary destiny as a species, is who we have to thank for every laugh, every great discovery, every tradgedy, and our own interesting lives of beautiful turmoil. It is through this very energy, which we feel pressing on us day to day THROUGH our fears and desires, that we have been able to TRANSCEND our individual lives, blazing a trail for the future of intelligent life.