Adam Hibberd
I am fundamentally an astrodynamicist, but I have been known to occasionally look at the wider picture. I have been thinking recently about humanity.
Human existence, and for that matter all life, has been a story of death. Obviously enough, life attempts to preserve itself by defying death.
You might say that evolution is simply an attempt by the universe to learn more about itself.
In my view death has a purpose. It is teaching life to know and understand.
Look at humanity.
People have died for generations upon generations. But understanding and technology have always advanced.
Particularly since around the time of the industrial revolution, we have begun to outwit death, our longevity has been increasing, child mortality rates have plummeted. This has largely been a consequence of deeper scientific understanding, particularly in medicine.
Death catches up with us all, has all this loss of life been futile? Has every living thing struggled in vain?
Not at all. By individuals dying, life is collectively knowing more and more.
What wonders will our successors discover? Maybe a way of defying death forever?
Perhaps even the ultimate celebration of life, a kind of unification of all life that has ever existed?
The creation of a new universe.