In this blog post, we explore the structural changes in happiness that eternal life will bring. We take an in-depth look at how human desires, technological advancements, and biological conditions will be reshaped, and in what direction the sum total of happiness might expand.
Before linking eternal life to happiness, we must first define what happiness is. Generally, happiness is defined as “subjective well-being,” which is not only a subjective emotion experienced differently by each individual but has also evolved in meaning over time. In the distant past, during the era of hunting and gathering, a successful hunt would have brought immense happiness to humans, and after the Agricultural Revolution, a bountiful harvest would have been synonymous with happiness. Subsequently, as the world became more diverse and class divisions among humans deepened, the meaning of happiness also expanded in increasingly varied ways.
Both the general understanding of happiness and the definition proposed by biologists can be considered persuasive arguments in their own right. However, regardless of how happiness is defined, I believe it is inherently relative. In a capitalist society, the accumulation of capital by capitalists implies the exploitation of workers, so workers’ happiness would have diminished; similarly, during the era of imperialism, the people of colonized nations would have felt unhappiness. Even from a biological perspective, while a person may feel happiness due to the hormones released when winning a Nobel Prize, the hormones released in someone who did not win may, conversely, trigger feelings of unhappiness. From this, I conclude that when measuring human happiness, we must not consider the happiness of just one person or one group; rather, we must consider the happiness of all humanity as a whole, and we must analyze a period that encompasses the entirety of human life, not just a single moment.
From my perspective on happiness, I believe modern society is structured in a way that prevents people from being sufficiently happy. In modern society, feeling happiness inevitably requires financial support, yet even those with sufficient wealth cannot fully cope with diseases that threaten their lives. In the process of accumulating wealth as a means to happiness, one person may deprive a larger number of people of their happiness, which will ultimately reduce the total sum of happiness. Furthermore, there is a possibility that someone may not be able to enjoy happiness because they acquire the means to achieve it too late in life, or because they contract an incurable disease during that time. However, if humans were to live forever as a result of scientific and technological advancements, the various problems mentioned earlier could be resolved.
First, if humans achieve eternal life, wealth will no longer be a primary means to happiness. In modern society, people accumulate wealth to fulfill their desires while they are alive. Because they perceive the limited span of about 100 years as short, people strive to earn money so they can drive the cars they want, eat the food they desire, and visit the places they wish to go. In the process of holding a job to earn money and making various efforts to secure that job, people experience both happiness and unhappiness. However, if humans could live forever, the need to rush to accumulate wealth as we do now would disappear. Since time is no longer limited to 100 or 200 years, people will eventually achieve what they desire, even if not immediately, and I believe we will ultimately reach a state where all humans possess equal wealth. Consequently, individuals will simply experience the same level of happiness as others, albeit “later,” and the total amount of happiness experienced will remain the same. Under this premise, what remains is not a competition for happiness but a life of symbiosis.
Second, as science and technology advance further, it will become possible to redesign the human biological system itself. If, as biologists argue, the secretion of hormones such as oxytocin within the human body is regulated in response to specific events, and the resulting emotion is defined as happiness, then science and technology could theoretically expand this happiness infinitely. If we design biological systems to release only the hormones that induce happiness in specific situations while preventing the secretion of hormones that diminish that emotion, humans would experience nothing but happiness, and the very concept of unhappiness might eventually disappear. Some might argue that even if the same amount of hormones is secreted, the degree of happiness felt would vary from person to person. This issue could be resolved if science and technology were to design not only the amount of hormone secretion but also the very system in the brain that responds to hormonal stimuli to be identical for all humans.
Finally, if human life were to never end, happiness would never end either. Humans still face the absolute limits of disease and death. Even someone who feels happy living with a beautiful wife, raising a lovely child, and eating delicious food every day can no longer be happy if they eventually face death or suffer extreme pain due to illness, no matter how happy they were before. However, the advancement of science and technology will not stop at simply making humans immortal; it will transform our lives so that we can live healthily and without pain. A healthy life is a crucial element of the subjective well-being humans experience, and it brings happiness in and of itself. If such a healthy life were to never end, the happiness humans enjoy would also last forever. Since this applies equally not only to an individual but to everyone connected to them, it is projected that the total sum of happiness for all of humanity will increase and endure.
The philosopher Heidegger argues that only living while experiencing death is truly living. He calls this way of living “existence” (Dasein), meaning to live authentically, and his philosophy is known as “existentialist philosophy.” According to Heidegger, anxiety about death is the driving force that compels humans to live happily, and it is precisely this anxiety that makes humans keenly feel the happiness of life. He views human existence as arising from the acknowledgment and fear of death, and argues that humans who exist in this way realize the true meaning of the time they are living, thereby regaining their authentic life and existence and living happily.
However, according to Heidegger’s philosophy, eternal life would eliminate the very concept of existence, leading to the conclusion that humans who spend their time meaninglessly cannot be happy. However, I find it difficult to fully agree with Heidegger’s argument. First, the premise that humans who do not exist are not happy at all is questionable. This could amount to denying the happiness felt by people who lived in the past or are living in the present—even if they did not acknowledge death or exist. Second, even if happiness were to increase as a result of existence, I believe that happiness would ultimately vanish once human life ends, causing its meaning to fade. If humans could achieve eternal life, they could possess happiness infinitely; it is difficult to argue that it is right to choose happiness that will inevitably be taken away again.
Advances in science and technology will lead humanity toward eternal life, and eternal life can make humans happy in the three ways mentioned earlier. The competition for happiness will disappear, and humans will continuously feel happiness; that happiness will never end but will continue indefinitely. Debates over what exactly happiness means, or whether certain forms of happiness are “higher” or “lower,” are no longer essential. The fact that science and technology will enable humans to live in eternal health will result in bringing eternal happiness to humanity. In that case, it would be fair to call immortality a kind of “drug” for happiness.
