In this blog post, I’ll take an in-depth look at the purpose of life and the true meaning of happiness through the relationship between “eternal life” and “happiness.”
When everyone turns twenty-five, they stop aging. Time stands still, freezing them in the youthful, beautiful form they had at that moment. Their lives are sustained by using the “time” remaining on the watches tattooed on their forearms to pay for everything they need in daily life, such as coffee and rent. In this world, time is currency. The protagonist, who had been barely scraping by day by day, one day accidentally saves a stranger who had intended to take his own life. It turns out the man was a millionaire, and after transferring all his time to the protagonist, he ends his own life. Having suddenly acquired a vast amount of time, the protagonist is simultaneously framed for murder. Nevertheless, he embarks on a new life completely different from his previous one. This is the plot of the movie ‘In Time’ (2011). In an era of dazzling advances in medicine and science, where even death can be postponed with money, we can no longer dismiss this film as merely a work of fiction. The premise of this film may be particularly intriguing to those with substantial wealth. “If only I had enough time (money), I could avoid dying—and remain young and beautiful!” Yet, the millionaire in the film chooses to take his own life despite having it all. Why did he end his own life? Even though not only he but also his loved ones could have maintained their youth and lived together?
To put it simply, even if science and medicine advance to the point where humanity can enjoy eternal life, that does not guarantee happiness. So what is it that makes humans happy? Is it money? Is it love? Before answering that, let’s first ask a more fundamental question: Why do humans pursue happiness? And why must we be happy? If you ask most people, “Why do we live?” they usually answer, “To be happy.” However, I do not think so. The purpose of human life is not “happiness.” The only thing that distinguishes humans from animals is our ability to think—and that is the sole difference. We overestimate ourselves based solely on this ability to think. If some supreme being were to take away our ability to think, we would become no different from beasts. Once we strip away all the unnecessary elements using Occam’s Razor, it becomes clear that both humans and animals ultimately share a purpose in life based on the instincts of “survival and reproduction.” Ultimately, even what we believe to be happiness is nothing more than a means to survival.
To confirm this, let’s turn our attention to our earliest human ancestors. What brought them happiness, and how did they use it to ensure their survival? What was the driving force that made them leave the warmth of their caves and risk their lives to hunt mammoths? The answer is surprisingly simple: because the meat “tasted good.” The pleasure derived from eating delicious food served as a powerful motivator for survival, and this is what drew them out of their caves. If they hadn’t derived pleasure from eating, they would have had no reason to take such risks or even leave the cave. The same applies to reproduction. Only when they experienced pleasure through mating would they repeat the act, which ultimately led to the birth of the next generation. What’s interesting is that this pleasure does not last long. If the pleasure had lasted longer, early humans who had tasted meat just once would have lost the motivation to go hunting again. Ultimately, because the pleasure that fuels survival and reproduction is fleeting, humans continue to live by pursuing new forms of pleasure.
Some might think that modern humans are happier than our primitive ancestors. Certainly, humanity has progressed, and our ability to control and utilize the environment has improved dramatically. But to what extent have these advancements affected the happiness felt by individuals?
Technology advances day by day, but few people would confidently answer “yes” to the question, “Are you happier today than you were yesterday?” On the contrary, many modern people feel more stress and unhappiness than before. Humans are both adaptive creatures and arrogant beings. For example, suppose a person who normally maintains a happiness level of 5 wins a 1 billion won lottery and temporarily feels a happiness level of 8. A few years later, their daily life will likely return to a level of 5. The top-quality steak they eat every day is no longer special, and the thrill of winning the lottery fades into familiarity. In fact, the intensity of that initial happiness becomes the new baseline, so even if they win the same lottery again later, they won’t feel the same level of emotion. In fact, when I first entered college, simply walking across campus filled me with a sense of wonder and happiness—“Did I really get into this school?” But now, walking the same path, I feel a sense of doubt: “Why am I still here?” That moment, which once brought me joy, now passes without stirring any emotion at all. This is because my threshold for happiness has risen. This threshold, which increases over time, would amplify unhappiness even further if we were to live “eternal lives.” Ultimately, eternal life can only be an accumulation of emptiness, not an accumulation of happiness.
Today, we have more opportunities to enjoy a wider variety of experiences than in the past, and in the future, the depth and breadth of these experiences will only grow. However, as pleasures increase, so does the sense of deprivation we feel when comparing ourselves to others. In other words, the fact that we have more opportunities to be happy paradoxically means we also have more opportunities to be unhappy. Even for us, who live finite lives, unhappiness increases more than happiness over time; if we were to live an infinite life, that disparity would grow even greater.
So, what is another condition necessary for experiencing happiness? The German philosopher Heidegger argues that to achieve true happiness, one must “exist authentically.” Here, “authentic existence” does not simply mean “existing,” but rather “existing properly.” He believed that only when we acknowledge and confront “death”—which all humans will eventually face—can we truly realize the meaning of life and the finitude of time, and thus exist “properly” (Kim Gwang-sik, 2016). In the movie ‘In Time’, the millionaire lives a life merely for the sake of being alive—a life without purpose—and ultimately chooses suicide. No matter how many tens of thousands or hundreds of millions of forms of happiness one might experience, if that happiness does not last, the vast majority of an infinite life will inevitably be filled with emptiness and futility. Happiness, like a rose, is beautiful and valuable in and of itself, but it only shines brightly when paired with a “relative presence”—like a mist flower—that makes it stand out even more. Happiness only gains its true value against the backdrop of finitude. If we had infinite time, we would likely end up idly letting the present slip away. Ultimately, we would become even more indolent than we are today, putting everything off until “tomorrow’s self.”
Technological advancements offer us opportunities to enjoy various forms of happiness. However, an increase in these opportunities does not necessarily guarantee happiness. On the contrary, too many choices and points of comparison only deepen our sense of emptiness. Fortunately, we are not immortal. Therefore, by recognizing the finitude of time and finding meaning in our existence within that framework, we can experience true happiness. The fact that eternal life does not promise happiness is, in fact, a reason to cherish our present lives even more.
Happiness is not an abstract concept. It is a concrete experience. Since we do not know whether death or eternal life will come first, it is important for us—here and now—to enjoy the small, simple joys right in front of us rather than pin our hopes on vague future happiness. Rather than waiting for two marshmallows—whose arrival is uncertain and not guaranteed—let’s enjoy the single marshmallow right in front of us. A simple moment of laughter while sharing fried chicken with friends tonight might bring greater happiness than a fancy dinner at a high-end restaurant after passing an exam. Filling today’s life to the brim—that is precisely why we live our finite lives, and it is the starting point of true happiness.
