Death is a problem. Like any problem, it can be solved because there is no law of physics that states that living beings must perish. Unlike other problems, death is the most painful. It is painful because it is absurdly counter-intuitive.
It is counter-intuitive because we are minds and as minds anything we know can be resurrected with the right knowledge. But death causes other minds to be lost and minds find it very difficult to accept that other minds can stop existing.
Unfortunately, our minds are still dependent on our brains. They are substrate-specific entities. This does not have to be so. We will solve the problem of death when we learn how to transfer minds to other substrates - maybe silicon, maybe carbon, or some substrate yet to be invented. Our minds are software after all and software can be installed on any computer if it has the right architecture and co-dependencies.
Meanwhile, we must push back against those who say death is inevitable, death is natural (and must not be trifled with) or death is beautiful. Specious claims such as ‘death makes life worth living’ are selfish and cruel.
Death is vile. Death is disgusting. Death is clumsy. Death is wasteful. Death is idiotic. Death is devoid of creativity. Death leaves us exposed and at the mercy of the universe’s indifferent violence and the blind caprice of biology. Death doesn’t deserve a place in human lives or in the lives of any creatures we love.
What if the memories don’t die and we carry their burden on our head?
What if the tail of the tadpole don’t die and the frog carries the burden of a tail?
What if this moment doesn’t die and the next moment carries the burden of the last moment?
What if my childhood doesn’t die and my youth carries the burden of my childhood?
What if the winter doesn’t die and the spring carries the burden of winter in it.
What if my sorrow doesn’t die and my happiness carries the burden of my sorrows?
Isn’t death such a wonderful gift the precious boon?
Isn’t death the only reality the ultimate truth?
Isn’t the art of living is nothing but the art of dying?
Where is the demarcation of living and dying?
Can we learn to die…to live?