Niall Fitzmaurice
Niall Fitzmaurice is currently in his final year in UL, studying New Media & English. He is from Arklow, Co. Wicklow and was born on December 18th 1990. His interests include music, writing, films, television, radio and comedy. In UL Niall is involved in both the Tae Kwon Do Club and the Comedy Society. He has been training in Tae Kwon Do for over thirteen years and is a second degree black belt. Niall is also highly involved in the Comedy Society, where himself and a number of his friends have performed gigs both in the college and the city along with other projects such as developing ideas for sitcoms etc. As Niall wishes to work in the media industry and has a great love for listening to all genres of music, he hopes to gain employment in the field of radio presenting in the future. He has worked for RTE Lyric FM and has also been a presenter for ULFM over the past two years since the station was set up. When he is finished in UL Niall hopes to do a Masters course in Broadcasting and have recently applied to two Universities in London, which provide this course.
The Question of Immortality
By Niall Fitzmaurice
If there is one thing we all have in common, it is the simple fact that we are all only mortal. Now I’m not talking about the Harry Potter non magic type of mortal, I refer to the simple fact that we are born, we grow, we live, we die. It may seem blunt but that is how mortality works. But why are we mortal? Why do we die? And is it really possible that the inescapable process of death could someday be avoided? Time to find out . . .
Throughout history humans have always craved the things they could never have. Many wish to escape the things which may never be escaped. The most obvious of these faiths is that of death. Death is as we all know the end of life, a natural process which we all face and almost all posses some fear of. The unknown following of death may be the main reason behind this fear. Some believe an eternal paradise to follow, while some believe it to be the end of all. To avoid facing this question of the unknown humans have forever craved the status of immortality.
No one has ever achieved this although many characters of fiction have been given the gift which we may never achieve ourselves. Some of these include figures such as Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Grey, horror legend Dracula and the much more recent character of Nathan Young in the TV series Misfits. Immortality is indeed an interesting feature for a character to have. Some of these fictional figures are known to have lived for centuries and so many stories may be told about them. Some others might not even be that old. We ourselves may have even lived longer than them, but to come back from the darkness of death, now that is an interesting talent to have.
Those who believe this idea of immortality to be only a matter for fiction and fantasy may be very surprised to learn that there are in fact a small number of organisms in existence which are classified as “Biological Immortal Species” or “Potentially Immortal Species”. One of these creatures is the “Turritopsis nutricula”, a jellyfish which possesses the ability to convert its cells and transform back to a younger form after reaching its mature stage of life. Through doing this it has a constant and repetitive lifespan and so may very well be immortal. Some plants too are classified as potentially immortal. One example of these is the “Bristlecone Pine”. If left unharmed these trees can grow for substantially long periods of time and may continue to do so forever. The oldest documented Bristlecone Pine is over 4800 years old.
A question which is just as interesting as whether or not immortality is possible is that of why the process of death occurs in the first place? The collection of scientific studies and theories which have tried to answer this question fall under the category of the study of “Evolution of Aging”. The question of why the natural process of evolution has not lost this quality that appears to be of no known benefit to us has indeed been focused on by many. Possible explanations for the existence of death have come from this group, all focusing on different aspects of mortality.
“Mutation accumulation” is one of the main theories which states that the process of death is not even part of humans or other organisms until later in life. Basically this theory is saying that before we start to die we must first start to grow. When we have gone past our prime stages. Only then does the process of growing change to the process of aging, a process which is developed and cannot be escaped and eventually leads us to the final process which is the process of dying.
“Antagonistic Pleiotropy” is a second credited theory that focuses on genes and how they contain some aspects, selected through the process of evolution that are beneficial to us as beings but may also be detrimental. The best example of this is the process of healing, which has clear benefits throughout our lives but may also cause cells to decay as they grow and eventually die. This means the organisms themselves which are collectively made up by these cells also possess this characteristic and so they too shall eventually decay (or age) and will also eventually die.
The “Disposable Soma Theory” is one final critically acclaimed study in this category. This concept refers to the fact that organisms are required to use energy for processes such as growing, reproducing, living and repairing. The use of energy for these functions means that it cannot be used for others, leading the body to age, decay and succumb to death. An excellent metaphor used to explain this theory comes from comparing the use of energy to the spending of money. Thomas Kirkwood who developed this theory explained that it is very similar to the process of spending, as when we earn money we can save it forever but instead we spend it on certain things that will only be of temporary use to us but which we require or want. Just as we spend our money so too we use the energy of our lives to grow and heal but cannot regain it once it has been spent and so we eventually run out.
These are three possible answers to the previously raised question of why we die in the first place. When it comes to the question of immortality many believe there to be more than one form of it, some of which appear to be much easier to achieve than others. Three of these immortal forms are ways such as Spiritual Immortality, Hypothetical Immortality and Physical or Biological Immortality.
Spiritual Immortality – The concept of Spiritual Immortality refers to the previously mentioned belief that some people have of an immortal afterlife, which one enters after death. This is a feature of almost all religions and can only be based on the faith of those who believe in the afterlife. Although these believers still suffer from death they believe that through their spirituality there is a part of them that will live on after they have passed. Some religions explain this through the concept of the human soul. This concept is believed to be the spiritual element within all humans which unlike our physical features does not die and so is immortal.
Hypothetical Immortality – An example of this form of immortality is the well known concept of fame. Although one may not escape death, if a certain level of fame is reached their name and legacy will live on through time much longer than is physically possible. A well known example of a figure who achieved Hypothetical Immortality is the legendary Achilles who fought in the ancient Trojan War and in doing so gained everlasting fame. With this fame which was spread through literature, legends and even modern media the character of Achilles along with many other figures from over centuries ago have passed the test of time and still exist in our world today.
Physical or Biological Immortality – This is the most complex form of immortality which no human has ever achieved. To be physically immortal means that a person would remain in their physical form and conscious state for all eternity without reaching death by natural causes. For this to be achieved humans would have to cancel out the constant process of aging. Although many believe this to be impossible a great deal of research has been carried out on this through the related fields of DNA and Stem Cell Research, which are receiving more and more funding as many believe they are coming closer to a massive breakthrough in the altering of DNA, which if we gained the ability to make certain changes we could reprogram to stop the process of aging or at least lengthen the general lifespan.
These forms of immortality weather achievable or impossible are craved by people throughout the world. Some however such as past Irish author and satirist Jonathan Swift believed the status of immortality to be a curse rather than a blessing. Swift expressed this in his famous novel “Gulliver’s Travels” where on his exploration Gulliver finds a species that constantly age but do not die. He describes these to be a very sorrowful group with all the disadvantages of being old and no way to escape them. Perhaps Swift was right. Life has a beginning, middle and an end. If one compares life to something else with this structure perhaps it may seem clearer. Take a movie for example, they all begin and so too end. When you go to the cinema you don’t want the film to last forever you just want to enjoy it until it reaches the end. Perhaps life is this way too.
The question of immortality is indeed a hard question to answer. Instead of finding answers this subject leads to only more questions. It is indeed a personal matter of whether or not you believe immortality is a gift that should be possessed by any or even if it is in fact a gift at all, for it may be a curse? This is a question you can only answer yourself. But for now it is merely a topic to ponder and weather you wish to live forever or weather your happy to be mortal at the end of the day the only thing which seems to matter is that you enjoy your life one day at a time and don’t worry about the end or the concept of death until it’s too late to worry.