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To be or not to be

Death and the fear of death have not been reserved for only a few philosophers throughout history.

According to existentialists, the primary and fundamental issue of human life is coping with the anxiety of death and the defense strategies of the mind against this anxiety. In contrast to the desire to be alive, the awareness of one’s inevitable death forms the dynamism of existential philosophy and psychology.

“The fear of death is everywhere and so great that much of life’s energy is spent denying death. Transcending death is central to the human experience: from our most profound inner personal phenomena, defenses, motivations, dreams, and nightmares to the most apparent social macro-structures, monuments, theology, ideologies, cemeteries, embalming, our way into space, and indeed the central theme of all forms of life. Our life includes courses of spending time, the habit of entertainment, firm belief in the myth of progress, motivation for improvement, and our desire for lasting fame.

Irwin Yalom considers death to be an essential element of most human experiences.

The long list he presents in the above paragraph includes all the features present in human civilization and human psychological tendencies. Citing numerous sources, he believes that even children in their second year of life are aware of death and are looking for ways to defend against it.

“Gregory Rachlin, based on several play sessions with a group of three- to five-year-old children, concluded that at a young age, the child realizes that life has an end and that death will come for him and those he depends on. My studies in the field of death showed that the awareness of death and the possibility of death is acquired for the person at a young age and much earlier than expected. The fear of dying is clearly expressed at the age of three.” 2

Humans seek refuge in defenses such as “I am an exception, and death will not come to me” and “the ultimate savior” after learning about their death and the death of their loved ones.

Of course, death is not the only concern of existentialists. The meaning of life, loneliness, human freedom, and emptiness can be considered their other concerns.

Artificial intelligence and existential concerns

Now the question is raised, what is the relationship between philosophy or existential psychology with artificial intelligence?

It is true that medical science has made fantastic progress in the last century and has been able to overcome many infectious and dangerous diseases that have killed millions of people over the centuries, including Diseases such as cholera, plague, typhus, etc., which were eradicated during the last hundred years.

Although medical science has increased a person’s life expectancy from about 40 years to about 75 years on average, according to many, a life of 80-90 years is still uncomfortably short. At the same time, we have to accept many diseases in this short life.

Many people – especially in underdeveloped countries – do not have enough quality of life and health despite living a relatively long life. The global spread of infectious diseases such as Covid-19 has shown that humanity has not yet reached the level of technology that can confidently talk about long life. Artificial intelligence could have stopped the spread of the coronavirus three years ago, and I have written the reasons for it in the March 2018 editorial.

However, with the enormous advances that have been made in the field of artificial intelligence in recent years, many have become hopeful that a long life with good health is not so far out of reach. If humans can live, for example, 150 years, it is likely that during this Duration will be able to reach 300 years and 1000 years and finally immortality by using the technologies of that time.

The investments of companies and government organizations in artificial intelligence are approaching a turning point.

Collecting big data at different regional, national, and international levels enables artificial intelligence and its practitioners to advance disease research much faster and find better treatments. Much of this research is done through gene editing, a fundamental method of correcting genetic abnormalities. The effects of artificial intelligence in the field of health and medicine can be manifested in different aspects.

In the field of diagnosis, on the one hand, there is a large amount of information obtained from mobile phone systems and data communication, and on the other hand, the construction and use of advanced imaging devices, as well as the use of artificial intelligence algorithms to understand fixed or recurring patterns in the data. It enables diagnosis with much greater certainty.

Treatment is another aspect where medical science can experience vast and deep improvements by exploiting artificial intelligence. One of the most attractive points in the treatment field is the possibility of personalization. Combining each patient’s genetic information with clinical examinations and advanced image processing tools allows doctors to prescribe a unique treatment for each patient.

On the other hand, advances in pharmaceutical science, which rely on information and methods of applying artificial intelligence, can produce much more effective drugs with lefeweride effects.

Sometimes nano-sized medicines only target diseased cells and do not harm healthy cells and tissues.

Artificial intelligence technology developments in the communication of teams located in a medical complex, quick and accurate access to patient records, and proper storage and archiving of information and documents related to people’s health for future use will completely change the face of future medical complexes. Gradually, robots take on more roles in maintaining and caring for patients.

Health-related smart wearables that monitor and record a person’s health status and vital signs around the clock and notify the person or the medical center in case of any problems are other tools that help stay healthier thanks to the Internet of Things technology and artificial intelligence. Humans will have a significant impact.

Connecting the brain directly to artificial intelligence, correcting various abnormalities, and training the human brain without going through traditional learning processes, alone will create an astonishing revolution in the human world.

Research in the field of preventing the effects of aging and finding drugs that prevent the aging of cells and organs is another part of the evolution of artificial intelligence technology.

In the same way, telemedicine also prepares the ground for medical services for a part of the world’s people who have fewer of these facilities. Artificial intelligence services are not limited to medical science and patients. I hope there will be an opportunity to reference their new companies, products,s and services in medicine.

Immortality and its concerns

All these developments in medicine and health will gradually go in the direction that the human life span will not only increase. Still, they will also open the way to the path where humans can slowly think about immortality and immortality. As I said earlier, death and the precursors of those severe diseases have been the source of human anxiety throughout history and his motivations until today.

Will the anxiety caused by the knowledge of death decrease as people live longer? By reducing this anxiety, which according to existential psychologists, is the mother of other concerns, will humans finally be able to experience a peaceful life without feeling the shadow of death?

In this case, will he have a motivation for his activity and prosperity? We do not have ready answers to these questions. Such a situation has no parallel – however small – in the history of humanity. The anxiety of death forms the leaven and mental shape of a man.

The defensive barriers of the human psyche have been formed over hundreds of thousands of years from the fear of death; What will happen if a man can overcome death in a few decades and in the shadow of health facilities caused by artificial intelligence to experience life without the anxiety of death?

Wasn’t death and dealing with it, from the point of view of existentialists, the central theme of civilization and the human psyche? Now, what can replace this central theme without disintegrating the general structures of society or the human mind?

We have a long way to reach the situation I mentioned about human immortality and the cure of diseases (although not as far as we have come).

At the moment, artificial intelligence is being introduced as a possible cause of the destruction of the human species.

But if we are optimistic and assume that artificial intelligence will be used entirely in the service of humans, the destruction of diseases, the youth of human cells and organs, and will eventually lead us to immortality, can the human mind and consciousness and even human society during this period To move the anti-death and death-avoidance structures to other themes?