Chapter 16 Discussion

Ironically, Sumner opened this chapter as if he were reading my mind. He does seem to be a “gloomy gus” in the majority of his writings. Despite the fact that he claimed he would not be in this particular chapter, I would beg to differ. The thought of being outsmarted and overtaken by a computer is not exactly a thought that makes the idea of never dying appealing. I mean seriously, what purpose would living forever serve?
I enjoyed learning the information Sumner relayed from Diamond's books about civilizations that essentially led to their own destruction (or nearly) or developed new technology to avoid such fate because I am a little bit of a history buff (and I strongly believe we “learn from the past”). Kurzweil's theories were a little more unsettling, but I think this was mostly because his included a logarithmic plot to a transitional moment...or more accurately the end of civilization at least as we currently know it to be.
At the end of the chapter, Sumner says “we live to die.” This solidifies my previous point that he is still a “gloomy gus;” however, it also makes a poignant statement about how we, as a culture, are unlikely to change our behaviors because, though we can learn from the past, we are intrinsically motivated to self-destruct so we can start all over again. We live to die because there has to be an end point, a purpose, to everything that we do. If we just lived everyday, what would be the point. It would be utterly exhausting. You live the way you do because you have a finite amount of time to do so. If there were no death, we would probably self destruct as a society anyhow.