ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Stephen Cave - Philosopher
Philosopher Stephen Cave wants to know: Why is humanity so obsessed with living forever?

Why you should listen

Stephen Cave is a writer and philosopher who is obsessed with our obsession with immortality. In 2012 he published Immortality: The Quest to Live Forever and How It Drives Civilization, an inquiry into humanity's rather irrational resistance to the inevitability of death. Cave moves across time and history's major civilizations and religions to explore just what drives this instinct -- and what that means for the future. Cave writes for The Financial Times and contributes to The New York Times, The Guardian and Wired.

More profile about the speaker
Stephen Cave | Speaker | TED.com
TEDxBratislava

Stephen Cave: The 4 stories we tell ourselves about death

Filmed:
2,486,724 views

Philosopher Stephen Cave begins with a dark but compelling question: When did you first realize you were going to die? And even more interesting: Why do we humans so often resist the inevitability of death? Cave explores four narratives -- common across civilizations -- that we tell ourselves "in order to help us manage the terror of death."
- Philosopher
Philosopher Stephen Cave wants to know: Why is humanity so obsessed with living forever? Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:12
I have a question:
0
378
1893
00:14
Who here remembers when they first realized
1
2271
3377
00:17
they were going to die?
2
5648
3423
00:21
I do. I was a young boy,
3
9071
2502
00:23
and my grandfather had just died,
4
11573
3055
00:26
and I remember a few days later lying in bed at night
5
14628
3918
00:30
trying to make sense of what had happened.
6
18546
3634
00:34
What did it mean that he was dead?
7
22180
2635
00:36
Where had he gone?
8
24815
1784
00:38
It was like a hole in reality had opened up
9
26599
3422
00:42
and swallowed him.
10
30021
2135
00:44
But then the really shocking
question occurred to me:
11
32156
2802
00:46
If he could die, could it happen to me too?
12
34958
3490
00:50
Could that hole in reality open up and swallow me?
13
38448
3299
00:53
Would it open up beneath my bed
14
41747
1790
00:55
and swallow me as I slept?
15
43537
3234
00:58
Well, at some point, all children
become aware of death.
16
46771
4188
01:02
It can happen in different ways, of course,
17
50959
1905
01:04
and usually comes in stages.
18
52864
1833
01:06
Our idea of death develops as we grow older.
19
54697
3513
01:10
And if you reach back into the dark corners
20
58210
2729
01:12
of your memory,
21
60939
1697
01:14
you might remember something like what I felt
22
62636
3003
01:17
when my grandfather died and when I realized
23
65639
3255
01:20
it could happen to me too,
24
68894
1950
01:22
that sense that behind all of this
25
70844
2579
01:25
the void is waiting.
26
73423
3337
01:28
And this development in childhood
27
76760
2277
01:31
reflects the development of our species.
28
79037
2821
01:33
Just as there was a point in your development
29
81858
3315
01:37
as a child when your sense of self and of time
30
85173
3526
01:40
became sophisticated enough
31
88699
2099
01:42
for you to realize you were mortal,
32
90798
3922
01:46
so at some point in the evolution of our species,
33
94720
3706
01:50
some early human's sense of self and of time
34
98426
3015
01:53
became sophisticated enough
35
101441
2243
01:55
for them to become the first human to realize,
36
103684
3115
01:58
"I'm going to die."
37
106799
3433
02:02
This is, if you like, our curse.
38
110232
2219
02:04
It's the price we pay for being so damn clever.
39
112451
4043
02:08
We have to live in the knowledge
40
116494
2099
02:10
that the worst thing that can possibly happen
41
118593
2661
02:13
one day surely will,
42
121254
1624
02:14
the end of all our projects,
43
122878
1506
02:16
our hopes, our dreams, of our individual world.
44
124384
3464
02:19
We each live in the shadow of a personal
45
127848
3181
02:23
apocalypse.
46
131029
1989
02:25
And that's frightening. It's terrifying.
47
133018
2504
02:27
And so we look for a way out.
48
135522
2460
02:29
And in my case, as I was about five years old,
49
137982
3281
02:33
this meant asking my mum.
50
141263
2995
02:36
Now when I first started asking
51
144258
2462
02:38
what happens when we die,
52
146720
1781
02:40
the grown-ups around me at the time
53
148501
2092
02:42
answered with a typical English mix of awkwardness
54
150593
3203
02:45
and half-hearted Christianity,
55
153796
2987
02:48
and the phrase I heard most often
56
156783
1944
02:50
was that granddad was now
57
158727
1559
02:52
"up there looking down on us,"
58
160286
2464
02:54
and if I should die too, which
wouldn't happen of course,
59
162750
2965
02:57
then I too would go up there,
60
165715
2796
03:00
which made death sound a lot like
61
168511
2050
03:02
an existential elevator.
62
170561
2654
03:05
Now this didn't sound very plausible.
63
173215
3118
03:08
I used to watch a children's
news program at the time,
64
176333
2903
03:11
and this was the era of space exploration.
65
179236
2440
03:13
There were always rockets going up into the sky,
66
181676
2174
03:15
up into space, going up there.
67
183850
2696
03:18
But none of the astronauts when they came back
68
186546
2329
03:20
ever mentioned having met my granddad
69
188875
3232
03:24
or any other dead people.
70
192107
2459
03:26
But I was scared,
71
194566
1303
03:27
and the idea of taking the existential elevator
72
195869
2440
03:30
to see my granddad
73
198309
1606
03:31
sounded a lot better than being swallowed
74
199915
1415
03:33
by the void while I slept.
75
201330
3071
03:36
And so I believed it anyway,
76
204401
2269
03:38
even though it didn't make much sense.
77
206670
2671
03:41
And this thought process that I went through
78
209341
2242
03:43
as a child, and have been through many times since,
79
211583
2531
03:46
including as a grown-up,
80
214114
1910
03:48
is a product of what psychologists call
81
216024
2447
03:50
a bias.
82
218471
1464
03:51
Now a bias is a way in which we systematically
83
219935
3274
03:55
get things wrong,
84
223209
1718
03:56
ways in which we miscalculate, misjudge,
85
224927
2684
03:59
distort reality, or see what we want to see,
86
227611
3589
04:03
and the bias I'm talking about
87
231200
2232
04:05
works like this:
88
233432
1438
04:06
Confront someone with the fact
89
234870
2235
04:09
that they are going to die
90
237105
1547
04:10
and they will believe just about any story
91
238652
3033
04:13
that tells them it isn't true
92
241685
1858
04:15
and they can, instead, live forever,
93
243543
2414
04:17
even if it means taking the existential elevator.
94
245957
4085
04:22
Now we can see this as the biggest bias of all.
95
250042
4428
04:26
It has been demonstrated in over 400
96
254470
2875
04:29
empirical studies.
97
257345
1681
04:31
Now these studies are ingenious, but they're simple.
98
259026
2509
04:33
They work like this.
99
261535
1935
04:35
You take two groups of people
100
263470
1490
04:36
who are similar in all relevant respects,
101
264960
2783
04:39
and you remind one group that they're going to die
102
267743
2689
04:42
but not the other, then you compare their behavior.
103
270432
2629
04:45
So you're observing how it biases behavior
104
273061
3873
04:48
when people become aware of their mortality.
105
276934
3754
04:52
And every time, you get the same result:
106
280688
2912
04:55
People who are made aware of their mortality
107
283600
3087
04:58
are more willing to believe stories
108
286687
2011
05:00
that tell them they can escape death
109
288698
1863
05:02
and live forever.
110
290561
1772
05:04
So here's an example: One recent study
111
292333
2289
05:06
took two groups of agnostics,
112
294622
2770
05:09
that is people who are undecided
113
297392
1596
05:10
in their religious beliefs.
114
298988
2515
05:13
Now, one group was asked to think about being dead.
115
301503
3584
05:17
The other group was asked to think about
116
305087
1645
05:18
being lonely.
117
306732
1833
05:20
They were then asked again
about their religious beliefs.
118
308565
2816
05:23
Those who had been asked
to think about being dead
119
311381
2864
05:26
were afterwards twice as likely to express faith
120
314245
3573
05:29
in God and Jesus.
121
317818
1660
05:31
Twice as likely.
122
319478
1778
05:33
Even though the before they
were all equally agnostic.
123
321256
2708
05:35
But put the fear of death in them,
124
323964
1761
05:37
and they run to Jesus.
125
325725
3859
05:41
Now, this shows that reminding people of death
126
329584
3512
05:45
biases them to believe, regardless of the evidence,
127
333111
3230
05:48
and it works not just for religion,
128
336341
2025
05:50
but for any kind of belief system
129
338366
2237
05:52
that promises immortality in some form,
130
340603
3460
05:56
whether it's becoming famous
131
344063
1805
05:57
or having children
132
345868
1414
05:59
or even nationalism,
133
347282
1347
06:00
which promises you can live
on as part of a greater whole.
134
348629
3273
06:03
This is a bias that has shaped
135
351902
1931
06:05
the course of human history.
136
353833
3339
06:09
Now, the theory behind this bias
137
357172
2267
06:11
in the over 400 studies
138
359439
1737
06:13
is called terror management theory,
139
361176
2129
06:15
and the idea is simple. It's just this.
140
363305
2350
06:17
We develop our worldviews,
141
365655
2549
06:20
that is, the stories we tell ourselves
142
368204
2157
06:22
about the world and our place in it,
143
370361
2736
06:25
in order to help us manage
144
373097
2282
06:27
the terror of death.
145
375379
2914
06:30
And these immortality stories
146
378293
1799
06:32
have thousands of different manifestations,
147
380092
2997
06:35
but I believe that behind the apparent diversity
148
383089
3584
06:38
there are actually just four basic forms
149
386673
2699
06:41
that these immortality stories can take.
150
389372
3511
06:44
And we can see them repeating themselves
151
392883
1805
06:46
throughout history, just with slight variations
152
394688
3170
06:49
to reflect the vocabulary of the day.
153
397858
2765
06:52
Now I'm going to briefly introduce these four
154
400623
2508
06:55
basic forms of immortality story,
155
403131
2253
06:57
and I want to try to give you some sense
156
405384
1570
06:58
of the way in which they're retold by each culture
157
406954
2313
07:01
or generation
158
409267
1767
07:03
using the vocabulary of their day.
159
411034
2172
07:05
Now, the first story is the simplest.
160
413206
2639
07:07
We want to avoid death,
161
415845
2153
07:09
and the dream of doing that in this body
162
417998
2425
07:12
in this world forever
163
420423
1360
07:13
is the first and simplest kind of immortality story,
164
421783
3291
07:17
and it might at first sound implausible,
165
425074
2459
07:19
but actually, almost every culture in human history
166
427533
3981
07:23
has had some myth or legend
167
431514
2062
07:25
of an elixir of life or a fountain of youth
168
433576
2761
07:28
or something that promises to keep us going
169
436337
2979
07:31
forever.
170
439316
3137
07:34
Ancient Egypt had such myths,
171
442453
1593
07:36
ancient Babylon, ancient India.
172
444046
2368
07:38
Throughout European history, we find them
in the work of the alchemists,
173
446414
2852
07:41
and of course we still believe this today,
174
449266
2794
07:44
only we tell this story using the vocabulary
175
452060
2563
07:46
of science.
176
454623
1656
07:48
So 100 years ago,
177
456279
1606
07:49
hormones had just been discovered,
178
457885
1819
07:51
and people hoped that hormone treatments
179
459704
1652
07:53
were going to cure aging and disease,
180
461356
2699
07:56
and now instead we set our hopes on stem cells,
181
464055
2853
07:58
genetic engineering, and nanotechnology.
182
466908
2295
08:01
But the idea that science can cure death
183
469203
3958
08:05
is just one more chapter in the story
184
473161
2341
08:07
of the magical elixir,
185
475502
2233
08:09
a story that is as old as civilization.
186
477735
4436
08:14
But betting everything on the idea of finding the elixir
187
482171
2780
08:16
and staying alive forever
188
484951
1403
08:18
is a risky strategy.
189
486354
1801
08:20
When we look back through history
190
488155
2240
08:22
at all those who have sought an elixir in the past,
191
490395
2784
08:25
the one thing they now have in common
192
493179
1829
08:27
is that they're all dead.
193
495008
2630
08:29
So we need a backup plan,
and exactly this kind of plan B
194
497638
3738
08:33
is what the second kind of immortality story offers,
195
501376
3571
08:36
and that's resurrection.
196
504947
1755
08:38
And it stays with the idea that I am this body,
197
506702
2374
08:41
I am this physical organism.
198
509076
1975
08:43
It accepts that I'm going to have to die
199
511051
2168
08:45
but says, despite that,
200
513219
1374
08:46
I can rise up and I can live again.
201
514593
2503
08:49
In other words, I can do what Jesus did.
202
517096
2618
08:51
Jesus died, he was three days in the [tomb],
203
519714
2045
08:53
and then he rose up and lived again.
204
521759
3111
08:56
And the idea that we can all be
resurrected to live again
205
524870
3119
08:59
is orthodox believe, not just for Christians
206
527989
2288
09:02
but also Jews and Muslims.
207
530277
2703
09:04
But our desire to believe this story
208
532980
2164
09:07
is so deeply embedded
209
535144
2010
09:09
that we are reinventing it again
210
537154
2098
09:11
for the scientific age,
211
539252
1492
09:12
for example, with the idea of cryonics.
212
540744
2823
09:15
That's the idea that when you die,
213
543567
1590
09:17
you can have yourself frozen,
214
545157
1999
09:19
and then, at some point when technology
215
547156
2389
09:21
has advanced enough,
216
549545
1211
09:22
you can be thawed out and repaired and revived
217
550756
2120
09:24
and so resurrected.
218
552876
1289
09:26
And so some people believe an omnipotent god
219
554165
2848
09:29
will resurrect them to live again,
220
557013
1879
09:30
and other people believe an
omnipotent scientist will do it.
221
558892
4143
09:35
But for others, the whole idea of resurrection,
222
563035
2714
09:37
of climbing out of the grave,
223
565749
2003
09:39
it's just too much like a bad zombie movie.
224
567752
2719
09:42
They find the body too messy, too unreliable
225
570471
2791
09:45
to guarantee eternal life,
226
573262
2148
09:47
and so they set their hopes on the third,
227
575410
3091
09:50
more spiritual immortality story,
228
578501
2117
09:52
the idea that we can leave our body behind
229
580618
2336
09:54
and live on as a soul.
230
582954
2297
09:57
Now, the majority of people on Earth
231
585251
1989
09:59
believe they have a soul,
232
587240
1773
10:01
and the idea is central to many religions.
233
589013
2410
10:03
But even though, in its current form,
234
591423
2314
10:05
in its traditional form,
235
593737
1915
10:07
the idea of the soul is still hugely popular,
236
595652
2163
10:09
nonetheless we are again
237
597815
1432
10:11
reinventing it for the digital age,
238
599247
2224
10:13
for example with the idea
239
601471
1477
10:14
that you can leave your body behind
240
602948
1990
10:16
by uploading your mind, your essence,
241
604938
2246
10:19
the real you, onto a computer,
242
607184
1956
10:21
and so live on as an avatar in the ether.
243
609140
4612
10:25
But of course there are skeptics who say
244
613752
2023
10:27
if we look at the evidence of science,
245
615775
1844
10:29
particularly neuroscience,
246
617619
1644
10:31
it suggests that your mind,
247
619263
1829
10:33
your essence, the real you,
248
621092
1580
10:34
is very much dependent on a particular part
249
622672
2413
10:37
of your body, that is, your brain.
250
625085
2221
10:39
And such skeptics can find comfort
251
627306
2521
10:41
in the fourth kind of immortality story,
252
629827
2258
10:44
and that is legacy,
253
632085
2357
10:46
the idea that you can live on
254
634442
1480
10:47
through the echo you leave in the world,
255
635922
2251
10:50
like the great Greek warrior Achilles,
256
638173
2349
10:52
who sacrificed his life fighting at Troy
257
640522
2629
10:55
so that he might win immortal fame.
258
643151
3053
10:58
And the pursuit of fame is as widespread
259
646204
2266
11:00
and popular now as it ever was,
260
648470
2141
11:02
and in our digital age,
261
650611
1579
11:04
it's even easier to achieve.
262
652190
1528
11:05
You don't need to be a great warrior like Achilles
263
653718
2324
11:08
or a great king or hero.
264
656042
1693
11:09
All you need is an Internet connection
and a funny cat. (Laughter)
265
657735
4823
11:14
But some people prefer to leave a more tangible,
266
662558
2463
11:17
biological legacy -- children, for example.
267
665021
2844
11:19
Or they like, they hope, to live on
268
667865
2276
11:22
as part of some greater whole,
269
670141
1717
11:23
a nation or a family or a tribe,
270
671858
2449
11:26
their gene pool.
271
674307
2466
11:28
But again, there are skeptics
272
676773
1513
11:30
who doubt whether legacy
273
678286
1713
11:31
really is immortality.
274
679999
1975
11:33
Woody Allen, for example, who said,
275
681974
2077
11:36
"I don't want to live on in
the hearts of my countrymen.
276
684051
2496
11:38
I want to live on in my apartment."
277
686547
2197
11:40
So those are the four
278
688744
1767
11:42
basic kinds of immortality stories,
279
690511
2183
11:44
and I've tried to give just some sense
280
692694
1642
11:46
of how they're retold by each generation
281
694336
2293
11:48
with just slight variations
282
696629
1587
11:50
to fit the fashions of the day.
283
698216
2305
11:52
And the fact that they recur in this way,
284
700521
3489
11:56
in such a similar form but
in such different belief systems,
285
704010
2988
11:58
suggests, I think,
286
706998
1578
12:00
that we should be skeptical of the truth
287
708576
2402
12:02
of any particular version of these stories.
288
710978
3761
12:06
The fact that some people believe
289
714739
2111
12:08
an omnipotent god will resurrect them to live again
290
716850
2665
12:11
and others believe an omnipotent scientist will do it
291
719515
3701
12:15
suggests that neither are really believing this
292
723216
3038
12:18
on the strength of the evidence.
293
726254
2670
12:20
Rather, we believe these stories
294
728924
2426
12:23
because we are biased to believe them,
295
731350
1983
12:25
and we are biased to believe them
296
733333
1828
12:27
because we are so afraid of death.
297
735161
4270
12:31
So the question is,
298
739431
2055
12:33
are we doomed to lead the one life we have
299
741486
3472
12:36
in a way that is shaped by fear and denial,
300
744958
3693
12:40
or can we overcome this bias?
301
748651
3075
12:43
Well the Greek philosopher Epicurus
302
751726
2467
12:46
thought we could.
303
754193
1728
12:47
He argued that the fear of death is natural,
304
755921
3548
12:51
but it is not rational.
305
759469
2415
12:53
"Death," he said, "is nothing to us,
306
761884
2658
12:56
because when we are here, death is not,
307
764542
2850
12:59
and when death is here, we are gone."
308
767392
3753
13:03
Now this is often quoted, but it's difficult
309
771145
1798
13:04
to really grasp, to really internalize,
310
772943
2322
13:07
because exactly this idea of being gone
311
775265
2163
13:09
is so difficult to imagine.
312
777428
2139
13:11
So 2,000 years later, another philosopher,
313
779567
2231
13:13
Ludwig Wittgenstein, put it like this:
314
781798
3457
13:17
"Death is not an event in life:
315
785255
2944
13:20
We do not live to experience death.
316
788199
3642
13:23
And so," he added,
317
791841
1194
13:25
"in this sense, life has no end."
318
793035
2935
13:27
So it was natural for me as a child
319
795970
3176
13:31
to fear being swallowed by the void,
320
799146
2367
13:33
but it wasn't rational,
321
801513
1879
13:35
because being swallowed by the void
322
803392
1985
13:37
is not something that any of us
323
805377
2078
13:39
will ever live to experience.
324
807455
3270
13:42
Now, overcoming this bias is not easy because
325
810725
2529
13:45
the fear of death is so deeply embedded in us,
326
813254
2959
13:48
yet when we see that the fear itself is not rational,
327
816213
4482
13:52
and when we bring out into the open
328
820695
2130
13:54
the ways in which it can unconsciously bias us,
329
822825
2698
13:57
then we can at least start
330
825523
1851
13:59
to try to minimize the influence it has
331
827374
2634
14:02
on our lives.
332
830008
1883
14:03
Now, I find it helps to see life
333
831891
2818
14:06
as being like a book:
334
834709
1844
14:08
Just as a book is bounded by its covers,
335
836553
2468
14:11
by beginning and end,
336
839021
1277
14:12
so our lives are bounded by birth and death,
337
840298
3738
14:16
and even though a book is
limited by beginning and end,
338
844036
3515
14:19
it can encompass distant landscapes,
339
847551
2136
14:21
exotic figures, fantastic adventures.
340
849687
3230
14:24
And even though a book is
limited by beginning and end,
341
852917
3349
14:28
the characters within it
342
856266
1823
14:30
know no horizons.
343
858089
2842
14:32
They only know the moments
that make up their story,
344
860931
3157
14:36
even when the book is closed.
345
864088
2940
14:39
And so the characters of a book
346
867028
2136
14:41
are not afraid of reaching the last page.
347
869164
3482
14:44
Long John Silver is not afraid of you
348
872646
2278
14:46
finishing your copy of "Treasure Island."
349
874924
2835
14:49
And so it should be with us.
350
877759
1700
14:51
Imagine the book of your life,
351
879459
2144
14:53
its covers, its beginning and end,
and your birth and your death.
352
881603
2784
14:56
You can only know the moments in between,
353
884387
2177
14:58
the moments that make up your life.
354
886564
1935
15:00
It makes no sense for you to fear
355
888499
1947
15:02
what is outside of those covers,
356
890446
2090
15:04
whether before your birth
357
892536
1470
15:06
or after your death.
358
894006
1976
15:07
And you needn't worry how long the book is,
359
895982
2529
15:10
or whether it's a comic strip or an epic.
360
898511
3473
15:13
The only thing that matters
361
901984
1542
15:15
is that you make it a good story.
362
903526
3498
15:19
Thank you.
363
907024
2220
15:21
(Applause)
364
909244
4185

▲Back to top

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Stephen Cave - Philosopher
Philosopher Stephen Cave wants to know: Why is humanity so obsessed with living forever?

Why you should listen

Stephen Cave is a writer and philosopher who is obsessed with our obsession with immortality. In 2012 he published Immortality: The Quest to Live Forever and How It Drives Civilization, an inquiry into humanity's rather irrational resistance to the inevitability of death. Cave moves across time and history's major civilizations and religions to explore just what drives this instinct -- and what that means for the future. Cave writes for The Financial Times and contributes to The New York Times, The Guardian and Wired.

More profile about the speaker
Stephen Cave | Speaker | TED.com