What If No One Ever Dies? | Unveiled

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What If No One Ever Dies?</h4>

What do you think the future of life on Earth will be like? There are plenty of predictions as to where we could be headed in the near and distant future. But perhaps there’s one thing - above everything else - that would really change the world.

This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question; what if no one ever dies?

In November 2022, according to the United Nations, the global population ticked past 8 billion people for the first time. It’s a number that has truly soared since the middle of the last century. In 1950, there were an estimated 2.5 billion people alive on Planet Earth. And, while the rate of increase has slightly decreased in recent years, all projections are that it will continue to grow. Quite simply, there’s never been a time before when so many people are quite so alive. It’s thanks to a number of things, though in large part to variously massive advances we’ve made in medical science. Today, people are less likely to die young and more likely to live longer once they do get to old age. Again according to the UN, in 1950 Norway had the highest life expectancy of any country on Earth, at 72.3 years. Today the entire global average is higher than even that, at 72.6 years. The highest life expectancies per country are now at (and around) 87 years - including for Monaco, San Marino and Japan.

Nevertheless, while the prospects for the longevity of human life are much improved, we still aren’t immortal. And, unless something massive happens over the next few decades, everyone alive today will eventually die. But what if that wasn’t the case? What if it had never been the way? We’ve taken a closer look at how living forever might one day be achieved in other recent videos… but today we’re asking; what would actually happen if no one ever died?

First off, despite all the heady population figures we’re seeing right now, they’d all be swamped into insignificance by this new normal. If we consider not just everyone who’s alive right now but everyone who has ever been alive… then it’s not eight billion, it’s one hundred and eight billion. And that’s only at the lower estimate, taking into account all the people that have been born since the emergence of recognisably modern humans - around 300,000 years ago. In a century’s time, at current rates and with no death to speak of, we’ll have moved past 120 billion total people. Before this millenia is out, we may even have hit one trillion. So, what’s life like with that many friends and neighbors?

Housing everyone would be… a challenge. That said, many of our largest cities can already be categorized as megacities - that is, with a population more than ten million. The likes of Tokyo in Japan, Sao Paulo in Brazil and New York in the US are all already well above megacity levels, so we know that humans can (and do) thrive in large numbers. Nevertheless, it would take more than five thousand New York Cities to host every modern human that ever lived, so could it be done? Theoretically yes, and actually quite easily. New York is almost five hundred square miles; but there’s more than 57 million square miles of land on Earth as a whole. That means, if we go solely by crunching the numbers, then we could actually fit more than one hundred thousand New Yorks on the surface of our planet. Which is two trillion people’s worth of city. But of course, in reality, it’s really not as simple as that. New York, as it is, is close to the ocean, on relatively flat land, and in a reasonably temperate zone. All of these elements contribute to exactly why NYC has been able to grow into what it is today. All megacities have other, similarly conducive aspects to their history and positioning that have allowed them to flourish. But, clearly, not every stretch of land on Earth is so geared toward city living. It’s much harder high up in the mountains, or far out in the desert, or cast off across the icy realms heading towards the north and south poles.

What we’d really need is something called an ecumenopolis. This is the theoretical apex for urban planners; a planet-wide city that operates as one. Many already believe that Earth is destined to become an ecumenopolis in the future… but in an alternate world where no one ever died, it would surely already need to be one. Here, the likes of New York, Tokyo and Sao Paulo would be more like boroughs or districts. Distinct parts of a far larger whole. Life in an ecumenopolis could then be a life without borders. In this way, perhaps upwards of 100 billion people would even be enough to end wholescale war, especially if there was no prospect of death with which to threaten enemies. Then again, it is still very difficult to imagine that such a place would be entirely free of cruelty, meanness, hate and prejudice. And then, how do you go about governing and policing such a society? Or would it all be just too big for that?

The exact makeup of that society is particularly interesting, though, as we (ourselves) will never have seen anything like it. Without death curtailing our lives, there would be some on Earth who are thousands, even hundreds of thousands of years old. Grandparents and great-grandparents would no longer be the oldest generations in any one family; instead they’d rank amongst the youngest. And, if it were possible to trace lineage all the way back to the beginning, then it figures that there would be certain people (still alive) considered to be the ultimate mothers and fathers of literally everyone on Earth. Although maintaining governmental hierarchies might be difficult, how would the world view someone like that? How would people react if they were ever in the presence of the first parents of their civilization? But, on the other hand, what of the everyday person? The humble, mere fifty-sixth generation human? Or thirty-third, or nineteenth? How valuable would they be in a world where life is essentially not special? From this perspective, it’s an incredibly thin line between a thriving utopia and just a steady, ironically lifeless hum of despair.

If no one ever died there would of course be no funerals. There’d also be no real need for retirement. Nothing particularly special about birthdays. The various rhythms that many people go through during their lives - childhood, schooling, teenage angst, settling down, the dreaded mid-life crisis - none of it would happen. Especially once you reached adulthood, it would simply be the same thing over and over and over again, ad infinitum. 

In the real world, thanatophobia is an intense and sometimes all-consuming fear of death. Not everyone has it, but a psychological concept known as Terror Management Theory says that we all at least to some degree are influenced by the death that we know is awaiting us. It argues that, whether or not we know we’re doing it, we’re all always making decisions with our mortality in mind. Our thoughts, feelings, emotions and beliefs are all, in some way, guided by the prospect of dying. However, if no one ever died then Terror Management wouldn’t be required anymore… and thanatophobia just wouldn’t exist. Or, only as an extremely irrational mindset. The psychological differences in a human that knows they will never die… are pretty difficult to predict. But we are talking about a total, fundamental change in thinking. The complete removal of a key part of what currently makes us human.

What’s your verdict? How do you believe the shift from us being a mortal species to our becoming an immortal one could play out? For now, this is certainly a thought experiment only. While scientists are busily working to try to solve the problems of aging and dying, and although life expectancy is creeping up around the world, we still aren’t scheduled to live forever. Many foresee a time when we will cheat death… and when that time comes, then this question will morph into a genuine, urgent and real world concern. 

But, until then, it’s a hypothetical, alternate universe; and one where that’s what would happen if no one ever died.