Immortality: The Quest to Live Forever and How It Drives Civilization

基本信息出版社:Crown (2012年4月3日)精装:336页正文语种:英语ISBN:0307884910条形码:9780307884916商品尺寸:16 x 3.2 x 24.1 cm商品重量:535 gASIN:0307884910商品描述内容简介A fascinating work of popular philosophy and history that both enlightens and entertains, Stephen Cave’sImmortalityinvestigates whether it just might be possible to live forever and whether we should want to.  But it also makes a powerful argument, which is that it’s our verypreoccupationwith defying mortality that drives civilization.

Central to this book is the metaphor of a mountaintop where one can find the Immortals.  Since the dawn of humanity, everyone – whether they know it or not – has been trying to climb that mountain.  But there are only four paths up its treacherous slope, and there have onlyeverbeen four paths.  Throughout history, people have wagered everything on their choice of the correct path, and fought wars against those who’ve chosen differently.

WhileImmortalitytakes the reader on an eye-opening journey from the beginnings of civilization to the present day, the structure is not chronological.  Rather it is path driven.  As each path is revealed to us, an historical figure serves as our guide. 

In drawing back the curtain on what compels humans to “keep on keeping on,” Cave engages the reader in a number of mind-bending thought experiments.  He teases out the implications of each immortality gambit, asking, for example, how long a person would live if theydidmanage to acquire a perfectly disease-free body.  Or what would happen if a super-being tried to round up the atomic constituents of all who’ve died in order to resurrect them.  Or what our loved ones would really be doing in heaven if itdoesexist.  Or what part of us actuallylivesin a work of art, and how long that work of art can survive. 

Toward the the book’s end, we’re confronted with a series of brain-rattling questions: What would happen if tomorrow humanity discovered that there is no life but this one?  Would people continue to care about their favorite sports team, please their boss, vie for the title of Year’s Best Salesman?Would three-hundred-year projects still get started?  If the four paths up the Mount of the Immortals lead nowhere -- if there is no getting up to the summit -- is therestillreason to live?  And can civilization survive?

Immortalityis a deeply satisfying book, as optimistic about the human condition as it is insightful about the true arc of history.媒体推荐“A beautifully clear and entertaining look at life after death. Cave does not shrink from the hard questions.Bold and thought-provoking.”

—Eric Olson, author ofThe Human AnimalandWhat Are We?

“Immortalityplumbs the depths of the human mind and ties the quest for the infinite prolongation of life into the very nature of civilization itself.Cave reveals remarkable depth and breadth of learning,yet is always a breeze to read. I thoroughly enjoyed his book—it’s a really intriguing study.”

—David Boyd Haycock, author ofMortal CoilandA Crisis of Brilliance

“I loved this.Cave has set himself an enormous task and accomplished it—inspades.Establishing a four-level subject matter, he has stuck to his guns and never let up. As he left one level and went to the next, I was always a little worried: Would he be able to pull it off? This was especially true as he approached the end. There is a sense in which each level, as he left it smoking in the road, looked easy as he started the next. In fact, the last level, while it is the most difficult, is the best, the most satisfying.I am happy to live in the world Cave describes.”

— Charles Van Doren, author ofA History of Knowledge

“Cave is smart, lucid, elegant and original.Immortalityis an engaging read about our oldest obsession, and how that obsession propels some of our greatest accomplishments.”

—Greg Critser, author ofEternity Soup

“InImmortalityStephen Cave tells wonderful stories about one of humanity’s oldest desires and comes to a wise conclusion.”

— Stefan Klein, author ofThe Science of HappinessandThe Secret Pulse of Time

“Cave has produced a strikingly original and compelling exploration of the age-old conundrum: Can we live forever, and do we really want to?”

—John Horgan, science journalist and author ofThe End of War