The Doomsday Scenario Analysis

Part 1: Sheffler comes to the conclusion that “the coming into existence of people we do not know and love matters more to us than our own survival”, because we face the deaths of ourselves and our loved ones without significance of valuing what we value, but when it comes to facing the death of humanity, much of what we value would cease to matter. Sheffler uses two scenarios, the doomsday scenario. The doomsday scenario states: that the earth and everything on it will be destroyed 30 days after an individual’s initial death. Referring to the quote above, even if we were to die before the end of the world, one would still worry about the future of their loved ones, friends, and children and adults who have not lived their lives to their full potential yet. Why? Because we care about the lives and deaths of others, even those we do not know. Also, if the doomsday scenario was real, the human race would no longer exist, so why wouldn’t someone care about the lives of others? The fact that we have these attitudes is significant in itself, since we learn …show more content…
Scheffler uses the example of Elina Makropulos. He states that the new normal life span for humans was 1,000-100,000,000 years and Elina is 342 years of age. Elina is contemplating ending her own life after all these years. Scheffler then goes on to ask if the 342-year-old would be happy to go on living under her current circumsatnces when it comes to her lifespan? It seems that that Elina’s problem seems to be the product of her life experience to that point rather than a problem posed by the prospect of immortality in particular. So in this instance, having immortality would lead us to stop having categorical desires because it only takes about 50-60 years to live your life to the fullest and if humans were to live past 100 years, they would not know what else to do past