The other day I heard this idea that had no name to it.
It goes something like this.
Nobody lives more than 120 years.
Essentially every 120 years we are all replaced by a new batch.
Everyone alive today, from the oldest person to the newborn baby will not be alive in 120 years.
I had also recently seen the movie, "Oppenheimer" and there was a scene of the bomb being dropped in the dessert- the bright light enveloping everything in its radius. I thought of the idea that we are all going to experience this nuclear event, in fact, we are, but it is happening gradually.
It happens everyday when we hear in the news, for example, that famous actors are passing away.
We've heard of "immune escape" explaining the idea of a new covid-19 virus that has mutated enough, or enough in the right place, to no longer be recognized by the immune system and, therefore, we are no longer protected from the shot or from having been exposed previously.
Is it possible to have 120 year batch escape?
Biblically, 120 is a significant number. Moses, one of the most saintly people in the Torah- not perfect, but as good as it was able to get- died at 120.
Also, in Genesis, it says, "My spirit shall not abide in man forever, for that he also is flesh; therefore shall his days be 120 years."
In Judaism, 120 years is considered to be a lifetime. "ad (until in Hebrew) 120" is a common birthday wish you give, "May you live until 120".
And we don't, on average. So there is work to be done in health and life development to get to that without it being a contradiction to G-d's words in Genesis.
However, the drive to live longer does not recognize any boundary. When you are 20, you don't necessarily feel like you need an extra year in your old age but when you are finally there, wherever there is for you, you would still want one more day. To not want another day of life is suicidal.
Some things break the barrier of 120. The bible is a good example. It has existed, unaltered, for thousands of years. It has achieved 120 escape.
Anne Frank did not live past 16 years of age but her diary apparently will achieve 120 escape.
Writing in general, is an attempt to achieve 120 escape and beyond. My attempt here to coin the term, "120 escape" is an attempt to achieve 120 escape.
Writing carries the counter party risk of relying on the physical components of things like paper, or electricity and server space, and password preservation, in combination with the non-physical medium of word of mouth transmission.
Word of mouth transmission is a medium that allows for ideas, both true and untrue, both good and bad, to achieve 120 escape. For example Sigmund Freud, if not for his professional connections and awareness by the masses would not have achieved 120 escape. He might have been more right than wrong, he might have had novel ideas and useful ones. But if he were completely on the outskirts of the academic/ professional community, if he was not recognized, as a homeless person is not recognized, his ideas would not have been recognized. There are a lot of people with new or "crackpot" ideas. They are everywhere, In cities, in rural areas. Nobody has a monopoly in interesting people that have interesting ideas and theories on things. But Freud's power wasn't only in his ideas in isolation but in the ideas being able to be transferred effectively to those that would consider them and to find that they had merit.
Does a communication live if it is in book form, stored away on a high shelf? It may not live today but it is potential to live in that form.
Art achieves 120 escape. Van Gough's painting of himself has achieved it. The Mona Lisa has achieved it. Even if the painting itself falls apart, it will have been preserved in electronic form enough it an accurate copy that, even if it is manipulated, there will have been enough of the original disseminated into the awareness of the masses that the original will have been maintained.
If the whole population were extinguished in one moment, like a collective candle of all humanity being snuffed out in one second, there would still be the potential for potential for life of the Mona Lisa so long as the other components of the painting continued to exist, i.e. the painting itself or some electronic representation of it were still powered.
However, there would still be 2 ways it could die.
The drive for significance is a powerful one. It is to say, "I was here." by either writing it on the wall graffiti style or by leaving your mark on the world Mark Zuckerberg style by supplying the world with virtual walls to write on.
This writing in this place is an attempt at 120 escape, just as having a baby and having a family full of babies is.
Eating well and exercise or taking a medicine that you need is life drive and is also an attempt at 120 escape.
Collecting things is an attempt at preservation. 120 escape.
Hoarding disorder is, in part, an attempt as 120 escape. There is life drive threaded into it although it is also death drive as it is avoiding facing the papers.
Ultimately, as the bible says, we will not escape the limitations of this physical universe as we are, in part, physical.
As the universe expands, it seems that, over tremendous amounts of time, eventually everything will be pulled apart until even the smallest of the smallest things in existence will be pulled apart.
We may achieve 120 escape in the foreseeable future but even if we could preserve life itself or a message to transcend gaps in life, gaps in time or gaps in groups of living beings that are alive, eventually we will no longer have living things to transmit the message to nor will we have media with which to store it.
So therefore, the significance to our lives does not lie in what mark we leave on it, but rather on the choices we make. The choices are recorded in a non-physical, heavenly book that is not subject to the physical limitations of space and time. The choices are not measured based on their impact on the physical world because the physical world (universe - same word in Hebrew = olam) is limited, will not exist one day and therefore doesn't matter, ultimately. People get discouraged because they feel like they don't have enough power to change things in this world. But this world is not the thing that needs to be changed as it is not going to last. It is as temporary as the use of the plastic water bottle. Once you had the one event when you drank the water out of it, it will be tossed into the garbage or "recycled". Point is, the bottle served its purpose and lost its value once its relationship with you in the moment of the drinking from it finished.
So too with this world. It is amazing. It is a gift to be enjoyed. And, most importantly, it is a gift for you to have this moment to make a good free will choice.
You are your choices. The record of those are the only thing that live forever.
How can I prove it to you? I cannot think of a way to prove a non-physical thing in a physical universe.
But only something non-physical has the chance to live forever.
You can't take it with you, whatever it is, everything that it is, because it is not you.
You can't even take you with you.
But you give birth to your choices and that is why you (and we) are here.
Those babies live forever.
How do I know it?
I don't matter.
You know it. You've always known it.
Therefore, if you choose to write a book and put it away under lock and key, if it then gets damaged beyond recognition due to breakdown over time or if the process is hastened due to flooding or what-have-you, did it still matter?
If a tree falls in the middle of the forest but nobody was there to hear it, did it fall?
If you don't write a book or a word but go out into the forest and speak to G-d, did you speak?
Yes you did speak.
If you speak to nobody identifiable, the very act of speaking means you spoke to somebody.
Speech is a communication to somebody. The message in the bottle may never reach its destination. But speech is always heard by the Listener as are thoughts and prayers.
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