The ending feels complete, and ever-relevant, to me.
I think of it every time rich people freezing their heads or getting blood transfusions from kids or talking about brain-to-computer transfers comes up, which is pretty often on this site.
ha! Yes, the book does teach us the dangers of arrogance, of thinking we can become immortal by some trick or "magic" or technology-- and I suppose it does teach that lesson very well
I like how it shows people've been worried about that, and working on the problem, for about as long as we've had writing, at least. Seems we've pretty much never not worried about death, which makes sense, but it's comforting to have confirmation that it's such an enduring part of the human condition, I guess. Egyptian literature backs that up, as do practices in China—in fact, it seems like almost anywhere there were rich kings, they were very concerned with attaining immortality.
And hey, sooner or later, maybe someone will manage it. But most of these rich folks freezing their heads are just Gilgamesh. Same shit as 4000+ years ago.
I think of it every time rich people freezing their heads or getting blood transfusions from kids or talking about brain-to-computer transfers comes up, which is pretty often on this site.