What If We Didn't Know We Were Going To Die? | Unveiled

What If We Did Not Know We Were Going to Die?

For as long as human culture has existed, we’ve been obsessed with death. Some of the largest monuments of the ancient world are tombs for important figures, and death rites and rituals are things every culture across the globe has in common. But what if this understanding of mortality was removed from humankind?

This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question: what if we did not know we were going to die?

Death anxiety is something the vast majority of people will have experienced at one point or another. For some, it can become an obsessive worry that affects their day-to-day lives. It can also serve as the root cause of other kinds of worries too. Fear of death can be crippling, preventing people from properly enjoying or even coping with life.

Scientists have suggested that human brains are actually wired to be able to ignore the thought of our own mortality as much as possible, just so that we can function. We all understand what death is and that it will eventually happen to us, but we’re extremely good at forgetting this; it’s something we need to do to live life to the fullest. But what if we were a species that didn’t fear death at all? What if we weren’t aware of death’s absoluteness? Would a society free from fearing death be an ideal world … or an awful nightmare?

There are already plenty of examples in nature of creatures free from the knowledge that their time on Earth is finite. In fact, most animals – even the most intelligent – probably aren’t completely aware of death. Yes, animals instinctively fear pain and injury, and strive to survive; but that’s not the same as being conscious that death is inevitable, universal, and final. While some animals, such as elephants, mourn their dead, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they know it’s also their own ultimate fate. There is anecdotal evidence that pets, such as dogs and cats, know when their time is near. But again, that isn’t quite the same as living with the constant knowledge that one day, they’re going to die.

Something that makes dogs such good pets is the fact that as long as they’re healthy, stimulated, and loved, they’re more or less always happy; they definitely aren’t having existential crises over the nature of their own mortality. Humans might be a lot like dogs, too, if we lived without death anxiety; we wouldn’t even know that death is something to worry about, and we could instead focus on making sure we have shelter and food and enjoy life!

But how could we get to this point? Perhaps we could have evolved in a different way that makes us unable to comprehend death. The tricks that our brains already use to make us forget about death could become far more effective, completely protecting us from ever having to think about the ephemeral nature of life. However, given the fact that people around us would continue to die and disappear forever, we’d eventually have to reach the same point we’re at right now.

Alternatively, what if there was a way to stop ourselves worrying about it on purpose? American author Don DeLillo’s 1985 novel “White Noise” deals with this very topic; fear of death becomes so pervasive that the novel’s characters begin taking an experimental drug, Dylar, to try and eradicate it. In the novel, Dylar doesn’t actually work, and the characters are still forced to come to terms with death by facing it head-on. But there would certainly be a market for Dylar in the real world. Each year, increasing numbers of people are given prescriptions for antidepressants, so if medicine to treat death anxiety existed, there would definitely be a demand and market for it. The idea of voluntarily giving up knowledge and fear of death is appealing; you’d be able to live your life happily, free of this worry. But would there be any downsides if this came to fruition?

The fact is that death is a vital part not only of life on Earth but of what it means to be human. Many of the things that we do, we do in order to keep ourselves alive and to make the most of the life we have. Without death anxiety, we wouldn’t feel the pressure of time when it comes to living our dreams and passions. This could result in a sense of aimlessness. Worse though, we’d be more careless when it came to safety. We’d end up in a state of arrested development, like a child without self-preservation instincts because they don’t yet fear death.

Of course, self-preservation isn’t an exclusively human trait – every animal instinctively wants to avoid harm. But we would definitely live far riskier lives. People already do dangerous things, from choosing to smoke cigarettes to taking part in extreme sports. With their inhibitions removed, we would do more dangerous things more often. We wouldn’t care as much about all the red tape and health and safety rules that are so important today. Not only would we not be concerned with our own mortality, but also the mortality of other people. We’d behave like carefree children forever, putting ourselves in unnecessary danger. The only thing that would hold us back would be the fear of pain or injury.

Individuals deciding to engage in dangerous activities would be one thing; could the entirety of human society be affected for the worse by a lack of death anxiety? Without the awareness of death hanging over our heads, it’s likely that medical science wouldn’t have developed as far as it has today. People also wouldn’t see doctors as saving lives, but just as treating pain and injury. This could make medical professions less appealing as career choices. The ultimate result would be a higher demand for medical services, since people would be living more dangerously, on top of a lower supply of medical professionals. People would be behaving as if they’re going to live forever, and while this would definitely be liberating, it would land them in the hospital far more frequently.

This could also affect the criminal justice system in an unusual way. Today, murder is just about the worst crime you can commit. You’ve taken somebody else’s life on purpose, and that generally leads to severe punishment – even the death penalty in some countries. But in a world without awareness of death, murder higher than the third degree just wouldn’t be possible. You wouldn’t ever be consciously taking someone’s life, because that concept would be totally alien. This means that not only would you not understand the full extent of your actions – which in a modern court of law might make you unfit to stand trial – but other people also wouldn’t see your crime as severe because they, too, wouldn’t grasp the concept of murder. This could lead to more murders and more lenient sentences, and an inability to rehabilitate convicted killers because nobody would know how to convey why murder is such a heinous crime. This could also make warfare even bloodier; with soldiers totally unconcerned with not only their own mortality, but the mortality of enemy combatants. Wars wouldn’t be seen as such huge tragedies and countries might wage war with reckless abandon.

It would affect every aspect of human culture, too, including art and religion. A major part of most religions is their afterlife and what happens to the soul after the body dies. With no concept of death, would religion exist to help us find our place in the afterlife? Would we even care about where we end up in the afterlife if we can’t fathom that we’ll one day end up there? So much of human art is preoccupied with death as well; death is one of the most prevalent themes throughout literature. There are many novels, poems, and plays that we wouldn’t have if people didn’t ponder death and what it means.

And what about funeral rituals? When our loved ones died, we wouldn’t mourn them. We wouldn’t have funerals, or dispose of the dead in meaningful ways. In fact, celebrations of life and death might not exist. Christianity couldn’t celebrate the resurrection of Christ at Easter without understanding why his resurrection was a miracle. The Mexican holiday Día de Muertos wouldn’t exist.

Death might be frightening. But it’s one of the biggest parts of what it means to be human. In many ways, removing the knowledge of death would make society worse rather than better, even if we would worry less. And that’s what would happen if we didn’t know we were going to die.