August 2025
Mid-August marks the Obon holiday in Japan, a Buddhist festival when ancestral spirits are believed to visit the living from the other world. During this period, people also commemorate the anniversary of World War II's end. This season prompts me to contemplate the finite nature of existence, our inevitable mortality, and humanity's quest for immortality. We all face death eventually. Even if longevity science advances enough to prevent our bodies from decaying, true immortality remains elusive. The atoms comprising us will ultimately disintegrate. In fact, the universe itself may not endure long enough for this process—cosmic events will likely impact us much sooner. We cannot even be certain how long our civilization will persist. Our society might be long forgotten when future intelligences face their own existential threats like black holes. Will they remember us or our descendants in some Obon-like remembrance? This speculation may seem distant and far-fetched. Nevertheless, let's explore what we know about endings and mortality, and consider what these insights can teach us about living in the present moment. This Month's Scopes While science struggles to predict tomorrow's events, it can forecast what will happen billions of years from now. Modern physics on **fate of the universe** offers a starting point for this exploration—indeed, we begin with the very end. At the other end of the spectrum lies **our own mortality**, where science often sounds too cold and clinical unless you're a longevity-obsessed health enthusiast like me (exercise regularly, eat nutritious foods, detect and prevent diseases early, maintain strong social connections for a fulfilling life). Instead, films and fiction pose more open-ended questions for each of us to contemplate. Between cosmic and personal endings, we wonder how long our **communities, companies, nations, or human civilization** itself might last. Popular writers like Jared Diamond and Yuval Noah Harari offer compelling theories about civilizational decline. Yet in reality, these fates and their causes are rarely as straightforward as they seem. It's worth exploring alternative perspectives while resisting our desire for simple answers to profound questions.