What would you do if at the dawn of your death, you were given 10, 20, 50 more years to live in a healthy body?

Self/Less
is a 2015 film about the story of a man at the end of his life, billionaire and architect. Learning that he has terminal cancer, he decides to buy the services of a laboratory that promises him eternal life: when he dies, the data from his brain will be transferred to a brain of a younger man, whose body was created in the laboratory. Thus, he will live a second life in someone else’s body. The argument used by the laboratory is that it is necessary to “preserve the big brains” as long as possible. Imagine that Einstein was still alive, what other discoveries could he have benefited us from?

Discover 3 moments Reflections in this article, and I will welcome your answers with great pleasure in comment!

Moment Reflection n°1:

If you were given a second life, what would you dedicate it to? Could it be to continue what you are already doing? Or try a new path?

I’ll let you think about it for a moment…

A beginning of an answer: I’m only 25 years old, but come to think of it, it’s already the amount of a lifetime. Just two and a half centuries ago, people didn’t live much longer than that. We married young, and we died young. Today in the ^21st century, with our life expectancy up to 100 years, I am lucky to be able to live the equivalent of 4 lives of the ^19th century! This reflection is therefore a question that I can ask myself in my lifetime. If you’ve ever felt old at 25… it’s normal! This is the end of your first life. But there are 3 more coming! Not enough to depress, right? 🙂

This means that I have the right to be able to reinvent my career as my life progresses. I have plenty of time! Personally, in the last 25 years, I have mainly studied, looked for diplomas. Now I want to produce (a blog!), travel, continue to learn from the world as long as I have a breath of life. I am curious, adventurous, and I intend to keep my flame until the end.

I have the right to reinvent myself regularly. A degree does not define me for life. Nor a job. I don’t even have to wait until I die to question my trajectory.

In short, do not dream of immortality, because from the point of view of generations before, you have already acquired it. What will you do with it?

Back to the story: *** Warning: Spoilers!*** We wonder how the man will enjoy his second life. Contrary to what his brain is capable of, instead of going back to do business, he decides to live on the bank account he had accumulated in his previous life. He began his second life by going from evening to evening, from girl to girl, from alcohol to alcohol.

A pleasant routine sets in, with the only downside that he has to take a pill every day. According to the doctor, this allows him to avoid the hallucinations that his brain gives him. These are a natural consequence of brain-to-brain data transfer. By continuing to take the pills, within a year, these hallucinations will disappear and he will no longer need them.

The quiet daily life changes when one day, he forgets to take his pill and realizes that in one of the visions of his hallucination, there is a woman, his child, images of war, and others rather violent. He begins to doubt that these are not just hallucinations, but rather memories…
of someone else.

He sets out on a quest and quickly finds the woman of vision in a poor corner in the countryside. He breaks into her house and looking at her family photos, he realizes that the body he was given was not a body created in the laboratory: it is a body of a real human being, a war veteran, whose name is Mark. (very convenient that he is a veteran in an action movie, so Damian inherits his instincts as a soldier in the fight 😉 scenes)

Damian sees the doctor again who explains to him that indeed, the body does not come from a laboratory. Mark, during his lifetime, had made the choice to give his body to science in exchange for enough money to treat his little girl (welcome to the United States with their super health system!). He had left his widowed wife and orphaned daughter without explaining to them before leaving, in exchange for life.

Damian’s immediate reaction, naturally horrified to find himself in Mark’s body and pay for him, is: “But why did you kill Mark in exchange for money? I have so many, I would have given it to him if you had told me, rather than take his body. To which the doctor replies, “Would you really have done it? “, and leaves Damian coi.

And so am I.

Moment Reflection n°2:

What services do we buy for our own enjoyment, while naively thinking that the people behind these services are not impacted? If you realized the impact, would you rather give your money to these people directly?

I’ll let you think about it for a moment…

A beginning of an answer: In our globalized world, everything comes to us so easily that we often forget the people behind the services that are accessible to us with a single click.

• Ordering from Amazon, while sanitary standards in times of confinement are not respected in their warehouses (and you endanger their employees by ordering from them)? () Yes I was one of these customers, and besides I should stop my Prime subscription that I no longer use…
• Watching pornography, pretending to be unaware that it supports the sex trafficking trade ? Yeah yeah we know, “but everyone does it” would be a valid excuse to support this industry according to experts… wait, according to whom ?
• Buying postcards of a child in Burma when it encourages his parents not to send him to school ? Yes, I was fooled the first time. I still have these postcards on my wall… But maybe it’s better for the child to succeed in postcard tourism rather than in dubious sex trafficking? Delicate question, very delicate.
• Buy clothes you don’t need for the amount of a night in a hotel, when there is a homeless person at the exit of your store? In San Francisco, where I live, this question is permanent. As soon as I buy a donut there is someone outside who asks for dollars to buy one too. I crack most of the time… I find it hard to bear this difference in standard of living.
• Swimming with a dolphin in an aquatic center, while it is locked all day long in a pool far too small for him? I realized this dream one day… then I blamed myself so much when I saw the size of the pools from the top of the stands. Suddenly, I didn’t dream of being a dolphin anymore…

Come on, I repeat the original question: who is, metaphorically, the doctor who lies to you by telling you that the body you bought was created in the laboratory… while it is the body of a real human being killed indirectly by your purchase?

Or, more generally (yes yes, I love metaphors!), if you think back to the story of Hansel and Gretel, what are these buffets of delicious cakes in a wonderful house made of gingerbread, these cakes that you decide not to resist… while ignoring that it will awaken a witch who will imprison you to eat you in turn? Or if it’s not you, your sister? (We know you don’t like your sister too much, but she doesn’t deserve to be eaten either!)

Back to story: The doctor then explains that the pills Damian takes are not just to avoid hallucinations: they serve to erase Mark’s memories still present in the brain. If he stops taking the pill… Mark’s consciousness will come back to life and Damian’s will naturally fade away. If he continues to take them… nothing will remain of Mark’s memories. It’s complicated to share a body and a brain!

Mark’s wife would obviously want her husband again. For the first time in his life, Damian realizes that he must choose between immortality, to the detriment of the unity of this family… or choose to literally fade away, so that the family finds its father.

He realizes that his pleasure of life, parties, women, alcohol, bungee jumping, is far below the happiness he would bring to this family by choosing to stop the pills, and resurrect Mark.

(Spoiler! I warned you) So he ends up stopping the pills… and Mark returns mindfully. He returns to his family, everyone is happy, and Damian has finally died for good, in peace.

His second life, despite his “genius brain,” was not worth that of another man. Family happiness is not worth the money in abundance. But that’s not what I was thinking about intensely during the end credits…

Moment Reflection n°3:

What are the pills we take on a daily basis to forget to think about the happiness of others, to render service?

I’ll let you think about it for a moment…

A beginning of an answer: Anything that is distraction in excess. Look at Damian: in addition to the pills, his days weren’t that productive despite his “genius brain.” They were exclusively devoted to pleasing him. The day he stops the pills, he also stops his life of excessive luxury. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

I like to watch series… but if it’s my only hobby, and my daily job isn’t very useful to society per se, then what are my days made of?

Do I date people to forget my loneliness and feel appreciated, or to proactively become their friend and learn to really love them?

Do I use social media more to show everything I can do and receive compliments, or to see if a friend of mine expresses a need and make me available to help accordingly?

Conclusion

Self/Less: translated as “Renaissances” in the French version (ouch j’ai mal). Normally, we say “Selfless”, for “Altruistic”. The title was well chosen: Damian who learns to think of others… and especially even less to himself. “Self” is “self” in English, “less” is “less”. “Less self” = “Altruistic”.

To be less oneself is
to stop taking the pills of forgetfulness
. It is to allow another to live, and to make a family happy.

So what are your initial responses to Reflections 1, 2 and 3? Share us in the comments!