245 Essays on Infinite Lifespans   Marc Geddes Let us also consider the question of the value of the moments in a person’s life. Time is no ordinary commodity! A person with more time can plan further into the future. They have more choices available to them in the present because some of the things a person could do in the present would only pay off over the longer-term. A person with more choices has, by definition, more freedom, and has an increased range of goals to choose from. Thus the longer a person has to live, the greater the potential value of each moment. We have presented strong reasons for believing that life is generally better than death no matter how long an individ- ual might live. Firstly, the potential value of each moment is increased the longer a person lives. Secondly, the longer a person expects to live, the greater the motivation for moral behavior. This would appear to clinch the ethical justifica- tion for life extension: Life extension is morally good. Since the arguments apply over any length of time, the longer an individual can potentially live, the greater the good. Thus it is actually an ethical imperative that we strive for immortality! Since a truly immortal person would live an infinite time, it seems that immortality is in a sense an infinite good. It would be a reasonable conjecture then, that the quest for immortality is the ultimate moral imperative. Let us call this idea ‘immor- talist morality’. The idea is that we base the whole of ethics on ‘affirmation of life’. When sentient beings make a life-affirm- ing choice, this is designated as morally good. When sentient beings make a choice that degrades life, this is designated as morally bad. Why not make immortalist morality the entire foundation of our value systems? An important point to note here is that morality and legality are two separate spheres. There is a danger with any suggested ethical system that some people will want to impose these morals on everyone else. But the problem is here is one of tolerance. It is not being suggested that laws be passed on