Let's imagine that a closed crypt was discovered on a certain island, and on it a warning: "Do not open! Inside is the secret of the people who once lived here. Thanks to it, they were very happy, but because of it, they stopped reproducing and died out. "

Should we open it?

Since the Sun will swallow the Earth sooner or later anyway, since the universe will eventually cool down anyway, since life will end anyway, why not? We won't kill anyone, we won't hurt anyone, and people will finally live happily.

On the other hand, we have an instinct for survival. Something in this crypt will clearly drown it out, but before it is opened, we still feel it. Everything we care about now will cease to exist or lose its meaning if there are no people. And these ends of the world are just theories, predictions - who knows what will be possible in a thousand years, what else we will learn and understand in two thousand!

Listening to instinct, believing in what the distant future will bring, has its price. People living today do not know the secret of happiness. They can only console themselves with hope for what will happen after their death.

Another interesting question: what to do with the secret once you know it?

The following ideas came to my mind:

• spread it, allow everyone to live happily, but bring about the end of humanity
• recognize that it is not good and it would be better to lock it in a crypt
• keep it for a limited group of people, who will survive thanks to the constant stream of immigrants.

This last idea has the weakness that you have to constantly convince others that you have chosen well and they should choose the same. But what if they don't let themselves be convinced? They may want spread the secret and bring about the end of humanity, or they may decide that it is evil and treat us as enemies.