Death
According to Vilém Flusser, death only offers
two possibilities: “to deny it and continue to act
or to accept it and fall silent” (Da Religiosidade,
2002, pp. 98–99; translated from the Portuguese).
Even if we ponder its necessity, the relationship
we have developed with death is based on giving
meaning to its absurdity. Ultimately, it is not the
fear of death that paralyzes us, but the vision of
the emptiness after our death (O Universo das
Imagens Técnicas, 2010, pp. 87–88)*. That is why
denying death is related to authenticity, and
supposedly accepting it conceals a lie (Da Religiosidade,
pp. 100–101). Each and every person
has to die alone and on his or her own (O Mundo
Codi cado, 2007, pp. 90–91). Saying death does
not exist is the same as saying life does not exist
(Da Religiosidade, p. 103). “‘Living’ means moving
towards death. […] ‘Living’ means solving
problems to be able to die.” (O Mundo Codi -
cado, p. 53; translated from the Portuguese)
One of the main aspects regarding death in
Flusser’s thinking refers to cybernetics and is related
to the second law of thermodynamics. Because
of entropy, we have been walking towards
the thermal death of the universe ever since the
Big Bang. Entropy is the exhaustion of “virtualities,”
which means death. Controlling the future
means translating improbable situations into
probable situations, and the unnatural intent to
ght death is negentropic (Into the Universe of
Technical Images, 2011, pp. 17–18). Information is
the attempt to reverse the entropic vectors of the
universe’s ultimate heat death. This fixation of
matter is an act of the mind, but also of technologies,
such as writing.
“His answer to ‘heat death’ and to death per
se is to ‘inform.’” (ibid., p. 18). The loss of this
negating dimension would integrate humankind
into natural processes. A domesticated humanity,
just like a herd, would simply graze and run
through the cycle of birth, consumption, rumination,
production, leisure, reproduction, and
death. From a processual point of view, everything
goes through formation at birth and ends
with the leveler of death (Natural:mente, 1979, p.
53). The execution of thermal death is the final
entropic dominance of probability over improbability.
To ght entropy, we store information and
build a memory – through communication, which
is a form of negentropy (O Mundo Codi cado,
pp. 94–95).
* Editorial note: This passage does not exist in the English edition.
Original article by Rodrigo Petronio in Flusseriana