take death, for example:
a great deal of our effort goes into avoiding it
we make extraordinary efforts to delay it,
and often consider it's intrusion a tragic event
yet we find it hard to live without it
death gives meaning to our lives
it gives importance and value to time
time would become meaningless if there were too much of it
if death were indefinitely put off, the human pshyche would end up,
well, like the end of a twilight zone episode

~excerpt from~
the age of spiritual machines:
when computers excede human intelligence

by: ray kurzweil