PRISM Weekly Digest: Jan Week 5, 2026 | Between Forever and Fine Print

PRISM Weekly Digest

Jan Week 5, 2026 | Between Forever and Fine Print

This week, the PRISM editorial team zeroed in on two stories.

Not a blockbuster tech announcement. Not a political earthquake. Instead, we found ourselves captivated by a single question: Why does an entire generation dream of living forever while simultaneously drafting exit clauses for their marriages?

Two articles published this week — "Do You Want to Live Forever?" and "Why Prenups Became a Gen Z Dating Essential" — seem unrelated at first glance. But place them side by side, and they reveal two faces of the same generation. A longing for eternity and an acute awareness of finitude. Between those poles lies the portrait of our time.

If You Could Live Forever, Would You Be Happy?

Google's subsidiary Calico has classified aging as a disease and is racing to cure it. Silicon Valley billionaires are pouring astronomical sums into life-extension startups. CRISPR gene editing, stem cell therapy, AI-driven aging research — immortality is no longer science fiction. It's a line item in an investment portfolio.

Yet philosophers remain skeptical. Bernard Williams warned as early as 1973 that human desires and interests are finite; in infinite time, once you've exhausted every experience, all that remains is boredom. Psychologists concur. Awareness of death makes people more creative, drives them toward deeper relationships. If finitude is the fuel of life, immortality is an engine without it.

The Korean context adds an intriguing layer. Filial piety traditions raise expectations for life extension, yet South Korea's 2018 Life-Sustaining Treatment Act enshrined the right to refuse meaningless prolongation of life. The same society that wants longer lives also legally guarantees dignified death. This duality reveals what we truly crave: not eternity, but the right to choose.

The most uncomfortable question lies elsewhere. If immortality becomes possible, who gets to live forever? Technology is not neutral. Life extension accessible only to the wealthy would make class divides literally eternal. The paradox of immortality isn't a question of science. It's a question of justice.

The Generation That Puts Love in a Contract

Meanwhile, the same generation reaches for a contract at the starting line of romance. 41% of Gen Z and 47% of millennials have signed prenuptial agreements. What was once a tool for the ultra-rich is now an app download away.

Why? 25% of millennials experienced their parents' divorce. "Till death do us part" sounds like a movie line, not a binding promise. They choose realistic relationships over eternal love, trusting systems over emotions. This is a generation that includes AI chatbot interactions in infidelity clauses. The very definition of love is being rewritten.

The gender dynamics are shifting too. Prenups used to be demanded by men. Now women are leading the charge. Most prenup app founders are women, framing the practice as "financial hygiene." They haven't abandoned romance. They're demanding that romance be built on transparency.

But one question lingers. Can a few pages of legal text capture the complex, unpredictable texture of a marriage? When we replace trust in people with trust in systems, what do we gain — and what do we lose?

The Generation That Dreams of Forever While Designing the End

Place these two stories next to each other, and a striking portrait emerges. The same generation yearns for eternal life on one hand and pre-engineers the end of relationships on the other. Is this a contradiction?

Perhaps it's the most honest form of self-awareness a generation has ever shown. People who want forever but know forever doesn't exist. People who hope for the best while preparing for the worst. People who refuse to close their eyes to the gap between romance and reality.

"Books build depth, PRISM captures speed."

PRISM Weekly Digest is published weekly.