An interesting perspective.

Interesting characters.

It reminded me of just how poor arithmetic was in medieval Europe—so poor that its scholars might not even have been able to solve the classic chickens-and-rabbits problem. Under the constraints imposed by theology, the ingenious reasoning and calculations behind heliocentrism were genuinely impressive, but they were less mathematics than mathematical intuition.

By contrast, quite a few people in ancient China were remarkably good at arithmetic, even though it received little recognition at the time. The Daoist writings of that era are truly astonishing as well.

That is why it is worth having something to pursue, even if that pursuit is immortality. Or perhaps the path endorsed by the mainstream of an age may later prove neither useful nor even correct.

Better, then, to find something you love and pursue it over the long term, even if it is as impractical as a dream.