"The average man, who does not know what to do with his life, wants another one which will last forever."
-- Anatole France
OK, that is good and funny.
But I don't think it is true. I never heard any normal say anything like: 'I really wish I was immortal.' I think only very extraordinary people have wishes like that. The normal person just wants a slightly better pay check, and for his parents to bug him less.
Further, I think most of those really extraordinary persons who might wish for something like immortality could probably put it to good use.
Personally I do believe we are immortal. But the death-cycle does break your concentration, doesn't it? It would be rather cool to have a 10,000 year life cycle under the same name and beingness.
Of course the real fun would be only if many others were the same. I'd love to run into Leonardo da Vinci in Amsterdam or whatever and say: "Leo! How are you doing, old pal? I haven't seen you for, gee, it must be 90 years!"
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I think it would be quite cool to have a much longer lifespan, assuming that your physical and mental health leveled off at say mid forties. Robert Heinlein had a story about people with longer lives than other people "Methusala's Children". He carried one character, Lazarus Long, forward into several other stories, and he was essentially immortal. Niven and Pournelle had a very interesting concept in "Ringworld" that postulated that humans are the immature form of "Pak", (the book was "Ringworld") and needed to eat somehting conntaining a virus that would transform us into our final life stage, which was also immortal. Science fiction writers have explored this concept in many books, and the results and problems are very interesting.
Indeed so.
I've read both books decades ago, but I had forgotten the long-life aspects of both of them.
I always tell people that i'm going to live forever and in some shape/form/fashion it will happen. Maybe not like they expect it to happen, but it still happens. What I think would be interesting and would help to further the human race as a whole, would be if we could remember everything from past lives. In that way we wouldnt have to relearn everything we could instead start expanding on what we already knew from a very young age.
Many years ago I saw an interview of a beautiful old lady on the news.
She was being interviewed because it was her birthday, and, at that point, she was the oldest lady in the country.
The young female interviewer spoke in a loud slow voice, as if speaking to a 3 year old, asking what had been most memorable about her life.
The old lady replied that when she had been growing up, there had only been horses and carts, then she saw the first car, the first aeroplane, advancements in science, men on the moon, sattelites, and space travel.
She finished by saying
"and I can`t wait to see what`s going to happen next".
I have thought of that old lady often, and admired her greatly.
I would also like to be around for a very long time.
If a man in a long dark robe with a scythe appears one day, then he`d better be expecting me to put up a dark and devious fight!!!
You're wrong to think ordinary people don't want to live forever. It is probably only extraordinary people who wouldn't want it, because they know that it's a fool's dream. Also, it's likely that those people who think themselves extraordinary, aren't.
I think you missed Anatole's point.
When he said the 'average man' wanted "...another one which will last forever", Anatole was referring to the forlorn hope that, after this life, man is granted an eternal one in Heaven.
Since Anatole thinks the average man 'does not know what to do' with the limited life he's been given, he thinks it ludicrious to give man another one that lasts forever.
Sorry for the deleted posts; punched too many buttons.
Keep up the good work.
Rico,
Yes, you're right!
I have never been a Christian, and I keep forgetting how dominating Christianity is in the western world. When people say "god", they mean the Christian god. And when they say "live forever", they mean in the Christian heaven, and not by other physical or spiritual means.
Voltaire was spot on when he said: “If you wish to converse with me, define your terms”
Eolake, if you don't want to die, if you want to be there at your great-great-great grandchildren's birthday or walk on the Moon someday, sign up for cryonics.
Or contribute to the Methuselah Mouse Prize, an X-Prize-like foundation set up to award basic research into aging and the repair of aging damage.
If you wish for a longer lifespan, and you don't sign up for cryonics, and you don't help fund anti-aging research; then it's like wishing for better government and not voting.
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