Some Day, Tatiana, We'll Get To Go To Moscow....

[poliphilo]

There was an article in yesterday's Guardian in which some clever-clogs was saying how we'll have cracked the little problem of mortality by 2050. By then we'll have the ability to store consciousness on a computer. No-one rich will ever have to die again. And by 2080 the procedure will have become so routine and cheap that no-one poor will have to die either.

Today's kids (which means many of you, dear readers) are going to be immortal. Think about it.

I don't know whether this is the real deal or a load of hooey, but, either way, it's given me a buzz. This is what we want- Futurology! Crazy visions. Something to look forward to. In the years leading up to the millennium the media was full of this stuff. Promises, promises. And then along came Team Bush and we were routed back to the leather backed bible stroking, discarded pantie sniffing, creased trouser loving 1950s. The future stopped shining. No Elysian Fields for you, my pretties.

But Science goes on in spite of government and the future is going to be extraordinary.

Thank you for reminding me. I won't forget again.

Comments

[solar-diablo.livejournal.com]

I'll take death and be happy with it, thank you very much. I suspect I don't have the stamina for immortality, at least not on this earth.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

I think the key here is "no one rich".

Do you really think the US is going to provide immortality to the poor when they can't even provide us with health insurance or a retirement stipend?

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

I can't think of anything I'd want less than being immortal - as in being in *this* form forever.

I do sort of wish that Team Bush had to stick around, though, to clean up the mess they have made.

The future has always been *going to be extraordinary*. My mother sometimes shakes her head and says "What would your grandparents think about getting money from a WALL?" when she uses the ATM. There are extraordinary occurrences, always. And problems. Always.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Speaking of government angst:

A senator broke down yesterday while begging his fellow REPUBLICANS to please not elect that ogre that Bush wants to be our man in the United Nations!

He said, I am thinking about my children and my grandchildren. And he started weeping.

He said, I know my friends say, George, let it go--it'll be all right. But I beg them, please don't send this man to the United Nations!

Can you imagine?

Scary, huh? Even Republicans...

[qatsi.livejournal.com]

Bleh, I'd be nearly 80 by then ... I do hope they progress on things like Alzheimer's first.

The basic idea strikes me with a big yuk!, but then ... that technology would be pretty useful in order to do things like interstellar travel, as it would take quite a long time ... unless you invent the warp drive first.

[kaysho.livejournal.com]

If the 2050 timetable does happen, I'm going to be right on the cusp. I would hate to be the Last Person Who Ever Died.

Of course, since futurology is an inexact non-science, I'm not going to plan my life around that.