Life unlimited

 A bad-looking gerontologist/scientist explained his belief that in a number of centuries Man will look back at the twentieth and twenty-first century and say how stupid he was to not stop the ageing process. The gerontologist believes that we will be able to grow thousands, maybe millions of years old. First of all, I don't think Man will look back at twentieth century people and think "we as a species" were stupid, they will just think "we as a civilization" were stupid and underdeveloped. It is unlikely they will personify themselves with any of us anyway.

While the man did look like several hammers had mercilessly encountered the surface of his skull, it might not be all science-fiction what he's talking about. Once we find out what causes ageing, nobody can say we won't kill whatever caused it. If it would happen in my lifetime, I would suggest coming up with the cure sooner rather than later, so that I can look forever 26 and not forever 89 for instance (when I'll be half-blind, missing one-and-a-half of my testicles, constantly drooling and defecating in a plastic bag - why would I miss 75% of testicles you ask? Well, did you hear about that guy murdering his wife in his sleep and then being acquited? Since Erik is a sleeptalker and "-doer" (sometimes saying "I love you's" to whoever he's dreaming about (ME!), sometimes real conversations, and sometimes even plain interactions where he jumps out of bed, playing out his dream) it is likely he will one day dream about slicing my balls off when I'm asleep - I have accepted it, it is what I get for asking to get laid 36 hours a day, his subconscious is bound to take it out on me one day)). 

When I would constantly be 26, what hurry would I have to get on with life? Wouldn't everyone just become incredibly lazy, realising that life really IS eternal? The only way for someone to die would be to get murdered or get killed in an accident (and suicide, which I think would increase dramatically). Imagine being sent to prison for life after having murdered someone. The sentence would just be even worse than it is now. And what about religions? Pedophile priests will rejoice, knowing that they will never have to face their God for their misbehaviour, so they can happily screw around more (the pedophile priest needed to be here, it shows I follow the news! How hilarious is it that on Easter all priests start their ceremony by saying that they don't approve of priests fucking children (upon which children go look for testicle shaped chocolate in their gardens)? Luckily, a priest close to the pope says it's all just "gossip"). But really, the influence of religion on the world would certainly decrease; why should you fear the eternal afterlife if you live eternally in this life? Ideally, it'd be the death of all religion, but we're giving the human race too much credit if we'd assume something like this. 

Overpopulation is of course another issue (it comes with a lot bigger Christmas tables for the whole family - if you are 1 million years old, you could potentionally have 50.000 generations younger than you - 'hi, great-great-(10thousand times "-great-")grandson, why don't you ever come visit your great-great-(10thousand times "-great-")granddad?"). We'd need to move into space, that's for sure. But then what? 

It's an interesting brain exercise because of all the implications, but ultimately life would prove unsatisfactory or impossible. And for the moment, we are stuck with our 7 or 8 decades of existence anyway, and I only have 5 decades left (and that's a positive estimate, I feel)... so I better hurry...