It took me quite a while to realize that many people are very offended by the idea of living forever. Many are offended by the idea of living beyond a natural lifespan. I often find myself asking these people how many years they think it is OK to exist? 100? 500? 1,000? The answers vary but the most amazing thing, to me, is the amount of unrecognized hubris these people harbor because of the flawed memes they have been taught. So many of us are products of our environment.
Why should we only live 75 years? Because God intended it? Because it is programmed into our genes? Because that is how all previous generations lived? Such narrow thinking is silly and condemns us all to death. I do not wish to be a part of staid fatalism.
Ray Kurzweil is an inventor. He is also a transhumanist, and wants to live as long as possible. Wired ran an article on Kurzweil today Futurist Kurzweil Pulls Out All the Stops (and Pills) to Live to Witness the Singularity. Besides being an extremely long titled article, author Gary Wolf’s screed is a great example of the ire many death cult believers hold for those of us who wan to exist as long as possible. The comments run the gamut, but many of them are disparaging and outright dismissive of the idea of a longer than natural lifespan and the man who wants it.
I’m sure many of these same people believe they are headed for an eternal reward in some sort of ethereal afterlife on an imagined plane of existence none of us can prove. As far as I am concerned Kurzweil is just betting on a different horse, so to speak.
If there is a soul (and I think there is), then the sheer audacity of believing we might one day be able to transfer it to another, longer lasting vessel is not a sin, not in my opinion. God helps those who help themselves. Every visionary throughout history has been mocked. Some of them have needed bodyguards. If Ray Kurzweil ever does, I’m his man. In the mean time, I’ll tip my glass to his immortality. I’d rather party with dreamers and die trying to live than resign myself to a mere century of life on this plane of reality.