If you could live forever, would you? The choice may not be yours
The year is 2040 and the latest rave is immortality implants and genetic changes only you can’t get them because our beloved government had decided (Since it is represented by our ‘Decider’) that they will be the body that will control how long our lifespan will be. At least that’s the quote from Francis Fukuyama, a former bioethics councilmen under the Bush administration (see the article Experts debate indefinite lifespan. Poll: what’s your opinion? for the story that inspired this post.)
This is where my question comes in. Lets say that this technology comes out and is wildly successful and everyone is presented with the choice to live for as long as they personally determine. What right does the government have to step in and make that decision for me? I mean we are talking about MY life here! I understand that the government has to manage things like food and land resources but does that really give them the control to tell me how many years I can spend in this existence? Besides, wouldn’t having some of the scientists that are helping to push us toward a space-based race live for a 1,000 or so years only benefit us? Sure, if no one dies (how many people would actually choose to live forever?) we’re going to run out of room eventually but by that time shouldn’t we be ready to start colonizing at least Mars? Think of all the posibilities that open up in space travel with a 1,000+ year life span. Travelling to the nearest star at less than the speed of light would now be possible in a human life time. I’m getting off the topic though, so what are your thoughts on this? Should the government be able to tell us how long we can live or is this a choice that should be left up to each person?
RemoteDesktop For Your Video Games…
If you’ve spent any kind of time in the techie/IT world than you’ve undoubtedly heard of either VNC, RemoteDesktop or LogMeIn. For those of you who haven’t I’ll give a quick rundown of what these applications/technologies do. Basically, as the name RemoteDesktop implies, these programs are all about controlling a computer from somewhere far far away. This technology can be very helpful for those of us who may need to access our home networks or machines from work or, for those of you who like me are the only computer literate person in your family and by proxy are now their tech support, access to someone else’s machine from the comfort of your own computer chair.
There, now that we are all on the same page about these programs I can propose my new idea. Why not expand this technology to include… are you ready… your video game consoles! With the 360 and PS3 going way beyond just being video game consoles its not that far of a stretch to think that someday (hopefully soon) you could be sitting at work in between projects when you’re board out of your mind, you could be logged into your 360 getting in a quick round of Catan. How nice would it be to be able to hop onto your Xbox after getting reamed by your boss and playing some Army of Two or Halo 3? It always makes things better when you can relieve your frustrations by fragging some Covenant Elites or winning a couple hundred bucks in Forza 2!
How Zodiac and Name Definitions Might Work
Have you ever read a description of your zodiac sign, birth number or name and thought “Whoa… that was almost creepy”? I find that personally more times than not any kind of description I read about any of my ’signs’ are pretty damn close to being spot on and I have a theory that involves some less out there methods while still maintaining a little mysticism and mystery to explain this.
Carl Jung proposed this idea of a “collective unconscious” in his work which basically says that at some deep unconscious level we are all connected to this warehouse of our species memories, experiences and emotions. What this means is that you, at some deep level, are connected to the person who actually wrote this definition. What this also means is that if any of these definitions have been around for say a couple hundred years, than humanity has been hearing this definition over and over and over and… you get the idea. So how does this explain the definition being so accurate? When we are very young I think the connection between our subconscious or unconscious and conscious is much stronger and we can easily reach into this warehouse of information from our species. Now when our subconscious learns our name it simply uses it’s access to look up what it means and thinks “Oh, that’s who I’m supposed to be. Okay”. Same thing applies to Zodiac or birth number definitions, or whatever other kind of definition you can think of.
Welcome to Science Reality
The more news articles I read about the ‘cool’ new technologies and advances in the various sciences the more I’m starting to feel like I’m living a science fiction novel, only it’s science reality. Let me list a few examples of what I’m talking about:
- Neuro-Programmer - This application is designed to allow you to manipulate your brain waves! Now think back to when you were in elementary school (if you’re in your early to mid 20’s like me) and try to imagine someone saying they had a program that they could put on your computer that would allow you to manipulate your brain waves. You would have thought they were spending too much time in their books or watching tv or movies. Once you buy this company’s software you gain access to their Members Only area where the community has uploaded their own ’sessions’. Some of these include a pattern that is supposed to relieve headaches, combat the effects of ADD/ADHD, promote the release of hGH (human growth hormone) and an alternative to your morning caffeine intake to get you going. Now, I’ve tried the caffeine alternative and I must admit I felt very alert, very awake and totally focused at 7 in the damn morning!! The list doesn’t stop there though…
- Digital Tattoo - Alright, now this one is pretty crazy. This company has come up with a small, thin bluetooth device that can be surgically implanted into a users skin (like the forearm) and essentially be turned into a phone with an LCD screen. The obvious restrictions here are if you want an upgrade or need any fixes to the device made you are going to have to go back under the knife… Not so fun. However, if we can find a way to overcome the whole mutli-surgey thing then there is some pretty fun potential here. Imagine the ability to have a dynamic tattoo that you could change to fit the social circle or situation you’re in or even change just to fit your mood. You could carry your shopping list or to-do list on the bottom of your forearm and just have it hidden the majority of the time.
- Biotic Eye - This one has me excited. It’s a biotic eye implant that can restore sight to someone who has lost it over time. Basically, as long as your brain already understands how to interpret the visual signals than this implant can give you your sight back.
So now that our society is really starting to become a ‘Science Reality’ society the possibilities are endless! We can restore sight to the age-related blind, have lcd screens implanted into our arms and take control of our brain waves… What’s next?
A New Spin on Déjà vu
A friend of mine sent me an article on a theory by Brian Whitworth Ph.D that basically puts the idea out there that the Big Bang was actually someone or something flipping the switch on a ‘Virtual Reality’ which we experience as our ‘real reality’. While this idea is pretty cool it’s hard to think that we’re nothing more than a simulation in a virtual world. Kind of takes the ‘Bang’ out of life. However, this theory got me thinking about Déjà vu the other day and I have my own theory I’d like to throw out there:
What if Déjà vu is your mind or your consciousness coming back to a ’save’ point in your life. For example, you get Déjà vu while driving your car. What if “you” have already driven down this street and you made a choice that led to another choice that led to another choice that eventually led to a situation or decision your consciousness either couldn’t handle or didn’t want to so it analyzed the data it had, found a point where it believes the chain of events started from and ‘reset’ you to that point. The more times you’ve been ‘reset’ to that point the more times you’ve experienced it and as a by product the Déjà vu gets more intense and lengthy.
In the article Mr. Whitworth asks for readers to let him know if they come up with any ideas on a certain part of his theory. Well, accepting his gracious offer I emailed him about a month and a half ago but never got any confirmation that he ever received it or read it. Now, I understand that he is probably a very busy man, but it doesn’t take that long to send a ‘thanks for reading my interview and paying enough attention to it to form an opinion.’ I mean, where’s the love Mr. Whitworth?