MESSAGE FOR CHRISTINE
You can read it too, Del, but I had to post it this way because -- once again -- I can't seem to post directly to Christine. Sorry.
Christine,
"Terrence, I really believe that the human life-span, although we may be able to lengthen it a little at the end, is finite. Perhaps it can be extended by really replacing most of our parts with machines as they wear out, but what about quality of life issues? I think each stage of the life also presents unique configurations of factors that create spiritual (NOT religious) growth, ending in the higher states of wisdom and acceptance, hopefully!!!"
Latest age research shows evidence of a death gene. It can be turned off, then aging stops at 18 - 25 bioyears. Guess what? Some life-forms on earth have no death gene!
Quality of life is mostly the illusions Man chooses to believe -- most of life's desires have been programmed for survival of the species, or programmed in by society.
Each stage of life must be mentally adapted to by rational beings who -- for the time being at least -- have to accept the reality of termination. . . Until we change reality.
"I know now that that old cliche, "youth is wasted on the young" is certainly true, and I also believe that much of what I consider the richness of experience in middle age is because I am fully aware that I AM aging rapidly, and may not pass this way again (to put it very unoriginally). Even small attempts to thwart the aging process, like this totally bizarre thing now where many women over the age of 35 will never really know their own haircolor because it is kept dyed until they die, are acts of denial and somehow cause us to elude central truths (in my humble opinion)."
Dying hair and reprogramming DNA are worlds apart. So is the re-machining of Man and redirecting our evolution to meet our needs and expectations.
"I am not saying this very eloquently, but I believe that inherent in each small physical change as we age, there is the seed of a spiritual lesson of some sort. This is not to say that we should not eat healthy food, live moderately, and keep up our appearances. It's just that I suspect the aging process is a gift in some ways."
The aging process is a gift only in two ways: a.) for the time allotted to accumulate wisdom from the experience of learning from personal mistakes and learning by observing other's errors and how to avoid them (but if you're still biologically 25 at 425, you still have the accumulated wisdom of 400 years of living and b.) for the hungry worms (and they are HUNGRY little buggers).
"What do you think?"
I think this Age is the last Age of the Finite Man. I think during the next 200 years Mankind will conquer aging, many diseases, the environment, planetary engineering, the riddle of FTL travel, etc. We'll also bring into the scientific realm the knowledge of multidimensional existence (alluded to in the particle physics article you re-posted), and realize that 20th Century physicists were basically noble savages one step up the ladder from Medieval alchemists.
Aging is not a blessing, but a disease. Nature is a force to be bent to our will. The old adage, you can't escape death and taxes, is false. It is nothing more than a self-fulfilling prophesy -- and a negative one at that! People accept death. People accept taxes. Both can and will be overturned by a rational society that knows Man's mind has no limits.
"And incidentally, where are we going to put all the people if we all live tens of thousands of year? Not even space seems large enough!!"
C'mon, Christine. . . Space is infinite!
Father Terrence |
