Living Forever

KurzweilAI.net

I have not yet read the articles on this quoted page, but I did go to a presentation given by Ray Kurzweil, on whose site this appears. In essence, advances in biotechnology and nanotechnology should mean that immortality is within the grasp of most of us alive today. He said himself that at 58 years old, he's doing everything he can to make sure he's still around in the relatively short number of years remaining before the dream of no more natural death is made reality. Since I'm 35, I should be able to make it if he even has a chance.

I have, since I was a child, had the affirmation (although not until recently expressed exactly this way) "I will live to a least 100 years old." This has always been believable to me as a goal, as there's a history of longevity in my recent ancestry. My great-grandmother lived to 99 years old. Her daughter, my grandmother, is 96 and still going, although with certain health problems.

After Kurzweil's talk, however, I now have a new affirmation that has replaced the other. Here it is: "I will live as long as I want." Incredible as it may sound this is at least 50% believable to me. It helps that I had already read some science fiction that suggested many of the same advances that Kurzweil now describes as either in the design phase or even further along. Also, his arguments regarding the well-documented exponential growth in life expectancy and advances in technology strongly support his assertions.

What's also amazing is the mental benefits this has already given me. I feel somehow more patient. I feel I have time. It doesnt mean I won't work hard or work quickly to accomplish things, it just means that for the bigger picture, changes don't seem so final. For example, choices to not live near someone I love and would see all the time have always seemed tragic to me. If I reduce my opportunities for interaction to twice a year, and we were to both have another fifty years to be alive and able to meet, that means that every visit is 1% of the total time we'll spend together. 1% a pop is a lot to me. Now I can enjoy it more, relieved of the anxiety of thinking, "Oh, this time is so precious that I must get all I can from it! Why I am not doing more, I'm wasting deeply valuable seconds!" There's a feeling of "Ahhhh.... relax and enjoy." It took this to realize that I was constantly nagged by the inevitability of death.

So, with that, I encourage any readers of my blog to also explore a rapidly coming world free of the fetters of time that Ray Kurzweil and his peers suggest is at hand.