Everyone, that is a broad term meaning all humanity, we all have one thing in common. Beautiful women, the strongest man, the most intelligent scholar, all have one thing in common. This convergent trait is death. It is the one thing that no one including the fastest human, can escape. What if death was no longer a fear, a certainty, and an eventual embrace of our anticipation? Needless to say the advancement of medical science is synchronous with that of emerging technology. Treatments have changed as well as surgery, what would have killed someone 50 years ago can be treated today with routine visits to your local doctor. R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland is a prime example of medical technology at its best. This is one of the most advanced places when it comes to advanced medical technology. This place alone has dropped Baltimore’s staggering murder rate. 45,000 people would have been dead in the beginning of this decade instead thanks to the lives that are saved at this facility the deaths are closer to 17,000. I digress but I am eluding to the point which I want to make. As you read this there are researchers and scientists trying to tackle our greatest obstacle by isolating exactly what makes us age. Anti-aging researchers are working on stopping (or at least slowing down) what they consider to be cellular wear and tear and/or our biological clock. This opens up a new prospect which is why I titled this blog immortality. What if 40 years from now living to be 600 years old is a possibility? If our lives could be extended indefinitely what would be the repercussions? I like to imagine a world free of the fear of death, no longer having to compensate for the loss of loved ones or have to worry about our limitations. We would have eternity to ponder the real questions on why we are here. Of course without having to emphatically state this, the idea of living for centuries or eternity would directly impact religion. We as a people overall tend to have a belief of a higher being and living forever would contradict having to live a morally adept life since we would not need to worry about an after-life. There is no lack of piety in the world today but living forever would definitely change our perspectives. I embrace research into these technologies including, anti-aging, stem-stem cell research, and this shock trauma because it could lead to prevention of our biggest fear no longer being here. I will finish this post with one question which consequently would be a problem after a while. Would people make bigger cakes to accommodate all the candles?
Feel free to disagree peace.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993303
http://www.lef.org/anti-aging/research.html
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/medicine/article/0,12543,484507-4,00.html