I stumbled across a thoughtful blog post earlier today, and thought I would draw your attention to it:
I'm often appalled at the attitudes of others toward the general idea of life extension and toward serious thought, research and development given to technologies that may grant us not years but centuries to live. It is surprising how many among us would not want to live forever. It is their opinion that added years cheapen life by robbing it of what they claim gives it meaning - death. It is my opinion that only a life already and profoundly cheapened in one's own mind is further cheapened by added years.Their's is, primarily, love of death, not life.
Such individuals seem even more opposed to granting liberty to others to pursue technologies to enable themselves longer lifespans. "How can you dilute the meaning of life", they say. To them, longer life somehow means a life devoid of wonder or surprise.
It is my belief a life loved authentically and completely can only be increased in its wonders if given more time. There is far, far more to be experienced, loved and created than the breadth and depth of the present average lifespan allows. If one's passions are shallow and short-lived, perhaps a short life suits you. However, if one's passions seem to have no limit, additional life can mean only more time to express those passions and to discover new ones.
I'm always pleased to see such sentiments springing up out there in the world. Incremental growth in the community of people who think this way is a necessary foundation for effective activism, advocacy, and fundraising for serious longevity research. As more voices are raised in support for engineered longevity and the defeat of age-related degeneration, more scientists and funding institutions will be persuaded to join the cause - all progress starts with people deciding that they want to see progress.
September 3rd, 2008 at 12:39 am
God forbid you be an ugly girl, ‘course too pretty is also your doom, ’cause everyone harbors a secret hatred for the prettiest girl in the room.AniDifrancoAni Difranco
September 3rd, 2008 at 12:40 am
I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.AlbertEinsteinAlbert Einstein
September 3rd, 2008 at 12:48 am
The genuine artist is never ‘true to life.’ He sees what is real, but not as we are normally aware of it. We do not go storming through life like actors in a play. Art is never real life.WallaceStevensWallace Stevens
September 3rd, 2008 at 9:44 am
The injustice of it is almost perfect! The wrong people going hungry, the wrong people being loved, the wrong people dying! Was I really wrong to believe that there’s a–a kind of–burning virility of mind and spirit that looks for something as powerful as itself? The heaviest, strongest creatures in this world seem to be the loneliest.JohnOsborneJohn Osborne, Look Back in Anger
September 3rd, 2008 at 9:45 am
Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.HaroldWhitmanHarold Whitman
September 3rd, 2008 at 9:53 am
The higher we soar, the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.FriedrichWilhelmNietzscheFriedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
September 3rd, 2008 at 6:27 pm
The first twenty-five years of your life, you’re in awe of others. For the next twenty-five, you want others to be in awe of you. After that, you could hardly give a damn.ArthurLottiArthur Lotti
September 3rd, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Making love to a woman is like buying real estate: location, location, location.CarolLeiferCarol Leifer, comedian
September 3rd, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at.JohnBergerJohn Berger
September 4th, 2008 at 3:18 am
One may sometimes tell a lie, but the grimace that accompanies it tells the truth.FriedrichWilhelmNietzscheFriedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
September 4th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Life is pain, highness. Anyone who tells you differently is selling something.WilliamGoldmanWilliam Goldman
September 4th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
It’s okay to let yourself go, just as long as you let yourself back.MickJaggerMick Jagger
September 4th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Doubt that the stars are fire, doubt that the sun doth move, doubt truth to be a liar, but never doubt I love.WilliamShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare
September 5th, 2008 at 5:30 am
That’s not true. Unless ’sense of humor’ means ‘money.’ I don’t believe them bitches for second.DaveChappelleDave Chappelle, on women wanting a guy with a “sense of humor”
September 5th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
If you know you’re going to look back on today and laugh, you might as well start laughing now.AnonymousAnonymous
September 5th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
The duty of youth is to challenge corruption.KurtCobainKurt Cobain
September 6th, 2008 at 8:10 am
One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.A.A.MilneA. A. Milne
September 6th, 2008 at 8:12 am
Quotes are nothing but inspiration for the uninspired.RichardKemphRichard Kemph
September 6th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
People need religion. It’s a vehicle for a moral tradition. A crucial role. Nothing can take its place.IrvingKristolIrving Kristol
September 6th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
What strikes me is the fact that in our society, art has become something which is only related to objects, and not to individuals, or to life.MichelFoucaultMichel Foucault, French structuralist
September 7th, 2008 at 1:39 am
A bore is a man who, when you ask him how he is, tells you.BertLestonTaylorBert Leston Taylor
September 7th, 2008 at 1:40 am
Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities and the smallest minority on earth is the individual.AynRandAyn Rand
September 7th, 2008 at 1:42 am
History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of ‘history’ it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody really understands at the time - and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened.HunterS.ThompsonHunter S. Thompson
September 7th, 2008 at 10:33 am
?bung macht den Meister. Practice makes the master.GermanProverbGerman Proverb
September 7th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Courage is found in unlikely places.JohnRonaldReuelTolkienJohn Ronald Reuel Tolkien
September 8th, 2008 at 3:40 am
There are things that have to be done and you do them and you don’t talk about them. You don’t try to justify them. They can’t be justified. You just do them. Then you forget them.MarioPuzoMario Puzo
September 8th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
He who looks outside dreams, he who looks inside awakens.CarlGustavJungCarl Gustav Jung
September 8th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
People ask if I miss it, but they don’t understand that American culture is so ubiquitous that there’s nothing to miss. I don’t see myself moving back. It’s not that I hate the United States. I just always thought it would be a shame not to live in a foreign country. Plus I like being a foreigner. It keeps me on my toes.DavidSedarisDavid Sedaris, on living in France
September 8th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Realize that ultimate success comes from opportunistic, bold move which by definition, cannot be planned.RossJohnsonRoss Johnson
September 8th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
God forbid you be an ugly girl, ‘course too pretty is also your doom, ’cause everyone harbors a secret hatred for the prettiest girl in the room.AniDifrancoAni Difranco
September 8th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
High-toned humanitarians constantly overestimate the sufferings of those they sympathize with.HenryLouisMenckenHenry Louis Mencken
September 8th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.ErnestHemingwayErnest Hemingway, A Farewell To Arms
September 8th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it is lost.CharlesCalebColtonCharles Caleb Colton
September 9th, 2008 at 5:32 am
The most successful ideological effects are those which have
September 9th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next.GildaRadnerGilda Radner
September 9th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
It seems to me that if you or I must choose between two courses of thought or action, we should remember our dying and try so to live that our death brings no pleasure on the world.JohnSteinbeckJohn Steinbeck, East of Eden
September 9th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what other men say in whole books–what other men do not say in whole books.FriedrichWilhelmNietzscheFriedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols