Freedom & Deathless World

 

I am in terrible pain, I have back pain and have been on bed rest for the past couple of days and in that pain when something like Deathless Existence crossed my screen, my first reaction was more of anger. I would rather be free of the pain right now than live with it and then I saw the video posted by Interesting Engineering on LinkedIn. Then I learned it is a combination of genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, brain interface and some very complicated-sounding concept can expect us to live beyond our human existence as early as 2050. https://bit.ly/2Hi2gCm

Isn’t this amazing, freedom from any kind of pain? I would love that right now. There is a catch though. The film talked about stalling cell growth so that people can live up to 200 years. Now that is where I started to get a bit uncomfortable. We have already been talking about 40 is the new 20, 60 is now 40, etc. A view to invigorate our spirit of life as we age. The concept of not getting older but younger is nearer than one imagines.

One cannot begin to realize the implication of this on our already worn-out planet.  I am going to optimistic though. How will this deathless existence work-

1. -         Freedom from pain and health issue
2. -         Increase productivity and efficiency
3.        Freedom to fulfil their dreams

 I was running out of positives so I asked my son, Abhay. The last point was his and then he left me with another pertinent question, ‘Will it really be a human existence as we know it?’

The answer baffles me. We are living in a free world, at least some of us. People from time immemorial have been trying to live forever. The Immortalist, as they are called, want to believe in the science of increase the life span.

The amazing part of this discussion is not whether there  will be a technology in the near future that will help us live longer, but whether my children will have the freedom to exercise the choice to live life as they deem fit.

The key to freedom is not how we utilize it, but more importantly, what we leave for the next generation to work on, our freedom is our legacy.