I recently had a game of what would you wish for with a group of friends. I got the relatively common answers such as lots of money a new car etc etc. One of my friends said he would wish for immortality because he wanted to see what things would be like 100 years from now. Although this is a perfectly reasonable wish it got me thinking. What would immortality truly be like? As usual my mind went into overdrive and started thinking of the different possibilities in which immortality would present itself. The first was the common conception of immortal youth which would be ok but my second thought got me the most worried. What if you aged as normal but never died this means that your strength would gradually leave your body you may possibly lose your eyesight and your hearing like many old people do. You would end up effectively becoming a soul trapped in a fleshy coffin wishing for death. Sounds ironic doesn’t it.
However the idea of eternal youth seemed to have problems of its own. Imagine seeing all your friends and family dying before your eyes in effect seeing them age and waste away in front of your eyes. You would be expected to bear the misery of this pain each time you married, had children or made new friends. This anguish and pain taken time and time again would be enough for most people to wish for death or at the very least cause the immortal to become a hermit and live on his own away from people so he does have to endure the pain of seeing a loved one die. There is also a great chance that he would witness countless wars and atrocities which could in effect break his spirit and consequently his trust in humans. All these outcomes seemed very bleak so i thought to myself there must be some good to come out of this. Then i remembered a joke someone had texted me.
“A vicar asks is there anyone in this church who has no enemies the congregation look at each other when a very old woman stands up and says vicar i have no enemies. The vicar slightly bemused asks her are you sure? Course I’m sure replies the woman I’ve outlived all the bitches”
It’s slightly sad if you think about it, that this was one of the good points of immortality but even if all your current enemies die there’s a high probability that you would pick up a few new ones along the way. Another good thing to witness probably would be the advancement of the human race whether it is technological or social. This would seem pretty awesome for the average sci-fi geek but if you thought about it in a rational way there’s a chance that you wouldn’t really think of the changes as great achievements when they actually happened. Let me illustrate this point by using a life example. Imagine that someone puts on 2 stones in weight over the course of 6 months if you saw this person every day you probably wouldn’t notice it but if you hadn’t seen this person since before they put weight on you would automatically notice the extra weight they were carrying. Similarly technological advancements don’t seem all that great when they’ve been phased into your life bit by bit. So all in all immortality doesn’t seem to be as good as it’s portrayed to be in the media. So always remember be careful what you wish for because the gift may turn into a curse.
