Someone wrote in to FORTUNE magazine regarding its story on resveratrol (the molecule found in the skin of red grapes that could have potentially anti-aging effects) and suggested that there is a case against extreme longevity: “Put me out of my misery. I no longer want to deal with Bush, his administration, the do-nothing Congress, the right wing, and America’s fundamentalists. The drug I want developed will grow a spine in those people, as well as those in health care, sufficient to make systemic changes in the expensive, time-consuming, wasteful, confusing health care provided in this country.”
Well said! We need a drug not to ensure longevity, but to combat stupidity.
Related post:
What if you could live forever?
Totally agree with the combat of stupidity.
Interestingly, wife and I watched the movie ‘The Fountain’ last weekend, starring Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz. A very deep story about love and mortality. Its a like it or don’t kind of movie.
Anyway, just wanting to share this from wikipedia, from the director for the movie –
The Fountain begins with a quote from Genesis 3:24, the Biblical passage that reflects the fall of man. Hugh Jackman emphasizes the importance of the fall in the film: “The moment Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge, or good and evil, humans started to experience life as we all experience it now, which is life and death, poor and wealthy, pain and pleasure, good and evil. We live in a world of duality.
Husband, wife, we relate everything. And much of our lives are spent not wanting to die, be poor, experience pain. It’s what the movie’s about.”
Darren Aronofsky had also interpreted the story of Genesis as the definition of mortality for humanity. He inquired of the fall, “If they had drank from the tree of life [instead of the tree of knowledge] what would have separated them from their maker? So what makes us human is actually death. It’s what makes us special.”