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Tithonus, a mere mortal, was bestowed with the gift of immortality. His lover, Aurora, Goddess of the Dawn, persuaded Zeus to grant Tithonus this endless life, but in carelessness she neglected youth in her request. Painfully, Aurora watched Tithonus, King of the Trojans, age until he lost use of his body and was locked away in a chamber. Aurora, no longer able to listen to her lover's cries, turned Tithonus into a grasshopper.
Today, as man discovers new ways to extend life long after Nature intended, we must decide whether long-life is boon or bane. It is only human nature to become bored over time and to seek the unknown. This inherent yearning, to see what our fathers did not, certainly compelled explorers like Magellan and Newton, and fuels man's perpetual fascination with the heavens that unites all men. If man somehow stretched life over a thousand years, imagine the implications. A child born today, over a millennium, might see the end of world hunger, AIDs, and poverty, but he would also watch the world of his youth change, and his loved ones pass on. In consequence, he must grieve for their loss long past a time any contemporary man would bare. Do you know someone you could love for a thousand years? What field of study could hold you for ten centuries? Would there be any such passion left to satisfy human's inherent boredom after ten hundred years?
Today, as man discovers new ways to extend life long after Nature intended, we must decide whether long-life is boon or bane. It is only human nature to become bored over time and to seek the unknown. This inherent yearning, to see what our fathers did not, certainly compelled explorers like Magellan and Newton, and fuels man's perpetual fascination with the heavens that unites all men. If man somehow stretched life over a thousand years, imagine the implications. A child born today, over a millennium, might see the end of world hunger, AIDs, and poverty, but he would also watch the world of his youth change, and his loved ones pass on. In consequence, he must grieve for their loss long past a time any contemporary man would bare. Do you know someone you could love for a thousand years? What field of study could hold you for ten centuries? Would there be any such passion left to satisfy human's inherent boredom after ten hundred years?
posted by Jab at 1:21 AM
2 Comments:
Endymion and Selene? Doom of the Elves/Tolkein? Can you further the blog with the messages from these? What of Ragnarok? If we live for eternity, are we not doomed to a ride on the "Flying Dutchman?". Cannot the greatest value of our lives be in our "ephermeralness?"
This is a novel thought. To think that even after the short lifetime of mine, I am no longer interested in those things I was interested in a few years ago. Can we ever find ourselves in a situation that we will forever be intrigued?
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