Meerkat Prompts: Long Life
What are your thoughts on the concept of living a very long life?
There’s a bit to unpack about this question. ‘Very long’ could be defined as living to 90 years of age, 100 years of age, or how about living a thousand years? Ten thousand years? A million years? Let’s face it, anything beyond the maximum recorded lifespan of the human being would place us into uncertain, uncharted territory, and there are all sorts of circumstances that would make this hard to process.
Let’s throttle back. I don’t have anything against the concept of living to 90 or 100. Well, naturally quality of life plays a part. I wouldn’t want to be a decrepit shell, and a burden on others. I hope we can develop the tools to be stronger and fitter for longer, as this would make living longer more worthwhile.
If we take a look at the ethereal notion of an extraordinarily long life, then we find ourselves looking at similar thoughts and feelings toward immortality. There’s the problem of losing everyone you love to the passage of time. The emotional and psychological ramifications of this are hard to even imagine; all I can think is that it would be crippling, though what would frighten me is also the prospect of forgetting the people I mourn. I fear that a long enough period of time might lead me to do precisely that, possibly as a defence mechanism against the pain.
Other, practical concerns would rear their ugly heads. If you age, then eventually you’ll be a walking corpse, which is hardly discrete! If you don’t, then this will raise questions. Anyone minded to investigate will be curious as to how the same person could be present in photos taken across several centuries. What would you do about employment, homes, etc? What happens about finances? Can you accumulate new skills? I think in such circumstances, the wisest course of action would be to stay in the shadows, quietly avoiding scrutiny. However, another problem would emerge. I cannot speak for everyone, but I fear I would grow lonely, and miss companionship. Then again, I might fear the pain of losing loved ones again more, and thus remain isolated.
Now, what do these thoughts tell us? They tell me that the only truly worthwhile way to have an extraordinarily long life is if everyone else does too, in order to share it with those that you love. Otherwise, it would be a miserable experience, and one that would have you questioning whether or not you were cursed. That’s my two cents on this prompt.
