Quick review of "The Cell"

The review is here.

Time

Our perception of time slows as we get older - no surprise there. In his experiment Michio Kaku shows that young people asked to estimate a minute are generally short of the target (less than 60 seconds) whereas older people generally exceed the target (greater than 60 seconds). So as we get older our internal clock move from running fast to running slow. Other changes occur as well - we age. These changes give us a sense of how long we have left before our clock stops altogether. When you're young, fifty or sixty years remaining is two to three times the life you've experienced so far. When you older 10 or 20 years remaining is less that half what you've experienced so far. We are all aware of our mortality, its in everything we do. We're also unique in this respect amongst all creation. There's lots of technical stuff about 'free radicals' (which reminds me of the line in James Bond "eliminate all free radicals") and mitochondria, very old parrots (not dead yet), and the sea urchin. The sea urchin apparently lives a VERY long time, and doesn't appear to age. So then we come to the big question. The nematode worm has been bread to live to twice its natural age. Would you choose for you children to live to 140+? Another professor reckons that in 20-30 years the elixir of youth will be found. Drink this and your body will become 30 years younger. You're not immortal an accident will get you eventually, perhaps on average you'll last 10,000 years.
This was the topic I wanted to cover for my Ethics essay, but couldn't find enough information. It raises so many questions. How will society change? What would your motivations be if there really was ALWAYS TOMORROW? How will we deal with the population issues? Would you keep on bringing up children, say one every 1000 years? How long does 1,000,000 years look when you're 100,000 years old? How would we ration this treatment - the usual way I expect, so a few rich people live 'forever' and the majority of the worlds population still die in their 40's?

but the big question is would you?

The program suggested that older people would and younger wouldn't - well at least not until they're older.

This may be the most frightening Sci-fi scenario ever.

would you?

Riding Lights at Christ Church (Pipe Dreams)

Rushed home from work on Thursday. I had even attended the last meeting in paper only mode, with the laptop already powered down and safely stowed in the ruck sack ready for travel. The church looked odd with the stage in the middle and the audience on both sides, but that's Riding Lights, always something different. We started in a New York Private Investigators office solving a suspicious death, found our way to London, and the to India, and finally Bolivia. The same four actors seamlessly changing roles and accents. Brilliantly enjoyable piece of theatre. It makes you think also. They say the next wars will be about water, not oil. If Riding Lights are to be believed 'they' are already too late, but you won't see the wars over water reported as wars in the press for just a while yet.


See it if you can!

Why was there a fire engine outside Christ Church the next day? I'll let you know, if or when I find out.

Pass

I have received a pass for my Ethics submission. The hardest thing I've done so far - its a big relief.