Scientific Breakthroughs for the Average Jane

"50 is the new ... 7, you know."

Sometimes I wonder if "technology" and "progress" are really so great for mankind. Sure we live longer - that means more of us scrabble for less resources in a dirtier world. What's so wrong with living in tents and caves and dying young? I'd rather live hard in clean wilderness and die at 30, than live like a slug in cancerous fumes and hang on uselessly til I'm 98.

Then again I can definitely see a future where we really don't age. Have you ever noticed that if you don't go out into the polluted atmosphere you don't really need to shower daily? And I know a couple of doctors who told me about how incredibly young some patients in psychiatric wards looked: 80 year-olds who looked 30. Makes me think about the characters in the OT who lived to be 900 and beyond.

I figure scientists will eventually invent some sort of molecular repellent that prevents molecules of dirt from hitting our bodies. They might even be able to use that technology to eliminate the need for umbrellas, sunscreen or scuba diving equipment.

Of course, we are already on the cusp of using our bodies as portable computer chips so we can plug in anywhere, be identified, use our personal electrical codes in place of keys and locks. If we can figure out how to harness our body fat into energy & fuel a la the Matrix we will have portable renewable resources as long as we are alive.

I'm waiting for holographic two-way communication so I can sit at a cafe in Malibu and have lunch with my buddies in Brooklyn or Hawaii, or watch my nephews skiing in Montana (whilst wearing a bikini since my body fat would have been converted into fuel for my solar vehicle and the molecular ultra-v repellent would keep me safe from malignant melanomas). That would be awesome.

And they're already working on cultured meat - flesh without the whole slaughtering-someone-with-eyeballs-who-is-screaming-in-pain part. That brings up some interesting ethical questions, including would I continue to be a vegetarian?

Hmm. Maybe this whole science tech thing does have some redeemable value...if we don't blow each other into a nuclear holocaust first.