Who wants to live forever?

It's the title of a song, Who wants to live forever. From the film Highlander, it's poignancy is paramount in the words. Love can be forever, forever is today. 

I want this song played at my funeral. I love the lyrics, I love the haunting lilting tune and I love the song's sentiments. It sings to me and I'd like to think people will remember me. But do I want to live forever in reality? To be honest, not if the world is like it is now.

I've always said to my sons that they are so lucky to be able to see so many wonderful inventions and marvelous leaps over boundaries of scientific and engineering feats. Technology is speeding along in it's evolution, and who knows what the future will be like if we carry on as we are. Mind you who knows what the future will bring if we carry on destroying the actual earth we are living on? It's a balancing act that has been going on for always and right now we could be teetering, with a little wobble, over the wrong edge if we are not careful. There have never been so many people on this planet. There has never been technology like we have now. There has never been intense farming like we have now. There has never been such a delicate balancing act as we have now.

We are a clever people. There is no doubt that we can invent to our hearts content. That there are minds so amazingly talented that they can calculate all sorts of equations to help us improve our lives. *We Think, Therefore We Are. Is the future of our planet science fiction or reality. Which way we will go is down to the super minds that steer us in any direction they deem right for mankind. Inventions empower our lives, and we trundle along without a care while all around us gradually crumbles because we are not looking at the bigger picture. 

We need to slow down and really take stock of what the future may hold if we carry on like we are. As a people we always seem to be striving for the next best thing, the next improvement, the next everything and anything. Maybe we should take a look at what we have right now? There is always going to be something that appears better, bigger, more enticing, than what we have now, and so it should be if we are to evolve in to having a better world. But maybe the way we are going right now is not quite the be all and end all it seems? Maybe we should do a little turn to the right or the left and look at other options than we appear to be heading for? 

There has already been concern for the future of the actual planet we live on, and scientists appear to suggest that at some point the way we live now will become unsustainable and we will have to move. Recently there have been huge demonstrations about climate change, and they way we could be destroying the very planet we need to live on. If we don't do something soon there could be no planet left to live on! So move to where? Move to the stars maybe? Well that has to be a long way in to the future, because right now we heve no where near the technology to get to any planet that can sustain us. Who gets to chose who goes anyway? Who gets to chose when we go? Who gets to chose if we go? Do we want to go? Why not just change the way we are living right now so our planet can survive? The earth has sustained itself for thousands of years. We have a fabulous eco system that works extraordinarily well without our input. There really is only one problem, and that is people. We live for today and not for the future. In fact the earth is an inheritance we will pass on to our children and subsequent generations, so maybe it's time we look at what we are doing to actually make that future happen?

So would I want to live forever? Not right now. Not if we carry on the way we are going? I can't see a future I'd want to live in if it turns out like Blade Runner!! Depressing in the extreme. The future is bright, but only if we pause and take a proper look at the options instead of carrying on the way we are. Lets try and leave a proper legacy for those that come after us...…………

*We Think, Therefore We Are is a science fiction anthology of new short stories edited by Peter Crowther, the sixth in his themed science fiction anthology series for DAW Books. The main topic of the fifteen stories in the book is artificial intelligence. The introduction is written by Paul McAuley.

Who Wants To Live Forever - Queen

There's no time for us
There's no place for us
What is this thing that builds our dreams, yet slips away from us

Who wants to live forever
Who wants to live forever . . .?
Oh ooo oh
There's no chance for us
It's all decided for us
This world has only one sweet moment set aside for us

Who wants to live forever
Who wants to live forever
Ooh
Who dares to love forever
Oh oo woh, when love must die

But touch my tears with your lips
Touch my world with your fingertips
And we can have forever
And we can love forever
Forever is our today

Who wants to live forever
Who wants to live forever
Forever is our today
Who waits forever anyway?

Songwriters: Brian May
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For non-commercial use only.