I mean, like that would be 5+ pounds of Daim chocolate.
Right now I am tired and sick. I don't really like that I am tired and sick. Anyway, I'm thinking about death right now. Not about what happens after death, but death itself. I am wondering why people have to die.
I mean, think about it. Why can't we keep generating fresh tissue, like when we were born. Why do we grow old and weak. I mean, it doesn't have to be that way. The only reason it is that way is because, well, it is that way. But look, there was a time when we were just one cell that started dividing. If one cell can become a human, why can't a human stay a human? It seems like each cell could have the ability to create new cells. I know that some do, but some don't.
In case anybody is misinterpreting this, I will clarify that I think death is a good thing. For one thing, I don't really want to live forever. And for another thing, if everybody lived forever, there would be no room for new-borns. What I don't understand is why nobody has come up with a way to maintain youth forever by re-growing tissue. I guess it is just way more complicated than I think it is. But I mean, if one cell is able to become a body over a few months, why can't we look at how it does that? Or I guess we already have.
I don't know. It seems to me that it shouldn't be too hard a thing to change. I'm glad it's harder than I think it is, because, as I said, I like death. But still. Weird. Does anybody know specific reasons for this? Other than lame "tradition" explanations saying things like "biological matter is imperfect." That isn't an explanation. That's just a cop-out. Please spare me.
By the way, if you are thinking "but Matt, it is imperfect," I want you to know that I already know that. However, I don't see why it can't be perfect. I see that it isn't, but that's because we were created by evolution, not by intelligence. We now in theory have the power to evolve intelligently, whether we want to use that power or not. Therefore, why is it considered impossible for us to be perfect?
Actually, in general, I kind of have a problem with perfection. I realise that this is a complete tangent to what I was saying earlier, but I want to say it. Everybody says that nobody is perfect. And I understand that, yes indeed, nobody is perfect. But why? Why can't we be perfect. After all, is perfection anything other than constant mindfulness? I mean, if you are completely mindful of everything you do, you don't make mistakes (unless you don't know what you are doing). Maybe the reason is because no one can possibly always know what they are doing 100%. But then, why not. Everything has a limit. I think perfection is a finite, attainable thing. Just with a lot of difficulty.
Prove me wrong!
5 comments:
If people didn't die then we would over populate the planet and it would be more crowded, sweaty, gross and smelly. Fuck that. I got about 2,000 people from WCC to take out now.
Thanks for the inspiration Matt!
Brian says "Some of us ARE perfect." Uh, and he's not joking.
Who is perfect? Nobody comes to mind.
And like I said, I'm not anti-death. I'm just saying that the whole death problem seems like it should be easier to solve than I guess it actually is?
I am also saying that Reefer Madness the Movie Musical came in the mail a few days ago.
Brian is saying HE is perfect. Ahh nihalists
First of all, you implied that you think people shold use stem cells to regrow aging tissue. There are two problems with that. First is that aging is a systemic process. Stem cells are only useful in replacing ilsolated collections of a specific type of damaged tissue. In order to regrow all of an aging person's tissue, one would have to do thousands of procedures (injections? transplants?)in order to replace all, or even a large fraction of the damaged tissue. Secondly, stem cells are taken from people who have a different genetic code than the patient, which puts the cells at risk for being rejected by the patient's immune system. If you're replacing most of your bodymass with newer, foreign cells, you'll go into shock and probably die, that is if you survive the procedure itself.
Also, aging is a mysterious thing. Nobody know exactly what causes it. One theory is that the proteins that keep the ends of chromosomes from fraying (it might be called a tele-something or other) stops working after a while, and as result your DNA basically becomes screwed up in general, and harder to read. Then of course there's a the radiation bombarding our cells every day, knocking electrons out of or base pairs.
As far as perfection goes, I believe that there are far too many catch 22s in life for it to be possible for even the wisest person alive to make the right decision in everything.
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