On Radical Life Extension, Boredom and Interest

You can find this comment beneath the recent Slashdot post on the M Prize $1,000,000 goal:

...You need an analogy to make it all clear.

I will play for you the most wondrous song that you have ever heard. It will be a song to stir the soul, and make the angels weep in joy for the beauty of it all.

But, here's the catch. I will now renege on my promise and play you only a small part. A fraction of a part. A fraction of that fraction.

This fraction has been rendered so short, that all beauty has been stolen. There is no context, there is no continuance. You will never be able to appreciate the song at all from this snippet, but only get a sense of what majesty you had the possibility to experience.

Tell me: out of the million million fractional slices of this wondrous song of the Ages - which should I play you?

Oh, wait. You don't know; you can't know. And there is almost no point in experiencing it, if that is all you will get.

Life's something like that :)

Alternatively, people may just be happy to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon doing nothing, and would appreciate the opportunity to have a million more of those rainy Sundays to spend in exactly the same way :)

I've spoken about boredom and healthy life extension before, but I think the above comment hits all the right notes. Life is a wonderful thing when you have your health - more of it can only be good.

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