A More Promising Column
(From the Sunday Herald). There's hope for columnists yet - for every knee-jerk pro-death and suffering reaction, I see someone who understands the prospects for the future of health and longevity, even if not necessarily wholly supportive. "Do we really want to more than double the allotted biblical span? Most would say not, but most, I'm prepared to bet, are lying. After all, the predictions of increased life expectancy do not presume incapacity. ... Age, they report, is just another disease, and curable. What about that? ... If it implies a society that prefers conservatism to creativity and the occasional rebellion the game will have been worth less than the candle. ... But if it means centenarians saying that they are too busy to fight a stupid war this week, or that they remember only too clearly where the last political rebranding led, or that they have had it up to here with fads and social trends, I might just take the pills."