I am going out on a limb and say that we all would like to live longer. I know I do.   What would happen if we did? On the whole I believe things would be better if we all kept learning for 700 years. We live as long as we do because our age span has been most successful for the species to adapt and survive. Yet today we live just long enough to forget the collective gains we have made in our civilization and allow immortal institutions to continue their self interest beyond our grave. Civilization seems to inherit more legends and mysticism than facts. I believe that the human life span may be the key factor in determining the progress and enlightenment of the entire species. Wouldn't it be nice if we could ask Benjamin Franklin, Lincoln (If he had missed the play) or Mark Twain, just exactly what happened and whatthey are thinking now?

Time is what you make it but certain groups have always used specific time scales. The ruling class seem to base decisions for their family on a multi generational basis. The middle class works toward the well being of their immediate children and the poor live day by day. As immortal as certain power wielding groups may be, they still seem to make a few short sighted stupid decisions. Long lived individuals could certainly be as irrational in the long run as we are in the short run but at least there would be time for them to know better Getting rich quick and not caring a whit for the future would lose some of its appeal since we would have to live in that future with all its consequences.


   If we lived to the age of 700 instead of 70, imagine how different Veteran's Day or Memorial Day might look. Most of us might avoid repeating the same war every two generations. We could remember the great mistakes and work hard to avoid making them again. We would clearly see a slow motion class war or environmental problem in a new perspective. Maybe history won't have to repeat itself as we do now by repeating the abuses of the Gilded Age. Maybe the argument that the public isn't ready for some profound disclosure would lose its rationale. I always believed that transparency is best.


   Whatever my kids experience, immediately becomes their social cultural norm.   For example if we all had flying saucers in the garage, your teenager would think it quite normal to ask "Hey Dad, can I borrow the saucer tonight?" The words the young learn along with their new definitions become the way they view the world.   I remember the same words and definitions had a nearly opposite meaning 40 years ago thanks to Orwellian think tank projects. I am 58 but I remember a much different American norm than our newest generations.



   I remember when one bread winner was sufficient for a household. I remember that a January thaw meant that we had temperatures in the high 30's, instead of a 75 degree winter heat wave. I remember that there were no thunder snow storms. I remember we made steel.   I remember President Eisenhower warning against something he called the military industrial complex although we have many other names for it today. I remember what water vapor jet con trails used to look like. I remember that the police were our neighbors and known to everyone instead of faceless SWAT teams conducting 60 missions a day across the country. I remember that vote fraud was a regional oddity instead of the norm.




   I remember when a businessman failed and looted his business he was punished instead of being rewarded by golden parachutes. I remember being beaten in the high school locker room after I said in class that Red China was making incredible progress. I remember a sickening racial and gender discrimination. I remember an endless Viet Nam war and people demonstrating at virtually every University and city across the nation.   I remember that the very idea of trashing science was unpatriotic and stupid on its face.


   I remember being sent to the Jr. High principal's office for writing an essay on evolution and then again when I made a clay female nude in art class. I remember seeing films of a million American soldiers sent to defeat militaristic nations that were based largely on state corporations, mysticism, eugenics, torture, bio weapons and mass murder. I remember loud mouthed demagogues and their shills were paid the equivalent of hundreds of millions of dollars… well some things haven't changed.


If overpopulation could be solved fairly and humanely,
(Aye, there's the rub)
I believe that a healthy 700 year life span for human beings would provide clarity for civilizations on the Planet Earth and worlds beyond.



   There will be lots of changes of course. Some of you might have a 680th wedding anniversary or people you would like to see go, won't.   Youthful indiscretion might actually extend to 55. Surely there is no fool like an old fool but if we lived longer we might all know what is truly foolish and what bears fruit in our inherited garden of Eden. With recent breakthroughs, we may have to decide sooner than we think if we want to live longer … and if we are not careful, it too will be a reserved secret for a select few like Pat Robertson, Bill Gates or George Bush.

with best regards Don Hakman