A future I care for..

Like most people, I have been asked many times that age old question of how long i want to live, and every time my answer is the same: as long as I possibly can! If asked to give specifics, I would say a 100 years! Immediately the shake of the head follows, and the usual reply goes like, 'You dont wanna live longer than 70-75 at the most, because then the quality of life goes down so much that life becomes too much of an embarrassment to go on.' One cant really argue with this assertion, because to be frank it is quite true, and a visit to any old age home will testify to that. But then one day, while surfing the web, I come across this image, and my mind is drawn away to all the fantastic visuals drawn in my mind by scores of Sci-fi authors, and I can clearly see those flying cars, the robots, the awe-inspiring, blow your mind away technological developments that are sure to be a part and parcel of our lives in the future. My skin starts tingling and I can feel the awakening of that deep thirst in me to see and experience what science holds in store for us, what great advances in technology the world will witness, how man will endeavor to make our planet Earth a safer and more beautiful place to live in.

But then inevitably my mind is also drawn to how much we are affecting our world in a negative way; all those species of plants and animals lost to us everyday, as we ravage our planet to satisfy every one of our needs and desires. I wonder if future generations would ever be witness to the fantastic variety of flora and fauna that our planet is home to today, or whether the zoo would be their only peek into the Earth that once was. I am conflicted now, at once drawn to see the wonders that science surely has in store for us,

and also repelled by how ugly and artificial that future world might be. For truly, is there anything more beautiful than a humpback whale breaching the surface of the sea? Is there any sound our musical instruments can make that can match the beauty of a songbird breaking into song at the onset of a new spring day? It would truly be a tragedy if in the pursuit of better lives for ourselves, we make the diversity and beauty of our planet a mere sacrifice at the altar of scientific development.

So when people say that a long life has only senility and lack of self respect at the end of it, that doesn't really scare me at all. What truly scares me is that one day, I might be witness to a world without beauty, a beauty that only mother nature can produce, and we can never hope to even mimic. If this is what the world has to offer me, then I'd rather die while mother nature still breathes.