...I Would Live *Forever*...

I would live forever. I would live to seed the stars. Why, I'd live to see the glad demise of petrol-burning cars!

I'd dare exist in silent space in cities that we built.

I would sip a comet's water. I would farm that comet's silt.

The Earth would be a garden when her language we could speak. We would decrease human numbers... "Less is more," is my critique.

At last, when churlish kidneys went the way of facile flesh?

We'd switch out two "brand new"ones; I'd continue—be refreshed!

I'd needed brand new kidneys, and my fellows used the rest. Flesh is more respected, see; respect's now in neglect!

...I'd live to see our "Asteroid Belt" restructured living space.

We'd build it and not take it... ...to ameliorate our prior disgrace...

We'd treat each other decently. We'd live for one another. The Earth herself? ...A living thing! We would treat her like our Mother.

We'd take her lesson to the stars. We're creatures of her art!

We'd live like we had common sense; we'd live like we had heart.

...And once we had this change of mind, the skies would open wide; we'd find it filled with stellar folk... ...strange folk who used to hide.

Though now they'd hide no longer, see?  We'd discarded errant shame...

 To see them as we'd see ourselves, self-aware and sane.

• lehmberg2002@gmail.com
• http://www.alienview.net/

So, they engineered a cloned frog without a head… Yes! I want it. Please continue the research. I'll pay the freight, psychological and pecuniary, on spec... ...but, at your peril! 

Create nothing with even the barest potential for the remotest consciousness! I'm a player only when it's me paying for it. If I have to die... ...well, I have to die, don't I.

...But, I should be able to grow my own replacement flesh—I would live *forever*. I will answer the ethical questions as I go along at select points in the next few thousand years, and that ongoing quest will be driven by asking who has to pay so ...I... can *play*.  Do you grok the implication, reader?

Consider longevity juxtaposed with population... I can cop to the egregious perils of overpopulation; most can't or won't at any level of our society, especially on the institutional, governmental, or ecumenical levels... To cop is to sacrifice, to sacrifice is to endure... enduring we explore... ...that part of the universe created to know itself... ...herself? So, where to go...

A lot of living space can be made from our ring of asteroids. We could be a shining bracelet around our star, just to keep things in perspective. If we can think it, it can be so. Who says we're not God.

You know? The only real way to ensure a quality human being may be to bring the total number of humans down to a level where individual humans are assured of some respect... ...to start! Love the fetus, sure! But only if you love the child too... ...and then the nursing home denizens these children grow into.  Consider, instead. 

Individually sire only once. Do this and our population is painlessly curbed in a single generation, no muss no fuss!  The individual is key!

This is an individual thing. It is from this individuality that teams of real quality have their provenance. Can't you feel it? Again, the individual is key.

...Living *forever* does not seem to add to that. Or does it? Can it? Should it?  I would find out. Scary.

Still...I'd live longer than I'm presently *allowed*. Not because I'm scared to die so much... no, that's a terror of the known unknown. It's because I missed so much of what was here. You know? Space, Time... Surface area?

Out in the asteroid belt, I'd live as far as I could *see*. Unfettered consciousness is a precious, precious thing... ...at the very least it should be.

Read on.