Op-Ed: Want to Live Forever?

August 7, 2008

The first words in Ed Wood’s infamously awful masterpiece Plan 9 From Outer Space are, “Greetings, my friend. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives.” That line has been ringing in my head for weeks. It seems to miss its own point: Time goes only one way; everything takes place in the future.

Speaking with people involved with the loosely connected movements of life extension, transhumanism and singularitarianism, I kept returning to that Plan 9 quote. Its stupidity melted away, leaving something similar to a Zen koan. (Hartford Advocate)