Okay but yeah, power rangers... mm....
I've just been over at a friend's place, celebrating his birthday. I brought a game along, like I always do. It's almost tradition now. We go to each other's houses and try out a new game. In this case, it was Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. I hadn't tried it before, as my computer is unable to read the disc. So we booted it up and got started.
Now I just need to say... That game, is freakin' awesome. It totally makes you want to go buy 3-eyed green night-vision goggles. And I'm still fighting the urge to pick up an imaginary gun and pop a lightbulb. Sneaking around, strangling guards, doing sick stuff to their bodies. Including setting them in suggestive positions, and then... Never mind. Don't listen. Necrophiliac jokes are funny. No, really. Everything is funny, until it happens to you. Still, something tells me if that someday in the future I find out that my dead body is being used to satisfy some sick urges, I'd probably laugh. I mean, what use do I have for a rotting corpse?
Okay... so in relation to today's topic... I'll list a few things that I dream of.
1) Having eidetic memory. The ability to remember everything and anything upon observation. Why? Because it's just awesome. Take 5 minutes to flip through a novel, then you can read it from your mind anywhere you go. Watch a video and replay it over and over inside your brain. Browse a textbook and score full marks for biology. Never forget a formula, never forget a quote. I will no longer have a need to rack my brains to think of something I saw a while ago. Some people actually do have eidetic memory, like Nikola Tesla. I can't remember the others. You see, that's why I need it. It's supposed to be a thing that can be achieved by attaining a large amount of experience in a certain field. Still, it only gives you eidetic memory of that field. What I wish for is something most people would count as witchcraft. To become a human encyclopedia, dictionary, and reference book. I will be a massive information storage device. In my eyes, the ultimate incarnation of knowledge in the human form.
2) Becoming a geneticist. Genes, the blueprints of life. Like a template, allowing for inexorably complex processes to happen. The wonder of genes is just one thing... what I'm thinking of, is what you can do with them. Genetic manipulation. It's already been done in simple organisms. Splicing a chromatid segment from one organism, putting it into another. Creating hybrids, wondrous and fascinating beasts. Fish that glow in the dark, protozoa that produce insulin. How much further can we go? Will we one day be able to manipulate genes directly? We already have gene inhibitors, preventing malfunctioning genes from exerting their effects. Why not actual, direct, concrete manipulation? What if we somehow tweak the billions of codon pairs, and give ourselves added abilities? No, I am not obsessed with Heroes. And I'm not talking about telekinesis and flight, I'm talking about faster metabolisms for overweight people, cures for genetic diseases. No more down's. Not to mention boosting brainpower, eliminating mental retardation, and even extending life? The possibilities are limitless, only bound by the imagination. And I hope to be one of those making it possible. Also, it may help me attain eidetic memory. Teehee.
3) A state-of-the-art gaming computer, with an ultra-fast internet connection. Okay, getting shallow here, but it's something that I really want. Not much to say here.
4) To someday solve a great mystery. When I die, I hope that things won't get sticky for me. No, that was not a necrophilia reference. I mean, let's say there is an afterlife. A Heaven, if you want. And let's say that God is really sitting up there watching me type this going "Of little faith, he is." What? Yoda? ... All that stuff about non-believers burning in hell... it's not nice, really. Okay, so I die, and my soul(which has to exist, if there is an afterlife) goes somewhere. Judgment. During that judgment will I be seen as a non-believer, condemned for being skeptical? Or will I be accepted, as I have upheld good morals and led a good life? And if so, will it be explained to me, why so? I mean, that would probably help me with all the gaps in scripture.
But what if, no? There is no afterlife, no divine being? What if science wins? If science is true, then after I am dead, I will no longer care about anything. I will have ceased to exist. My brain, would have stopped functioning. Electrical impulses would no longer flow through it. Medically dead. Without a brain, I will be unable to form conscious thought. Or any thought at all. No longer will I wonder about my fate, and no longer would I care. I will have simply, disappeared. In all senses, that's not such a bad thing. Can a dead person know that he's dead?
I must know.
For now, I'll just stick with the current meaning of life...
-Joe