Bicentennial…or not?
How long would you like to live, given the option of living forever? I’m talking about life on earth- life in which the people you love die, and you just keep trucking.
I watched Bicentennial Man on Sunday night and wondered about the misery of such a life. In the movie, an android (robot that looks human) develops human emotions over the course of his 200-year life. He only dies when his body (with a lot of work) becomes more and more human-like and less electronic.
Earlier in the day, however, I had been looking at new laptops. My current laptop is about 3.5 years old, and it’s getting s-l-o-w. It either needs a time investment to clean up some of the junk it has acquired over the past few years, or it needs to be replaced.
By the time I finished the day, I was considering the huge assumptions that had to be made for the movie to work. First, you would have to assume that something electronic could continue to function for 200 years. How could an electronic item as complicated as a robot (turned android) not become so outdated and obsolete let alone be supported anymore for two centuries? Second, it would have to be able to heal itself- to get rid of any bugs, to fix any pieces that happened to break, and to keep its software running.
I’m no robot or android expert, and yes, I do understand that the movie is fiction. It did, however, leave me with a great sense of gratitude for the great work of our Creator. He did create bodies that lasted over 900 years; our bodies even now heal themselves naturally of an amazing range of illnesses. I was also convicted that I need to take care of myself. In comparison with the greatness of His work, caretaking is a small job!
June 25, 2009 at 10:10 pm
You should really read “In His Image” by Paul Brand. It’s a little nerdy but very cool, I think you’de really like it.