Utopia
Forget the impulse to say, “Ah, a perfect society would be boring.” It is true that without anything to contrast evil or wrongdoing you cannot effectively determine goodness or altruism to its greatest measure. Yet, imagine a world where political structures actually served the people in the most efficient way possible? Imagine then the citizens of that world accepting they cannot have everything their way all of the time. Imagine no famine, no disease, no violent crimes, no drug overdoses, no psychological or sexual abuse. Not to keep John Lennoning with all these imagines, but imagine that world for a while. Utopia. Everybody is content with their lot in life. Everybody’s dreams are realized. The human race only endeavors to discover more about itself and the universe, to increase science, to calm religious fanaticism, to achieve perfection in everything. I don’t find it as terrifying as some have envisioned—that somehow we’d need to be stripped of our identities in order to achieve the utopian ideal. Negative traits should be amputated from everybody for the good of everybody. Leave every worthwhile trait behind. “And who makes that outrageous decision?” cries the fuming libertarian. Well, that’s the fantasy part. The ideal is discovered and through struggle, agreement and / or reconciliation, it is then employed and we’re all made into more productive, beautiful creatures.
Immortality
Give me a break about the trials of immortality. Often you see the sullen vampire lament for the days of being human, where its flesh and innards could slowly rot or become diseased. To hell with that. I want to see the future. One hundred years is not enough. A thousand is not enough. It would be far more exciting if people chose their own deaths: when, where and why. Suicide would be a civic duty. If you’re bored, you are free to go. If you want to hang out until the end of the universe, it’s all good.
Traveling at the speed of light
Alien planets are only getting farther away from us. If we’re going to supersize our imprint on the universe, lightspeed must be achieved soon. I’m not asking much. Lightspeed still doesn’t get you around the universe as quickly as necessary to make trips to potential living worlds. With this option though, we could infest other planets and grow as a species, perhaps signaling other evolutionary paths. Hey, at some point, we might arrive to a planet and come upon a life-form we consider alien but is only a later version of homo sapien that got stranded there. I want twisted stuff like that to happen and freak people out. Without traveling at the speed of light though, we’re just circling the toilet bowl, waiting for our sun to go hypernova. Get on it astrophysicists!