Parts

I used to worry about my body parts sagging; these days, I’m just happy if they don’t fall off!

So, which will be the first to be replaced?  Knee?  Hip?  Shoulder?  Maybe I can make it to the finish line (that’s death), without a spare, but I guess we’ll see—or could see, I guess, if I need a new cornea or whatever.

Things wear out: jeans have a lifespan of a couple years; a toothbrush goes after about three months; there is that bottle of ranch dressing that’s been in the refrigerator for a decade at least, but other than that, everything has an expiration date, so I guess if you live long enough, there is not alternative—other than not living long enough.

Eventually, a person could go almost full cyborg: new knees, hips, a couple cornea, internal organs, too.  I don’t know.  Replace the brain, too, and become an android.  I’m sure there’s a billionaire out there working on that very scenario.

Honestly, I can’t see the appeal of living forever.  It’s hard enough to carry on from day to day; the prospect of doing so forever, especially as a brain in a vat or a disembodied neural network is about as appealing as solitary confinement, which—come to think about it—is essentially what that would be.  No thanks.

If there were a god who was a better designer than the one who some theists allege did the work on this Universe then you’d think they’d have made the human body modular.  Just unscrew the arm and install a new one.  I did a similar repair on the water regulator in my toilet yesterday; that sort of design seems like a no-brainer, frankly.

Or why not have human limbs be able to take root like cuttings from your simplest houseplant.  Drop an arm in a glass of water for a couple of weeks and grow a whole new me.

One that blooms, too!