Peter Rhodes on Putin's war, eternal life and dying of optimism
Cambridge University has set up a unit to study research on prolonging human life, perhaps for ever.
This prompts commentator Dominic Lawson to admit he fancies the idea of eternal life. He confesses: “The idea of being dead petrifies me.” And of course, he's not alone. On balance I think I'm happier as a warm, sentient being writing this column than a cadaver rotting in a box. By just about any yardstick, composing is better than decomposing.
In my experience, people who claim to have no fear of death actually have either no imagination or a pretty shaky grasp on the truth. I recall many years ago a moment of blinding veracity in an editorial conference as we discussed a reader who had just reached her centenary. “Seriously,” asked one bright young hack, “who wants to live to be 100?” An old hack replied: “Just ask anyone who's 99.”
