Live Long and Prosper

      2 Comments on Live Long and Prosper


It is with not a small amount of irony that “60 Minutes”, the show that airs at 19:00 every Sunday, presented a drug that is reported to prolong human life. It is remarkable that this fancy marvel of scientific achievement, Resveratrol, can nearly double the lifespan of all forms of life. This chemical, present in the skin of grapes, and therefore found in red wine, mimics the effects of a caloric restricted diet.

A what restricted diet? Yes, you got it right, “caloric restricted diet”. You eat much less, feel a little hungry and you live twice as long. Even more surprising is that scientists have known about this for a couple of decades.

So there are two ways to live longer. If you are in the Third world and living a subsistence diet, you have the ideal environment to live long and prosper. If you’re in the first world, you eat like a pig, buy and consume this drug, making the drug company rich, and thereby live long and prosper. Maybe the wealth of the first world is making us sick? We have too much, we therefore eat too much, and our riches prematurely put us in the grave. This allows the Third world to catch up with us. Brilliant.

How about having the best of both worlds. We are rich, force ourselves to eat less, put the money we save from not eating into entertainment. We are happier, and we live long and prosper. We would save so much in time required to prepare food. We would save money by buying much less food. There would be less gas used in the transportation of food from place to place. We would generate less waste that we would not need to truck to a landfill. We would waste less time shopping for food. And most importantly, we would be able to watch much fewer cooking shows on TV. That’s not productive, quality time. We also cannot let the Third world catch up to us. I’m glad we have all our priorities straight. What’s not to like here?

So will this strategy work? In the voice of an ancient Chinese philosopher, “You touch my tofu burger and I kill you.”. No, do not thrust thyself between any person and their meal, for they might bite you.

Where do I buy that pill?

2 thoughts on “Live Long and Prosper

  1. daviding

    Mortality is an interesting problem for human beings.

    If we were immortal, we would probably make decisions about our world in a different way, because we would have to live with the consequences of prior actions. It would be very annoying to see a great-great-grandson every week, and have him say “why did you act that way 100 years ago”?

    We’re all weak in the short term. We can criticize politician for pressing on with short-term “political” fixes, but we elect them, and they usually reflect the interests of the constituents who put them into office. Food is much the same way.

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