QUEST FOR IMMORTALITY: award winner

QUEST FOR IMMORTALITY



Medical scientists have
Tried to discover
A potion or elixir
To make man immortal.

Though they have not succeeded,
It may be possible
Within next hundred years that
Man may live much longer.

This would not be achieved by
A magic medicine.
Such miracle would be wrought
By IT specialists.

High density chips will be
Implanted in such way
That full consciousness of man
Will be embedded there.

What is man, but his conscience,
Along with the conscious,
Plus the subconscious matter
That makes up human mind?

This conscious chip, enabled
To reproduce itself,
By making its own copy,
Will be self-sufficient.

Scientists have predicted
That when this does happen,
Men will start feeling that they
Do not need a body.

Man would regard the body
As too much a burden,
Afflicted by much pain and
Ageing and disease.

Thus man would be immortal
Through the chip consciousness.
An end quite unexpected
To the elixir’s quest!


• Written in 7-6-7-6 format

• First prize and Poetry Merit Badge winner in "Invalid Item" , Science Fiction Poem contest. What is described here is serious scientific thinking of today’s scientists, not mere fiction.



M C Gupta
27 March 2007