Immortality @ MindSay 
David Lee Smith (who plays Calleigh Duquesne's IAB boyfriend on "CSI:Miami") plays John Oldman, a professor at the local college. The entire film takes place the afternoon of his impromptu "going away party" when he announces that, after ten years at the college, he'll simply be "moving on." He's packing everything from his house into his truck and isn't telling anyone where he's going. His colleagues, concerned about him and the mystery of his departure, come on over to talk with him.
And then he lets them in on a shocking secret that they discuss for the duration of the movie: He grew up as a latter paleolithic cro-magnon man. He stopped aging at around age 35, and has been alive for the 14,000 years since then. He leaves his job and his friends every ten years or so when they start to notice that he doesn't age.
And everyone reacts. Some with fervent belief, some as skeptics. All of them trying to poke holes into and substantiate his story from biological, anthropological, Biblical and psychological points of view. But he seems to have an answer for every one of them.
And that's it. No action scenes (aside from a minor scuffle), no sex scenes, no changes of location. Just tenured professors (and one undergrad who allegedly is boning her professor with whom she arrived). Some of them are downright annoying. (Example: John Billingsley plays Harry, the biology professor. He's the actor who played Dr. Phlox on Enterprise. As well as many other nerdy characters with annoyingly nasal voices. But he plays this part extremely well.) Richard Riehle (the old guy from "Office Space" who gets laid off, hit by a drunk driver, and invents the "Jump to Conclusions Mat") plays Dr. Will Gruber, a psychologist who can't decide between believing Dr. Oldman's story or committing him for further observation.
Every question is asked and receives a relatively good answer: Have you ever been sick? Are there any others out there like you? When did you come to America? How do you know that you were in what is now France thousands of years ago? What were you doing in 1292 AD? Did you know any figures from the Bible?
And the way it ends will set your heart a poundin'.
Great movie. I give it 54 out of 57 stars.
Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation. New York: Broadway Books, 1999, pp. 124-125.
Comments I have made on eternidad s blog, I post them here to encourage healthy discussion and debate:
My comments: (some of which i have said is said much more succinctly by others in comments on his/her blog, but i shall not plagerise, please: go look for yourself.)
eternidad has made comments about wishing to be cryogenically frozen so as to hybernate and live forever.
In order for you to live, someone else must die, it is the order of things. Earth can only sustain so many people. Imagine a world where there are no natural resources left, because the food that normally would have sustained a normal population has to feed those that normally would have died, not just the new borns. Humanity would become a virus in the galaxy, spreading unchecked in our need for resources.
Birth contol would be the answer in such a society, are you willing to make someone loose the chance of life through not being born just so you can live for more than your fair share?
we are mortal for a reason, let that be.
Consider:
Ancient Greek Mythos tells of the goddess Aphrodytie, who fell in love with a mortal. She begged the gods to grant her wish of making her lover immortal, eventually having her wish granted. Now, the gods live in eternal beauty and youth, not just immortality, so after a brief time together, the Lover grew old, while Aphrodytie did not. Ashamed of her lack of foresight, realising that she had asked for immortality for him, forgetting eternal youth to go with it, Aphrodytie hid her old and ugly Lover in a deep dungeon, away from the eyes of gods and men, where he lives trapped forever, ugly, old, frail and alone.
Don't make the same mistake as Aphrodite.
immortality does not equal youth. imagine living in a frail, arthritic body, incontinent and unable to even feed yourself.
I would suggest you yern for youth as long as possible, before you think about immortality.
This is the time where i point out what being frozen does to human cells...
ever heard of frostbite?
it kills human cells as simply as burning them.
cryogenics is a nice idea for science fiction, but not really plausable in real life.
search deeper, you may be able to come up with a successful idea.
There have been experiments done that prove that the faster you move, the slower time is for those moving. The closer you get to the speed of light, the slower time is for you.
So, theoretically, of you put a space ship in orbit around the solar system as close to the speed of life as possible, those inside would be in suspended animation untill they slowed down.
What is the purpose of living beings? As opposed to not living things who do not have a life.
What is the purpose of human beings as whole?
What is the purpose of your life?
You can get the right answers only by asking the right questions?
All knowledeges are created by observing the outside, but they originate inside our ourselves.
Vinod
Everywhere we go we hear about people that want to live forever. Ponce de Leon searched for the fountain of youth. The media is obsessed with movies involving cheating death. Final Destination and its sequel were box office hits. But really one has to wonder, "If possible to achieve immortality, would life be worth living?" I say no. Why you ask? Because when you have only one shot to seize an opportunity, one moment to make a differnce you are truly alive. If each day was another chance to accomplish what should have been accomplished in one shot, where is greatness? If each day we could start again then the odds are in our favour and in truth, we have done nothing. To tell you the truth I hate immortality. It is vile and disgusting. Immortality is overrated. Besides life is so much more beautiful from the grave.
