Remembering the Future

A while ago I wrote an essay about something and mentioned “remembering the future” somewhere. As ‘Woody 7.0” gets close thoughts of a truncated future begin to impinge on consciousness. If you listen to news at all, you will remember hearing phrases that end obituaries: Dead at 83; dead at 76; dead at 91 etc. Well, guess what? The time between 7.0 and 8.3 is only 13 years. Remember how long it seemed to take to get to your 13th birthday? Not bloody long. We are talking 13 summers folks. 13 Decembers, 13 Easters. 13 Chanukahs.
Time is running out. Well, it always was running out, wasn’t it? But it didn’t seem like it when you were 22. There is a neat way to stretch the future a little: Remember it. How exactly do you do that? Fairly easy actually. All you have to do is conjure a scenario of the future, say a trip to Portugal, fill in the details from any source available, and then remember it. After all, when you remember a trip that you have already taken, all you really have are brain images to rely on, right? Well, when you remember the future you have already experienced in your mind, all you really have are brain images. So what’s the difference? Not much.
In this increasingly virtual world, a lot of what we “experience” will be virtual, won’t it? One day I was wandering around in the “Eiffel Tower” in Las Vegas and heard a young woman actually say “Honey, now that we have seen the Eiffel Tower we don’t have to go to Paris”, and she was serious. That is just one step away from imaging the Tower and then remembering the image. You won’t have to go to Paris either. You think this is a load of old cods wallop? Some day when “Virtual Tourism” is a reality, and “You can travel to the ancient pyramids of Egypt from your easy chair” remember you heard it from me first. Why wait? Maybe you can fire up your Wii and bowl your way around Europe.

Image: www.edupics.com/hour-glass-t13661.jpg