If you can't get rich, why not live forever?

There’s a whole group of pessimists out there, some even lurking in the halls of high finance. They’re always spotting TEOTWAWKY – the end of the world as we know it – somewhere just over the horizon. Maybe the Bear Sterns thing is the latest harbinger of the “big one” to come.

Then there are those for whom the world remains their oyster. Aside from a few bumps in the road, we’re pretty much always on our way to a better place. Stocks always rise; anyone can get rich.

Ray Kurzweil’s fascinating book “Fantastic Voyage” claims we can live forever. Not a long time; forever. Part of the book goes through his ideas on healthy eating. It’s not all that different from other things you’ve read about good carbs and bad carbs, eating fresh fruit and lots of vegetables. Eliminate refined sugar, especially soda and even most juice drinks. Eat fresh, preferably organic foods, never processed foods. Avoid saturated fats; stick pretty much with olive oil – extra virgin, please.

So far, you’re eating and living healthy. But what about the “forever” business? That’s got to do with the coming biotech and nanotech revolutions. Keep yourself healthy for about 20 years or so, and the new biotechnology breakthroughs will allow you to live decades into your hundreds. Last long enough, and nanotechnology will pick up the slack. At that point, there’s no reason to die. Nanotechnology will repair anything that goes wrong.

So there you have it. You can live forever. And Ray’s leading the charge. He’s going to get to the “promised land.” You can check out his personal diet, which includes hundreds of nutrition supplements each day.

What’s wrong with this picture? Nothing, unless you’re Jew, Christian or Muslim. (I’m not sure about Hindus and Buddhists, Confucians and Shintos. Kurzweil, born Jewish, claims to be Unitarian.) In that case, you don’t get to live forever until either you die or the world arrives at the Last Day.

When you think about it, if Kurzweil is right, does that mean the last days are upon us? And is that good or bad? If you believe in the Last Judgment, it’s good if you’ve been good. Lesson: be good. Lesson over.