World Without End

In an increasingly secular world, I suppose that it is inevitable that the scientists would look for ways and means to enable us to live nearly forever; after all, if the alternative is perpetua nox dormienda after a mere century of living (and often with the engine failing and big oil leaks in the last twenty years), then let's find a way, Dr Frankenstein, to keep the body going with spare parts and so forth and we can all live to be a thousand. I guess that it will become a fashion to call people Methusalah.

But what is this necessarily burgeoning population going to do with its time: will their be jobs for all and what of retirement and pension funding? Will the reproductive function remain intact throughout and, if so, what is that going to do to the population of the limited space that the earth has? Or are we to be sent off to other planets; if so, what laws will prevail there?

Moreover (and crucially) has anyone thought about where all the sewage is going to be treated?

Will everyone be expected to send Christmas cards to their 33 X grandparents and all the others in between?

Has anyone thought all this through, before Dr Frankenstein ceases to be a harmless horror story and actually starts to practise his dark arts?

What if we really do have souls, Dr Frankenstein? Has anyone given a thought to the burden of 10 X the normal amount of sin? That would mean a longer spell than might be comfortable in Purgatory or is there going to be a cure for that too?