by Laan Yaa Mo » January 8, 2012, 1:19 am
Kurt Vonngegut wrote about this in one of his novels. Anyway, under the pen name of Kilgore Trout, he wrote a short story in which science had ensured that everyone on the planet could live forever. The problem, of course, was overcrowding. People shuffled along the streets much as they do on Oxford Street, London, England during the Christmas rush. In other words, it took forever to get anywhere.
Some folks grew bored with their lives, and wanted to die. So the government accommodated their wishes and allowed Howard Johnson's to build hotels where the suicidal could spend their last nights watching pornography, sports or whatever. Crematoriums were located nearby to take care of their deaths.
Even earlier, a Cantonese reformer Kang Yu-wei (he is the one who influenced the young Manchu Emperor to launch the 100 days of reform in the 1890s), wrote of a future utopia in which there would be no countries, a universal government, merit granted to inventors in the fields of science, education and technology; furthermore, people would be assigned partners for one year after which they would get new partners for the next year, and so on. Any children would be sent away to be attended to by the elderly. The dead would be cremated and their remains would be spread in nearby fields. Kang was wise enough not to spread his ideas around for fear of people thinking he was insane (this was a Confucian society after all).
'pho yu pho kin'