Isaac Whatever

Buddhists believe that while all of the beings that live in the universe all occupy the same dimension or whatever, they occupy very different realms. Thus you can walk over and touch a bird or other animal, but every single need and want, hope and desire, fear and terror that you feel is completely different from the animal's.

The animal lives its life in constant terror, running about aimlessly, always hiding, always afraid. You run around, filled with desire and hope, trying to grab everything you can before your short life comes to an end. Thus, in the animal realm, the primary suffering is constant fear and violent death, and in the human realm, it is constant desire and short lives.

Gods, in the realm above humans, suffer primarily from an unrestrained self nature. This doesn't sound so bad.

The normal way for a human to become a god would be to practice the dharma, collect much merit, purify one's karma, and then after death seek rebirth in the god realms. Now, however, we may have another way. Technology.

We are approaching a new horizon in the study of our own bodies. Soon we may have the means to extend our lives beyond our most fervent imaginings. We shall stand in the bright light of our own dreams, living forever, with limitless power. We shall find ourselves become bootstrap gods, our power and our beauty lasting forever.

Anyway we should keep working on nanotechnology and life extension. It's good, important stuff.