Immortality
It’s kind of too bad we don’t mummify people anymore. Part of me would like to be mummified when I die, with a nice sarcophagus carved in my likeness (a flattering, young likeness, of course). Then centuries later, archaeologists will dig me up, put me in a museum, and speculate as to who I was and what I did. School children would see me on their field trips, and marvel at how well preserved I am, considering how long ago I lived. They’ll buy pencil boxes shaped like me in the museum gift shop. Scientists will use cutting-edge equipment to create images of my insides, and they’ll draw conclusions about my way of life by analyzing the trace remains of what I ate for dinner the night before I died. Occasionally there will be TV programs (or whatever the equivalent is in the future) outlining the exciting discovery of my remains and the quest to identify them.
Image by Chris McSorley, found on Flickr
January 4th, 2006 at 7:21 pm
I hate to ruin your mental picture, but if you get a sarcophagus, you don’t get to have your insides mummified along with the rest of you. Those were removed and put in sealed jars. Generally, if you want to be mummified whole, you have to fall into a peat bog. Timing would be of the essence. Fall into one too soon and it would totally mess up the rest of your life. So, stay away from peat bogs until you are really old.
January 4th, 2006 at 10:52 pm
this is rather unnerving as my mother an i were just speaking of mummification. anyway, you missed your opportunity, as the national geographic channel already mummified a modern person and i doubt they’ll want to do it again any time soon, as it seemed very tedious. i also highly doubt being mummified is what the cadaver had in mind when he donated his body to science.
if it makes you feel any better though, they probobly will dig up quite a few of us in the future. i’m making sure i’m buried with interesting things to confuse future scientists.
January 5th, 2006 at 12:43 am
Ooh, yeah, I saw that too, Alex. But I’m sure they could come up with some advanced new mummification techniques that would make it less tedious (and would let you keep your organs).