So far to go

Medicine has come a long way in protecting our health and well-being and extending our lives. It has given us vaccines, antibiotics, keyhole surgery, heart by-passes and all sorts of new treatments that didn't exist in previous centuries.

But there's much further to go. There are still many debilitating physical ailments that cause pain and distress to millions. There are still medical conditions that are a total mystery after many years of research.

I wonder what medical advances we will have made in 100 years' time? Or 200 or 300? Won't it be great when:

• We have joints that never wear out but can rejuvenate themselves.
• We have effective painkillers for every type of pain, however severe.
• We have no drop in energy levels as we age.
• We have a pill that dissolves all unwanted fat.
• We get older without looking old. So we always look like a twenty something.
• We have a cure for cancer.
• We have perfect photographic memories.
• We can reverse short-sightedness and long-sightedness.
• We can sleep soundly for eight hours every night.
• We all have huge IQs.

Of course we of the 2020s will all be gone by then so we won't be able to enjoy the onward march of medical skill. And just as we often take for granted the advances of the last few centuries, so the children of the future will take tomorrow's medical miracles for granted and have no idea that people were once in constant pain or needing replacement hips and knees.

Personally I'd love to have perfect eyesight without the need for glasses. And I'd love to have a perfect memory without the constant fumbling for recollection. One day it will be possible. But I'll be a long-scattered pile of ash before that day arrives.