Quality versus quantity of life…how do we qualify the ideas in that statement?

My father has been both the idol and the rival in my life.  I idolised my father — admiring his ability to make strong, manly decisions and not question what might have been.  I competed against him in mental games and intellectual pursuits.

My father has also been my friend, sharing interests such as motorsports (NASCAR, IndyCar, F1), balsa airplane models, classical music and spy novels.

In this stage of our relationship together, we approach the statement “quality versus quantity of life.”

I am not my father’s sole friend and vice versa.

We have age-appropriate relationships with our peers, my father having collected more friends through his life that is 27 years longer.

My father’s level of daily health has exhibited drastic changes in the last few months, indicating a downward trend that, combined with a new diagnosis, implies a decline with less change for improvement.

We approach a state of being labeled the “locked-in syndrome.”

Over the past few days, I’ve slowly approached the completed reading of a book titled “An Optimist’s Tour of the Future” which explains in layperson’s terms the current state of the state-of-the art, including genetic life extension research.

Looking at my father, a professor no longer able to profess or postulate, I wonder, will he accept his new role as a leader in the field of patient-based testing, putting the latest control assistive technology, such as NeuroSwitch, through critical pacing?

How does a locked-in brain use the power of seven, bunching shortterm/temporary memory lists of seven groups [(of seven groups of) of seven groups of…] seven items, to develop its image of the future?

Finally, how does that impact quality versus quantity of life for my father’s relationship with his buddies, his wife, his daughter, his grandchildren and, last but not least, me?

As my father’s reign over the family appears to end, what legacy of hope does my father want to give those whose lives are no longer attached to their heady days of physical activity and demonstrative speaking/arm-waving skills?

Does he have the desire to learn new skills in order to achieve something he never thought or never knew possible, operating electromechanical devices through the tiniest of nerve impulses to add data for improving the next generation of prosthetic devices that may one day lead to a brain of our species residing in a cybernetic/android “suit”?