I blame Cory Doctorow for this particular desire. His first novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, is available for free online under a Creative Commons license. It explores life in a world where death has become passe along with money (which has been replaced with Whuffie, a reputation based currency) and sparsity. It is, however, his short story 0wnz0red, about a computer programmer turned transhuman (one who, through the use of technology, exceeds or greatly expands his inherent capacities) that makes me wish this state upon myself.
"Sleep, it's like a third of your life, 20, 30 years. What's it good for? It resets a bunch of switches, gives your brain a chance to sort through its buffers, a little oxygenation for your tissues. That stuff can all take place while you're doing whatever you feel like doing, hiking in the hills or getting laid. Make 'em into cron jobs and nice them down to the point where they just grab any idle cycles and do their work incrementally" (0wnz0red)
I started falling asleep at just after midnight last night despite having woken up at 11a. I hope and wait for the day that I can grow strong sitting on my couch (also happens in 0wnz0red... actually go read that and come back, back? Ok, moving on), learning a language in a week, being able to control my neurotransmitter levels and just generally have root access on my body. If I'm lucky it will be soon. If I'm not luck it will be long but I'll be on the right side of the actuarial escape velocity (in brief, live long enough to be able to live forever). If I'm unlucky I'll die never having been able to make my body do what I want to in any way but the one that has been available to all since we stepped out of the trees, but I will have lived a full and happy life with those whom I love; that's not too bad for a worst case scenario.
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