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Sermon - 05-31-2015 Counting Backward
Over the years people have applied for some very strange patents. Some of those ideas eventually see the light of day and make our lives easier; and some the inventors have quietly forgotten about, and others they wish they had. One of the strangest is owned by an amateur inventor named David Kendrick. For some reason that I can’t work out, in 1991 Kendrick applied for a patent for a watch that would count down the minutes until your death. He designed this reverse watch to crunch lots
of actuarial data, like your health, family illnesses, diet, lifestyle, and so on, and then calculate your life expectancy. It would then count down to the day you are supposed to die, according to that actuarial data, and
display the somber truth of how long you have left. Kendrick believed his invention would serve a useful benefit to people because it would spur the wearer on to acts of kindness and heroism. Only got 25 years, 3 months, and 12 days to go – better write the great American novel, or swim the English Channel, or invent a cure for the common cold. I can see one beautiful and important application. It could give you a great excuse for
getting out of something you don’t want to do. Your boss wants you to come into the office at the weekend and you can say, “Sorry, I’d love to, but according to my reverse watch I’m going to die on Friday.” It may be a lie – your reverse watch may still give you forty years, but your boss doesn’t know that, so it’s worth trying, I think. Even better that this, if you beat your actuarial data and outlive the prediction of the watch, you have a perfect excuse. Sorry, I can’t feed your cat while you’re on vacation – according to my watch I am actually dead. I can’t think why, having gone to the time and expense of applying for the patent, Kendrick seems never to have got around to making his invention. There must be a market for this.
Measuring our lives backwards..... (Read the full Sermon here: http://s3.amazonaws.com/dfc_attachments/public/documents/3207801/20150531_Counting_Backwards.pdf)
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By The Rev. Dr. Duncan H. Johnston, RectorOver the years people have applied for some very strange patents. Some of those ideas eventually see the light of day and make our lives easier; and some the inventors have quietly forgotten about, and others they wish they had. One of the strangest is owned by an amateur inventor named David Kendrick. For some reason that I can’t work out, in 1991 Kendrick applied for a patent for a watch that would count down the minutes until your death. He designed this reverse watch to crunch lots
of actuarial data, like your health, family illnesses, diet, lifestyle, and so on, and then calculate your life expectancy. It would then count down to the day you are supposed to die, according to that actuarial data, and
display the somber truth of how long you have left. Kendrick believed his invention would serve a useful benefit to people because it would spur the wearer on to acts of kindness and heroism. Only got 25 years, 3 months, and 12 days to go – better write the great American novel, or swim the English Channel, or invent a cure for the common cold. I can see one beautiful and important application. It could give you a great excuse for
getting out of something you don’t want to do. Your boss wants you to come into the office at the weekend and you can say, “Sorry, I’d love to, but according to my reverse watch I’m going to die on Friday.” It may be a lie – your reverse watch may still give you forty years, but your boss doesn’t know that, so it’s worth trying, I think. Even better that this, if you beat your actuarial data and outlive the prediction of the watch, you have a perfect excuse. Sorry, I can’t feed your cat while you’re on vacation – according to my watch I am actually dead. I can’t think why, having gone to the time and expense of applying for the patent, Kendrick seems never to have got around to making his invention. There must be a market for this.
Measuring our lives backwards..... (Read the full Sermon here: http://s3.amazonaws.com/dfc_attachments/public/documents/3207801/20150531_Counting_Backwards.pdf)