What would you do if you lived 3000+ years?
Read an interesting article: assume all medical issues are solvable and nobody dies of illness or old age problems. You keep the mind and body of, say, a 30yr old, indefinitely.
How long would you live then? The surprising answer came from life insurance actuarials: about 3000 years. That is the average life expectancy in our part of the world, based on only accidents, suicide, murders, that sort of thing.
Then I though: what would I do with so much time? Build your own home, a brick a day? Spend 30 years to learn all about amp design, design the ultimate one and build it including designing and building each part? Take up a study and spend 50 years to learn all there is to learn about, say, the Roman empire including doing an in-place decade of archeological digging?
Would you jump off the roof top due to sheer boredom after a couple of centuries?
The sky would be the limit!
Jan
Read an interesting article: assume all medical issues are solvable and nobody dies of illness or old age problems. You keep the mind and body of, say, a 30yr old, indefinitely.
How long would you live then? The surprising answer came from life insurance actuarials: about 3000 years. That is the average life expectancy in our part of the world, based on only accidents, suicide, murders, that sort of thing.
Then I though: what would I do with so much time? Build your own home, a brick a day? Spend 30 years to learn all about amp design, design the ultimate one and build it including designing and building each part? Take up a study and spend 50 years to learn all there is to learn about, say, the Roman empire including doing an in-place decade of archeological digging?
Would you jump off the roof top due to sheer boredom after a couple of centuries?
The sky would be the limit!
Jan
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I'm not sure exactly what I would do - you'd need to assume some sort of society where it's possible to exist without working your ar** off for all that time, or doing mindless stuff.
Also - do we assume everyone has the same life expectancy?
Anyway - with a few caveats - I'd relish the opportunity to learn a lot, do loads of things I'll never get around to and generally enjoy it! It would be fascinating to see how so many things pan out for us humans! Sign me up! Roll on 5021!
Also - do we assume everyone has the same life expectancy?
Anyway - with a few caveats - I'd relish the opportunity to learn a lot, do loads of things I'll never get around to and generally enjoy it! It would be fascinating to see how so many things pan out for us humans! Sign me up! Roll on 5021!
Eternal life has been invented long time ago while most people think a phyical immortality is useless as it brings no motivation in life.You wouldn't feel any need to learn anything if immortal.Life is related to pain .No pain, no gain "of function " 🙂 I for one am absolutely sure i wouldn't do anything...If you know you're immortal you don't care about pain, then you get in trouble real soon by not paying attention to anything, including your accidental death .It's the continuous fear of death that keeps us functional and dreaming. Best Action Movies 2014 Shaolin Movie Chinese Martial Arts In English - YouTube
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Are you familiar with The Bicentennial Man by Isaac Asimov?
Andrew wrestles with this 'problem' and, well, I won't spoil the story.
On the other hand, knowing your approximate date of demise would make some life choices easier - when to take retirement, pension planning and how many DIY audio projects to take on.
Andrew wrestles with this 'problem' and, well, I won't spoil the story.
On the other hand, knowing your approximate date of demise would make some life choices easier - when to take retirement, pension planning and how many DIY audio projects to take on.
Did they actually read the book before doing the screenplay for I,Robot?
On bicentennial man that;s one of the few Asimovs I missed as I kid. Must read it some day.
Back on topic. As a parent I see that the joy of parenthood has a cost. To be a parent you face your mortality head on as your children are your immortality. If we lived forever we wouldn't be able to have children. I think it's a good trade off. Which is lucky...
On bicentennial man that;s one of the few Asimovs I missed as I kid. Must read it some day.
Back on topic. As a parent I see that the joy of parenthood has a cost. To be a parent you face your mortality head on as your children are your immortality. If we lived forever we wouldn't be able to have children. I think it's a good trade off. Which is lucky...
Well, since I am now halfway in my 8th decade, I feel my motivation for doing 'stuff' is ever so slightly waning. Example: after designing and building dozens of amps for decades, I can't be bothered for yet another one. I want to do things that nobody in his right mind would do, like designing and building an autoranger, or a floating differential high voltage probe.
Maybe after another few centuries of this, I am not motivated any longer for anything at all.
Also, knowing that you will eventually die of an accident or violence, maybe I would become extremely careful. If chances are that you eventually will die in a car accident, would you ever get into a car again?
After 10 or so marriages that lasted 80 years each, would you bother with women still?
Jan
Maybe after another few centuries of this, I am not motivated any longer for anything at all.
Also, knowing that you will eventually die of an accident or violence, maybe I would become extremely careful. If chances are that you eventually will die in a car accident, would you ever get into a car again?
After 10 or so marriages that lasted 80 years each, would you bother with women still?
Jan
Work-related (and child-related) stress is what causes 99% of those supposedly “solvable” causes of death. If you were allowed to play like a child for 16 hours a day, getting all the exercise and sleep you actually NEED, you probably *would* live forever. Or perhaps 3 or 4 hundred years - you certainly wouldn’t be “used up” by the time you are 70 or 80. I don’t see that happening without a replicator and free rent - along with enough mental discipline to handle the freedom. Could backfire and make half the population lazier, making them die even quicker - like the vidiot teens developing diabetes from sitting glued to a couch these days.
Yeah, you probably would want to limit life sentences to, say, 200 years or life, whichever ends first ;-)
Jan
The actor Albert Brooks [Lost in America, Defending Your Life] wrote a novel on this subject ‘Twenty Thirty’. As life expectancy dramatically increases so does wealth and resource inequality. And conflict.
2030 (novel) - Wikipedia
2030 (novel) - Wikipedia
It's been a lot of years I read Alexander Bogdanov's "Engineer Menni". There is a chapter about immortality. It describes a society where death simply does not exist or more accurately it is forbidden. Even if someone committed suicide, he would have been recovered to continue his life... The main character around 1000 years old if I remember correctly, was what we would call "Homo Universalis". He had reached the top of every science, art, philosophy etc and at some point he realized that his life was no more interesting simply because he hadn't anything else to do. So, one day he gathered all his family - I think it was 80 wives, hundreds of children and thousands grandchildren- to announce his decision to give an end to his life in a way that it would make it impossible to recover...
Society is ill equipped to deal with senior citizens already. Here in the US we put diapers on them, put them in a "home" (really a warehouse), and wait for them to die.
I would rather die than live one week like this. What I see society do to elderly people is an affront to human dignity. You remember your loved one when they were strong, had a full mind, and were able to take care of business. Then you see them deteriorate to the mental capacity of children; their only purpose in life is to fill up another diaper. They must be kept alive AT ALL COSTS until every single penny is milked from them.
So if I'm going to live to be 500, then I want at the very least to be in control of my mind and my bowels. I want to be able to still work on my house, my projects, ride a bike, take a walk, etc.
I see some of my friends struggling to keep up the facade. They're pretty close to the nursing home already, but they're going to do all this stuff, buy a new house,etc. My one friend bought a brand new car and totalled it less than a week later (this was predictable); my dad did the same thing 30 years ago.
No thanks. I wouldn't want to live another 100 years in the condition I'm in now.
I would rather die than live one week like this. What I see society do to elderly people is an affront to human dignity. You remember your loved one when they were strong, had a full mind, and were able to take care of business. Then you see them deteriorate to the mental capacity of children; their only purpose in life is to fill up another diaper. They must be kept alive AT ALL COSTS until every single penny is milked from them.
So if I'm going to live to be 500, then I want at the very least to be in control of my mind and my bowels. I want to be able to still work on my house, my projects, ride a bike, take a walk, etc.
I see some of my friends struggling to keep up the facade. They're pretty close to the nursing home already, but they're going to do all this stuff, buy a new house,etc. My one friend bought a brand new car and totalled it less than a week later (this was predictable); my dad did the same thing 30 years ago.
No thanks. I wouldn't want to live another 100 years in the condition I'm in now.
Can't agree more. But the premise was that you would be 30-ish, physically and mentally, forever. That's different.
But yes, I believe euthanasia should be proclaimed a universal human right.
Jan
But yes, I believe euthanasia should be proclaimed a universal human right.
Jan
There is a science fiction novel along similar lines with the main character a 1000 year old guy by the name of Lazarus Long.
Edit: yes, by Heinlein: Lazarus Long - Wikipedia
Jan
If I could be 30-ish physically and mentally for just one day, then that would be the busiest day of my life. 🙂
It's the physical part that I really want. When I was in my 30s, I was strong and full of energy. I was busy and never ran out of ambition. That sure changed. I'm a walking carcass now, and so are half my friends.
I'm trying to teach a younger apprentice some of my hi-fi stuff. That's what's important to me. I think a lot of this knowledge will be gone forever when us old geezers die. Hi-fi doesn't even exist to the under 30 crowd. I have another guy that wants to apprentice. He's a busy family man. I'll do what I can for him. One of these guys is 54; the other is 41. They're young bucks to me. 🙂
There was an episode of, I think, the TV series "Sliders", where the Earth became so over-populated that countries were having lotteries to see who would be put to death, and then other people would have grand parties and galas in their honor before be executed. I might have the details a little wrong, but that's the gist of it.
So, to the OP's point, if we could live 3,000 years, wouldn't there have to be some way to limit population growth?
🙂
So, to the OP's point, if we could live 3,000 years, wouldn't there have to be some way to limit population growth?
🙂