Posted on 03/13/2005 4:25:11 PM PST by saquin
I seem to recall a 60s tv show called "The Immortal" where the lead character couldn't die and he was constantly running away from the bad guys who wanted to experiment on him and learn his secret for immortality. It was sort of the flip side to "Run for Your Life" where the character had only months to live and tried to cram as much life in without getting involved in relationships.
Ummm, actually they are. For starters, the current ~80 years is an average, whereas in Biblical times that was closer to the maximum, with the average being more on the order of 40 if one was lucky.
Second, improving medical technology is currently increasingly average lifespan by about 0.4 years every year i.e. for every year you live, your average lifespan just increased by almost half a year. People who are already old won't notice this much, but people who are young will live far beyond the current average lifespan based on that fact alone. And that rate is accelerating at its fastest pace in history. Every year that number creeps higher; in a dozen years or so, you'll gain one year in lifespan for every year you live on average, though again it will show up more in the younger generations. It is worth noting that for most of human history, the average lifespan extension rate was approximately zero.
This story does a terrific job of summing up the speculation about the technology and the notion of the "escape velocity" -- i.e., that any set of technology which enables people to live to 130 will probably enable them to live indefinitely.
I've got no idea how probable any of this is, but it's just one of the (many) things which current economic and political theory has no imagination and no planning for.
Of course, one of the nifty things about the future is how what happens is always essentially unpredictable and completely radical from the standpoint of prior expectations.
This would never happen even if they could, because eventually you would have to ban sex and people would be knocking themselves off left and right than go centuries without getting laid. But on the other hand, into your second century everyone would start looking like Helen Thomas or Ted Kennedy, and I think sex would be the last thing on your mind by then. They wouldn`t be able to from the gagging. It would be a stunt on Fear factor or something.
"I'd love to spend some time with my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great gandchildren. All 600 of them."
But will they want to spend time with you! ;^)
Especially when after 40 "gravity" strikes the body! What would it be like at 1000??? Yuck! ;-)
Great. Living forever will be like watching "Fame" for the rest of eternity, LOL!
"I'm gonna live forever
I'm gonna learn how to fly
High
I feel it coming together
People will see me and cry
Fame
I'm gonna make it to heaven
Light up the sky like a flame
Fame
I'm gonna live forever
Baby remember my name
Remember
Remember
Remember
Remember
Remember
Remember
Remember
Remember..."
Your husband is quite right IMHO. I've always said the generation is coming that will live forever, or certainly for several hundred years. I also always say we (my contemporaries) will miss the boat. Also, unlike the folks who say they would be bored, etc, I would have no problem being "bored" for 500 or 500,000 years given the opportunity.
After she divorces Bill, I'm going to marry Hillary. I won't live forever, but it will seem like forever.
There Can Be Only One.
[I would have no problem being "bored" for 500 or 500,000 years given the opportunity.]
How do you know?
Well, I guess he is not the only one who thinks like this...I used to think he was a bit nutty for thinking like that, but then, ,who am I to judge....
As for living a much longer time, we would never be bored here at our house...hubby will be 62 in a few weeks, and will be retiring....we dont have to worry about the children any more, everything we have is paid for, work is over and done with....we plan to jump into the RV, and drive till we drop dead...
Going where we want, when we want, doing what we want, whenever we want...we feel like we are just getting started, and already we are considered 'seniors'....being bored is the last thing on our minds...we would both gladly welcome having 100yrs of life left...
I "agree" in principle with many of the things in the article, and yet I think the guy who wants to live long enough to live forever is also self obsessed and living on wishful thinking.
His views of how society will be turned upside down are childishly naive. This development would be treated just like everything else, including a visit by aliens. It will spawn some new fashions, people will still drink coffee in the morning, and it will be more of the same old same old. Literally.
Just imagine that a**hole neighbor of yours may be living there 1,000 years.
Necessary for interstellar travel.
I used to feel the same way but now I want to stick around and see how everything turns out. There are always new chapters starting nowadays, complicating the world plot. Hopefully I'll live long enough for the time machine so if I get nostalgic I can come back to 2005.
Maybe I could afford the payments on a Porsche Carrera GT.
Or it could give us the incentive needed to get off this mudball for good, and not leave humanity's eggs all in one basket.
Yeah, what to do after finally reading all those philosophy class assignments?
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