Life extension

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With science and technology these days it seems we are not far from doubling our life spans. Perhaps later triple and quadruple them and who knows, we may be able to live forever. At first this sounds great, especially for me since for as long as I can remember I've never wanted to die. To keep living, learning and having fun, now that's the life.

Overpopulation seems to be the biggest problem.

Will we have to put a limit to how long a person can live? What do we do to a person who has lived too long? What does this say about religion?

Any thoughts?

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@Why phil,

I think if we see people doubling their life spans, injustice and inequality are going to continue to grow. It will take money to live longer, and it will be the rich that will be able to do so. They already have economic and political capital that the majority of people never will have. Thus, it will be another form of inequality that burdens society.

But then, I do not see people living longer, but rather shorter lives. As the environment becomes more unstable and polluted, people will end up suffering from more disease and illness. Not to mention, greater populations and increased probabilities for drought and too much precipitation put strains on things like food supplies, which could kill many people quickly. Sure, some may live longer, but I think the majority will live shorter lives--especially if people keep shoveling crap into their mouths.

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@Why phil,

There's no way we'll get laws banning age. One, the people who pass the laws certainly don't want to abide by them, and how are you going to enforce them? Go and send homicidal maniacs to deal with the population?
We will likely never live forever. Not that it's impossible, but it's pretty clear we'd kill ourselves through flagrant overpopulation first.
We'll just do as most animals have done, crash through the population limit and then pay with a huge decrease in people.

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@Why phil,

Why wrote:

With science and technology these days it seems we are not far from doubling our life spans. Perhaps later triple and quadruple them and who knows, we may be able to live forever. At first this sounds great, especially for me since for as long as I can remember I've never wanted to die. To keep living, learning and having fun, now that's the life.

Overpopulation seems to be the biggest problem.

Will we have to put a limit to how long a person can live? What do we do to a person who has lived too long? What does this say about religion?

Any thoughts?

Life extension is going to be a really big issue in bioethics in the latter part of this century. Immortality is on another level, though. If we are able to achieve immortality, and I doubt we will, I don't think we should allow it unless our socio-economic is resource based and able to sustain those many people. I also think we will need to build floating cities and space habitats if we are to legalize any technology that allows for immortality.

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@hue-man,

hue-man wrote:

Life extension is going to be a really big issue in bioethics in the latter part of this century. Immortality is on another level, though. If we are able to achieve immortality, and I doubt we will, I don't think we should allow it unless our socio-economic is resource based and able to sustain those many people. I also think we will need to build floating cities and space habitats if we are to legalize any technology that allows for immortality.

Life extension might cause real problems,

Would a person have to die after a certain life span to make space for children?

Who would rule this world full of old healthy people?

If most people lived for two thousand years,only the elite would be able to have children

How would sex work in this world?

I don't think the human brain is hard wired to carry all the memories of an extremely long life. One would forget who they were in the past?

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@Alan McDougall,

:detective: Oh hi! This is a difficult subject. I think the living beings over the edge of normal expectancy should be able to live near their original species and live closer to their most likely places. From that special places, the living beings should be able to exchange their physical and mental physical and attributes with their old and new cultures. When that living beings is ready, the living beings will automatically be send to the particular area of the living beings' perferable choice. :sarcastic:

Old healthy people usually will chose their own leader, if the leader is missing. If they don't have anyone, distract them with a made up concept for the people to be sort of like short lives. Only when all of the people wants to be better, then can they be immortals.

Anything beyond the total label of the word, "sex", when appeared by nuclear difference, is not "sex". "Sex" can never work in immortals' eyes, however there is a strict bioethics for "sex". Surprised

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@Why phil,

I am talking about stuff beyond Darwinian and including Darwinian theology. Like others who want to say stuff when it's a peach. It's in the essense of arguement. If you like to call them something else, it's fine by me.

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@deadcolor,

deadcolor wrote:

I am talking about stuff beyond Darwinian and including Darwinian theology. Like others who want to say stuff when it's a peach. It's in the essense of arguement. If you like to call them something else, it's fine by me.

Your position is as valid as anyones Smile

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@YumClock,

YumClock wrote:

There's no way we'll get laws banning age. One, the people who pass the laws certainly don't want to abide by them, and how are you going to enforce them? Go and send homicidal maniacs to deal with the population?
We will likely never live forever. Not that it's impossible, but it's pretty clear we'd kill ourselves through flagrant overpopulation first.
We'll just do as most animals have done, crash through the population limit and then pay with a huge decrease in people.

I'm pretty sure indefinite life technology would conclude the debate over euthenasia. We would have futurama suicide booths on every corner.

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@Why phil,

I think people these days play things way too safe. What i mean by that is almost all of our population is concerned with taking little risk, living very long, and then passing away without really have contributed much or created much. This isn't all the time, and to acheive something great doesn't necessarily mean to be a risky person but the essence of discovery and mental evolution comes from these life-altering situations that teach us and better ourselves. With little risk comes little outcome. With greater risk comes a more fulfilling, interesting, and meaningful life. Now i'm not saying to go try and sky dive off a cliff at all, im just saying that people these days are making our society such as safe "spoon-fed" enviroment that we cannot take our fair share of chances and live life to its fullest and along with that coming the experience. Medical research and devolopment is coming to a point where we as humans can survive up until the point where we are old and have the burden of numerous diseases upon us. I've seen walking skeletons without any life in them. I don't mean that in a cruel way i'm just trying to point out that death is a natural part of the cycle of life and being kept alive by numerous different medicines, machines, and which in my opinion is a very unhealthly way to live. Embracing death is one of the toughest things for us to do.

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@Why phil,

When I was younger I wanted to live for at least 600 years like Yoda(or did he live for 900 years?). I still want to live for a long time:wheelchair:. But living forever? I don't even know if that's a gift or a punishment. If we could give ourselves eternal or almost eternal life, it would probably have a big impact on our way to think about religion. If God created us wouldn't he have made some sort of limitation of our possible lifetime?

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@Lily,

Lily wrote:

When I was younger I wanted to live for at least 600 years like Yoda(or did he live for 900 years?). I still want to live for a long time:wheelchair:. But living forever? I don't even know if that's a gift or a punishment. If we could give ourselves eternal or almost eternal life, it would probably have a big impact on our way to think about religion. If God created us wouldn't he have made some sort of limitation of our possible lifetime?

Is is really really daunting, even terrifying to think deeply about living forever, in this world or in a heavenly world.

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@Lily,

Lily wrote:

When I was younger I wanted to live for at least 600 years like Yoda(or did he live for 900 years?). I still want to live for a long time:wheelchair:. But living forever? I don't even know if that's a gift or a punishment. If we could give ourselves eternal or almost eternal life, it would probably have a big impact on our way to think about religion. If God created us wouldn't he have made some sort of limitation of our possible lifetime?

Yoda's consciousness remained in a coherent state even though his body died. This raises an interesting aspect of immortality. Is it physically impossible to keep your body alive eternally? I think not. Entropy works against immortality. Consciousness transfer would face similar troubles. Although it may be easier to make better use of energy in an engineered vehicle, finitness is a reality. Another brick wall would be some of the various scenarios of the death of the universe. Whether these limitations are designed, I comment not Smile

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@Yogi DMT,

Yogi DMT wrote:

I With little risk comes little outcome. With greater risk comes a more fulfilling, interesting, and meaningful life.

Hello Yogi,
Insightfully written. If you don't mind would you please in just a little more detail what you mean by "little risks and greater risks"? Are you talking about individuals or the life extension technologies themselves? Or both? It seems you are lauding the taking of "risks" as a meaningful part of life. In my opinion, taking risks is much akin to taking drugs. Whether you are an adrenalin junkie, or a drug junkie; a junkie is a junkie and becomes dependent on that which get him 'high'.

Thanks,
William

---------- Post added at 07:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:09 PM ----------

Alan McDougall wrote:

Is is really really daunting, even terrifying to think deeply about living forever, in this world or in a heavenly world.

Brilliant statement. That's why life comes in "pieces", like parentheses in eternity.
William

1 Reply

@William,

William wrote:

Hello Yogi,
Insightfully written. If you don't mind would you please in just a little more detail what you mean by "little risks and greater risks"? Are you talking about individuals or the life extension technologies themselves? Or both? It seems you are lauding the taking of "risks" as a meaningful part of life. In my opinion, taking risks is much akin to taking drugs. Whether you are an adrenalin junkie, or a drug junkie; a junkie is a junkie and becomes dependent on that which get him 'high'.

Thanks,
William

---------- Post added at 07:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:09 PM ----------

Brilliant statement. That's why life comes in "pieces", like parentheses in eternity.
William

What i mean by that is most human discovery involved taking chances. There are various example of this. This likes, to analyze a thunderstorm, you've got to get close to it, to tame an animal you're potentially putting your well-being at risk, medicine and various medical items has to be tested first and that new medicine could pontentially be hazardous and it also could potentially be beneficial, to learn various life lessons, you will have to learn them through experiences which are usually negative experiences that you learn from, all in all a much more interesting life will lead to more things. Sitting in your house, reading books and being very cautious about life is fine but there is also that other peice of your life that your missing, the adventure, the quest to find various things out. With little risk comes little reward, the more bold of actions you take the great the potential reward but the greater the potential downfall.

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