Do you want to live for ever?

Reportedly God's purpose. (Genesis 1:28)

So what, you want us to answer a question that you are unwilling to offer an opinion on? have you ever talked to someone 80 or above who is all "ya sure, sign me up for a bunch of more years" because all I hear is "when ever the Lord wants me I am ready" or the like. This i am sure is partly because we in the West do not value the wisdom that comes with old age, we mostly dont want them around so we give them nothing to so and warehouse them till they finally shove off, which for most people comes none too soon. These effort to get humans to live still longer through science is more of science doing what it wants because it can, at cross purposes to the needs of humanity.

Not that I think that longer life spans is going to happen, they are going to start shrinking again as violence and pestilence really kick in for the first time in a long time. Getting food, water and clean air is also going to be increasingly a problem. we need to voluntarily reduce the number of people on the Earth but we will not, so it will be done for us.

Ban, I would

That is, without the rabbit food and expensive meds

Out here in the High Desert already our most critical is water

Boy Hawk you can say that again. But there's little hope 'til we can get to the K-8, before teen when it's too late. However there's little hope as long as grownups--esp the right wing--are terrified that the kids will learn how things really are

Woody Allen had this insight that may help. I'm not sure if these are his exact words:
"I'm not afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it happens."

Here? Forever? Not a chance, even with perfect health, more money than I can possibly spend, no diet restrictions and all the rest of the 'American Dream'.

I think Kurzwile et al are full of beans on the possibility anyway, but even if they were right, my guess is the suicide rate would go up to keep the life span about where it is.

the desire for immortality seems to be an affliction of youth.

I disagree, in my experience youth live in the moment, most think they're immortal anyway especially with a few beers in them.
I was never one for planning ahead in my youth, too busy enjoying meself.

It's only as you get older and the people you grew up with are getting thin on the ground that you start to think about your mortality.

When it's more funerals than weddings you're attending.

Would I want to live forever?. .....

Oh but Hawk, I'm 84

Thinking about the question a bit deeper, I think it is those who have not actively lived their 'normal' lives fully and put off their dreams until it is too late that want to cling to it longer. They too are young in a way. Chronological Age may not be a factor at all.

In my experience we buy the collectives message that we should want to live as long as we can, that life teaches eventually that this is not desirable, and a lot of us decide that we were lied to. Again.

Personally I wouldn't want to live forever and made that decision long ago, and I think most people make the same decision. I have to laugh when people say "sure, I'd like to live forever but not if it involves any cost or any effort." You don't really want something if you're not willing to pay a price for it, including a behavioral price. My father, on the other hand, decided long ago he wanted to live forever and has been willing to pay the price. He hasn't added any salt to his food since 1960, he allows no fat in his food. He's in his 90's and works out at least 3 times per week in the gym.
To me, the food issues alone are enough to sway me in the other direction. Food without taste for the next 300 years isn't living.
I'm also concerned that with technological advances in life extension, this will be a further extension of the income gap. Multi-millionaires and billionaires can live as long as they want, the rest of us, not so much.

I don't think that life everlasting is such a good idea. I also think that the potential discovery of a way to make it happen would be an unmitigated disaster. Because it'll be a surefire way to start a new world war. Not to mention social unrest, and potential civil wars as well.

It would be the ultimate irony too.. that the discovery of a way to cheat death would be the cause of countless war related deaths.

I'm fairly old and may be losing my ****, but most of my problems aren't about that. Hey, I can still type. I still have a lot of joy, or, oy.

Forever, no.

Still, there are sorrows with continuing loss while we deal with death.

Good point. I don't know you but you sound intelligent.

I'm not so sure about that. Most old people are pretty quiet and don't usually cause much trouble. Zsa Zsa Gabor caused quite a stir in her younger days, but now, unless I mentioned that she's alive and nearly 100, you probably would have assumed she was dead. Even among the most powerful and outspoken, this tends to be the case as well. Castro is still alive at 89, but you don't see him giving fiery speeches anymore with a cigar in his mouth, so why would a war start if he were now 150 or 200?

Oh, my goodness! Are you asking if we want to live forever - with all the wonderful characteristics of the aged and infirm?

You are thinking about individuals. But you ought to think about nations. Imagine that the discovery for life everlasting was made in the United States.
What do you think the first reaction would be of Vladimir Putin? And of North Korea? Furthermore, how do you think the Middle East will react, if they learn that their collective enemy number one and its perceived lapdog(read: USA and Israel, and yes, I am polarizing it a bit) have access to a way to live forever?

And how do you think religious leaders would react? Because life everlasting will pretty much mean that the core concepts of every religion will have to be reconsidered, since they are null and void. Take the concept of Samsara from Buddhism. Or the idea that every man or woman will be judged upon their death that is pretty much the core of every other major religion.

But even if THAT wouldn't cause upheaval, how do you think that, say, the Catholics would respond if the Protestants had the means to life everlasting? Or the shi'ites, if the sunnites would have it? Or the christians, if the muslim would have it?

But even if you stick to your own scenario, how do you think the poor would react if they learn the rich and powerful will have an unlimited lifespan?

I get your point, but I think much of that experiment has been run already and I do NOT see the outcomes that you anticipate. If you take for instance someone's life expectancy when they contract HIV, in a third world country, it's pretty grim. However their life expectancy can be extended a thousand-fold with state of the art medicine costing perhaps $5000/month. This is the case today.
The same is true for many other diseases such as Malaria, or even Diarrhea, that can be treated or cured at a much lower cost. Life expectancy, at least in the case of seriously ill patients, has already been extended a thousand fold since the invention of antibiotics and vaccines, yet the "health care wars" have not been fought. Quite to the contrary, some third world countries have RESISTED efforts to eradicate diseases in their countries.
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2012/07/27/157499134/cost-of-treatment-still-a-challenge-for-hiv-patients-in-u-s
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/06/health/world-health-organization-polio-health-emergency.html
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/02/18/anti-vaccine-movements-not-just-a-us-problem