Do you want to live for ever?

@Banana Breath,

Yep, there often isn't much rhyme or reason for people's reactions.

On the topic of lives lost, I read a credible story that over 10,000,000 deaths have been caused in Africa (from malaria) due to the ban on the manufacture of DDT. Used correctly, it was very effective and caused no environmental damage.

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Well, what if you never got sick?
What if your teeth didn't fall out?
What if you didn't need a cane? A walker? Wheelchair?
What if you didn't lose your . . .
Uh . ..
What was I saying?

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@neologist,

Already answered that one. Not even with perfect health, unlimited money, perfect family, etc.

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@Leadfoot,

One one side grandma lived till 91, grandpa 94, both said well before they passed that they were mentally tired, that this impacted their quality of life more than the physical decline. Grandpa in particular was ready to go years before because his wife and all of his good friends were gone.

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@Leadfoot,

God doesn't want us to be here forever. He said to let go of everything of this world, so you got your wish.

He wants us to be in a place of unlimited happiness .

Are you a law breaker? No? You don't even at least beat a red light because "it makes no sense to stop for 0 cars/The cars I'm halting for don't exist"?

If not, why is it easy to do that but hard to follow 10 rules with 100 gifts that come with it?

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@hawkeye10,

Quote:

both said well before they passed that they were mentally tired

I think most people would experience something like this... where they have a lifetime of regrets or past hurts that they don't want to keep reliving, that they suffer from loneliness and miss the many friends and relatives they've buried... And then just plain getting tired of the routine, keeping the body working, lifting weights, whatever, death must seem a relief at some point, when you TRULY have no more obligations, responsibilities, "shoulds" of any sort. You don't even have to brush your teeth or get up to pee.

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@Banana Breath,

Quote:

Hawkeye10 Quote:
"both said well before they passed that they were mentally tired"

I think most people would experience something like this... where they have a lifetime of regrets or past hurts that they don't want to keep reliving, that they suffer from loneliness and miss the many friends and relatives they've buried... And then just plain getting tired of the routine, keeping the body working, lifting weights, whatever, death must seem a relief at some point, when you TRULY have no more obligations, responsibilities, "shoulds" of any sort. You don't even have to brush your teeth or get up to pee.

I guess I've been incredibly lucky in this life. I got literally everything I ever wanted, accomplished everything I felt that was worthwhile doing, met every worthwhile challenge that came my way and stayed healthy to this very day. It was incredibly good, no complaints at all. It's still OK, I still enjoy my favorite things somewhat, but to be honest, I'm getting bored with it all. If I thought this life would go on forever, I'd choose a nice day sometime down the road and stuff my airplane into a mountain top just for something new to experience.

All we need to be happy is something to look forward to.

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@Leadfoot,

Quote:

All we need to be happy is something to look forward to.

If I am reading Osso right then I am with her, it is about still being able to find joy in our days, whether we had been looking forwards to it or not. It for me is not about waking up still having a list of things to do that I want to do, it is about going to bed having experienced joy that day, or having learned something interesting.

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@Banana Breath,

Banana Breath wrote:

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

The premise is totally different. A disease is contagious. Not treating an epidemic is not only callous, but it also allows a disease to spread, and the more it spreads, the more difficult it becomes to stop it. Death is not contagious though.

When some group has the key to immortality in their hands, they won't have a pressing need to share it with everybody else. In fact, their best interest is to keep it for themselves: there are too many people already on the world... why add to this imbalance by giving everybody the means to immortality?

And a discovery like that is not going to be kept a secret, it's too big of a breakthrough to be kept a secret. So you can bet that all the people who dont have it, will demand it as well.

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@Banana Breath,

I might if living meant no aging/loss of others from here on out: I'm oldish now and still have a zillion things to learn. On the other hand, accommodating all of us would require some landscape design on Mars and other places - just think, that would be a new job for me.

Realistically, I've come around to mildly understanding life and how things work, sometimes beautifully and sometimes horrifically, really a long film reel of experiences. Then the lights go out.

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@Banana Breath,

Whether one would want to live forever has, as evident from the other replies, everything to do with the quality of life. Having seen and lived what I have seen and lived, I would be OK with passing away tomorrow, but if someone would offer me 100 years extra of vigorous health and a chance to explore the universe, I would of course sign up. 100 extra years wasting away behind pot plants in an old age home, does not have the same appeal.

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@najmelliw,

Quote:

a discovery like that is not going to be kept a secret, it's too big of a breakthrough to be kept a secret. So you can bet that all the people who dont have it, will demand it as well.

I don't think there will ever be a magic pill that suddenly changes the 90 year old into a 20 year old. When people find out the "secret" to living forever is what you were told all along, nobody's going to be demanding anything, for instance:
-You keep thin to minimize stress on your joints, vascular system and organs
-You exercise for two hours every day to keep your heart and skeletomuscular system strong
-You never smoke
-You get corneal transplants to replace cataracts
-You use moisturizing sunscreen every day and keep yourself covered in the sun.
-You read and learn every day to keep your mind strong
etc etc.
-You drink no more than 1 ounce of red wine per week (and no other alcohol) to minimize stress on body and likelihood of gout and other diseases
When people find the burden for long life falls on their OWN efforts, and they can't demand or steal a magic pill, they suddenly lose interest.

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Well, why not. Take a pill and be twenty something as long as one likes...yes please. But to live forever doesn't sound very nice considering, that in millions and billions years ahead our sun and earth has died. And where shall humans be then....right....nowhere...

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@OregonFlyBy,

Once we accept is as a likelihood rather than a remote possibility, we uncover many troubling scenarios. I don't think it would take millions of years to be facing the music. Serious ecological troubles are probably not more than 50 years away.

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@Banana Breath,

Yes, but not here.....

The place I have in mind is different. The calendar is stuck on 1957, it never changes. Dwight Eisenhower is the president, forever. Gasoline is 18 cents a gallon and will never go up. People burn leaves in the Fall to get rid of them. There are no laws to protect you from you, and there is only one handle on a lawn mower. Every kind of firework is legal. Ordinary kinds of people attend operas and ballets.

There are experts in every sort of thing to teach. People attend church services on Sundays and Jesus Christ or somebody who works for him preaches sermons.

Live forever?? Sure, why not... But not here.

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@Banana Breath,

I kind of agree with you, but I didn't want to sounds too pessimistic on my previous comment. Man has become the cancer of earth, which is worrying me too...look at especially China today Exclamation

But at the same time new inventions has arisen e.g. Sahara Forest Project and Great Green Wall, so there is still hope for mankind (I hope)...

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@gungasnake,

What is so special about the year 1957, if I may ask...

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@OregonFlyBy,

Thanks for mentioning the Sahara Forest Project and Great Green Wall. It's nice to see efforts such as these, but honestly I see them as band-aids. The The Sahara Forest Project, although well intentioned, amounts to spending millions on high tech gadgets to grow a few crops in a 12 foot square area... While Qatar can afford to try it, not many places can, and it's not self-perpetuating. And the Great Green Wall is too little too late. Desertification is too big a problem in Africa to be stopped by a band of trees... It has already gobbled up many healthy and far better established bands of trees. And yes, China is an environmental time bomb on the edge of disaster. I don't think many Americans realize just how desperate their water situation is. Beijing's water demand exceeds available water by 400 Billion gallons per year.
http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/every-year-beijing-uses-400-billion-more-gallons-of-water-than-its-got
The "North-South Water Transfer Project" gives some temporary relief, but it actually increases the danger as it uses up the nation's water reserves to continue an unsustainable rate of usage.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South%E2%80%93North_Water_Transfer_Project
The US meanwhile smugly assumes that's a third-world problem. The Obama administration has sadly done nothing to address water and crop security as the Ogallala aquifer is drawn down and the Northwest and South Cental US have experienced record droughts and with them, record fires.

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@Banana Breath,

Band-aid, yes, but it's better than nothing. Pivot irrigation is also one way to make deserts green e.g. in Libya. And taking about the very controversial measures taken place right at we speak in Sumatra area are palm oil forests, which is one of the best examples of mans greed Twisted Evil

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