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Can we live 1000 years?

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Re: Can we live 1000 years?

#71

Post by time_management »

I think it's optimistic to state that the first 1000-year-old is alive today. We don't know anything about the challenges that a 200+ year lifespan will pose. What scares me is that imperfect, expensive forms of "immortality" will exist before the desirable, cheap ones. I wouldn't want to "make the cut" but be demented for 900 years.

I think I'll die at a relatively normal age, between 70 and 100, and that the first 200-year-old will be alive when I die. I make no projections about 1000, much less over 9000.

Re: Can we live 1000 years?

#72

Post by kingkongrevenge »

FlorinAndrei wrote: post #60
kingkongrevenge wrote: post #21

No. We have shockingly little control over basic diseases and health issues. This de Gray character is just an attention whore.

I'm surprised there are so few mentions about that. I smashed an ankle a few years ago racing a motorcycle. The ankle is mostly fine, I can walk, hike, climb a mountain, lift weights, or just stand for as long as I want. It doesn't hurt. Jumping though is not OK, and neither is dancing (not that I dance anyway, but still) or running. It looks like it can't be fixed 100%. So, if such a comparatively trivial thing can'…

Ridiculous beard, ridiculous claims. This guy is a clown. I don't understand how he dupes so many people.

Re: Can we live 1000 years?

#74

Post by yummyfajitas »

FlorinAndrei wrote: post #60
kingkongrevenge wrote: post #21

No. We have shockingly little control over basic diseases and health issues. This de Gray character is just an attention whore.

I'm surprised there are so few mentions about that. I smashed an ankle a few years ago racing a motorcycle. The ankle is mostly fine, I can walk, hike, climb a mountain, lift weights, or just stand for as long as I want. It doesn't hurt. Jumping though is not OK, and neither is dancing (not that I dance anyway, but still) or running. It looks like it can't be fixed 100%. So, if such a comparatively trivial thing can'…

I think most of the issues with your ankle are simply problems of mechanical engineering. Total ankle replacements exist now, they just aren't very good.However, I find it highly unlikely that in the next 10 years, incremental improvements to artificial ankles will not lead to ankles capable of jumping, dancing and jogging.

Re: Can we live 1000 years?

#75

Post by nazgulnarsil »

newt0311 wrote: post #68
rthomas6 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another interesting aspect is the concept of retirement. The way I see it, retirement is done in one of two main ways now: people who save their entire lives to live comfortably for the last 20-30 years, and people who live paycheck to paycheck until they fall into a meager retirement. I think this difference will be magnified many times if people live to 1000. Imagine working for 100 years to save up enough money to…

What makes you think that a person planning on living for 1000 years would go retire for 90% of their life? What makes you think that a person who lives from paycheck to paycheck would be able to afford anti-aging treatments which are likely to be (at least initially) very expensive. Lastly, I doubt that a centenarian (or multi-centenarian) would be stupid enough not to save a $100 in an index fund to come back a cen…

except that that will affect prices. specifically, things that tailor themselves to multi-centenarians will be much more expensive than other things.

can you imagine what 1000 year lifespans would do to the loan market?

Re: Can we live 1000 years?

#76

Post by nazgulnarsil »

russell wrote: post #53
patio11 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine the implications for wealth, too. If the means of life extension is not hideously expensive, then anyone past a certain age with even the smallest bit of sense will be rich beyond the dreams of mortal men. Compound interest works. This would have interesting social ramifications. As it is, most states are organized such that the old are relatively rich, the young are relatively poor, and the young's income su…

Regardless of lifespan we are going to move into a post scarcity economy, where wealth won't mean what it does today. We must do it because we can already see the decline of extracted resources like oil and minerals. We will do it because we can. The internet has enabled telecommuting. Telecommuting enables the move to smaller communities where housing is cheaper. As robots get more capable they will take over the ma…

i truly hope so. wealth in a post scarcity world will revolve around experiences that people value, i.e. fun.

Re: Can we live 1000 years?

#77

Post by ruby_roo »

cabalamat wrote: post #51
joubert wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think how many offspring you could spawn in a thousand years.

There would probably be laws against that. If people were immortal, perhaps the law would say every two humans can have one child between them; that way population could only double once.

I'd let them do the snippity-snip in exchange for living to 150. Seriously, I want to see what happens, and I'm not interested in kids. Would rather adopt one if that bug ever bites, but I doubt it will.

Re: Can we live 1000 years?

#78

Post by ruby_roo »

Hate to sound cynical, but I have to ask: why would technology like this be made accessible to the average person? What would be the economic payoff? Seems to me that this will be a technology for elitists, first and foremost. Or you would have to 'earn' it in some way. Would the 'unproductive' among us be allowed to have access to technology that increases their lifespans?

I'm pretty sure Larry Ellison is reading this story from his volcano lair about now, just barely holding back his maniacal laughter. :)

Re: Can we live 1000 years?

#79

Post by shard »

geebee wrote: post #31

methuselah lived 900 years, methuselah lived 900 years, but who calls that livin when no gal will give in to no man who's 900 years

Maybe the downvoters just don't recognize "Porgy and Bess"? Regardless, it was relevant commentary and not deserving of a downvote.

Re: Can we live 1000 years?

#80

Post by randomwalker »

Eliezer wrote: post #67

Give me a break. You think you're still going to be running around with fleshy arms and legs and a meat brain after one thousand further years of technological progress? Do you realize that the whole scientific revolution only started five hundred years ago? No, you will not die "crossing a red light" after living a thousand years. Sheesh, talk about your failures of imagination.

It's called a metaphor. I suppose he could have said, "you might die accidentally hitting the wrong button on a hyperdimensional panfibrillator," but people don't generally talk like that, preferring more familiar and concrete imagery. Come to think of it, "1000 years" just means "really big number that's way longer than our current lifespan."

When someone uses an exemplar to describe a class of things, you're supposed to imagine the other objects in that space.

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