Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Island Where People Forget to Die

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 74 posts

Re: The Island Where People Forget to Die

#31

Post by nspattak »

This story has come up around here in the past (and I also left a comment at the time :P ).

To begin with, this is not a magic Lost/Avatar-kind of island!

I am Greek from another island and I can confirm that Icaria is a very interesting place.

However I think there are two aspects that are mistaken (even by me until recently). People are living a relaxed life but not a work free or "easy" life. They work hard and they live with less modern world amenities than most of us reading this article. The second (less important) is about the diet but this is a long discussion.

IMO what they do lack is everyday stress and pressure from people around them.

I also expect that there are other similar places around the world that I would like to meet.

Re: The Island Where People Forget to Die

#32

Post by thomasfl »

I want to become like Oscar Niemeyer when I get old. Niemeyer continued to create architecture even after he had passed the age of 100 years. Having his own office made it possible for him to work as much as he wanted. That's how I see myself as an old man, still designing software in an office where I can work as much as I want to. Tending vineyard on a greek Island is not for me.

Re: The Island Where People Forget to Die

#34

Post by agumonkey »

ddebernardy wrote: post #30
sdoering wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but to be honest, it's ineffectual life. This extra time will be spent being old. Whether you're 70 or 100, you will be frail, dim-witted[1], and unattractive. I have seldom read such an amazing load of (sorry, to say it this way) bullshit and disdain of the old/being old. I am in my thirties and I really am in awe the live, the doings, the stories of a lot of elders around me. Sorry, but how young are you? Getting…

Spot on. Just writing to add that a hypothesis that may explain part of why you get "lower levels of cognitive performance" as you age, is that you've quite a few more data points in mind to draw on (consciously or not) when processing new information.

Exactly, slightly slower processor, better abstractions. In other words : wisdom (not a mandatory property of being old though). That's why I'm so so sad about management replacing 40+ people by young idi*ts fresh out of school.

Re: The Island Where People Forget to Die

#35

Post by rwmj »

EarthLaunch wrote: post #12

> It’s easy to get enough rest if no one else wakes up early and the village goes dead during afternoon naptime. It helps that the cheapest, most accessible foods are also the most healthful — and that your ancestors have spent centuries developing ways to make them taste good. It’s hard to get through the day in Ikaria without walking up 20 hills. You’re not likely to ever feel the existential pain of not belonging…

Not sure how you can describe frozen pizza as "tasty". I would never want to eat a frozen pizza through choice.

Re: The Island Where People Forget to Die

#36

Post by draven »

chroma wrote: post #17

Let's assume every claim in this article is true. Let's say that if you follow a certain diet, move to a certain island, make certain friends, and have certain genes, you will live to the age of 100. So what ? Best case, you get an extra decade or two of life. This may seem amazing, but to be honest, it's ineffectual life. This extra time will be spent being old . Whether you're 70 or 100, you will be frail, dim-witt…

> it's ineffectual life

Being happy and alive for 20 years more instead of being dead does sound pretty good from an individual standpoint to me.

Re: The Island Where People Forget to Die

#38

Post by hawkice »

chroma wrote: post #17

Let's assume every claim in this article is true. Let's say that if you follow a certain diet, move to a certain island, make certain friends, and have certain genes, you will live to the age of 100. So what ? Best case, you get an extra decade or two of life. This may seem amazing, but to be honest, it's ineffectual life. This extra time will be spent being old . Whether you're 70 or 100, you will be frail, dim-witt…

My 5th grade teacher (a sort of benign philosopher) once related to me that when he was young he strove to take advice, and that meant spending time thinking about the beauty of youth, as his mentors urged him. He seemed to realize how much better it was to be young, and that he could not, would not bear old age. He explained to me that he and his friends would all commit suicide once they turned 40. Since he was in his 50's at the time, I asked, "What changed?" He replied, "I turned 40."

You have an extremely negative outlook on improving life expectancy ("So what?"? Really? Does life not matter at all to you?) in absence of pure immortality (a distinction I'm not even sure we'd be able to make in the ideal case), in such a way that I think any normal person would safely call bullshit on those being your preferences when it matters.

Re: The Island Where People Forget to Die

#39

Post by ff_ »

nspattak wrote: post #31

This story has come up around here in the past (and I also left a comment at the time :P ). To begin with, this is not a magic Lost/Avatar-kind of island! I am Greek from another island and I can confirm that Icaria is a very interesting place. However I think there are two aspects that are mistaken (even by me until recently). People are living a relaxed life but not a work free or "easy" life. They work hard and th…

As a Sardinian I totally agree with you: IMO too the magic ingredient is the lack of stress due to the strong community feeling.

Surely the diet plays an important role, but for me that is not so important as the reason above.

That said, it's a really good article, and now Icaria is in my places-to-visit-absolutely list.

Re: The Island Where People Forget to Die

#40

Post by Padding »

sdoering wrote: post #24
chroma wrote: post #17

Let's assume every claim in this article is true. Let's say that if you follow a certain diet, move to a certain island, make certain friends, and have certain genes, you will live to the age of 100. So what ? Best case, you get an extra decade or two of life. This may seem amazing, but to be honest, it's ineffectual life. This extra time will be spent being old . Whether you're 70 or 100, you will be frail, dim-witt…

> but to be honest, it's ineffectual life. This extra time will be spent being old. Whether you're 70 or 100, you will be frail, dim-witted[1], and unattractive. I have seldom read such an amazing load of (sorry, to say it this way) bullshit and disdain of the old/being old. I am in my thirties and I really am in awe the live, the doings, the stories of a lot of elders around me. Sorry, but how young are you? Getting…

> Getting older and eventually dying is imho, what defines our humanity.

Maybe, but is that a good thing?

To simply "expire out of existence" is a big issue for "humanity". It's the main reason why there's no proper answer to "what's the meaning of life" - whatever you do during your 50/70/120/.. years of life you'll eventually end up just as dead as the guy right next to you. Congratulations!

Being immortal would allow us to get rid of crutches like religion and allow us to implement proper moral systems, since there would be tangible rewards to being "good" simply for "goodness' sake", since being good and being selfish would be identical - if you'll (eventually but reiably) suffer overpoputlation, pollution and even unemployment just as much as the next guy, you'll (eventually but, again, reiably) think twice about elbow tactics.

> Oh yeah, I really doubt this - I know a lot of older people and most of them would not want this trade in.

20? Maybe. but How about being in the body of a 30- or 40-year old again? I can't imagine any 70-year olds not wanting to have a more "hassle-free" body, all other things being equal.

> makes live unworthy

Talking about live being "unworthy" is a slippery slope, but there nevertheless is an argument to be made about quality vs quantity of life .

I don't have the reference (and the exact numbers) at hand, but in "Happiness Hypothesis" (the Book) the author mentions a survey where people got to express their preference between "living x years of life and then dying to some tragic accident" and "x+y years of life, but y years spent in a wheelchair, because of some tragic accident". The results were rather mixed with the shorter life being more popular choice.

And, by the end of the day, a chance at higher-quality life in exchange for possibly less total life is also why things like armed robberies exist (even if not every robber things of it like that beforehand). I'd also argue the same is true of people opting for high-risk jobs, but there's also a sense-of-duty aspect to them, so it's not quite as clear-cut there.

Post reply on HN