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Can we live 1000 years?

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Re: Can we live 1000 years?

#61

Post by FlorinAndrei »

ars wrote: post #57
gcheong wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not so sure. Did people become twice as cautious when life expectancy doubled in our fairly recent history? The retirement age of 65 was originally set because it was deemed so unlikely that anyone would reach it, now it is almost considered a given that people will live past it and I don't think people have become more cautious as a result. The other thing is that if people feel that medical technology has advan…

"Did people become twice as cautious when life expectancy doubled in our fairly recent history?" Yes! Very much so they did. So many sports have been gutted due to "safety", chemistry sets have most of the good stuff gone for the same reason. Kids can no longer just go and do what they want because it's "not safe". People took far far more risks in the past.

But they didn't have a choice.

Re: Can we live 1000 years?

#62

Post by donw »

electromagnetic wrote: post #37
biohacker42 wrote: post #11

What's the ultimate end game of living for ever? Who's read Asimov's "The Last Question" http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html Imagine you can live to 1000 or more, at what point does your brain run out of space for memories? When you're finally out of room in your memory buffer do you just turn it into a FIFO queue? So you could collect a whole bunch of information you like (like favorite books, music, movies,…

So your assumption is life is pointless so kill yourself? Are you going to be the first person to test this laughably pessimistic hypothesis? I'm a thousand times smarter than my pet rabbit, I've yet to even try suicide because its patently moronic. If human beings were a thousand times smarter than they are today then there's a high probability that less people will commit suicide as they'll finally be smart enough…

"...I've yet to even try suicide because its patently moronic..."

Alan Turing committed suicide, mostly thanks to the pressures put upon him by British society at the time... because he was gay. I sincerely doubt that Turing was a moron. There are many factors that lie well outside the realm of intelligence, that have a profound effect on whether or not people one day decide that they can no longer go on with their lives.

Boredom may very well be a motivating factor, especially for someone who can live as arbitrarily long as they wish.

Re: Can we live 1000 years?

#63

Post by [deleted] »

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.

[deleted]

Re: Can we live 1000 years?

#64

Post by theoneill »

donw wrote: post #62
electromagnetic wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So your assumption is life is pointless so kill yourself? Are you going to be the first person to test this laughably pessimistic hypothesis? I'm a thousand times smarter than my pet rabbit, I've yet to even try suicide because its patently moronic. If human beings were a thousand times smarter than they are today then there's a high probability that less people will commit suicide as they'll finally be smart enough…

"...I've yet to even try suicide because its patently moronic..." Alan Turing committed suicide, mostly thanks to the pressures put upon him by British society at the time... because he was gay. I sincerely doubt that Turing was a moron. There are many factors that lie well outside the realm of intelligence, that have a profound effect on whether or not people one day decide that they can no longer go on with their l…

I believe there is some debate about whether that was actually suicide.

Re: Can we live 1000 years?

#65

Post by newt0311 »

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.

Doubt it. Population control laws are too unpopular and anybody over ~300 is probably very rich thanks if nothing else, due to the magic of compound interest. Since rich = powerful, it is unlikely that any population control measure would hold up well.

Re: Can we live 1000 years?

#66

Post by newt0311 »

russell wrote: post #54
mixmax wrote: post #9

Living a thousand years has some pretty interesting implications. - Things that seem safe will become dangerous. Small daily risks, such as crossing a red light, will have a much bigger chance of killing you. If you live 15 times as long the risk is 15 times as big. Expect to see people being insulated from the daily dangers of the world. - Our personal drive will diminish. If you want to do a startup (or whatever el…

I remember a study that found that the average lifespan for immortals would be 2500 years because of fatal accidents.

Better medical technology = an accident that is fatal now may not be fatal a hundred years into the future. All these studies are complete bullshit because none of them can predict the social factor and over a period as long as 2500 years, it dominates everything else.

Re: Can we live 1000 years?

#67

Post by Eliezer »

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.

Re: Can we live 1000 years?

#68

Post by newt0311 »

rthomas6 wrote: post #15
mixmax wrote: post #9

Living a thousand years has some pretty interesting implications. - Things that seem safe will become dangerous. Small daily risks, such as crossing a red light, will have a much bigger chance of killing you. If you live 15 times as long the risk is 15 times as big. Expect to see people being insulated from the daily dangers of the world. - Our personal drive will diminish. If you want to do a startup (or whatever el…

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 century or two later to find a sizable amount in-place waiting to be used?

It is very likely that anybody over ~300 years will be filthy rich because they have had hundreds of years to build up interest on their investments and they have several hundred years of experience in what does and doesn't work in life, not to mention 300 years of contacts.

Re: Can we live 1000 years?

#69

Post by yummyfajitas »

DaniFong wrote: post #50
randallsquared wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone who makes 12K US a year in the American South can easily live better in almost every material way than most nobility could even a few hundred years ago. More food choices (and at least as abundant food), more chances to travel (by driving), and such a vast array of entertainment choices that it would be inconceivable to people whose might see a bunch of concerts and plays every year. Even the homeless have ac…

Have you lived for 12K US a year in the American south? Or even tried to support kids on that? Just trying to make it on 16k in the Bay Area is a struggle, and it's only myself to feed. I think you touch on an important point: the poor have access to a better life, or at least more choices, than many in the past could dream of. I don't believe that means that they actually do live a life of luxury: they are far less…

The poor life a "life of leisure", to use historical language.

Out of 36.5 million poor people, only 7.4 million even qualify as "working poor". "Working poor" == "spent >27 weeks/year working or looking for work".

http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpswp2006.pdf

As for 16k/year in the bay area, I never lived out west so I won't comment. But as a grad student living 15 minutes out of manhattan on 18k/year, I lacked few material goods available to historical royalty. Fewer concubines, better food.

Re: Can we live 1000 years?

#70

Post by gcheong »

ars wrote: post #57
gcheong wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not so sure. Did people become twice as cautious when life expectancy doubled in our fairly recent history? The retirement age of 65 was originally set because it was deemed so unlikely that anyone would reach it, now it is almost considered a given that people will live past it and I don't think people have become more cautious as a result. The other thing is that if people feel that medical technology has advan…

"Did people become twice as cautious when life expectancy doubled in our fairly recent history?" Yes! Very much so they did. So many sports have been gutted due to "safety", chemistry sets have most of the good stuff gone for the same reason. Kids can no longer just go and do what they want because it's "not safe". People took far far more risks in the past.

This is probably more due to companies trying to protect themselves from lawsuits and a greater understanding of how to safely to things than any conservative attitude developed due to an increased life span. People routinely jump off cliffs with every expectation that they will live, given the appropriate safety measures these days, and the Darwin awards do not seem to be lacking any candidates.
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