h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Whenever I've heard this sort of question posed to the public, I've been surprised that so few claim to want a really long life. Where's their curiosity? Short of having a time machine, long life is the only way to see what happens in the future. Just imagine all the fascinating technological advancements, all the future events worth witnessing, all the wisdom you might pass on, or even just seeing your family tree develop.

I can understand that these people might not want to suffer extended senility, or contribute unnecessarily to over-population, but if the question is to assume that you'd live a long, vigorous and unintrusive life, would you want to live a really long time?

You've qualified the question, quotes:

Q: >>but if the question is to assume that you'd live a long, vigorous and unintrusive life, would you want to live a really long time?<<

A: Yes

No,

not unless everyone i know and love does so to
I would hate to live a long time in isolation
and what if i became some sort of scientific curio...
I don't think I'd like that at all

Yeah I've always been surprised by the large numbers of people who claim that they would not want to live for hundreds of years if offered the chance. Of course the assumption *has* to be that you're not being offered life consisting of a brain in a jar or 400 years in an invalid 'home'. Shouldn't really need qualifying, that bit.

Considering the alternative is oblivion (an afterlife, aye right ) it does surprise me that 99.999% of people don't answer the question with 'of course I would'.

Even if all your friends and family had normal lifespans, is their deaths really a reason to not want to continue if you had the chance? Wouldn't you tend to make new friends over the many decades? Surely any experience is better than no experience? (torture excepted).

Sure! But if it's a choice between a long life or an exciting life then I'll go with the exciting one.

Note: Regardless of whether or not there is an afterlife, THEY believe it, so of course it's influencing their answer. Just as a lack of belief is yours.

My mother, who will be 92 at the end of next month, has exhausted all her Medicare benefits. My father, who is 92, is remarkably ablebodied, but the stress of juggling my mother's care and watching his nest egg shrivel from hospital bills is not doing him any good.

We don't live in the hypothetical world of the question that was posed at the beginning of this thread. We live in a world where you can be healthy and intelligent in your early 90s but saddled with a situation that is slowly grinding you down. You can't pretend the situation isn't there.

Then there's the matter of watching all your friends die. That's not harmless. The people who live long, robust lives often have close friends throughout most of them. Make new friends? Where? In the rest home or nursing home where you have to relocate because you have sold your house and are living on state money? You aren't likely to relate all that well to teenagers who have mastered the newest gadgets that confuse you. What will you have in common with them? Their music? Please! Bing Crosby and Duke Ellington are long gone, but you think you're going to enjoy SteamPunk and Hip Hop and whatever else will come along after them? Besides, even with the volume cranked up you still don't hear all that well. Their movies? Right. "Twilight" "Step Up 3 or whatever" "High School Musical"

Okay, you can try to make new friends among those in their 20s and 30s. Good luck finding anyone who has time for you. the ambitious
ones work 60+ hours at their careers. The ones with spouses and children are on a crushing treadmill. Then there are the ones who drink too much. Those are friends you really need to have, aren't they? Plus, you don't have a lot in common with people who are focussed on procreating. If you had children, they are grown.

Maybe the picture isn't as grim as all that. You might love chess or [pick one]--collecting. Well, even chess might lose its allure after many decades of play. You might find that you have added the last remaining dodad to you collection of [whatever]. What then?

For everything there is a season.

I'm kinda assuming the OP hypothetical situation would be one where many people live extended lifespans, not just one person in the whole world, in which case as with younger people you would spend time/make new friends with your peers.
Even assuming the opposite and the bleak scenario of only you and people 100 years your junior... well personally speaking I would just become more of a hermit than I already am . Despite being married and (on occasion) enjoying the company of others, I tend to enjoy my own company the most, doing things which involve solitude.

Therefore *personally* speaking I would love to be offered several hundred more years to go hiking on my own, stargaze by myself, live alone doing what I want when I want. The fact I would also have the memories of times when I was married and surrounded by my peers would only enrich my long life. I love having a full life CV to bore people with in pubs!

It still surprises me however, that more people (OK perhaps not 99.99% as I stated earlier) would not take a similar view. I feel the weight of the loss of people/pets I have known and it never really goes away, so i expect the weight would increase for a while, but then humans are adaptable species who can often learn to compartmentalise things.

Look at people who have survived mass killing events like Bosnia or the holocaust. Yes, they carry a lot of sadness, but many of these people have lived, loved and had useful lives for many decades after watching dozens of people they care about being killed. Even with that sadness and sense of guilt they carry around with them, I doubt many would've preferred not to have had the chance to live out the rest of their lives.

What does it say about modern computerized society when so many people would rather discuss hypothetical situations than focus on better managing real ones?

[I'm posing this question as a Devil's Advocate, by the way. I'd love to live hundreds of years in excellent health, surrounded by friends and various amusements. Someone else wouild be paying the huge sums needed to keep me happy, as I won't be contributing to society by working....]

~*~We don't live in the hypothetical world of the question that was posed at the beginning of this thread.~*~

Who cares? It's a just for fun question, don't make it so serious.



~*~We live in a world where you can be healthy and intelligent in your early 90s but saddled with a situation that is slowly grinding you down.~*~

Or.... not....

To use my own family as an example: My Grandpa lived to be 93. (Or more. I don't actually know exactly, but it was at least 93.) He remained healthy and mentally alert the entire time. He continued to live independently, in his own house that he had long since bought and payed for. He was financially secure and had been since long before I was alive. I can't speak to the actual numbers, but Mom claims that he was a millionare. And he didn't inherit it either; he started his adult life in the middle of the Great Depression and had to work hard to earn that money. He is, quite frankly, the coolest guy I have ever known.

Now, I'm not saying that there aren't people who are in bad straits or are justifiably miserable in their old age. But one shouldn't assume that it's inevitable either.

That's true, Mr. X, brings to mind two people I know here who have just resigned in order to have more time to themselves. One resigned from treasurer having reached 80 and the other from photographer at 90 - and that one's got more about him than I have.

I'd like to live about 200 years. That's long enough to see if all those sci fi movies really did get it right, without being so long I wouldn't recognise the world I lived in.

As for the people I love, yes I would like them to live that long too - my parents coming up to 70 scares me a bit, although all of my grandparents lived into their 80s so I hope plenty of time yet, and other family and friends, but there would be new friends to make, and if I were able bodied for a long time, maybe new men to love!

I would like to know what comes after us. But without living long enough to be the last person alive!?

I suppose the people who don't want it, are the people who have thought of the practical difficulties. Do you need to keep working, or will you just get a pension for a hundred or so years? Will you end up feeling irrelevant and not able to connect with anyone? Even without aging, what debilitating diseases might you suffer? There seems to be a number of problems.

No, no, no, no, if I get to seventy that will be enough, done it once and I’ve got the T-shirt.
It says

1-12 fun

13-18 interesting

19-21 added responsibility

22-50 family time

51-60was to be fun but went horrible wrong

And 70 if I make it

~jwf~
1945 - 2020
"It all looks better in hindsight"

>>I suppose the people who don't want it, are the people who have thought of the practical difficulties. Do you need to keep working, .../

These are people who *fear* there would be practical difficulties, even though the OP states that there wouldn't be any. They are pessimists.

In realistic terms I agree with winternights, 70ish would do me

If I had the resources and where withall it would be interesting to be really ancient, have lived through many eras and have some tales to tell

Quotes: That might be what you stated in the OP, but is that what was said to the public who refused it? Besides, you never mentioned things like work etc.

>>you never mentioned things like work

True enough. The question is; if you are healthy and vigorous, would you rather die than keep working?

I guess that depends on how much your work wears you down. Wether you're a coal miner or a crooner.
Some people seem to think no music made after their 30th birthday is any good. Imagine what it would feel like when you've reached 200 years, and you haven't liked any of the new stuff that's come out.