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

Forever is a long time. Given health, wealth and happiness, then living as long as possible would seem to be a reasonable objective.
That's pretty much the way things are heading. Happiness is there for the making, health and wealth are the problem.

Must re-read this.

Take away the planet's oxygen, and nothing would survive anyway, "immortal" or not. Or throw an asteroid the size of Greenland at Earth, and mass extinction is pretty much guaranteed.

What might be accomplished is somewhat longer lifespans. That's being tried now anyway. The downside is that the extra years often come in frail old age, when a person can't do much. The best that one could hope for is a physically active lifestyle that gives your body the capacity of a 50-year-old into your 60s, 70s, 80s, and even 90s. A surprising number of people manage to do this. My father, who is 93, is an example. Your lifestyle must be a virtuous one, though. You don't get this gift for free. Eating junk food in front of a TV or computer is rarely part of this picture. No butts, no hallucinogens. Wine in moderation can be part of it.

That's as close to forever as anyone is likely to live. Rose kennedy lived to be 104. She was known for her long walks and her trim figure. Brooke Astor had a thing about swimming 1,000 strokes in her workouts.She was quite thin, too. By the time she was in her late 90s, though, she was no longer physically active. That was still better than most of her contemporaries, who had long since stopped breathing.

If all this sounds like work, it is.

There's a joke that says when I die I want to be a physical wreck - what's the point of dieing healthy?

The consensus seems to be that forever is a long time,
an impossibly long time. And yet, it is still central to the
whole concept of marriage vows, the notion of love
being forever. And forever and ever.

Seems to me that if eternal life is problematical then
eternal fidelity would be even more so. That's life, eh.

~jwf~

Forever is a long time ... and you're bound to accidentally fall into a passing black hole ... then you have to spend your remaining time (I.e. forever) being trapped in it.

The other thing to consider is that if you live forever eventually you would fill the universe up with you know poo-pee.

Age treatment is improving so rapidly that people will soon be able to live to 1,000 years old. So soon that some of the children alive now will achieve this age, according to some doctors.

I think I would get really frustrated watching generation after generation making the same mistakes and re-inventing the wheel time and time again. And where would we all live?

Unless, like freewayriding suggests, we all stop having kids. Which would solve both those problems, but make the whole idea of living forever rather tedious and certainly not enjoyable. Catch 22.

It's like those jokes about "if you run for an hour every day of your life you'll live two years longer" (or something) - where those hours add up to the two longer years anyway. Sorry if someone's already touched on that - haven't read the entire backlog yet.

Also we may be underestimating the willingness of people who have run their course and who are spent and exhausted with life - they just want to let go. For the last few months of his life, my father's reply to "How are you?" was "I want to die".

Mind you, that was my father. He had had enough and he didn't like the way the world was turning out. He couldn't cope with the way technology was evolving, not to mention society. You can see his point - he had fought in the war for the world we live in, and this is all the thanks he gets.

In nature it is the fittest who survive. Evolution may take care of birth control to preserve humanity but it seems certain that as life span expands then the option to pull the plug must become available. Anyone who wants to live forever must be a supreme optimist

The will to live, that is, the body and unconscious minds's
ability to heal itself or to compensate for injury or disease
is mostly an automatic or autonomic function.

Sadly, in many terminally ill patients it often contradicts their
conscious awareness of impending death and their willingness,
even an eagerness to die.

Finding the fine balance between a desire for death and the
body/mind's analysis of the internal struggle is increasingly
becoming a tough question of ethics, compassion and the law.

To which the only standard that ought to be observed is the
individual's free will, their right to choose. But how can one
make an informed decision when so much of what is going on
is happening at a molecular level operating on a subconscious
agenda beyond our ken.


~jwf~

some very good points, glad I started (or my boy) this. How about a taste of longevity ,say 500 years at a time,with the opt out clause built in every hundred years but strictly controlled so no overpopulation and a balance between young and very very very old? Love to see our great great etc etc etc grandchildren.

would put geneology sites out of business though

"It's like those jokes about "if you run for an hour every day of your life you'll live two years longer" (or something) - where those hours add up to the two longer years anyway. Sorry if someone's already touched on that - haven't read the entire backlog yet." [TC]

If you run for an hour every day, your circulation will be good, your digestion will be normal, your mind will work well, and you will feel euphoria from the feel-good chemicals that get pumped into your bloodstream from the exercise. It seems to me that that's a benefit above and beyond having two extra years of life.

The downside is that whenever circumstances prevent you from getting your exercise, you will feel withdrawal pains.

Assuming, that is, that running is your thing. Your feet and knees can't have any significant abnormalities.

Caregivers face extra problems. I know a woman who used to care for her mother. The mother lived to be 97, and needed constant attention. The daughter needed someone to fill in for her so she could buy groceries and get her swimming in at the local pool.

I knew someone who was extremely fit and healthy - going out and running for about 40 minutes each day, but unfortunately he was run over by a truck. Them's are the risks I suppose.

"Age treatment is improving so rapidly that people will soon be able to live to 1,000 years old. So soon that some of the children alive now will achieve this age, according to some doctors" [Gnomon]

There will also be an epidemic of diabetes due to increases in incidence of obesity, so some of those 1,000-year old people will have received diabetes treatments for 950 of their 1,000 year lifespans.

>> a balance between young and very very very old? Love to see our great great etc etc etc grandchildren. <<

I'll tell you another thing back in my day we didn't have them fancy tap things where that fluorine water comes out. We had to go to stream to fetch the water and look at me?

Stream eh? You were lucky....

In Lord of the Rings, the elves were immortal. Most of them only had a few children in their lifetimes. Elrond had a brother who was not immortal (for reasons I won't explain here). He kept a close eye on his brother's children, grandchildren etc. 64 generations later, one of them married Elrond's own daughter.

I think Arwen's Fate is one of the best arguments against immortality and one of the moments where the films really captured the essence of the books:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCbAlZCjzPI

If you were the only one with immortality, or even a very long but finite life, just imagine the grief you would have to endure. You know that every relationship would be doomed, you've have to lose everyone you loved. The only way to stop the loss would be to stop caring about people altogether and, really, what's the point in a life lived like that?

My limited lifespan gives me solace. This planet existed without me for billions of years and will carry on spinning billions after I'm gone: this universe exists perfectly happily without me but for a few decades I get to live and gain the tiniest glimpse of the wonders out there. If I lived forever and could see everything, I don't think it'd matter as much to me.

thats a beautiful philosophy!