I am vapid and shallow. Give me the money.
Money. I don’t want to outlive my wife and kids, and with loads of money, we can keep ourselves pretty healthy and happy. I’d give a bunch to charity, though. I don’t really need that much money.
Life. I expect a lot wierd and wonderful shit to happen in the next hundred years. I would like to be around to see it.
Much as I’d like to see what the next 100 years have to offer…I’d take the money.
I’m not very good at forging new relationships. There aren’t many people in this world I truly love, and I doubt I’d get lucky enough to meet someone else who’s as perfect for me as my current spouse. We don’t have any kids (by choice), so I’m not sure what I’d do with another hundred years, especially if I had to continue working for most of them.
A hundred million, though, would mean that we would never have to work again–our lifestyle is comfortable but relatively modest, so that hundred mil would keep the spouse and me and our cats (and our subsequent cats) in comfort and plenty for the rest of our lives, after which we could leave it to a good cause.
It’s funny–I’m kind of the opposite of a lot of people. I don’t want to make a big impact on the earth. I’m very happy with my life, but essentially when I go, I just want to disappear without much of a trace (as in, I won’t be sad if I don’t leave a “legacy” behind in the form of descendents, the Great American Novel, curing cancer, or whatever). So having an extra hundred years would essentially mean more of the same things I’m doing now, only without my loved ones.
I would like to see the technological advances, though. I joke that I hope my old age will be spent in virtual reality–might not be far from the truth. 
Life.
Life is precious, and it’s way too short. I’ll make my own damn money.
Money. I’ve no wish to spend 10+ years drooling in an old peoples’ home. Now, if you were to say that I would maintain my current age for the next 100 years and then age normally, I’d take the life.
I was really leaning towards life, for the same reasons everyone else mentioned, but it would hinge on whether you go through old age and dementia for three times as long; also, I assume the century we would get to live through will be the one we just started. Fuck that noise. Gimme the money while it’s still worth something.
The afterlife isn’t going anywhere. It’ll still be there in a hundred years.
Besides, what if Jesus really meant what he said and rich people don’t get into heaven? I’ll get a hundred more years of life and do better in the afterlife.
A WAG but I’m thinking some of the people who are picking money are relatively young, say between 15 and 30. They’re in the prime of their life and in their peak physical shape. But they’re probably either students or just starting their business careers. So death and ill health are abstract concerns that are decades away but money is a concern right now.
Ask them again in twenty years when they realize they’re not young anymore and sometimes it’s a pain just to get up in the morning. That’s when it starts to sink in that mortality isn’t going to pass you by. Age is a one-way train that only has one stop and that station’s a lot closer than you realized.
This seems like a peculiar 21st century version of the offer made to Achilles, Cúchulainn and Dave the Farmer*: A short life, but your name will be immortal, or a long life in obscurity.
Money, no question. With millions of dollars, I could give most of it away to my favorite charities and still have enough to quit my job. Not needing to work would give me enough extra time plus, more importantly, the ability to make the most of it. I could work on any hobby I wanted, do any amount of volunteer work, even finally be able to travel outside the US.
Plus I’m just too pessimistic to find any of the joys of a long life that other people have mentioned. Do research? Nah, I tried the grad school thing and failed so miserably I don’t think I’d ever work up the courage to try again. See my great-grandchildren? More like see everybody else’s great-grandchildren while regretting never getting the chance to make my own. See how the world changes? We’ll probably choke the planet with pollution and be fighting over resources or something. I’d definitely like to miss that.
I would guess it’s the other way…the young folk want to live forever and think they’ll have plenty of time to make big money on their own, while us oldsters say “I can’t be in this much pain for another 100 years!” and have perhaps a pessimistic view of what the future holds for this world. If you’ve watched enough movies that depict what happens after a huge asteroid strike or a nuclear accident or alien invasion…do you really want to spend 100 years living like that? And live through how many more election years? Or work for 10 more crappy bosses?
And who is going to want to sleep with me when I’m a 150-year-old woman?
Give me the money. Let me enjoy my life now, make the world a better or brighter place with it, and help those I love. I don’t fear death. I do fear poverty and unceasing pain and the misery of a post-apocalyptic world. (I know the OP said your diseases were cured, but even if I have no more arthritis, the damage is already done…the OP didn’t say you’d regenerate new joints)
Really? I’d guess that it’s the other way around. It’s the young that want to stay young forever and the old people that want to quit working. I’m 23. The slow-aging thing means I can keep doing the hot, healthy, young girls well into my 40s, maybe 50s. I’m just starting my career so the money is on the way anyhow. I’ve got no kids/wife that I’d have to watch die either.
If you’re already in your 40s or 50s+, you don’t care about maintaining your current age. You just want to quit working and be with the family. Watching them die doesn’t sound like a great thing, but being able to put them all in a mansion does.
I’m taking the life because I don’t think that’s really the choice. It’s not a long life in obscurity, it’s a long life in the media spotlight. Think of the job I could have after 27 promotions at the Widget factory. Think of the book deals and speaking engagements. In my particular case, think of what 100 extra years of chess study could do for that career. I’d make $100 million eventually anyhow.
The reasons for choosing a century more seem kinda lofty and vague. Yeah, seeing new technologies emerge is great, IF you’re healthy, fed and content. Take any of those down a notch and the modern marvels don’t seem so empowering anymore. Just people my age (30’s) have witnessed a whole bunch of technological and medical breakthroughs. Are people subjectively happier because of them? Do they stand in awe, smiling at the 'Net, Ipod and HIV medication? Or are they mostly occupied with health, family and friends, food, money, work, taxes and bills - things that don’t change? The technological bliss has been coming, “right around the corner”, since the 1950’s, at least. But hover-cars for everyone, meal pills and space colonisation are nowhere to be seen. The death of a spouse or child, or severe illness, still rate among the most soul-crushing experiences known to man, something the century-choosers would face more than normal.
Massive loss of natural habitats and biological diversity is something I truly don’t want to see. My favorite pastime is walking through undisturbed autumn woods, bow in hand. My favorite meal is capercaillie breast. A century from now, no-one has the chance to experience them.
AFAIK, none of the World’s Oldest People have gotten rich out of it. Famous, yeah, but old people just don’t have the market value (or historians interested in them the funds). Jean Calment saw Vincent Van Gogh - did people carry her bags of money to hear the stories? The next oldest one, Shigeziyo Izumi lead a simple cane farmer life to the end. 50 or 100 years from now there may be massively more centenarians and people way older than 122 around - the little market appeal a super-centenarian now has may peter out altogether. $ 100 000 000, on the other hand, will improve the rest of my life and the lives of everyone I love, instantly.
Give me the money.
That way, SWMBO and I can do the traveling we want to do while we can still enjoy it. I sure as hell don’t want to outlive her.
I think Little Nemo is right. When I was in my 20’s, and had all my life ahead of me, I probably would have opted for the money. I was pretty much convinced I’d live forever anyway.
Twenty years later, I’ll take the life.
I’m thinking people are more likely to notice the absence of something they’re missing then the presence of something they’ve got. Young people are full of life and take it for granted. But people my age realize that half or more of their life is gone.
Jesus Harold Christ, I’m bored half to death at work as it is. I’m not going to put up with another 100 years of this shit. Now taking $100 mil and jetsetting off to Crete - I could live with that.
The money. I don’t want to outlive every single person I love. And I could do a lot of good with that money.
In my lifetime I’ve seen a man walk on the moon (supposedly ), the fall of the Berlin Wall, a black President of the US and probably a hundred other once in a lifetime events. Meh, I’ll take the money.
Well…even without any new technology, I would still choose life. It’s not like there isn’t enough things to see and do to fill 100 years. As another poster stated, I would have picked ten years over a billion dollars.
Note that I assumed I wouldn’t become rich and famous thanks to my long life, because it’s kind of cheating in this dilemma. For the record, since it seems to be important, I’m 43 and I’m certain I would have chosen life too at 23. I obviously can’t know what I would choose at 63. I assume it would depend on my state of health (100 years of major health issues might not be that appealing), but nowadays, most people in their 60 are in quite good shape.