I’ve wondered about this for some time, and today’s announcement of the death of the world’s oldest man (he was 111) got me to wondering if any Dopers have similar thoughts: is there a date to which you’d like to live so that you can be alive to witness a milestone?
For a long time, I’ve wanted to live to at least July 4, 2076 – in order to see the U.S. turn 300 years old (hopefully; if there’s not a tricentennial, the interceding years will certainly be interesting). I’ll have to live to be just a touch over 107 years old in order to make that happen. Of course, I’d like to have control of my faculties so I can actually appreciate the date.
My goal is to live until 60 and then kill myself before my body falls apart. Every single person in my family had major health issues in their 60s that impacted their quality of life by 60_80%, usually a stroke. All became burdens on the family,
Heredity is not destiny, dude. I wouldn’t cut myself short (so to speak) in advance of anything bad actually happening.
As for myself, I want to outlive my money by one day, or reach 90, whichever comes first. Not because something wonderful will happen in 2039, but I would be the first in my family to get that far (unless my older sister makes it first, which she might well do).
I don’t want to be decrepit and dependent on others to perform basic functions. Anything past 90 will probably lead in that direction. And anyway, 90 is enough for me.
I’m waiting for something specific. But I do want to live long enough to feel like I was a witness to history. Like those old people who were born before telephones were commonplace, who lived to see the invention of the internet and the cell phone. I want that kind of experience.
I share the sentiment, if not the goal. I live in dread of that kind of personal future. My family is absolutely peppered with strokes, and all three of my aunts out-lived their own mental competence. My father was reduced to second infancy.
Terrifying.
(My bet is that assisted suicide will become legal – and societally approved – as the Baby Boom demographic starts to get old and feeble.)
My current goal is a “healthy 100”. Since I’ve escaped the heart disease curse in the family I stand a good chance of doing that. I’ve had several ancestors/close realtives live into their late 90’s in full command of their mental machinery and good health for the age, meaning upright, walking around, able to care for themselves.
Honestly, wouldn’t mind 150 IF I could be healthy, mentally together, and functional. I’d get to see the US tricentennial and a bunch of other anticipated stuff. At this point I sort of doubt that’s a realistic goal.
Same here, kind of. The idea of living a long time (unless some major advances in the social sciences and neurosciences result in meaningful increases in the quality of life) doesn’t appeal to me.
I used to want to live to see the 22nd century start, but that is unrealistic w/o life extension. Plus, again, a long life and a good life are not the same thing. If I live a regular lifespan (based on family history and demographics, assuming no major accidents/terminal illnesses or expansions in lifespan) I will die sometime in the 2060s. I don’t think I’ll accomplish anything special with that, but I would like to see other people accomplish the following
[ul]
[li]The end of severe global poverty[/li][li]See renewable energy become cheap enough that no matter your environmental or political predilection people pick renewables because it is cheaper[/li][li]A meaningful reverse engineering of the brain, brain augmentation, etc[/li][li]Robots and AI take over the majority of medicine (diagnostics, forming treatment plans, performing surgery)[/li][li]Watching China reach wealthy status on a per capita basis (at least 20k per person). A nation of 1.3 million middle class, educated people is going to be good for the world. That should happen sometime in the next 20-30 years. [/li][li]The fall of North Korea[/li][/ul]
To a hundred and ten—and beyond! You rarely hear people talking about getting past seventy—they’re a-skeerked and don’t want to jinx it. But Maya Angelou was just getting wound up and Grandma Moses hadn’t yet picked up a brush. The woman who wrote I Heard The Owl Call My Name was eighty. Age doesn’t define ability, it defies it. Wisdom comes on many levels, at different times. Those who ride the waves share the experience.
I don’t really have any particular goals that can be summed up in terms of years or specific events.
I want retirement to be something I can enjoy - both in terms of enough money and enough health. I’m making sacrifices now to build up my career/business, and those sacrifices will only be worthwhile if they produce the retirement results I expect.
I’d like to live to see cheap access to space, and am optimistic that I will. Hard to put a precise date on something like that, though.
As for my age itself, I can’t be any more specific than “as long as possible”. Provided I take after Mom’s side of the family, that shouldn’t be too bad: Her relatives have mostly lived nice long lives, hale and functional right up until the end.
My parents lived to be 98 and 93. Thankfully, both died in their sleep, but I would not wish their last years’ indignity on anyone. Least of all myself.
I have no bucket list. I’ve done everything in my life I could reasonably have wanted, and have nothing I wish I had done. Except be nicer to more people.