Let’s say you just happened to beat the old clock somehow, would you want to live to 200? And just for this question let’s say that friends and family all lived only to the expected age of 75-85. Would you still want to go on another 100 years?
Me? I don’t think so. I mean life is sweet but how sweet would it be without immediate family or old friends? Hows about yourself?
I don’t even know I want to live past 3o. 200?? Sounds too much of an eternity. I would prefer to live younger than all my friends and family, but that’s my personal belief, you don’t have to listen to it.
Absolutely not. No. No way. Heck no! You couldn’t pay me enough. No, no, no, no, no.
Sorry!! 3o is supposed to be 30.
Yes.
Especially if I could be guaranteed of a few things first, like reasonably good health, clear mind, reasonably good vision and hearing and basic financial security.
Why, you ask, sneering in dubious skepticism. Because, I reply brightly, there is so much to see! But not as a nearly mindless, crippled bag of bones dumped to rot in some minimum care nursing home that stinks of urine and feces and the attendants steal everything of value and the food sucks.
But, as a reasonably, debonair, healthy older person, living in my own home, that’s different.
I want to see us get to Mars and set foot on the soil and explore. I want to see us get to Europa and answer the question as to what is under that thick layer of ice.
I want to see what the next styles with be for pretty young women. (I plan on being a ‘dirty old man.’) I want to find out if I’m correct in predicting an end to 85 to 90% of racism as racist generations die out and take their conceptions with them.
I want to see the return of Rock 'n Roll, see just how cheap and tiny computers can get, if Castro will finally croak and who will come after him, and if Sadaam will get slaughtered.
I’d like to see how big the new space station will get and if we will go back to the moon. What new surgical treatments will pop up and will they ever crack the viral codes and make medications to cure AIDS, Herpes and the common colds?
Now that we have had the public insanity and panic over Child Abuse, Tobacco, kids, styles, drugs, genetics and irradiated foods, I wonder what they’ll dig up next.
Will they recall the helmet law and if so, how many bikers have to happily get their brains splattered on roads before the government decides it’s too expensive to pay their medical bills before doing so?
Will it ever dawn on the NRA that guns are fine, but the average American Gun owner just has no logical use for military style weapons, war ammunition, things that can knock out a battleship or blow the engine out of a police car?
I’d like to find out what happened to the missing flight of war craft that vanished in the Bermuda Triangle.
It would be interesting to find out what other form of annoying stupidity will replace TV call in psychics and infomercials on TV, will they consider the inventor of infomercials a national criminal and hunt him down, and do you thing they might make it a law to tell the truth concerning products hawked on TV?
Will Disney eventually own Florida and if so, will they start suing people who even talk about Mickey in public?
Will AOL ever stop dumping people off-line and then throwing their complaints in the trash? Will they develop an Internet search engine that does not bring up 500 porno sites and 200 totally wrong ones for any subject typed in.
Will they ever make those darn entrapping ‘loops’ on porn sites illegal so you can get the heck out of them in less than 10 minutes, 50 pop up windows and having to eventually reboot?
And … lots more. I’ve seen a lot of changes already and it’s fascinating when you think about it. In 100 years there’s been 2 world wars, 2 minor wars, we’ve gone from coal oil to nuclear powered electric light, horse and buggy to composite climate controlled cars, a wobbly first aircraft to landing on the moon, curing scores of deadly diseases and tons more stuff.
I want to see what happens next. I’d like to be there.
<…goes all serious for a moment………….
I sometimes find myself wandering around hospitals and seeing how many of the elderly deteriorate scares the hell out of me.
It makes me think that so much of the current belief about “we’re all living longer, isn’t medical advancement wonderful” is a great publicity spin by the pharmaceutical and medical companies.
Prolonging life looks great in the statistics but it doesn’t mean a whole lot if your minds gone. Doesn’t mean too much to me without some degree of dignity.
I want 60-70 years of self-determined quality of life without the extra 30, if that’s at all possible. Please.
But guarantee me sound mind and body and I’d happily live forever.
Sure I’d like to live to 200. It beats the alternative.
To me, the worst thing in the world is to have your child die before you do, and that’s what part of your formula includes. NO THANKS. I’m less scared of dying than I am of how would I live without my loveys somewhere around.
What a d----a-- question. Of course I’d want to live to 200. Cybernetic parts? Bring 'em on! Cloned organs! Stick 'em in! I want to live as long as possible in a human state. I also want the option of a painless physician-assisted suicide.
C’mon. I think we’re limited by the idea of a “natural” life span. Screw that. I want to live as long as possible. I want to watch humanity move out into the universe. I want to see first contact with whatever weird-ass species are out there. I want too see my children born, my grandchildren and so on. I want to see peace come to mankind. I want to see world government take shape. I want to see the falling away of suspicion, superstition and fear. I want to see the day I can stand proud with my fellows and not fear anti-semitism.
God bless it all, I want immortality.
What…and die young?
Do you know what I want people to say about me 1000 years from now? “He looks good for his age”!:p:
Death sucks!
My enjoyment of life has a lot to do with my friends and family. Without them, I’d be bored and unhappy. Sure, I’m an interesting person, and I’m quite capable of entertaining myself, but I couldn’t and wouldn’t want to have to rely on myself alone for any kind of fulfillment for even just one year.
If I had quietgirl, then yes.
Not to say that I’d die without her, it’s just that I wouldn’t want to have to endure the majority of my life without her.
I’d also like to live to see a time when politicians do the job that they were hired for, which is working for the benefit of the people and not themselves or whichever company gives the biggest bribe.
I think that might take a long, long time past 200 years though.
I can see stirrings of universal maturity and comprehension in the world today, sort of like kids go through as they pass through puberty where they’re aggressive, self centered and opinionated to their late 20s when they start realizing they’re not always right. In about 100 years I expect a lot of stupidity based on traditional and ethnic values to cease.
Still, I’d like to be able to watch the creation of a Martian base on TV and have direct Internet connections to use comp cams to look around. I’ve been a big supporter of space exploration ever since I read my first UFO book ages ago in the late 50s. (No, I’m not a fanatic. I just sit and wait until someone can actually produce concrete proof that we have been without a doubt, ‘visited.’)
Plus, they’ve discovered what causes people to age, and if I reach 100 reasonably intact, they might have the serum available to take and give me more good years. It won’t stop aging, but they figure it will slow it down and might even turn the clock back a few years.
Yeah, sitting in my pneumatic auto-rocker with my sword cane, on my porch, leering at the pretty girls as they go by, making lewd suggestions, shocking my nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews, knocking back a few vitamin enriched beers, telling everyone about the ‘good old days’ and shocking them when they see my 1970s stereo set, complete with vynal disks and needle arm and calling up dial-a-whore for some disease free sex with my newly restored sex drive. Then calling up my ‘dealer’ and ordering another carton of illegal, original cigarettes to be smuggled over and thinking about getting my 3rd or 4th facial and body restoration.
As long as I could take care of myself and enjoy stuff, yeah.
If I were assured of good health and the ability to take care of myself well into my 190s, yes. Would love to see what happens to this ol’ world between now and 2169. Especially if I have anything to do with it.
But if I were to spend part or most of the average human lifespan in some sort of assisted care or in very frail health, hell no. Take me out by 100 and throw a big wake.
Are you kidding? :eek: I lost it when my dog died of old age a few years ago; the thought of hanging around on this mudball while everyone I care about dies around me is truly unsettling. Give me a decent life, a loving family, control of the remote, and the occasional chocolate chip cookie and I’ll clock out when my shift is over with no complaints.
Yes, absolutely!
And just before my body dies at 200 upload my mind into a supercomputer holodeck simulation type thingy (too technical?) where I can live forever in a “reality” of my own creation. Well, as long as I always have the option of actually dying if I wanted to.
I do, but only if at the age of 100 my aging process completely reverses, so that I’d do 100 twice, then down to 99, 98, 97 etc. Then I could live out the rest of my life as a young(er) man with the knowledge of a 175 year old.
I think I’d get caught up on a lot of reading…
I think probably not. I think I’d get bored, and I don’t think I could cope with outliving all my family and friends.
I am with Skribbler! I want to live forever, but I would always reserve the option to check out if I ever changed my mind. If you like thinking about this question read “Time Enough For Love” by Robert Heinlen (sp?). It is one of the best sci-fi books I have ever read and is basically about this exact question.
If you are less literary or interested you could at least watch “Highlander” the original movie. It touches upon this too, though it is mainly an action flick.