A wizard/alien/deity gives you a magic elixir that will give you around a century of perfect health, restored and unchanging youthfulness and minor-regeneration from the moment you drink it. You’ll physically age only to 25.
Eg. a baby who drinks it will live to 100, a centenarian who drinks it will live to 200. Other forms of life extension and ultrahealthy living are allowed and would extend this even further.
**When would you drink the elixir? **It is indestructible 'til you drink it.
Bonus question: Would your decision change if you knew the omnipotent being was monitoring you.
Seems easy: I wait as long as I can. I get a note tattooed on me and a living will set up in case I drop into a coma or something (instructing medical personnel to feed me the elixir). Otherwise I drink it on my deathbed. I get over two full lifetimes out of the deal. Maybe if I had some horrifically painful but non-fatal disease I would drink it early.
Being monitored would make no difference.
You say that “other forms of life extension are allowed”. That implies to me that the elixir doesn’t magically kill you at the end; it just stops producing its regeneration effects. Doesn’t that imply I can live to 240 or so, depending on the breaks (live to 85 -> take elixir and live 100 years at age 25 -> live normally until a “body age” of 85 = 245 years total).
I don’t think I’d take it at all, because then I’d outlive my wife by a considerable amount of time. I’m going to be 44 in a few weeks, and she’s 9 years older than me. Even if she lived to 100 without the elixir, I’d still be looking at nearly 50 years without her. What’s 50 extra years to me, even in perfect health, if it’s spent without my sweetie?
But, if she got the same offer, I think we’d both take it immediately. Delaying it is a gamble, and if we both took it now, we’d both live to be 150. That’s good enough for us!
I’m 68. If I take the elixir now, I’ll be physically 25 for a century, meaning I’ll die shortly after my 168th birthday. My partner and I are used to different ages; we’ll adjust.
I’d drink it now. I’m 57 and not in the greatest health. I’d love to feel like I was 25 again. And I’d love to see what the 22nd century will be like. We’ve had so many marvelous advances in the last 25 years. I’d love to see what will make the digital revolution look like the Stone Age. And I’d love to see if we land on Mars, build bases on the moon, and routinely travel in spaceships the way we do in airplanes.
You’re making the assumption that you won’t die in a situation where you will not have access to the elixir. There may not be a deathbed.
Personally, I take it now, as I would like a reprieve for my mental health problems, and it would already give me a much longer life than I’d expect. The utility of maximizing my life as it is currently is rather small in comparison to the utility of being completely healthy.
Figuring out how long to wait if I were to get it when I was better is a lot harder. It’s difficult to determine how long I could wait before I would feel the risk of dying was too great.
I don’t want to outlive everyone I know and care about. So if I took the elixir, I’d probably just have to kill myself after a normal amount of time living. Is that allowed? If so I’ll drink it right now.
I’m with the wait crowd. I’d get to live a full life with my wife and then start over, either when I start to die or when she dies. I could choose to either hang out with my grandkids or just disappear like I died and start over.
I think I’d stay with the family since then I could keep my money and start to bleed social security between then two I’ll have several grand a month without working and my twenties would have been a lot more fun if I didn’t have to work. I think I’d change my investment strategy to plan for a 150 year retirement and then I could really enjoy my retirement.
Of course if I could get two of those potions I think my wife and I would take them on her 70th birthday so we could have a hundred year retirement together.
Per the original thread, the elixir doesn’t make you invulnerable to injury. My thinking is that most ways of dying in which I might be denied access are ones with a violent end. The more common situations, like heart disease or cancer, are more predictable.
Though it does raise a question. Suppose I’m in a serious auto accident and am bleeding out. I’m alive, but I’ll die in a few minutes and the medics aren’t here yet. Will the elixir heal my wounds?
