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I'm so excited! Every time I read an article about longevity, its like Christmas morning. Everlasting youth is going to be humanity's greatest accomplishment,

I'm so excited! Every time I read an article about longevity, its like Christmas morning. Everlasting youth is going to be humanity's greatest accomplishment, and its biggest weakness.

gldalmaso 8y ago
It always comes to mind how many fictional immortal characters and creatures just basically choose to go into an eternal slumber. There seems to be a de facto consensus that it is actually pretty boring stuff.
- meiraleal 8y ago
  > There seems to be a de facto consensus that it is actually pretty boring stuff. Consensus created not by people with experience de facto. At least not the majority.
- pmoriarty 8y ago
  "many fictional immortal characters and creatures just basically choose to go into an eternal slumber" This just indicates a failure of imagination on the part of the author.
- tzs 8y ago
  Perhaps it is a way to deal with limitations of their brains. They usually have finite brains, which presumably have a limit on how much information they can store and organize and process. Suppose you are an immortal working on some long term goal, some plan that will take a few hundred years to complete. It is a complicated plan and you will need to keep it all in your mind, along with its history as it progresses, in order to guide it to success. If you try to lead an active life throughout all this, perhaps your brain will acquire too much irrelevant information, interfering with your ability to carry out your plan. So you sleep for decades at a time, just waking up long enough to check on the plan, learn about changes to the world since your lest check, and make adjustments. Then back to sleep.
throwaway5752 8y ago
Not to rain on your parade, but it would still be very wise to have contingency plans around dying after age 30 (will, insurance) and to assume otherwise you'll die around 75-80. The article is much less optimist than you seem to be interpreting it. It's basically "is there a hard cap on the age you'll die, or is it just random and independent of age past a certain point". It says nothing about the aging process. Being older than 90 still sucks for the most part, and this article says nothing about quality of life. It also is a very minor point, in a practical sense: is it impossible to live past 120, or is it possible with then odds of 1:10^9?
opportune 8y ago
Well, one problem is that longevity may not mean youth at all. Increasing longevity may simply mean getting (and looking/feeling) older and older. Even if we perfect the art of 3d printing new body parts and using gene-targetted cancer treatment, that may not make you spry, less forgetful, or less wrinkly
- red75prime 8y ago
  Biology isn't the only way to remove wrinkles. Our nervous system isn't very good at interfacing with electronics, but technologists will find a reliable way some day.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
tathougies 8y ago
It'll certainly be the wealthy's greatest accomplishment. They get to live forever off a permanent underclass of slaves. Congratulations, you have 'fixed' humanity.

I'm so excited! Every time I read an article about longevity, its like Christmas morning. Everlasting youth is going to be humanity's greatest accomplishment, and its biggest weakness.

gldalmaso 8y ago

It always comes to mind how many fictional immortal characters and creatures just basically choose to go into an eternal slumber. There seems to be a de facto consensus that it is actually pretty boring stuff.

meiraleal 8y ago
> There seems to be a de facto consensus that it is actually pretty boring stuff. Consensus created not by people with experience de facto. At least not the majority.
pmoriarty 8y ago
"many fictional immortal characters and creatures just basically choose to go into an eternal slumber" This just indicates a failure of imagination on the part of the author.
tzs 8y ago
Perhaps it is a way to deal with limitations of their brains. They usually have finite brains, which presumably have a limit on how much information they can store and organize and process. Suppose you are an immortal working on some long term goal, some plan that will take a few hundred years to complete. It is a complicated plan and you will need to keep it all in your mind, along with its history as it progresses, in order to guide it to success. If you try to lead an active life throughout all this, perhaps your brain will acquire too much irrelevant information, interfering with your ability to carry out your plan. So you sleep for decades at a time, just waking up long enough to check on the plan, learn about changes to the world since your lest check, and make adjustments. Then back to sleep.

throwaway5752 8y ago

Not to rain on your parade, but it would still be very wise to have contingency plans around dying after age 30 (will, insurance) and to assume otherwise you'll die around 75-80. The article is much less optimist than you seem to be interpreting it. It's basically "is there a hard cap on the age you'll die, or is it just random and independent of age past a certain point". It says nothing about the aging process. Being older than 90 still sucks for the most part, and this article says nothing about quality of life. It also is a very minor point, in a practical sense: is it impossible to live past 120, or is it possible with then odds of 1:10^9?

opportune 8y ago

Well, one problem is that longevity may not mean youth at all. Increasing longevity may simply mean getting (and looking/feeling) older and older. Even if we perfect the art of 3d printing new body parts and using gene-targetted cancer treatment, that may not make you spry, less forgetful, or less wrinkly

red75prime 8y ago
Biology isn't the only way to remove wrinkles. Our nervous system isn't very good at interfacing with electronics, but technologists will find a reliable way some day.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

tathougies 8y ago

It'll certainly be the wealthy's greatest accomplishment. They get to live forever off a permanent underclass of slaves. Congratulations, you have 'fixed' humanity.