5 ms·
I can buy the accident thing on a long enough time scale, even though I would imagine that emergency medicine would improve over time so it would have to be inc
by nscalf 7y ago
I can buy the accident thing on a long enough time scale, even though I would imagine that emergency medicine would improve over time so it would have to be increasingly more severe of a problem. However, the “get depressed and kill yourself” argument holds no weight to me. Depression is a common thing, but such severe depression that you have suicidal tendencies is not in the cards for most humans.
Humans are extremely flexible, and it really seems like some people don’t have naturally severe depressive episodes even with strong external tendencies. Beyond that, I can say that depression is often combated, in some of the less extreme cases, by recognizing it incoming and developing tools to keep yourself from spiraling.
I’ve dealt with depression, and have had plenty of external things start a spiral. After many years of dealing with it, I have learned how to prevent it from getting overwhelming. I really don’t see the end of an indefinitely life occurring via suicide, assuming you’re not in isolation or alienated, or some crazy circumstance.
- nitrogen 7y agoassuming you’re not in isolation or alienated That seems like a big assumption over centuries.
- ggggtez 7y agoThis argument doesn't hold water. This assumes that depression is purely something you must be born with, and you can't get it from environmental factors. The thing is, if you really lived for hundreds of years, society would be radically different. Imagine... You can't get promoted because no one above you ever retires. You can't get an entry level job, because everyone has 200+ years experience! People struggle to work the grind until they are 65 already. But you can't retire, because your death is so far away. You need to keep grinding another 500+ years... That kind of world would likely have a lot of systemic issues with depression.
- mixmastamyk 7y agoIt’d be tough to survive on only 100 years savings.
- pferde 7y agoScrew depression, overpopulation due to nobody dying, yet birth rates not declining is what would have killed us long before that, through all the wars and famines.
- patrickk 7y agoEven bigger could be a lack of progress and stagnation, due to the dominant paradigm sustaining itself indefinitely. As the saying goes "graveyards are full of indispensable men", and "science advances one funeral at a time". This could mean a total lack of evolution in science, technology, philosophy, and so on.
- pferde 7y agoEven bigger what? I was talking about what would physically kill most of us off, whereas what you mention would make the humanity merely stagnate. While not ideal, stagnation at least brings stability of sorts.
- AmericanChopper 7y agoI think this misses the bigger picture a little. Given infinite time, everything that can possibly happen will eventually happen. Presuming that there are in fact some circumstances under which you would kill yourself, you only need to consider the likelihood of them occurring. If most other causes of death have been eliminated, then the only thing that could stop you from eventually killing yourself would be if you died by some other means before that happened.
- earthboundkid 7y agoBingo.
- krageon 7y ago> You need to keep grinding another 500+ years This is a societal issue that has nothing to do with a longer lifespan. The thought that you need to keep doing what you do for ten years is already plenty depressing, yet people make it to 65 just fine.
- WalterBright 7y agoThe human brain has never had to cope with a 200 year life, so I expect a lot of unexpected problems, even if the brain remains healthy.
- earthboundkid 7y ago> Depression is a common thing, but such severe depression that you have suicidal tendencies is not in the cards for most humans. I'm very happy you can feel this way, but yes, on a long enough time scale, depression will get all of us.