4 ms·

> Do you want to die? IMHO this is the wrong question to ask. As long as you continue to age, and your body degrades, you'll eventually not object to dying any

> Do you want to die? IMHO this is the wrong question to ask. As long as you continue to age, and your body degrades, you'll eventually not object to dying any more, because living isn't much fun. The much more interesting question is: do you want to age beyond a certain point?

akurilin 12y ago
Then, can we dramatically slow down the body's natural degradation mechanisms, or even better, start reversing a few of them? That'd be a very good question to answer.
tarpherder 12y ago
Not aging implies that you won't age beyond a certain point, or do you mean something different? Also, the question you ask is relevant even today with regular aging, and it's already hotly debated looking at euthanasia. I'm guessing euthanasia will have to be legalized if we ever do find a "cure" for aging.
- perlgeek 12y ago
  > Not aging implies that you won't age beyond a certain point, or do you mean something different? I mean that I don't want my 4 year old to stop ageing, please :-) So "stop ageing" is only good as long as we have some decent measure of control over it. (I feel like I'm really stating the obvious here, but I don't know the whole discussion well enough to know if I can assume that obvious stuff is well-understood...)
- seren 12y ago
  I remember reading that even if we found a cure to ageing, our life expectancy would "only" be around 10 000 years because of various accidents (car crashes being probably the most major contributor).
  - sanxiyn 12y ago
    If we cure aging, we will become much more cautious.
    - seren 12y ago
      It sure seems this is the current trend. However, I am not sure that after a few millennia, people would not get bored and start experimenting with more extreme activities like base jumping or space travel.
outworlder 12y ago
Or even better, do we actually want to increase the maximum lifespan, or simply stop the body decay for as long as possible? I'd rather live 80 years in a body that worked as if it was still in its thirties, than 500 years in a senescent body.

akurilin 12y ago

Then, can we dramatically slow down the body's natural degradation mechanisms, or even better, start reversing a few of them? That'd be a very good question to answer.

tarpherder 12y ago

Not aging implies that you won't age beyond a certain point, or do you mean something different? Also, the question you ask is relevant even today with regular aging, and it's already hotly debated looking at euthanasia. I'm guessing euthanasia will have to be legalized if we ever do find a "cure" for aging.

perlgeek 12y ago
> Not aging implies that you won't age beyond a certain point, or do you mean something different? I mean that I don't want my 4 year old to stop ageing, please :-) So "stop ageing" is only good as long as we have some decent measure of control over it. (I feel like I'm really stating the obvious here, but I don't know the whole discussion well enough to know if I can assume that obvious stuff is well-understood...)
seren 12y ago
I remember reading that even if we found a cure to ageing, our life expectancy would "only" be around 10 000 years because of various accidents (car crashes being probably the most major contributor).
- sanxiyn 12y ago
  If we cure aging, we will become much more cautious.
  - seren 12y ago
    It sure seems this is the current trend. However, I am not sure that after a few millennia, people would not get bored and start experimenting with more extreme activities like base jumping or space travel.

outworlder 12y ago

Or even better, do we actually want to increase the maximum lifespan, or simply stop the body decay for as long as possible? I'd rather live 80 years in a body that worked as if it was still in its thirties, than 500 years in a senescent body.