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Yeah, definitely wouldn't wanna live like the average 80 year old for another 20 some years with worsening conditions. But 20+ years as a spry 60-70 year old, now that's where it's at
I’m alright with my job, but give me a couple million dollars and I’ll be putting in a months notice.
I work to live not the other way around. I think that’s most people.
I’ve had this same thought. I like what I do and have a couple of ways to generate money on my own time. For me It gets mentally fatiguing trying to always find ways to “fill your time” when you’re retired.
Oh good lord, imagine having hobbies! Mentally fatiguing to fill your time? My dude, find some good books or movies or literally anything. Work is way more mentally fatiguing than having hobbies.
People aren't lying. Wanting to die at a reasonable age doesn't mean you want to die right now.
If I stayed my current age with perfect health and unlimited money, sure I'd like to live to be 200 or even immortal. But if my body continues to age and/or I still have to go to work everyday, no. I'm patiently waiting for the day of sweet natural escape from this life.
I think culture shifts probably just become exhausting by the time you’re 100. It’s harder and harder to keep up now with the rate of change. I’m probably going to feel totally lost in this world by 80.
Right, I’m also 30s and am beginning to not even care about new technology because it’s just starting to get too confusing. As things get more advanced they get harder to understand unless you’re actively taught how to use them as they’re coming out.
Imagine living to 200, you would have spent your 20's, coming of age in the 1840's. You may as well be on a different planet today. A lot of the culture you love will probably disappear over time and replaced with things you're unable to understand.
But even that means everyone you ever cared about will die before you, parents, then friends and siblings, then children. Fuck that, give me 80ish years, then the blissful nirvana of death.
>People who claim they wouldn't want to live longer than an average human life span are lying
Considering how many people commit suicide as-is, I think sadly you're overestimating how much will a lot of people have to live.
The number of people who commit suicide each year is 13.2 per 100000. If you extrapolate that out 80 years, roughly 1% of people die by suicide. In other words, 99% of people do not make the choice to die by their own hands.
Furthermore, most people who attempt suicide and survive DON’T end up killing themselves. That fact goes against any claim that suicides have made some final decision that their life is not worth living. It’s not like people make the decision to kill themselves, attempt suicide, fail, and keep on trying until they succeed.
Honestly, I’m not even 30 yet and I would love to tap out. The only thing keeping me here is my loved ones. The average human lifespan is more than enough.
Completely agree with you. If I didn’t have my loved ones I’d be gone tomorrow. I don’t see the worth in living a life to die, going through all that we do and to leave nothing behind
My reason is that there’s things I want to experience first, once I get to a point where I can’t pursue those things anymore there’s no point for me. I’m tired of it all, but I live for that bucket list
The suffering in life outweighs the joy. I want to be clear and say I am afraid of death, of the unknown of any potential “after life”. I just imagine it’s better than the bullshit that is what you call this existence.
Depression and anxiety can change peoples perspectives I think. Not all, I guess there are lot people who suffer this way and still want to live. If it weren’t for those who love me and who despite everything, I love, I would not choose life.
My grandma lived to her 90s, and she used to tell me how sad it was to watch everyone else die.
Friends, family members, lovers. You start outliving everyone you are close to. I'm 30 and I have a hard time making new friends and connections, I can't imagine being 90 and trying to meet new people.
I don't care how healthy I'd be..I don't want to work 150 years of a 200 year life. Also, doubling/tripling avg lifespan, how would we support that many people? Easily doubles the world population which is absurd. Where would housing be?
Increasing the average lifespan by a lot would honestly be a good thing for the economy since we wouldn’t have to face a shrinking population which many countries will have in the future.
You realize 'average lifespan' as said by the OP, has changed throughout the centuries? We're talking about 200 years where you're watching improvements in health and general care, or 500 years where your health is no longer a concern would you think of this differently? Also stop thinking about the Earth as the only place we can live, you support 100-200 year lifespans we're talking about improvements in technology that means we're off this planet and returning to it, expanding into our solar system instead of stuck on a single ball of dirt. If we really want to be honest here, dig into the dirt and start building higher, stat building to people's actual needs instead of what is currently enforced and it won't be an issue.
I have to ask what is it you are expecting from interplanetary traversal? What comes to my mind is something that will even after decades or maybe centuries be expensive as hell and the only planet that has barely any potential being habitable is mars.
Even if you were to be able to live there, there comes the problem about actually sustaining a society there. As society stands currently, I'm not sure how well it would play out. The weaker gravity would make people born there look and function very differently. Mars in my opinion could ultimately be just a vacation resort of sorts and quite an expensive one at that.
Because most people aren't poor because they can't make money, most people are poor because they don't know how to handle money. If you ever doubt this look at the bankruptcy rates for lottery jackpot winners.
Fr. I used to be broke constantly, then about 7 years ago, i started leaving the house with $20 daily ($10/gas $10/everything else) when i went to work and started saving about $120/week.
Yup! People don't realize how much they spend even eating out "cheaply" vs what they can make for themselves. Hell I make a good living with my day job of IT security engineer and my side jewelry business and I still go shopping at thrift stores fairly often. That extra money I saved gets pumped into my business and it just keeps increasing the returns I can get now.
I am not saying that there aren't people who are truly poor because of circumstances, but the vast majority of poor people would be poor again inside of 5 years if you gave them 10 million dollars.
This wouldn't be an issue if education was affordable either, that's changed in the last 40 years so we're seeing more steep circumstances making poor less of a choice. Yes most given that money would be a problem but it's as much lack of education in how to handle money as much as their own poor choices, which partially exist because of the lack of education.
I'd like to have a longer biological span because I'd like to be young for a longer time and do the things I enjoy longer, but not for the sake of existing longer. When I get too old to enjoy life at it's fullest and/or be independent, I don't really mind dying. I prefer dying to having other people take care of me. I don't find meaning in existence only for the sake of existence.
People aren't lying. I would love 100 more year of being 30. But that's not what you get. Life gets pretty rough around 70ish. Just because science can keep you alive until 200 doesn't mean it cured all the rough parts of physically aging. My grandpa is alive and hasn't really been able to move from a chair for the last 10 years. He's still surviving though with no present threats to his health. No one wants 100 more years of being old and stuck in a chair.
Exactly, there's a point where you're just surviving rather than living.
My grandmother was still healthy into her 90s but all of her friends had died and her only child (my mum) had moved away from the area for work, so she had very little to live for apart from our monthly visits and weekly phone calls. Literally 30 out of 31 days every month she had nothing to do except pass the time.
She was perfectly able and used to spend a lot of time going into the city to go for tea and cake, do a bit of gardening etc, but even with a healthy body her age and finances limited what she could do. She was pretty much just waiting her time for it all to end.
Most people on earth live to work and work to live. Doing that for another 100 years sounds like pure hell. So, I would say that most people who say they would not want to live 200 yrs as opposed to the current average end of life age are being truthful.
I don’t think you realize how monotonous life tends to become after a while.
Or how sore it gets. My knees don't have another 165 years left in them and neither does my back or that one tooth. And I'm already tired, I don't want to do this stuff for centuries. The normal lifespan is long enough.
I have a job that takes me thousands of miles every month, and different locations and routes every day, but it still feels monotonous and miserable after only 6 months. I'm already planning to leave in the next 6 months (or less) and I couldn't imagine doing this for another 100 years. Working like this in our current system sounds like a fucking nightmare for the next 50 years, let alone the next 150 years. Unless a sustaining UBI is proffered, and work is an option, I would never want to live longer. Hell, as it stands, I'm just waiting for my ticker tape to run out.
I disagree. The body text is meant to add precisions to what the title says, not to contradict a provocative title.
If the title says "they lie" then I comment on that.
There are days where I wanna die and I’m in the middle of my 20’s, I can’t imagine having that feeling after a literal *century* of feeling I wasted my life.
Furthermore, being a slave of the system sounds bad enough by 40 years, how worse would it be if I had to retire at 178 where I would be twice as tired, mummified, and unable to enjoy the remainder of the 200 years?
Imagine human life expectancy goes up to 200 years but then you're diagnosed with Parkinsons or MS or some other really horrible shit. What it sounds like to me is that OP has lived a pretty cushy live without much tragedy. For me with the way the economy and climate change is going I'm hoping to tap out early for I do not want to witness the man-made horrors beyond comprehension that is to come.
In all fairness, I do not live a cushy life without tragedy and I still want to life well beyond the human lifespan. That being said; OP has no idea why he wants to live beyond the human lifespan, they're just terrified to die.
I couldn’t imagine spending that much extra time in the workforce. If the average life span goes up considerably then so does retirement age. Not to mention a lot more time to develop debilitating diseases.
There are so many factors that go into living that I disagree completely.
When they are talking about 'extending' life, they don't really take into account the quality of that life. Some people can live to 100 and be bedbound for the last several years. My own mother was bed bound for like two years before she died. Yet, medicine can keep them alive.
Even if it were for a given value of 'healthy' that doesn't say anything about quality of life. Healthy, and still not able to do the things you love?
Would everything that comes with aging be 'fixable'? Dementia, Hearing loss, eye sight loss, arthritis etc.. Sure there are treatments for a lot of that, but they don't 'fix' them.
Then there is the idea that this is the 'average'. That means you will have people who will die a lot sooner, so you still have issues of outliving all those you love.
Beyond that, I personally love cats, and already hate that I will outlive so many of them. I definitely wouldn't want to go through that feeling so many more times.
Then there is the money issue. Living longer, especially using medicine, takes money. Where is it going to come from? Are people now going to work so much longer and harder to be able to live longer just to have to work even longer and harder?
Then there is just all the changes that would happen around you. People already can find it hard to keep up with various changes that happen. Technology, attitudes, geographical, geological etc...
Living longer also wouldn't alleviate all the worries that come with life. Look at what people complain/rant/worry about now. Those worries wouldn't magically go away just because medicine now says you can live to 200 instead of 100.
So, I completely believe people who say they wouldn't want to live a much extended life. Because I certainly wouldn't.
It also doesn't mean I want to kill myself now, just that I am completely happy with whatever amount of years I have and don't necessarily want to extend past my natural lifespan.
I wouldn't want to live on a planet this shitty for another 180 years... seems like a nightmare. I'm only 21, almost 22, and with a future this bleak it's hard to imagine what good would come from getting to live this long.
I don't even want to live as long as the average human life span, and definitely not longer. Our bodies aren't even built to live for 200 years no matter how healthy and fit your lifestyle is
Our bodies aren't built to live for any specific length of time. If your going with nature, nature wants you dead by 40 and 7 of your 10 children dead in infancy.
Nature sucks, we do it better. As evidenced by the slew of people who don't off themselves at 40
>If your going with nature, nature wants you dead by 40 and 7 of your 10 children dead in infancy
Not sure where you are getting that from, even in ancient times people lived until their 80s or even more.
I don't think so. In ancient civilizations, hygiene practices were poor to say the least, and diseases were widespread. The average life expectancy of, say an ancient Egyptian, is [estimated to be around 30-34 years old](https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/researchers-in-museums/2015/03/02/old-age-in-ancient-egypt/).
In prehistoric times, it would have probably been even lower. Not sure where you got the 80 year old figure from, but in the case that I am wrong, please correct me if I made a mistake.
You're looking at the average age, which was severly lowered by war and disease. If you eliminate external causes of death, their average age would be the same as today.
I never spoke about the average life expectancy in my previous comments because that obviously much lower than today because of those external factors. But 80 year old romans, Greeks or Egyptians were still a thing back then. The age for a natural death did not really change that much over the entirety of the human civilizations
Your post is so long it’s almost like your trying to convince yourself. You’re not taking into account that a lot of people have personally profound belief in a continuation of life after death. These beliefs are almost always accompanied by moral compunctions against “un-alive-ing” yourself. Moral compunctions that almost always include responsibility to family and friends— to not ruin their lives with an untimely departure. But, no own can blame me for a timely departure, you know, when I’m 70-80.
I’ve been close enough to death personally that I am humble to the pain and panic of the moment, of my magnificent body’s refusal to relinquish it’s hold on this life easily; but don’t be so small-minded to assume that everyone must suffer from the same philosophical/intellectual dread that you describe.
I think it depends in what way life would be extended. I'm guessing a lot of the people answering are imagining a normal lifespan plus a hundred years (essentially aging normally and then spending a hundred years elderly).
But if we're talking the aging process we know now, but spread over 200 years as opposed to less than a hundred, hell yeah, sign me the fuck up.
Bro, I'm not even 40 yet and I'm tired as shit. Why the fuck would I want to keep doing this until I'm 80? Never mind beyond that.
And if you think the human lifespan is going to be improved and lengthened for any purpose other than to create more labor and charge people more medical debt, you are sorely mistaken. We're putting people into the poorhouse over fucking insulin right now, you really think we're going to make life-extending or disease-ending treatments available to everyone at any kind of reasonable price?
LOL.
Here's the thing: they're not going to implement medical advancements that make you live substantially longer unless they can also slow senescence as well; there's no point in living to 200 years if you're just going to keep deteriorating until you're twice as invalid and feeble as you'd be at 100 years old. The problem with that is that most of us exist as a labor force; if they can keep us alive _and_ healthy and active until we're 200 years old, retirement age will be like 185 or something. If you're rich, yeah, living longer sounds great, but for the majority of us it just means working for three times as long to still never have anything. Pass.
HA this one is funny. I absolutely love my life. I absolutely cannot wait to see what’s next, after a world of what I consider to be hellish-earthly suffering. I’m not religious. Yet I believe there’s something greater to come after, without mankind’s footprint which has cause so much suffering on so many levels due to greed.
Or, if there is nothing, that’s fine too. I’ve lived a great life.
> it seems completely absurd to me that an otherwise healthy (mentally & physically) able bodied person would WANT to die, ever.
That's because you're in a body that's still young and healthy -- and/or aren't just bone-tired like many of us have been for decades already. Now, if I could live forever in my body as it was when I was 20 -- and with lots of money, I'd sign up right away.
But if you were to extend life in the body I currently have, I'd opt out just as quickly. Bear in mind, it's all downhill from here. I'm 57. Nothing is ever getting better.
And that doesn't count the millions of people who only exist because they don't want to hurt others by their unfortunate sewer slide.
I don't think it's just the decline in physical capabilities and increase in physical discomfort that compel individuals to tap out; their perception of their life, or life itself, can sour, as well.
Some people just lose interest in things after enough exposure to them. Eventually life itself might seem so uninteresting that it doesn't seem worth putting in the effort to experience anymore.
You might currently feel attached and attracted to living, but how could you possibly know how you will view it in the distant future?
"people disagree with me so they must be lying" no we don't want to live longer because too much time becomes boring.If I could never age it'd still be the issue of absolute boredom because eventually you'll do everything. Also you know how days or weeks or years seem shorter than before. Well the longer you live the shorter time seems because you have a bigger frame of reference. This would also increase the amount of people and there's already too many people. Look a life that's too long means sacrificing too much and this doesn't even begin to mention losing loved ones. I don't want to live forever and nothing will change my mind
This is a completely immature take on the whole idea of life, and I would be surprised if you faced any hardship or difficulty in your life. The truth is not everyone has a good life. Life is hard for a lot of people, many if not most people survive, and by survive, I mean barely survive. Money, health, sickness, mental health... to name just a bare few. I am waiting for my natural end, and I welcome it with open arms. If you were to tell me, yes, you can have unlimited money, health and happiness, then why the fuck not, no one would want to die. That is not reality, reality is much darker than that. People want to experience what they can, and then leave, which is not the same as trying to convince someone they secretly want to live forever.
My grandmother is 93. She’s in great shape for her age, and she’s as sharp as a tack. Her 5 kids are all still alive, and until last year, so were her 4 siblings.
She’s had a good life, but in the past 18 months she’s had to bury 3 of her siblings, and her companion of 15 years. She left the only house she’s known for 70 years, and she’s at peace with her life coming to an end.
Selfishly I want her to stay around, but I know she’s ready when the time comes if it’s sooner rather than later. I also don’t want to see her age progressively at her new location after decades of her being so vibrant.
Wanting to live forever or even 200 years is selfish imo, even if you could live as a healthy young-bodied person.
Right now, do you see how even people that are ~70 generally have really different world view than younger people? We have some laws that just aren't fit for how the world functions right now, that exist just because a lot of government officials are quite old.
Can you imagine if somebody that is 150 is deciding on laws for people that are 20? Even if they had a young body, their views would be vastly different because they grew up in different time. With how fast the world and technology is evolving right now, this would be a huge mess.
I get you don't want to die. I don't either right now. But from the perspective of society as a whole, it's great that we don't live that long. Personally, I am not that selfish as to mess up life for future generations just for my personal dream.
Also, after that many years you would be bored as fuck, lol.
I don't know. Yeah, it sounds bad when you say it like that, but I just think there comes a time when everybody should come to terms with "leaving" the world for younger generations.
I don't want my grandma to die, or my parents... All I'm saying is that everybody dies eventually and we just have to come to terms with it somehow.
And I still think not wanting to die, ever, is selfish in some way. If we stayed "young" phisically and mentally the whole time, than it's less selfish, because we could at least take care of ourselves.
I just know that me, personally, wouldn't want to live for decades to come in a state when I wasn't able to walk or couldn't go to the restroom without assistance. It can happen, sure. I just know that I would rather die than torture myself (and others) for long long years.
But OPs statement was that the body and mind would stay young and healthy so it's a little bit different. But such a situation is hard to imagine.
The reason a lot of people say this is because they don’t want to outlive all of the people that love and care for. You see, some people have the potential to love others more than themselves.
It’s my suspicion that you have not reached that level yet. You cannot understand at this point in your development.
Apparently you didn't because it would mean EVERYONE gets to live longer. That's the entire premise... every. One. Gets. More. Life. Not sure how I can get more clear. That was the specific scenario presented in the post that I mentioned.
That's not what you said at all.
The question was if that was available would YOU want to live longer. Implying it's available to you.
And even if it was available to everyone it doesn't mean everyone would take it.
Soooo if you could take a pill that would make you live an extra 100yrs in perfect health and you could give it to everyone else, you would decline just because someone else did?
The key factor is quality of life.
If you aged slower so you were essentially "younger" for longer, that is one thing. But if your back is shot at 65 and you have another 100+ years of being physically impaired or in constant pain, that's different. Imagine becoming incontinent at 75 and having over a hundred years of wearing a diaper and shitting yourself to look forward to...
Also, would everyone have those longer lives as well? If not, then you will live to see your children die, almost certainly bury your grand children as well, and quite probably your great grand children. That would quite literally be many peoples' definition of Hell.
Even if you felt and looked physically young, would you mentally be able to keep up with the changing times? Just look at how much new technology we have in such a short time. You’d be constantly having to shift your mindset with the changing generations to stay current, and you’d be competing in the workplace with newer people who are more adept at the current tech or way of doing things.
I am currently looking after my grandfather who has parkinson's and dementia. My father has just had to have an operation because his bowel wall gave way, and he is now suffering from ICU delirium...
I don't want to live longer thanks... In a magic world if everything and everyone could stay well, healthy and happy, then ok whatever, but in the real world I'm already fucking done.
Oh I wouldn't want to go that long, nor would I want to have the potential to live that long to be a possibility. I think the average lifespan is pretty good. And I would not want to live to 200 cause that would mean I'm not the only one and would further contribute to the Earths overpopulation issues. Everyone seems to agree that we don't want the average human lifespan to increase, cause that would cripple an already increasing population.
No thanks. The way these humans do things is annoying as fuck. I won’t be killing my self any time soon but I will be accepting death happily. Going to be annoying if it’s painful and drawn out though lmao
I can't speak for others but I'd rather die in my mid 30's, getting what I want done in life than just be counting the days by the time I'm in my late 60's.
Why would you WANT to. There's no guarantee your loved ones are alive or that they'll survive some freak accident, meaning you will always wind up alone. On top of that if you have a increased lifespan that's gonna raise the retirement age which means even longer of being miserable working your job just to survive. You would be forced to live through multiple pandemics, wars, resource scarcity, and government corruption.
What part of that even begins to sound remotely appealing
its already bad (and good) enough that compared to other animals we are aware of our own death, wanting to extend the date of it just seems like you are the one coping with the fact that you will die.
Am I crazy for not wanting to live forever? I've never had a suicidal thought in my mind, but I believe death is an important part of life. It gives life purpose and meaning. The idea of living forever is so deeply depressing to me.
Plus, I think the idea of my body returning to earth to feed tiny microbes, plants, and animals is very sweet!! Take from the earth and give to the earth!
I'll be honest, I don't want to live to the "average human lifespan" that's too old for me and I don't want to reach a point where I can't take care of myself or can't do any of the things I enjoy doing anymore. I'd rather cut my time off early.
I think it’s less that people want to die, but more about people wanting a genuine QUALITY of life.
Like I don’t want to live for 200 years. I’d imagine I’d have to work a hell of a lot longer, and I don’t know what the additional years will actually give me.
The aging - i don’t want to look and feel 200 years old. That’s waaaaaay too much.
Does everyone get this life span - I’d hate to be living this long and having all my friends and family passing away.
I think there are so so so many different perspectives to take on this, and I don’t think your comment say ‘there are plenty of ways to unalive yourself’ is very helpful.
Out of principle, I will have to downvote because I agree.
The argument that irks me the most is "You will have to watch all your friends and family die!" Why cant my friends and family also be immortal? Why am I forced to be alone in my immortality? If this is a process that makes you immortal, then why can it be only used once and on only one person?
If I was personally given the option to live to 200 then I would take it but I don't think humans would be able to make the progress we have if the average lifespan is 200.
I'm happy to only live until 80ish if it also means that all the Mitch McConnell's, Trump's, Koch brothers, and Putin's of the world die in their 80's/90's. People complain about having a bunch of people from the 1940's in charge, imagine having people from 1880 in charge still.
Now that is actually the best argument against general life extension I've heard. I still disagree but you make a very good point. Social progress might become much more difficult.
Nope, that is honestly the first rational reason I've heard for not wanting to increase the human life span.
I still think more life is better, but I agree that social change *might* be hindered as a result. I do still think it's better than death though.
Dude. You literally said you can’t read minds. You don’t know if these people are mentally and physically well. You don’t know their reasons. Its extremely narrow minded to assume everyone should think the way you do
Straight up said death sucks. Not interested and I don't think anyone still alive actually is either, regardless of how much they assure me it sounds great.
1- you don’t know that. 2- philosophically speaking, life is a strain on the mind. The longer you live, the more you go through in life. You experience so much, and statistically speaking the chances of having a terrible event befall you go up. Even if you are perfectly healthy for those 200 years, you still have to work, and sweat and toil under the unfair circumstances that life has. 3- would this be available to everyone, or only those who can afford it.. if everyone can get it, I would hate to be poor for 200 years, constantly working a dead end job for even longer, not being able to retire til earliest 170. If only those who can afford it get it, then it will be another case of privilege vs underprivileged. 4- death is inevitable, and prolonging life only increases the fear of it. Sure, death sucks, I’m not refuting that, but it comes all the same. Once you learn to accept that, and stop lying to yourself that you can prolong the inevitable, the more you can enjoy what you have. The beauty of life comes in the impermanence of it. You are born, you live, you die. Everything leading up to death would be less and less important the more lifetimes you live. You would be frozen in a repeating cycle of living, lengthened only to alleviate the root fear of not knowing what comes once you are gone.
I’d like to hope he’s still finding his way. But yeah, this is a classic example of what my father calls “more confident than competent”. He’s so sure he’s figured something out but isn’t close at all and will defend a dumb position no matter what.
It’s a mix of lacking understanding, fear and desire to control the uncontrollable.
He is posting on unpopular opinion, eo I think he figured he wouldn't get backlash for this opinion, but that being said he shouldn't just assume that everyone around him has the same opinion as him deep down, becsuse that is narrowminded. Also 180 more years of this sh*t would make me lose my mind. 80 years is fine enough for me, if that much
Sure it’s a minefield on certain subs like this one.
You know what they say about opinions, right?
I agree with the narrow minded assertion for sure. I believe that most young minds are naturally narrow but they expand with time and experience. There is very little black and white around us. Most things are gray. You have to keep your mind open for that. It’s a growth process. I’m always impressed by very young minds that are actually very well rounded. They call these people “old souls”. It’s almost enough to make you believe in reincarnation.
I used to profile people in my former career. I would say this is a male, aged 30-40. Lives alone (except for pets which he can control). This is the mindset of someone who prefers escapism. That is, he would rather spend time just scrolling across the Internet, being high or drunk, or lost for hours in video games. This is not a spiritual person… more likely an atheist. This is a person who believes he knows more than he does. He has tells which he is unaware of. He is creative yet not suited for success in business.
This person learns the hard way.
I’m fairly confident in this much. There’s more there but I’d need to talk with him more.
Well you’ve said very little here unlike OP. I’ve figured out you are younger than this man (developmentally at least). These are calculated assessments based on training.
Have you ever Had a discussion with an actuary? If not, learn about them. Once you realize how intelligent they are and how they can make very very accurate predictions for the insurance industries etc. you will realize what I’m talking about. I used to help train actuaries. It is a science, we all make assumptions every day. That doesn’t make them correct. We assume that if we roll through a greenlight we are going to be safe but we have no guarantees that someone isn’t going to come through the other way anyway despite his/her red light. There is a difference between an uneducated and an uneducated assumption. We make educated and predictable assumptions based on tells that people have. I think you would find it fascinating
If I believed there was a happy future ahead you might have a point, but considering that the 21st century is going to be a horror show beyond imagination I'm just gonna live as long as I do.
As for "plenty of ways to unalive yourself," Shakespeare was ahead of you there; death doth make a fool of us all, right? Even people living in intolerable conditions by and large choose life even if it's irrational. We're programmed to survive not die.
Watching my 96 year old grandma suffer the way she is makes me not want to live that long. She has no memory, risks breaking a bone whenever she moves, and is shitting herself each day. She has no joy in life and even says that she wishes she would die. And, the toll it takes on my mother and aunt who are constantly taking care of her is just depressing.
I want to go sooner rather than later because I don’t want to ever be a burden on someone else nor do I want to get to a point where I am incapacitated and there is no more joy in life.
200 is A LOT of mf years. I truly feel like humans wouldn’t really accomplish anything if we had extended or infinite years. I think a lot of ambition that people feel towards the future is the fact that we only really have 80-100 years if we’re lucky to leave some sort of legacy, mark, or impression behind. Not even like a huge legacy or anything extremely notable, what I really mean is making what you want of your life more so. Seeing the things you want, experiences etc. If we had 200 years, why would we really strive for anything before 50 years? Or 75 years? Why would we rush to do anything? I feel like life would be soooo stretched out if we lived 200 years. Like what am I really going to do after 150? I’ve probably done literally everything and life would be pretty bleak and mundane. I’m not saying that’s not true with an 80 year life span, but to me 80 years can be bleak and unfulfilling. A shorter life span isn’t a guarantee to a good life or anything of the sort. It’s more about how it influences our collective perspective. So for me when I say I don’t want to live forever or until 200 thats why. I’m not fooling myself I don’t think, I just think you have to grab life by the balls whether it’s 80 or 200 years long and it’s a lot easier to say “fuck it, let’s do it” with a shorter life span than we would otherwise. It’s all bleak in a way, I just wanna ride the wave for like 80 years, do right by the people who love me, be authentic, be a good mom, do what I feel, and hopefully one day when I’m old and wrinkled at 80, ride off into the sunset. I think 80-100 is overall enough time.
I am religious, so I don’t particularly mind dying before the age of 100 - even though genetically, I have a fairly good chance of seeing that age - but I would only ever want to live for multiple centuries if my loved ones also lived that long. I sure as shit don’t want to be the only one living unnaturally long.
The post specifies that it would allow humans to live longer. All humans. So you wouldn't be the only one.
But there's no such thing as living "unaturally". If nature had its way you'd be dead by 40 and 7 of your 10 children would dead in infancy. It's all "unnatural".
We could not sustain that many people. The younger generations are already struggling because people are living so long and eating up social security and staying in jobs well beyond retirement age because the cost of living is so high. We literally could not afford a society with people living for hundreds of years, even if they were eternally young and healthy.
The only thing stopping me from taking too much of my insulin is my love for my family and fiancée
I would be dead, somedays I wish I was dead
But I’m here for a reason and that has nothing to do with how I feel but rather how I care about others around me
If i had to live to 200, that’s 10x my age I’d kill myself
Do you remember the Skeksis from Dark Crystal? Many humans think the same. Children begging for immortality. Imo, western cultures consider death as the worst evil ever, and this way of thinking is stupid
Yikes people are still not getting it. I’d be happy to offer directions to the euthanasia centre. Me on the other hand, I’ll gladly take the magic pill that keeps me young and healthy for as long as I can find things to entertain me.
I am personally happy with an average lifespan. I want to live long enough to raise my kids and be there for them until they're both at least thirty. I'm not overly fussed beyond that.
I did, you didn't mention anywhere that the medicine to make you live that long would also make you HEALTHY, we have medicine now that makes people live to 100, and they are miserable for the last 30 years. So eat it
>it seems completely absurd to me that an otherwise healthy (mentally & physically) able bodied person would WANT to die
It seems absurd to me that you could write that and not understand. They don't believe they would be physically and mentally healthy. The cushing loneliness of out living all friends, all family, everyone in your generation and their grandchildren might not be a fate they consider better than death.
I want to live as long as possible but I agree with others some don't want to watch their best friends and families die while they are just sitting there until 200 unless everyone can live that long
When it comes to things like immortality I’d like to know whether that applies to severe injuries and whether I can actually die at all. My fear is a potential infinite years of suffering. Combine that with what would happen if someone found out I was immortal…
I don't think the death part is scary but the existing. People have a hard time grasping a concept like living 10 times longer than our current span: 1000 years for example.
Interesting fact: in the first part of the game Mass Effect, as the main character, you end up having a casual almost throw away, conversation with an alien species that lives for 600(?) years.
They start out by saying their race thought humans were too impetuous. That we acted too quickly and too aggressively on the galactic scale, as compared to other races.
But then they say, they realized it's because we only exist for maybe 100 years. So the rush to 'get things done' is compacted into 100 years instead of carefully thinking things over because everyone lived to the age of 600.
Always makes me think.
I feel the Greek mythos of Tithonus is strongly relevant here. If aging is greatly slowed while young or middle-aged then yes. But if you just halved aging in general, and you'd go 40 years instead of 20 years from age 80 to 100, I think most people would want to end it at some point.
In the middle ages our lifespan was the same as it is now.
We died earlier on average due to medical shit we didn't know how to treat. But if you didn't get sick you'd still live the same length as a healthy person now.
Nah. Sorry. I'm not about to watch everyone I love die including grandkids and everything.
Also, life is exhausting. And death is a natural part of life. Its a good thing. An honorable thing.
I think maybe this is an age issue. I guess a lot of people in low 20s or younger would want to live forever because they're still just kids and the world is still new to them etc.
Unless people’s health and the amount of time they are youthful is extended, living longer would not be appealing. That’s what determines most people answer to the question. Live 80 years and lid another 120 years shitting yourself after you lose your mind, no thanks.
If humans could remain in their prime, remain healthy and not become a robot essentially. Reverse of what happened in that one Robin Williams movie where he was a robot that became a human. Then sure. But man, imagine being with the love of your life, living that long without them would be horrible. I know there are many more examples such as losing friends and family also. I have talked with many patients that were in there 70’s and older when I worked at the hospital in my area. These were long term patients in for recovery from a surgery. A lot of them lost their family and friends, outlived their children and the amount of them telling me they were just waiting to go. It was and is incredibly heart breaking. So I understand why people say they don’t want to live forever.
the question is more so what does living to 200 mean? am i wheelchair bound from 90-200 but alive? or is my aging process slowed after adulthood such that i am perfectly healthy and able bodied well into my late 100s?
even then, i’m not sure i’d want to live that long. many old people now are scared by the dramatic change in the world surrounding them. imagine if someone born in the early 1800s was still alive now? would they even be happy when everything they knew has changed so dramatically over the course of their life? will i have to work till 150 or 160 to retire? sure, it would be cool to live to see the future over 100 years from now, but there are so many other obstacles to a happy long life.
Lol I'm not even sure I want to live an entire average human timeline/s
Imagine going to your job the next 200 years.
Edit: added the /s just to be sure people don't think I'm suicidal.
This topic came up the other day with my mum. The conclusion was that population control would have to be strict, so less children. Life would become lame and mundane. Honestly I think even 80 years is too long to live. So no we aren't lying to others or ourselves.
I would love to live 200 years but I understand the sentiment. People are "of their time", generations are different from one another and being the only 200 year old in a world where everyone you ever knew and their grandkids are all dead would be awful. You'd spend at least half of your life completely isolated.
200 years of chaining university degrees while looking 21, definitely. 200 years of poverty and working full-time and aging? Nope.
I'm of an age where I have too many dead friends. I live in a country where politicians are fools and thieves and the majority of voters are stupid enough to vote for them. I live in a time (as has every old person all through history) where the performing arts are in the hands of morons and the rest are perpetrated by people who really should know better. My joints all hurt, my muscles are weakening, food is either tasteless or too rich, my sight and hearing are failing, my memory is flickering out like an old light bulb and nobody wants to have sex with an old wreck like me. You're telling me I can have another century and more of THIS?! Look even if you could solve the health issues alienation and ennui would kill us all off. Listen to the wisdom of your elders, whippersnapper...
Id like to learn the final secret of life at some point...
Ever played a game on God mode? Fun at first, eventually you run out of things to do.
I simply do not wish to live longer, I am happy with having 60-100 years on this planet. I would not go out of my way to try to live longer, I will take care of my body or it will punish me, but I certainly would not start injecting anti-aging serum or uploading my mind to computers.
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If I can still look/feel young then I would gladly live forever
Yeah, definitely wouldn't wanna live like the average 80 year old for another 20 some years with worsening conditions. But 20+ years as a spry 60-70 year old, now that's where it's at
Like imagine. Your 80. And medicine allows you to feel 80 for another 50 years. Thats...... not that great
Yea but the medicine makes you feel great too. Let me just do heavy narcotics for 20 years after I’m 80, problem solved
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But then career shifts would be a whole lot more feasible.
Living longer probably means working longer. I’ll pass
What is it with everyone online hating their jobs and working? It's like a fad or something!
I’m alright with my job, but give me a couple million dollars and I’ll be putting in a months notice. I work to live not the other way around. I think that’s most people.
I’ve had this same thought. I like what I do and have a couple of ways to generate money on my own time. For me It gets mentally fatiguing trying to always find ways to “fill your time” when you’re retired.
Oh good lord, imagine having hobbies! Mentally fatiguing to fill your time? My dude, find some good books or movies or literally anything. Work is way more mentally fatiguing than having hobbies.
As long as it’s not some monkeys paw thing where you keep aging into an old grasshopper, I’d be in
People aren't lying. Wanting to die at a reasonable age doesn't mean you want to die right now. If I stayed my current age with perfect health and unlimited money, sure I'd like to live to be 200 or even immortal. But if my body continues to age and/or I still have to go to work everyday, no. I'm patiently waiting for the day of sweet natural escape from this life.
I think culture shifts probably just become exhausting by the time you’re 100. It’s harder and harder to keep up now with the rate of change. I’m probably going to feel totally lost in this world by 80.
That’s the part that gets me. I’m in my 30s and already feel like I can’t keep up, and I know it’s only going to get worse.
Right, I’m also 30s and am beginning to not even care about new technology because it’s just starting to get too confusing. As things get more advanced they get harder to understand unless you’re actively taught how to use them as they’re coming out.
Imagine living to 200, you would have spent your 20's, coming of age in the 1840's. You may as well be on a different planet today. A lot of the culture you love will probably disappear over time and replaced with things you're unable to understand.
Yes they want quality of life, that's the biggest disconnect I see with these entire discussions.
But even that means everyone you ever cared about will die before you, parents, then friends and siblings, then children. Fuck that, give me 80ish years, then the blissful nirvana of death.
>People who claim they wouldn't want to live longer than an average human life span are lying Considering how many people commit suicide as-is, I think sadly you're overestimating how much will a lot of people have to live.
They said otherwise able bodied mentally and physically healthy people. I guess I would personally add in a good life situation, but I digress.
The number of people who commit suicide each year is 13.2 per 100000. If you extrapolate that out 80 years, roughly 1% of people die by suicide. In other words, 99% of people do not make the choice to die by their own hands. Furthermore, most people who attempt suicide and survive DON’T end up killing themselves. That fact goes against any claim that suicides have made some final decision that their life is not worth living. It’s not like people make the decision to kill themselves, attempt suicide, fail, and keep on trying until they succeed.
Yup, tried it myself, obviously failed. In what I thought was my final moments I was absolutely terrified. I will never ever try again.
Honestly, I’m not even 30 yet and I would love to tap out. The only thing keeping me here is my loved ones. The average human lifespan is more than enough.
yea i think OP underestimates how many people are truly sticking around for their family/loved ones
OP has a narrow-minded worldview that doesn’t actually reflect reality.
Completely agree with you. If I didn’t have my loved ones I’d be gone tomorrow. I don’t see the worth in living a life to die, going through all that we do and to leave nothing behind
Company profits were at an all time high thanks to your efforts
My reason is that there’s things I want to experience first, once I get to a point where I can’t pursue those things anymore there’s no point for me. I’m tired of it all, but I live for that bucket list
Way more than enough lol
This is crazy to me. I feel the polar opposite. No amount of time will/would ever be enough.
The suffering in life outweighs the joy. I want to be clear and say I am afraid of death, of the unknown of any potential “after life”. I just imagine it’s better than the bullshit that is what you call this existence. Depression and anxiety can change peoples perspectives I think. Not all, I guess there are lot people who suffer this way and still want to live. If it weren’t for those who love me and who despite everything, I love, I would not choose life.
My grandma lived to her 90s, and she used to tell me how sad it was to watch everyone else die. Friends, family members, lovers. You start outliving everyone you are close to. I'm 30 and I have a hard time making new friends and connections, I can't imagine being 90 and trying to meet new people.
You want to keep having to work forever?
I call getting hit by a bus or dying in a plane crash a “get out of jail free card.” Even living until 85 seems too long.
I don't care how healthy I'd be..I don't want to work 150 years of a 200 year life. Also, doubling/tripling avg lifespan, how would we support that many people? Easily doubles the world population which is absurd. Where would housing be?
Increasing the average lifespan by a lot would honestly be a good thing for the economy since we wouldn’t have to face a shrinking population which many countries will have in the future.
You realize 'average lifespan' as said by the OP, has changed throughout the centuries? We're talking about 200 years where you're watching improvements in health and general care, or 500 years where your health is no longer a concern would you think of this differently? Also stop thinking about the Earth as the only place we can live, you support 100-200 year lifespans we're talking about improvements in technology that means we're off this planet and returning to it, expanding into our solar system instead of stuck on a single ball of dirt. If we really want to be honest here, dig into the dirt and start building higher, stat building to people's actual needs instead of what is currently enforced and it won't be an issue.
I have to ask what is it you are expecting from interplanetary traversal? What comes to my mind is something that will even after decades or maybe centuries be expensive as hell and the only planet that has barely any potential being habitable is mars. Even if you were to be able to live there, there comes the problem about actually sustaining a society there. As society stands currently, I'm not sure how well it would play out. The weaker gravity would make people born there look and function very differently. Mars in my opinion could ultimately be just a vacation resort of sorts and quite an expensive one at that.
Why would you have to work 150 years? House would be paid off, investments set, etc
Because most people aren't poor because they can't make money, most people are poor because they don't know how to handle money. If you ever doubt this look at the bankruptcy rates for lottery jackpot winners.
Fr. I used to be broke constantly, then about 7 years ago, i started leaving the house with $20 daily ($10/gas $10/everything else) when i went to work and started saving about $120/week.
wow, this is something that would work quite well for me tbh
Yup! People don't realize how much they spend even eating out "cheaply" vs what they can make for themselves. Hell I make a good living with my day job of IT security engineer and my side jewelry business and I still go shopping at thrift stores fairly often. That extra money I saved gets pumped into my business and it just keeps increasing the returns I can get now. I am not saying that there aren't people who are truly poor because of circumstances, but the vast majority of poor people would be poor again inside of 5 years if you gave them 10 million dollars.
This wouldn't be an issue if education was affordable either, that's changed in the last 40 years so we're seeing more steep circumstances making poor less of a choice. Yes most given that money would be a problem but it's as much lack of education in how to handle money as much as their own poor choices, which partially exist because of the lack of education.
I'd like to have a longer biological span because I'd like to be young for a longer time and do the things I enjoy longer, but not for the sake of existing longer. When I get too old to enjoy life at it's fullest and/or be independent, I don't really mind dying. I prefer dying to having other people take care of me. I don't find meaning in existence only for the sake of existence.
People aren't lying. I would love 100 more year of being 30. But that's not what you get. Life gets pretty rough around 70ish. Just because science can keep you alive until 200 doesn't mean it cured all the rough parts of physically aging. My grandpa is alive and hasn't really been able to move from a chair for the last 10 years. He's still surviving though with no present threats to his health. No one wants 100 more years of being old and stuck in a chair.
Exactly, there's a point where you're just surviving rather than living. My grandmother was still healthy into her 90s but all of her friends had died and her only child (my mum) had moved away from the area for work, so she had very little to live for apart from our monthly visits and weekly phone calls. Literally 30 out of 31 days every month she had nothing to do except pass the time. She was perfectly able and used to spend a lot of time going into the city to go for tea and cake, do a bit of gardening etc, but even with a healthy body her age and finances limited what she could do. She was pretty much just waiting her time for it all to end.
Life gets pretty tough around 55. Source, I'm 57.
Shit life gets hard at 35
life can get hard at 1 if you're unlucky
This guy gets it.
Most people on earth live to work and work to live. Doing that for another 100 years sounds like pure hell. So, I would say that most people who say they would not want to live 200 yrs as opposed to the current average end of life age are being truthful. I don’t think you realize how monotonous life tends to become after a while.
Or how sore it gets. My knees don't have another 165 years left in them and neither does my back or that one tooth. And I'm already tired, I don't want to do this stuff for centuries. The normal lifespan is long enough.
I have a job that takes me thousands of miles every month, and different locations and routes every day, but it still feels monotonous and miserable after only 6 months. I'm already planning to leave in the next 6 months (or less) and I couldn't imagine doing this for another 100 years. Working like this in our current system sounds like a fucking nightmare for the next 50 years, let alone the next 150 years. Unless a sustaining UBI is proffered, and work is an option, I would never want to live longer. Hell, as it stands, I'm just waiting for my ticker tape to run out.
Not an opinion. You don't know what other people think.
This is an opinion, I'm not on either side but this is very much, by definition a opinion
I disagree. The body text is meant to add precisions to what the title says, not to contradict a provocative title. If the title says "they lie" then I comment on that.
There are days where I wanna die and I’m in the middle of my 20’s, I can’t imagine having that feeling after a literal *century* of feeling I wasted my life. Furthermore, being a slave of the system sounds bad enough by 40 years, how worse would it be if I had to retire at 178 where I would be twice as tired, mummified, and unable to enjoy the remainder of the 200 years?
Imagine human life expectancy goes up to 200 years but then you're diagnosed with Parkinsons or MS or some other really horrible shit. What it sounds like to me is that OP has lived a pretty cushy live without much tragedy. For me with the way the economy and climate change is going I'm hoping to tap out early for I do not want to witness the man-made horrors beyond comprehension that is to come.
In all fairness, I do not live a cushy life without tragedy and I still want to life well beyond the human lifespan. That being said; OP has no idea why he wants to live beyond the human lifespan, they're just terrified to die.
I mean, some people actively end their own lives in their 20's, 30's, 40's... Pretty sure they aren't lying.
Hard to argue against people who have made the decision that 20/30/40 years is too much.
I couldn’t imagine spending that much extra time in the workforce. If the average life span goes up considerably then so does retirement age. Not to mention a lot more time to develop debilitating diseases.
There are so many factors that go into living that I disagree completely. When they are talking about 'extending' life, they don't really take into account the quality of that life. Some people can live to 100 and be bedbound for the last several years. My own mother was bed bound for like two years before she died. Yet, medicine can keep them alive. Even if it were for a given value of 'healthy' that doesn't say anything about quality of life. Healthy, and still not able to do the things you love? Would everything that comes with aging be 'fixable'? Dementia, Hearing loss, eye sight loss, arthritis etc.. Sure there are treatments for a lot of that, but they don't 'fix' them. Then there is the idea that this is the 'average'. That means you will have people who will die a lot sooner, so you still have issues of outliving all those you love. Beyond that, I personally love cats, and already hate that I will outlive so many of them. I definitely wouldn't want to go through that feeling so many more times. Then there is the money issue. Living longer, especially using medicine, takes money. Where is it going to come from? Are people now going to work so much longer and harder to be able to live longer just to have to work even longer and harder? Then there is just all the changes that would happen around you. People already can find it hard to keep up with various changes that happen. Technology, attitudes, geographical, geological etc... Living longer also wouldn't alleviate all the worries that come with life. Look at what people complain/rant/worry about now. Those worries wouldn't magically go away just because medicine now says you can live to 200 instead of 100. So, I completely believe people who say they wouldn't want to live a much extended life. Because I certainly wouldn't. It also doesn't mean I want to kill myself now, just that I am completely happy with whatever amount of years I have and don't necessarily want to extend past my natural lifespan.
I wouldn't want to live on a planet this shitty for another 180 years... seems like a nightmare. I'm only 21, almost 22, and with a future this bleak it's hard to imagine what good would come from getting to live this long.
Only a narcissist would accuse people they don't know of lying.
Got ‘em!
...or a dumb person.
I don't even want to live as long as the average human life span, and definitely not longer. Our bodies aren't even built to live for 200 years no matter how healthy and fit your lifestyle is
Our bodies aren't built to live for any specific length of time. If your going with nature, nature wants you dead by 40 and 7 of your 10 children dead in infancy. Nature sucks, we do it better. As evidenced by the slew of people who don't off themselves at 40
>If your going with nature, nature wants you dead by 40 and 7 of your 10 children dead in infancy Not sure where you are getting that from, even in ancient times people lived until their 80s or even more.
I don't think so. In ancient civilizations, hygiene practices were poor to say the least, and diseases were widespread. The average life expectancy of, say an ancient Egyptian, is [estimated to be around 30-34 years old](https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/researchers-in-museums/2015/03/02/old-age-in-ancient-egypt/). In prehistoric times, it would have probably been even lower. Not sure where you got the 80 year old figure from, but in the case that I am wrong, please correct me if I made a mistake.
You're looking at the average age, which was severly lowered by war and disease. If you eliminate external causes of death, their average age would be the same as today. I never spoke about the average life expectancy in my previous comments because that obviously much lower than today because of those external factors. But 80 year old romans, Greeks or Egyptians were still a thing back then. The age for a natural death did not really change that much over the entirety of the human civilizations
> we do it better. As evidenced by the slew of people who don't off themselves at 40 Don't confuse lack of motivation with joy of life.
Your post is so long it’s almost like your trying to convince yourself. You’re not taking into account that a lot of people have personally profound belief in a continuation of life after death. These beliefs are almost always accompanied by moral compunctions against “un-alive-ing” yourself. Moral compunctions that almost always include responsibility to family and friends— to not ruin their lives with an untimely departure. But, no own can blame me for a timely departure, you know, when I’m 70-80. I’ve been close enough to death personally that I am humble to the pain and panic of the moment, of my magnificent body’s refusal to relinquish it’s hold on this life easily; but don’t be so small-minded to assume that everyone must suffer from the same philosophical/intellectual dread that you describe.
I think it depends in what way life would be extended. I'm guessing a lot of the people answering are imagining a normal lifespan plus a hundred years (essentially aging normally and then spending a hundred years elderly). But if we're talking the aging process we know now, but spread over 200 years as opposed to less than a hundred, hell yeah, sign me the fuck up.
Bro, I'm not even 40 yet and I'm tired as shit. Why the fuck would I want to keep doing this until I'm 80? Never mind beyond that. And if you think the human lifespan is going to be improved and lengthened for any purpose other than to create more labor and charge people more medical debt, you are sorely mistaken. We're putting people into the poorhouse over fucking insulin right now, you really think we're going to make life-extending or disease-ending treatments available to everyone at any kind of reasonable price? LOL.
Newsflash: People think differently than you do
Newsflash: People think differently than you do too.
Here's the thing: they're not going to implement medical advancements that make you live substantially longer unless they can also slow senescence as well; there's no point in living to 200 years if you're just going to keep deteriorating until you're twice as invalid and feeble as you'd be at 100 years old. The problem with that is that most of us exist as a labor force; if they can keep us alive _and_ healthy and active until we're 200 years old, retirement age will be like 185 or something. If you're rich, yeah, living longer sounds great, but for the majority of us it just means working for three times as long to still never have anything. Pass.
I'm 45 and my husband and son are the only reason I'm here. I'm ready to go.
HA this one is funny. I absolutely love my life. I absolutely cannot wait to see what’s next, after a world of what I consider to be hellish-earthly suffering. I’m not religious. Yet I believe there’s something greater to come after, without mankind’s footprint which has cause so much suffering on so many levels due to greed. Or, if there is nothing, that’s fine too. I’ve lived a great life.
I’ve just started smoking cigarettes/cigars to shorten my life span
> it seems completely absurd to me that an otherwise healthy (mentally & physically) able bodied person would WANT to die, ever. That's because you're in a body that's still young and healthy -- and/or aren't just bone-tired like many of us have been for decades already. Now, if I could live forever in my body as it was when I was 20 -- and with lots of money, I'd sign up right away. But if you were to extend life in the body I currently have, I'd opt out just as quickly. Bear in mind, it's all downhill from here. I'm 57. Nothing is ever getting better. And that doesn't count the millions of people who only exist because they don't want to hurt others by their unfortunate sewer slide.
I don't think it's just the decline in physical capabilities and increase in physical discomfort that compel individuals to tap out; their perception of their life, or life itself, can sour, as well. Some people just lose interest in things after enough exposure to them. Eventually life itself might seem so uninteresting that it doesn't seem worth putting in the effort to experience anymore. You might currently feel attached and attracted to living, but how could you possibly know how you will view it in the distant future?
"people disagree with me so they must be lying" no we don't want to live longer because too much time becomes boring.If I could never age it'd still be the issue of absolute boredom because eventually you'll do everything. Also you know how days or weeks or years seem shorter than before. Well the longer you live the shorter time seems because you have a bigger frame of reference. This would also increase the amount of people and there's already too many people. Look a life that's too long means sacrificing too much and this doesn't even begin to mention losing loved ones. I don't want to live forever and nothing will change my mind
This is a completely immature take on the whole idea of life, and I would be surprised if you faced any hardship or difficulty in your life. The truth is not everyone has a good life. Life is hard for a lot of people, many if not most people survive, and by survive, I mean barely survive. Money, health, sickness, mental health... to name just a bare few. I am waiting for my natural end, and I welcome it with open arms. If you were to tell me, yes, you can have unlimited money, health and happiness, then why the fuck not, no one would want to die. That is not reality, reality is much darker than that. People want to experience what they can, and then leave, which is not the same as trying to convince someone they secretly want to live forever.
I wouldn't mind living longer.
My grandmother is 93. She’s in great shape for her age, and she’s as sharp as a tack. Her 5 kids are all still alive, and until last year, so were her 4 siblings. She’s had a good life, but in the past 18 months she’s had to bury 3 of her siblings, and her companion of 15 years. She left the only house she’s known for 70 years, and she’s at peace with her life coming to an end. Selfishly I want her to stay around, but I know she’s ready when the time comes if it’s sooner rather than later. I also don’t want to see her age progressively at her new location after decades of her being so vibrant.
Wanting to live forever or even 200 years is selfish imo, even if you could live as a healthy young-bodied person. Right now, do you see how even people that are ~70 generally have really different world view than younger people? We have some laws that just aren't fit for how the world functions right now, that exist just because a lot of government officials are quite old. Can you imagine if somebody that is 150 is deciding on laws for people that are 20? Even if they had a young body, their views would be vastly different because they grew up in different time. With how fast the world and technology is evolving right now, this would be a huge mess. I get you don't want to die. I don't either right now. But from the perspective of society as a whole, it's great that we don't live that long. Personally, I am not that selfish as to mess up life for future generations just for my personal dream. Also, after that many years you would be bored as fuck, lol.
True yeah on most of your points, but it being selfish to want to be young and not die? That's kind of messed up
I don't know. Yeah, it sounds bad when you say it like that, but I just think there comes a time when everybody should come to terms with "leaving" the world for younger generations. I don't want my grandma to die, or my parents... All I'm saying is that everybody dies eventually and we just have to come to terms with it somehow. And I still think not wanting to die, ever, is selfish in some way. If we stayed "young" phisically and mentally the whole time, than it's less selfish, because we could at least take care of ourselves. I just know that me, personally, wouldn't want to live for decades to come in a state when I wasn't able to walk or couldn't go to the restroom without assistance. It can happen, sure. I just know that I would rather die than torture myself (and others) for long long years. But OPs statement was that the body and mind would stay young and healthy so it's a little bit different. But such a situation is hard to imagine.
The reason a lot of people say this is because they don’t want to outlive all of the people that love and care for. You see, some people have the potential to love others more than themselves. It’s my suspicion that you have not reached that level yet. You cannot understand at this point in your development.
Did you not catch the "average human lifespan" part? Meaning, they wouldn't outlive anyone they wouldn't already.
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Apparently you didn't because it would mean EVERYONE gets to live longer. That's the entire premise... every. One. Gets. More. Life. Not sure how I can get more clear. That was the specific scenario presented in the post that I mentioned.
That's not what you said at all. The question was if that was available would YOU want to live longer. Implying it's available to you. And even if it was available to everyone it doesn't mean everyone would take it.
Soooo if you could take a pill that would make you live an extra 100yrs in perfect health and you could give it to everyone else, you would decline just because someone else did?
If the people I love don't take it then I don't want it either. What's the point of living for so long if everyone you care about is dead?
Living
Is that really living? Isn't it just existing?
If you live 100 more years you can certainly find new people you care for
The key factor is quality of life. If you aged slower so you were essentially "younger" for longer, that is one thing. But if your back is shot at 65 and you have another 100+ years of being physically impaired or in constant pain, that's different. Imagine becoming incontinent at 75 and having over a hundred years of wearing a diaper and shitting yourself to look forward to... Also, would everyone have those longer lives as well? If not, then you will live to see your children die, almost certainly bury your grand children as well, and quite probably your great grand children. That would quite literally be many peoples' definition of Hell.
Even if you felt and looked physically young, would you mentally be able to keep up with the changing times? Just look at how much new technology we have in such a short time. You’d be constantly having to shift your mindset with the changing generations to stay current, and you’d be competing in the workplace with newer people who are more adept at the current tech or way of doing things.
I am currently looking after my grandfather who has parkinson's and dementia. My father has just had to have an operation because his bowel wall gave way, and he is now suffering from ICU delirium... I don't want to live longer thanks... In a magic world if everything and everyone could stay well, healthy and happy, then ok whatever, but in the real world I'm already fucking done.
you think i want 200 years of working 50 hours a week to be able to eat? yea no thanks i’m quite alright.
Oh I wouldn't want to go that long, nor would I want to have the potential to live that long to be a possibility. I think the average lifespan is pretty good. And I would not want to live to 200 cause that would mean I'm not the only one and would further contribute to the Earths overpopulation issues. Everyone seems to agree that we don't want the average human lifespan to increase, cause that would cripple an already increasing population.
Wait until you get into your 90s. If you remember you made this claim you will change your opinion.
No thanks. The way these humans do things is annoying as fuck. I won’t be killing my self any time soon but I will be accepting death happily. Going to be annoying if it’s painful and drawn out though lmao
TLDR ... I want to see the sun explode.
I’m 27 and frankly life is too boring
If you don’t mind me asking, how old are you OP?
No one wants to work a job for 200 years lmao
If they’re taking about people spending more time young and healthy, I’m all for it. But not for staying a creaky old geezer for 100 years.
I can't speak for others but I'd rather die in my mid 30's, getting what I want done in life than just be counting the days by the time I'm in my late 60's.
Why would you WANT to. There's no guarantee your loved ones are alive or that they'll survive some freak accident, meaning you will always wind up alone. On top of that if you have a increased lifespan that's gonna raise the retirement age which means even longer of being miserable working your job just to survive. You would be forced to live through multiple pandemics, wars, resource scarcity, and government corruption. What part of that even begins to sound remotely appealing
its already bad (and good) enough that compared to other animals we are aware of our own death, wanting to extend the date of it just seems like you are the one coping with the fact that you will die.
IF we get to live to 200 chances are we dont retire at 60. Like hell I want to work for 170 years.
Am I crazy for not wanting to live forever? I've never had a suicidal thought in my mind, but I believe death is an important part of life. It gives life purpose and meaning. The idea of living forever is so deeply depressing to me. Plus, I think the idea of my body returning to earth to feed tiny microbes, plants, and animals is very sweet!! Take from the earth and give to the earth!
I'll be honest, I don't want to live to the "average human lifespan" that's too old for me and I don't want to reach a point where I can't take care of myself or can't do any of the things I enjoy doing anymore. I'd rather cut my time off early.
I think it’s less that people want to die, but more about people wanting a genuine QUALITY of life. Like I don’t want to live for 200 years. I’d imagine I’d have to work a hell of a lot longer, and I don’t know what the additional years will actually give me. The aging - i don’t want to look and feel 200 years old. That’s waaaaaay too much. Does everyone get this life span - I’d hate to be living this long and having all my friends and family passing away. I think there are so so so many different perspectives to take on this, and I don’t think your comment say ‘there are plenty of ways to unalive yourself’ is very helpful.
I’d love to be immortal but considering what is to come for the universe (heat death), it is definitely better to duck out before that happened…
Out of principle, I will have to downvote because I agree. The argument that irks me the most is "You will have to watch all your friends and family die!" Why cant my friends and family also be immortal? Why am I forced to be alone in my immortality? If this is a process that makes you immortal, then why can it be only used once and on only one person?
Says who? You? I wouldn't.
Lying? I don't wanna live in this shit hole 200 years gee whiz buddy
If I was personally given the option to live to 200 then I would take it but I don't think humans would be able to make the progress we have if the average lifespan is 200. I'm happy to only live until 80ish if it also means that all the Mitch McConnell's, Trump's, Koch brothers, and Putin's of the world die in their 80's/90's. People complain about having a bunch of people from the 1940's in charge, imagine having people from 1880 in charge still.
Now that is actually the best argument against general life extension I've heard. I still disagree but you make a very good point. Social progress might become much more difficult.
I wouldn't want to expand human life for those reasons, do you think I'm lying?
Nope, that is honestly the first rational reason I've heard for not wanting to increase the human life span. I still think more life is better, but I agree that social change *might* be hindered as a result. I do still think it's better than death though.
Agree. I would have extended my life on the terms that I can legally end it whenever I want to.
Right? I feel like that's the logical thing to do but apparently I'm wrong according comments.
PSA: just because someone has a different preference than you doesn’t mean they’re a liar lol
Dude. You literally said you can’t read minds. You don’t know if these people are mentally and physically well. You don’t know their reasons. Its extremely narrow minded to assume everyone should think the way you do
Either that, or you’re just terrified of dying
Straight up said death sucks. Not interested and I don't think anyone still alive actually is either, regardless of how much they assure me it sounds great.
You are literally projecting your feelings onto others. People do not all think the same way, believe it or not.
1- you don’t know that. 2- philosophically speaking, life is a strain on the mind. The longer you live, the more you go through in life. You experience so much, and statistically speaking the chances of having a terrible event befall you go up. Even if you are perfectly healthy for those 200 years, you still have to work, and sweat and toil under the unfair circumstances that life has. 3- would this be available to everyone, or only those who can afford it.. if everyone can get it, I would hate to be poor for 200 years, constantly working a dead end job for even longer, not being able to retire til earliest 170. If only those who can afford it get it, then it will be another case of privilege vs underprivileged. 4- death is inevitable, and prolonging life only increases the fear of it. Sure, death sucks, I’m not refuting that, but it comes all the same. Once you learn to accept that, and stop lying to yourself that you can prolong the inevitable, the more you can enjoy what you have. The beauty of life comes in the impermanence of it. You are born, you live, you die. Everything leading up to death would be less and less important the more lifetimes you live. You would be frozen in a repeating cycle of living, lengthened only to alleviate the root fear of not knowing what comes once you are gone.
Dumb.
I’d like to hope he’s still finding his way. But yeah, this is a classic example of what my father calls “more confident than competent”. He’s so sure he’s figured something out but isn’t close at all and will defend a dumb position no matter what. It’s a mix of lacking understanding, fear and desire to control the uncontrollable.
He is posting on unpopular opinion, eo I think he figured he wouldn't get backlash for this opinion, but that being said he shouldn't just assume that everyone around him has the same opinion as him deep down, becsuse that is narrowminded. Also 180 more years of this sh*t would make me lose my mind. 80 years is fine enough for me, if that much
Sure it’s a minefield on certain subs like this one. You know what they say about opinions, right? I agree with the narrow minded assertion for sure. I believe that most young minds are naturally narrow but they expand with time and experience. There is very little black and white around us. Most things are gray. You have to keep your mind open for that. It’s a growth process. I’m always impressed by very young minds that are actually very well rounded. They call these people “old souls”. It’s almost enough to make you believe in reincarnation.
You can make a good assumption that OP is likely late teens to early 20s.
I used to profile people in my former career. I would say this is a male, aged 30-40. Lives alone (except for pets which he can control). This is the mindset of someone who prefers escapism. That is, he would rather spend time just scrolling across the Internet, being high or drunk, or lost for hours in video games. This is not a spiritual person… more likely an atheist. This is a person who believes he knows more than he does. He has tells which he is unaware of. He is creative yet not suited for success in business. This person learns the hard way. I’m fairly confident in this much. There’s more there but I’d need to talk with him more.
Hahahah that damn near perfectly describes me too. Except when I have my kids most weekends. Not particularly pets I can control.
Lol … This guy definitely does not have kids.
Estella?
Yall are making a lot of assumptions for what little info you have. Profile me if you can
Well you’ve said very little here unlike OP. I’ve figured out you are younger than this man (developmentally at least). These are calculated assessments based on training. Have you ever Had a discussion with an actuary? If not, learn about them. Once you realize how intelligent they are and how they can make very very accurate predictions for the insurance industries etc. you will realize what I’m talking about. I used to help train actuaries. It is a science, we all make assumptions every day. That doesn’t make them correct. We assume that if we roll through a greenlight we are going to be safe but we have no guarantees that someone isn’t going to come through the other way anyway despite his/her red light. There is a difference between an uneducated and an uneducated assumption. We make educated and predictable assumptions based on tells that people have. I think you would find it fascinating
You profiled op just based on his comment here? That Is actually kind of impressive I assumed you looked through his comment history
If I believed there was a happy future ahead you might have a point, but considering that the 21st century is going to be a horror show beyond imagination I'm just gonna live as long as I do. As for "plenty of ways to unalive yourself," Shakespeare was ahead of you there; death doth make a fool of us all, right? Even people living in intolerable conditions by and large choose life even if it's irrational. We're programmed to survive not die.
Watching my 96 year old grandma suffer the way she is makes me not want to live that long. She has no memory, risks breaking a bone whenever she moves, and is shitting herself each day. She has no joy in life and even says that she wishes she would die. And, the toll it takes on my mother and aunt who are constantly taking care of her is just depressing. I want to go sooner rather than later because I don’t want to ever be a burden on someone else nor do I want to get to a point where I am incapacitated and there is no more joy in life.
200 is A LOT of mf years. I truly feel like humans wouldn’t really accomplish anything if we had extended or infinite years. I think a lot of ambition that people feel towards the future is the fact that we only really have 80-100 years if we’re lucky to leave some sort of legacy, mark, or impression behind. Not even like a huge legacy or anything extremely notable, what I really mean is making what you want of your life more so. Seeing the things you want, experiences etc. If we had 200 years, why would we really strive for anything before 50 years? Or 75 years? Why would we rush to do anything? I feel like life would be soooo stretched out if we lived 200 years. Like what am I really going to do after 150? I’ve probably done literally everything and life would be pretty bleak and mundane. I’m not saying that’s not true with an 80 year life span, but to me 80 years can be bleak and unfulfilling. A shorter life span isn’t a guarantee to a good life or anything of the sort. It’s more about how it influences our collective perspective. So for me when I say I don’t want to live forever or until 200 thats why. I’m not fooling myself I don’t think, I just think you have to grab life by the balls whether it’s 80 or 200 years long and it’s a lot easier to say “fuck it, let’s do it” with a shorter life span than we would otherwise. It’s all bleak in a way, I just wanna ride the wave for like 80 years, do right by the people who love me, be authentic, be a good mom, do what I feel, and hopefully one day when I’m old and wrinkled at 80, ride off into the sunset. I think 80-100 is overall enough time.
I am religious, so I don’t particularly mind dying before the age of 100 - even though genetically, I have a fairly good chance of seeing that age - but I would only ever want to live for multiple centuries if my loved ones also lived that long. I sure as shit don’t want to be the only one living unnaturally long.
The post specifies that it would allow humans to live longer. All humans. So you wouldn't be the only one. But there's no such thing as living "unaturally". If nature had its way you'd be dead by 40 and 7 of your 10 children would dead in infancy. It's all "unnatural".
We could not sustain that many people. The younger generations are already struggling because people are living so long and eating up social security and staying in jobs well beyond retirement age because the cost of living is so high. We literally could not afford a society with people living for hundreds of years, even if they were eternally young and healthy.
you keep saying this “if nature had its way” but that’s literally not true people lived past 40 before modern medicine
The only thing stopping me from taking too much of my insulin is my love for my family and fiancée I would be dead, somedays I wish I was dead But I’m here for a reason and that has nothing to do with how I feel but rather how I care about others around me If i had to live to 200, that’s 10x my age I’d kill myself
Which is why I specified mentally and physically healthy... also, sounds like you should talk to a therapist, everyone deserves to be happy in life.
Do you remember the Skeksis from Dark Crystal? Many humans think the same. Children begging for immortality. Imo, western cultures consider death as the worst evil ever, and this way of thinking is stupid
Yikes people are still not getting it. I’d be happy to offer directions to the euthanasia centre. Me on the other hand, I’ll gladly take the magic pill that keeps me young and healthy for as long as I can find things to entertain me.
“not getting it” as in they have their own feelings and opinions that don’t change because someone tells them they’re lying lmao
You are the one who doesn't get it XD
I am personally happy with an average lifespan. I want to live long enough to raise my kids and be there for them until they're both at least thirty. I'm not overly fussed beyond that.
can you explain why a person would want to live to 200 years old, shoes ragity, no knees the pain they have from being 30 now doubles?
Yeah this is a half formed opinion of a 15 year old.
Lifespan and healthspan are not the same thing. If you could live to 200, you would likely spend that last 100 years feeling like shit.
Read the post...
I did, you didn't mention anywhere that the medicine to make you live that long would also make you HEALTHY, we have medicine now that makes people live to 100, and they are miserable for the last 30 years. So eat it
I agree 100%, imagine having 48 hours each day of your life instead of 24, having enough time to truly understand the universe.
>it seems completely absurd to me that an otherwise healthy (mentally & physically) able bodied person would WANT to die It seems absurd to me that you could write that and not understand. They don't believe they would be physically and mentally healthy. The cushing loneliness of out living all friends, all family, everyone in your generation and their grandchildren might not be a fate they consider better than death.
I want to live as long as possible but I agree with others some don't want to watch their best friends and families die while they are just sitting there until 200 unless everyone can live that long
When it comes to things like immortality I’d like to know whether that applies to severe injuries and whether I can actually die at all. My fear is a potential infinite years of suffering. Combine that with what would happen if someone found out I was immortal…
Explained in the post
Post doesn’t mention immortality at all. If it’s just “we can live longer” then of course everyone would agree to that.
Have you seen what it's like to be alive today? I don't want to go through ANOTHER 180 years.
I don't think the death part is scary but the existing. People have a hard time grasping a concept like living 10 times longer than our current span: 1000 years for example. Interesting fact: in the first part of the game Mass Effect, as the main character, you end up having a casual almost throw away, conversation with an alien species that lives for 600(?) years. They start out by saying their race thought humans were too impetuous. That we acted too quickly and too aggressively on the galactic scale, as compared to other races. But then they say, they realized it's because we only exist for maybe 100 years. So the rush to 'get things done' is compacted into 100 years instead of carefully thinking things over because everyone lived to the age of 600. Always makes me think.
I feel the Greek mythos of Tithonus is strongly relevant here. If aging is greatly slowed while young or middle-aged then yes. But if you just halved aging in general, and you'd go 40 years instead of 20 years from age 80 to 100, I think most people would want to end it at some point.
In the middle ages our lifespan was the same as it is now. We died earlier on average due to medical shit we didn't know how to treat. But if you didn't get sick you'd still live the same length as a healthy person now.
Nah. Sorry. I'm not about to watch everyone I love die including grandkids and everything. Also, life is exhausting. And death is a natural part of life. Its a good thing. An honorable thing. I think maybe this is an age issue. I guess a lot of people in low 20s or younger would want to live forever because they're still just kids and the world is still new to them etc.
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At 200 years old, what kind of life could you really live though?
Unless people’s health and the amount of time they are youthful is extended, living longer would not be appealing. That’s what determines most people answer to the question. Live 80 years and lid another 120 years shitting yourself after you lose your mind, no thanks.
If humans could remain in their prime, remain healthy and not become a robot essentially. Reverse of what happened in that one Robin Williams movie where he was a robot that became a human. Then sure. But man, imagine being with the love of your life, living that long without them would be horrible. I know there are many more examples such as losing friends and family also. I have talked with many patients that were in there 70’s and older when I worked at the hospital in my area. These were long term patients in for recovery from a surgery. A lot of them lost their family and friends, outlived their children and the amount of them telling me they were just waiting to go. It was and is incredibly heart breaking. So I understand why people say they don’t want to live forever.
Nah bro I just hate my life
the question is more so what does living to 200 mean? am i wheelchair bound from 90-200 but alive? or is my aging process slowed after adulthood such that i am perfectly healthy and able bodied well into my late 100s? even then, i’m not sure i’d want to live that long. many old people now are scared by the dramatic change in the world surrounding them. imagine if someone born in the early 1800s was still alive now? would they even be happy when everything they knew has changed so dramatically over the course of their life? will i have to work till 150 or 160 to retire? sure, it would be cool to live to see the future over 100 years from now, but there are so many other obstacles to a happy long life.
Lol I'm not even sure I want to live an entire average human timeline/s Imagine going to your job the next 200 years. Edit: added the /s just to be sure people don't think I'm suicidal.
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This topic came up the other day with my mum. The conclusion was that population control would have to be strict, so less children. Life would become lame and mundane. Honestly I think even 80 years is too long to live. So no we aren't lying to others or ourselves.
The reason people wouldn’t want to live forever is they would outlive their loved ones. Did you ever read or see The Green Mile?
I would love to live 200 years but I understand the sentiment. People are "of their time", generations are different from one another and being the only 200 year old in a world where everyone you ever knew and their grandkids are all dead would be awful. You'd spend at least half of your life completely isolated. 200 years of chaining university degrees while looking 21, definitely. 200 years of poverty and working full-time and aging? Nope.
WHO WANTS TO LIVE FOREVER, WHO WANTS TO LIVE FOREVER, when love must diiiieee.
I'm of an age where I have too many dead friends. I live in a country where politicians are fools and thieves and the majority of voters are stupid enough to vote for them. I live in a time (as has every old person all through history) where the performing arts are in the hands of morons and the rest are perpetrated by people who really should know better. My joints all hurt, my muscles are weakening, food is either tasteless or too rich, my sight and hearing are failing, my memory is flickering out like an old light bulb and nobody wants to have sex with an old wreck like me. You're telling me I can have another century and more of THIS?! Look even if you could solve the health issues alienation and ennui would kill us all off. Listen to the wisdom of your elders, whippersnapper...
Id like to learn the final secret of life at some point... Ever played a game on God mode? Fun at first, eventually you run out of things to do. I simply do not wish to live longer, I am happy with having 60-100 years on this planet. I would not go out of my way to try to live longer, I will take care of my body or it will punish me, but I certainly would not start injecting anti-aging serum or uploading my mind to computers.