How Long Do You Want to Live?

[Yuki-Anne]

Do you want to live as long as possible? Or would you be satisfied with passing away around 75 or 80 or even earlier?

It's hard to tell what's going to happen or anything but if there isn't a huge hope-destroying apocalypse or anything I wouldn't mind making it to 85 or 90, especially if I have grandkids and great-grandkids to look forward to. I think I've got a pretty good shot since all of my grandparents are still living, and my oldest ones are in their mid-80's and still living in their own house. I think if I can still be relatively healthy and mobile around that age I wouldn't mind.

What about you? How long do you want to live, and how long do you feel you are likely to live, barring some manner of catastrophe?

[Xeno]

I'll just go until something critical gives out. I don't really have a desire to see any specific age, and I doubt I'd really fight to keep going if something bad happened to me that would greatly impact my quality of life should I make it through. I don't want children, and while the prospect of marriage is something that I'd entertain, it's not something that I actively seek since I really just don't care.

I've got family members who lived to be in their 80s and 90s, and others who died in their late 20s/early 30s, so things could really go either way for me, and I'm okay with that.

[SierraLea]

I actually want to die young. I'm not suicidal, it's just that I'd rather accomplish my purpose here so I can go home.

My grandparents are spread out over a wide spectrum. Both of my dad's parents are gone, and my mom was adopted so hers aren't a good indication for me and my siblings.

[Vilo159]

I don't have any number in mind; just long enough to accomplish what I want to, see my grandkids grow up, be truly happy for a while. I'll be okay with whenever the Lord feels like taking me. I think I have good enough chances, since my I have two great-grandparents still alive in their late 90s, and all my grandparents are around. We'll see.

[Okami]

Don't know, don't care. *shrug* It's a tricky topic since I have bouts of suicidal ideation/tendencies.

[Sheenar]

Don't know, don't care. *shrug* It's a tricky topic since I have bouts of suicidal ideation/tendencies.

Same here.

Though, with my illness, I would be very grateful to live past 40. So I don't really have a set age --it would just be a blessing to be able to grow old.

[ADXC]

I couldn't care less either way. I don't have a wife or children, so if I died right now or in the next few years, I won't be lose sleep over it. Mostly because I'd be dead.

[Sammy Boy]

I would like to live forever.

I enjoy being able to watch white clouds, blue skies, and feel the warmth of the sun on my face.

[Lynna]

I would like to live quite long. Then I can write more books, meet interesting people I otherwise would not have met, and maybe become one of those nice old ladies who are very wise and kind to everyone XD

[Panda4christ:3]

As long as people can stand me X3

[Koneko-chan]

Honestly, it all comes down if my family's with me, I can't stand being alone, my grandma (the only grandparent I really knew, my others died when I was young) died in her 80's I forget how old my other grandparents were; but yeah anywho, family and people matter a lot to me, so if I had grandkids and all that, I'd be really really grateful. ^-^

[ClaecElric4God]

As long as people can stand me X3

What? You really want to live forever?

Hmmm...It's not really a topic I've given much thought. I'll admit the thought of living to be old is a bit depressing, just because of the thought of memory loss, health issues, watching loved ones die ahead of me, that kind of thing. I'd like to live a while, of course. I mean, I'd be perfectly happy to live to 90 if I could maintain my physical and mental condition. But that doesn't really happen, so for my personal taste, I'd rather die younger. I dunno, 65 or something. But in the long run, I want to be here as long as the Lord wants me to be here. I know God will be using me till the day I die, so technically the longer the better. If I'm still of some use to Him at that point, I'm willing to live to "a ripe old age". Whatever works best for Him. Either way, I know I'll never have a day where I'm satisfied that I've done my part and can sit back and say "Okay, I'm ready to die now." I'll always have hopes and dreams and people that I care about who I want to help. So it's really up to God.

[Yuki-Anne]

I mean, I'd be perfectly happy to live to 90 if I could maintain my physical and mental condition. But that doesn't really happen

Every year for his birthday my great grandfather would have a party at a roller rink. He loved roller skating. He did that up until he was 91. His 91st birthday he decided he was too old to do the roller rink thing, and that was the year he died of cancer.

So it is possible.

[ClaecElric4God]

I mean, I'd be perfectly happy to live to 90 if I could maintain my physical and mental condition. But that doesn't really happen

Every year for his birthday my great grandfather would have a party at a roller rink. He loved roller skating. He did that up until he was 91. His 91st birthday he decided he was too old to do the roller rink thing, and that was the year he died of cancer.

So it is possible.

I stand corrected. Sorry for stereotyping old age, Yuki. And thanks. That's an encouragement.

[Panda4christ:3]

As long as people can stand me X3

What? You really want to live forever?

Seriously though, i don't think people would put up with my randomness for that long

[Dante]

Humans die off at practically a hyper-exponential rate the last time I checked, with the 'curve' turning up at around 85 years of age. So 85 +/- 10 years would be a safe bet for living.

However, my current life economic concepts terminate around 65. I have a hard enough time coping with being alive at the age of 27. So, it's hard for me to imagine putting myself through a longer life. If I can find a happy enough life to live to 65, I suppose I would be doing rather good. If I retired early and we found a technological way to turn back the clock on our ages though... I wouldn't mind living out the freedom of youth with the full power of being an adult. I might actually build and live in a tree house for a few years then and be able to convince friends to join me.

[Jingo Jaden]

Depends how long I could live healthy. I'd rather live to 40 as a healthy individual than have 50 additional years of misery.

[uc pseudonym]

Based on my family history, I'm statistically likely to have about 80 years of good health. If my overall plans go well (and I don't get stuck in work I don't enjoy), I'd be happy to have all of those or more.

However, I think it's worth considering this question divorced from reality. Say they develop a formula that lets you extend your lifespan (and good health) as long as you want. I'm honestly not sure what I'd want in this hypothetical scenario. I don't care about descendents and people I like could presumably take the same formula, so I could see myself enjoying life for a long time. But I have to wonder if after hundreds of years everything new would start feeling like retreads of things I'd already experienced, or if I could ever feel like I'd ran out of ideas and said everything I have to say. It would be a bittersweet satisfaction to feel like I was done and choose to end.

[Dante]

However, I think it's worth considering this question divorced from reality. Say they develop a formula that lets you extend your lifespan (and good health) as long as you want. I'm honestly not sure what I'd want in this hypothetical scenario. I don't care about descendents and people I like could presumably take the same formula, so I could see myself enjoying life for a long time. But I have to wonder if after hundreds of years everything new would start feeling like retreads of things I'd already experienced, or if I could ever feel like I'd ran out of ideas and said everything I have to say. It would be a bittersweet satisfaction to feel like I was done and choose to end.

It might not be the case (the world is big enough to explore for quite some time) - but paradventure that this was the case, then the one way to proceed would be to start over again. Wipe you memories clean, and restart life, with your former self acting only to give advice and nurturing - enough to enjoy, but not so much as to take the experience away. In that way, we could ultimately become our own children, artificial reincarnation if you may, guiding ourselves into a world of discovery that we know awaits but that we ourselves have already lived through. The human mind might also have natural limits, so that if you spend 80 years exploring a region, in another 500, you might not remember it at all. Just make sure not to artificially enhance your memory capacity and you might be fine.

Oh, and as far as erasing memories of your former life - we already have that technology in hand:

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2012/02/f ... ttingpill/

Of course, somehow I think the second time through this place might be a bit easier... I'd make sure of that.

[Xeno]

Living for hundreds of years sounds absolutely dreadful. And I can think of no reason why I would want to erase my memories and start life over. One go is certainly enough.

[Yuki-Anne]

Yeah, I don't think I would want that either. The older I get it becomes increasingly difficult to remain optimistic about the human race. Not that I think everybody fifty years ago was perfect or anything but considering how much American culture has changed for the worse in the past century I don't think I could take living through more than one.

[shooraijin]

Into my 70s is plenty. I wouldn't know what to do with myself after I retire.

[GeneD]

Going by genetics I could probably make it to 70s/80s, however, in the last while I've become increasingly unsure if I want to live that long at all.

However, I think it's worth considering this question divorced from reality. Say they develop a formula that lets you extend your lifespan (and good health) as long as you want. I'm honestly not sure what I'd want in this hypothetical scenario. I don't care about descendents and people I like could presumably take the same formula, so I could see myself enjoying life for a long time. But I have to wonder if after hundreds of years everything new would start feeling like retreads of things I'd already experienced, or if I could ever feel like I'd ran out of ideas and said everything I have to say. It would be a bittersweet satisfaction to feel like I was done and choose to end.

If this were the case I think I would be living my life fundamentally different from what I am now, so I'd probably go for it, there has to at least be an option to eventually die though.

[Xeno]

Yeah, I don't think I would want that either. The older I get it becomes increasingly difficult to remain optimistic about the human race. Not that I think everybody fifty years ago was perfect or anything but considering how much American culture has changed for the worse in the past century I don't think I could take living through more than one.

Workers rights, allowing women to vote, civil rights for ethnic minorities. You could argue from some kind of moral perspective it has gotten worse in some ways, but in generally the county has improved from where it was 100 years ago.

[Yuki-Anne]

Yeah, I don't think I would want that either. The older I get it becomes increasingly difficult to remain optimistic about the human race. Not that I think everybody fifty years ago was perfect or anything but considering how much American culture has changed for the worse in the past century I don't think I could take living through more than one.

Workers rights, allowing women to vote, civil rights for ethnic minorities. You could argue from some kind of moral perspective it has gotten worse in some ways, but in generally the county has improved from where it was 100 years ago.

I see your civil rights, and raise you school shootings, [if I mention it things will get political], youtube comments, and Justin Bieber.

[TCSweeney]

Hummm I have always said my retirement plan is to die at 55 .

[Xeno]

A handful of wackaloons killing a bunch of school kids hardly qualifies as a degrading culture.

I'm so interested in what this point might have been.

Youtube comments are people having an outlet to say what they've always thought without having to deal with the consequences. Reddit and a few other ~chans~ are like that too. Doesn't say anything about our modern culture, just that people in general can be pretty terrible in large groups.

There have always been awful popular artists that record labels have pushed as big things. The Beebz is the current one. He will eventually fade into obscurity and be replaced by someone else.

trap sprung

[Jingo Jaden]

Yeah, I don't think I would want that either. The older I get it becomes increasingly difficult to remain optimistic about the human race. Not that I think everybody fifty years ago was perfect or anything but considering how much American culture has changed for the worse in the past century I don't think I could take living through more than one.

Workers rights, allowing women to vote, civil rights for ethnic minorities. You could argue from some kind of moral perspective it has gotten worse in some ways, but in generally the county has improved from where it was 100 years ago.

I see your civil rights, and raise you school shootings, [if I mention it things will get political], youtube comments, and Justin Bieber.

I raise your school shootings with the Facist/Communist extremism, WWI and WWII, several genocides and God knows how many kleptocratic revolutions.

[Yuki-Anne]

Point taken (although wars, genocide, kleptocracies, and evil dictatorships definitely still happen). I still maintain that American teenagers and the media designed to appeal to them are horrifying. The point of what I said is not that awful things didn't happen way back when or that certain things haven't improved, it's that in terms of social conduct, crime, education, and overall pleasantness, our culture isn't going in a good direction.

But it can be argued that life on Earth has always sucked, in which case my point still stands: one hundred years is more than enough.

[DaughterOfZion]

Workers rights, allowing women to vote, civil rights for ethnic minorities. You could argue from some kind of moral perspective it has gotten worse in some ways, but in generally the county has improved from where it was 100 years ago.

I see your civil rights, and raise you school shootings, [if I mention it things will get political], youtube comments, and Justin Bieber.

I raise your school shootings with the Facist/Communist extremism, WWI and WWII, several genocides and God knows how many kleptocratic revolutions.

Yes, because no one ever killed people en masse until the 20th century.



Just like pretty much everything else, genocide has happened since people were running around the earth. Go read about Temujin and the Mongols as well as the Assyrians. Temujin may have caused more deaths than the always called upon Hitler (Depending on whose numbers you go by; the often quoted 50-68 million is how many people died in WWII as a whole, and about 25 million of those were from the Soviet Union).

It's patently ridiculous to blame all of those atrocities you guys have listed completely on how "awful" the culture is. Maybe the body counts cause by one single group are bigger now, but that's because of how amazing the technology we have is, and how efficient our weapons are at killing people; not to mention the fact that most everyone in the world now knows the rest of the world exists and is within easy reach.