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Life and death? Will you accept a 500 years lifetime?
I didn't know where to start this topic... Philosophy and Religion I think is very appropriate for this subject: Humans who can live more than 200 years... What do you think about that?
Let's say that you can live 500 years... it will be a bless or not? Believe me or not, I couldn't sleep well last night, I was thinking about this... are YOU prepared for a 500 years lifetime? Are WE prepare to support 500 years old retired?
I copied this full article from a scientific website:
edit by rvec: please use quote tags and add a source
Let's say that you can live 500 years... it will be a bless or not? Believe me or not, I couldn't sleep well last night, I was thinking about this... are YOU prepared for a 500 years lifetime? Are WE prepare to support 500 years old retired?
I copied this full article from a scientific website:
| Quote: |
| Tinkering extends life of organism by 10-fold
Genetic breakthrough could ultimately inform efforts on humans Scientists have extended the lifespan of yeast, microbes responsible for creating bread and beer, by 10-fold. That's twice the previous record for life extension in an organism. The breakthrough could ultimately inform efforts to extend human lives. Instead of one week, the yeast lived for about 10 weeks through genetic tinkering and a low-calorie diet. "We've reprogrammed the healthy life of an organism," said Valter Longo, a biologist at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles who led the life-prolonging experiments. Longo and his colleagues detail their findings in two upcoming studies; one in the Jan. 25 issue of the journal PLoS Genetics and another in the Jan. 14 issue of the Journal of Cell Biology. The scientists disabled the genes in the yeast but also put the organism on a low-calorie diet. Caloric restriction has prolonged the lifespan of yeast, worms, and mice in other experiments, and is thought to work by scaring the body into maintaining its genetic goods instead of growing. Combining both age-fighting approaches, Longo said, led to a dramatically long lease on life. "We expected a small boost in longevity, but not a 10-fold increase," he said. "It's remarkable." Longo thinks the genes act like generals of the genetic army, ordering the troops to protect the body's DNA under caloric stress instead of fighting for growth. “I would say 10-fold is pretty significant,” said Anna McCormick, chief of the genetics and cell biology branch at the National Institute on Aging in Bethesda, Md., of Longo's findings. Hope for humans? .... Despite the problems, Longo said, the people likely benefit from their condition. "So far, we have never seen cancer in people who have two copies of the mutated genes," he said. “We are now identifying the relatives with only one copy of the mutation, who are apparently normal. We hope that they will show a reduced incidence of diseases and an extended life span.” "What if we could achieve a balance by switching those genes off when we want to?" he asked. "Twenty or thirty years from now, we might have the ability to reduce the activity of [the genes]. In the long run, I think that balance may not be too hard to achieve." |
edit by rvec: please use quote tags and add a source
I would except this offer, but only if there can be proven that my life could be in good health, if that is not possible that it is even to consider this offer.
Certainly not.
You need to think of quality of life along with livelihood. I believe in Heaven or Hell after death.
And let's face it; life gets old. Despite the disease and medical problems people suffer from, you see seventy-five year olds who find nothing out of life and often try committing suicide just because it's gotten boring/they've had too much.
What would happen in 500 years? Does one want to live with even Asthma for 500 years?
Also, it would greatly slow down human development. Let's look back 500 years ago; do we have the same mind-sets and lifestyles as people living in the 1500's? Most certainly not.
Do you think those people would be able to invent the internet? Cars? The technology we have today? The medical breakthroughs? No. They'd be laughing at us and would stick to bleeding each other to drain out diseases.
I think the 75-80 year lifespan we have is just right.
You need to think of quality of life along with livelihood. I believe in Heaven or Hell after death.
And let's face it; life gets old. Despite the disease and medical problems people suffer from, you see seventy-five year olds who find nothing out of life and often try committing suicide just because it's gotten boring/they've had too much.
What would happen in 500 years? Does one want to live with even Asthma for 500 years?
Also, it would greatly slow down human development. Let's look back 500 years ago; do we have the same mind-sets and lifestyles as people living in the 1500's? Most certainly not.
Do you think those people would be able to invent the internet? Cars? The technology we have today? The medical breakthroughs? No. They'd be laughing at us and would stick to bleeding each other to drain out diseases.
I think the 75-80 year lifespan we have is just right.
I don't think that we could really support people living on this planet for 500 years. Overpopulation is already becoming an issue. If everyone lived here for 500 years, overpopulation would become an even bigger issue.
i would love to live for 500 years. Just think of the KNOWLEDGE and Research and Breakthroughs one could accomplish, imagine how quickly the human race would develop, we would shoot forward technologically and greatly improve the human race as a whole
| thebattler36 wrote: |
| i would love to live for 500 years. Just think of the KNOWLEDGE and Research and Breakthroughs one could accomplish, imagine how quickly the human race would develop, we would shoot forward technologically and greatly improve the human race as a whole |
That's how I think at the moment, but I think that after 200 years I'll have some psychological problem and would feel like nobody not even half my age would understand me. Maybe I'd do this but then I'd want the possibility to end it anytime I want, and at least one person to share it with. It would be so hard to see everyone die around you. In the end you don't even want to make friends because you know they'll die before you will even though you're 400 years older.
| rvec wrote: | ||
That's how I think at the moment, but I think that after 200 years I'll have some psychological problem and would feel like nobody not even half my age would understand me. Maybe I'd do this but then I'd want the possibility to end it anytime I want, and at least one person to share it with. It would be so hard to see everyone die around you. In the end you don't even want to make friends because you know they'll die before you will even though you're 400 years older. |
a) you don't know you'll have a psychological problem XD.
why wouldn't you want to make friends? you may not want to make lifelong friends, but friends in general i think i would have no problem socialising with. the problem today is that people are afraid of their own mortality, they are afraid to feel sorrow or sadness, the only feelings they want to experience are positive ones, these feelings simply aren't as abundant as the negative ones, yet the negatives are the feelings which society as a whole has the most problems with. why does one grieve? to make oneself feel better, we are caught in an infinity loop of self-pleasure, everything we do revolves around us being happy, even thought it may not even make us feel happy at the time.
humans are afraid to feel pain or sadness, although through pain and sadness comes relief. i believe that watching those close to you die of some disease or old age would inspire you to achieve more and strive after cure and cure and cure.
in essence only through loss can humanity gain.
although this statement contradicts the fact that living for 500 years would benefit humanity then woudn't it, so how do we tell the number of people to bestow this gift/curse? frankly it's impossible.
For the human race it's all or nothing.
It also raises questions about the brain and it's capacity to function well over an extended lifespan.
If we assume that no degeneration occurs due to the extended lifespan (a big assumption) then there still remain the problems of memory capacity and the ability to create new thought pathways (the ability to 'learn').
Anecdotal evidence suggests that as we get older it gets more difficult to learn new concepts and skills. Speaking from experience I have certainly noticed that as I have got older (46 and counting) it takes me longer to master a new skill or concept. How much of this is attributable to physical deterioration in the brain I couldn't say.
http://www.merkle.com/brainLimits.html
If we assume that no degeneration occurs due to the extended lifespan (a big assumption) then there still remain the problems of memory capacity and the ability to create new thought pathways (the ability to 'learn').
Anecdotal evidence suggests that as we get older it gets more difficult to learn new concepts and skills. Speaking from experience I have certainly noticed that as I have got older (46 and counting) it takes me longer to master a new skill or concept. How much of this is attributable to physical deterioration in the brain I couldn't say.
http://www.merkle.com/brainLimits.html
I think if we lived till we were 500 years old many of the problems we suffer from today, pollution , over population, would become more personal ( we will most likely have to live through it) I could invision people becomming less apathetic to the world and more involved in solutions.
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