Should we live forever?

[sammyg2]

Should we live forever?

On earth? No.
I could elaborate if you want to take it to PARF .....

[Por_sha911]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

On earth? No.
I could elaborate if you want to take it to PARF .....

+1 with a correction: Not on this earth in its current state. The new one will be awesome.

[red-beard]

One of my Solar Clients, husband and wife are in their 70's. They are aging very well. But, he is having his head scraped regularly to prevent skin cancer.

My Dad was in great shape until about 80. Then it all began to fall apart...

If I had to live on like my dad is now, nope. If I could regain my early/mid 20's then probably.

One other issue is stagnation. Without "turnover" would we become complacent? Most people would not be allowed to have children, since that would lead to terrible over population. And people would probably not be willing to take the risks we do today, since we want to live forever...

I do expect that the death rate will be more than the accident rate, since medicine isn't perfect. And you know this will not be cheap, so most likely only the 1% will get this.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by Por_sha911

+1 with a correction: Not on this earth in its current state. The new one will be awesome.

Ring world?

[Porsche-O-Phile]

I’ve often wondered if eventually our consciousnesses will be able to be downloaded and live on inside some kind of supercomputer - storing all of our memories and experiences even after our bodies wither away. The human brain has something like 10^12 neural connections which is amazing but technology is getting to the point where storing this amount of information is now possible (and increasing exponentially over time).

I think that’d be pretty cool - essentially it’d create an encyclopedia of all amassed human knowledge and experience that’d be available for anyone (including those whose consciousnesses were “in the box” living on already) to reference and access at will. Sort of like a hive mind but not exactly - a collection of different minds.

Think of what we could learn and accomplish. Virtually limitless possibility.

While I do not believe in the traditional notions of “souls” or “afterlives” or “gods”, these sorts of technological innovations could be our way to create such things (in a way) for ourselves. Just don’t run that supercomputer on a windows OS! 😆

Pretty interesting times we live in... We play god and we can now almost literally create god as we wish.

[GH85Carrera]

I suspect the issue is 100% speculation and much like nuclear fusion, "just another 20 years away" for the last 50 years. It will make fusion look easy. Or a brain to computer interface, to download the human consciousnesses. Just download grandpa's brain and life experience and put him in a virtual world. Like the TV show Upload. That is more likely than a biological immortal.

[LWJ]

Consider that while you may be able to live a long time, you may also have to work in a soul sucking grind to pay the bills.

Hmmm. The prospect is less attractive.

[brainz01]

I don't think I want to live forever. I think we need a little "time pressure" to appreciate what we've got.

And things that live a long time tend to be very slow and geared towards maximum efficiency. Human life forms don't seem particularly good at that. Maybe we get assimilated into the Borg/Matrix, that seems more like it.

Would I like the ability to be as strong and vigorous as I was when I was in my 20s? Yes, in a heartbeat. Where do I sign up?

[sc_rufctr]

Some really smart people think we're already being controlled by AI. The social media platforms all run on AI algorithms.
How many people are influenced by what they see on Faceplant, Twitsville and Instapoo?

At some distant point in the future it will become trivial to recreate every person that's ever lived in a computer simulation.

[sc_rufctr]

Originally Posted by LWJ

Consider that while you may be able to live a long time, you may also have to work in a soul sucking grind to pay the bills.

Hmmm. The prospect is less attractive.

Well maybe if you had the time you could develop a talent you're passionate about and then do that for a living.

Basket weaving or playing a violin.
Making a violin or an acoustic guitar.
Making pottery or making beautiful wood furniture.
How about writing poetry or a book.
Find the love of your life several times over.
We could have two year contacts for marriages open for renewal of course.
Design and build eco-friendly housing.
Climb every major mountain in the world.
See every ancient site.
Live in India for 50 years.
Live in England for another 50.
Move to Japan for another 50.

When you get bored start again with something new.

[gregpark]

Originally Posted by ckelly78z

^^^^THIS exactly, I could have wrote this myself...My Grandpa got up in the middle of the night, and collapsed back into bed after a long full, adventurous life...no regerts !

This is how I want to go out, peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather. As opposed to dying screaming in terror like the passengers in his car

[vash]

no way. the planet would corrode around us.

there would be a zillion humans consuming, and littering the planet.

while i am happy we dont live like "logans run", living forever wouldnt be free either.

[sc_rufctr]

Originally Posted by vash

no way. the planet would corrode around us.

there would be a zillion humans consuming, and littering the planet.

while i am happy we dont live like "logans run", living forever wouldnt be free either.

We would adapt and imagine what it could mean for space exploration. All of a sudden our solar system becomes really small. Mars would be colonised and terraformed. From there the gas giants and the outer planets would be explored. Then we'd find a way to use the almost limitless resources of our Kuiper belt. (There's lots of water, heavy metals and rare elements in the Kuiper Belt.)

In 100 years we could have millions of people living in various parts of our solar system.

In 200 years... With our current technology it's about 100 years to travel time to Alpha Centauri (Distance from Earth: 4.367 light years).
A space ship 5 times the size of the biggest air craft carrier with more than 100,000 people on board.

What if we launched lots of these in various directions? (All built for the resources in the Kuiper Belt.)
How many virgin versions of Earth are out there waiting for us?

In 500 years or less we could have many billions of people living in other solar systems.

If we could cure ageing our perception of everything changes.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

I am looking forward to hitting 150.

[widebody911]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

Nope! 84 and a heart attack in my sleep like my grandfather, sign me up. Still worked 40+ hours per week and plenty sharp. I have no desire to outlive my useful life, and I’m not scared of what comes next.

I want to die quietly in my sleep, like my grandfather: not yelling and screaming like the people in the bus he was driving.

[Buckterrier]

Originally Posted by sc_rufctr

We would adapt and imagine what it could mean for space exploration. All of a sudden our solar system becomes really small. Mars would be colonised and terraformed. From there the gas giants and the outer planets would be explored. Then we'd find a way to use the almost limitless resources of our Kuiper belt. (There's lots of water, heavy metals and rare elements in the Kuiper Belt.)

In 100 years we could have millions of people living in various parts of our solar system.

In 200 years... With our current technology it's about 100 years to travel time to Alpha Centauri (Distance from Earth: 4.367 light years).
A space ship 5 times the size of the biggest air craft carrier with more than 100,000 people on board.

What if we launched lots of these in various directions? (All built for the resources in the Kuiper Belt.)
How many virgin versions of Earth are out there waiting for us?

In 500 years or less we could have many billions of people living in other solar systems.

If we could cure ageing our perception of everything changes.

Wow, you want to pollute the whole solar system with humankind????
That's pretty cold.

[McLovin]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

I’ve often wondered if eventually our consciousnesses will be able to be downloaded and live on inside some kind of supercomputer - storing all of our memories and experiences even after our bodies wither away.

How do you know that’s not already the case? #aliens

[sc_rufctr]

Originally Posted by Buckterrier

Wow, you want to pollute the whole solar system with humankind????
That's pretty cold.

Haha but do you think, maybe as we become more technically advanced we'd be able to solve our waste and pollution problems?

If we had an unlimited life span would we have more incentive to be responsible?

[red-beard]

16 Psyche has more iron than than 5 millions years of present production. Plus, it is already in a very good gravity well position. All we need is a way to produce steel in zero-G

[GH85Carrera]

Question: If you could live forever, would you and why?
Answer: I would not live forever, because we should not live forever, because if we were supposed to live forever, then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever.
-- Miss Alabama in the 1994 Miss USA contest

So there is your answer!