Comments on: Should we be thankful for the anti-ageing movement?

By: Greg

Greg — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:00:43 +0000

I would love to extend my lifespan, but when this idea is scaled up to the human race as a whole, it becomes a huge problem. What do we do with all the people? Overpopulation and dwindling resources are going to be our most major problems over the next 75 years, and that’s at a current human lifespan. If we don’t have ways worked out of giving ourselves more living space and resources (like colonizing other planets, perhaps) that problem will become exponentially worse.

By: Mike Treder

Mike Treder — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 04:09:29 +0000

I want to live as long as life seems to me worth living. I’d like the ability to make that choice, which none of us has now.

By: Nancy Jane Moore

Nancy Jane Moore — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 21:00:12 +0000

I think increased healthy human life span is necessary for the human race to become truly civilized. Part of our problem is that we live such short lives, while the consequences of our actions can affect things for centuries. Greater awareness of history coupled with the prospect of living to deal with the results of today’s bad actions will help us develop.

That’s the philosophical reason. Me, personally? Hell, yes, I want to live as long as I possibly can, so long as I remain in reasonably good physical health and my mind still works. Life is just too damn interesting.

By: Ben K.

Ben K. — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 18:21:31 +0000

I plan on living to see the orbital elevator. Once we have cheap escape from the gravity well, my ass is out of here on a colonyship with my ideological siblings. We’ll stage from the Main Belt and build our own slowships.

By: khannea

khannea — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 20:51:13 +0000

Eternity. In my personal paradigm the older I get the more it makes sense. Which explains why it has all been so dishearteningly dumb so far. Plus, if it starts getting boring I can always decide to run a current in my special spot, and synthesize my own meaning. I’ll light up my pleasure centre like a christmas tree for all eternity.

Now that should be a great song title.

Damn all naysayers and deniers. People can refuse to make the conceptual bound into “as long as a piano doesn’t fall on me” – i.e., with western european safe lifestyles and no guns – on average over a millennium. Many can’t and I think that should be a treatable disorder.

But …. we only need a century extra. By then everything will have changed and to me such change counts as extra information to make an informed decision.