How long do you want to live for?

[wjfox]

Assuming that life extension treatments become available within your lifetime – would you take them?

If so, how long would you choose to live?

Discuss...

[firestar464]

I want it to be flexible.

[weatheriscool]

As long as i went. A star trek like future alot longer then one where we go back to the dark ages as the maga base went.

[wjfox]

I wouldn't want to live forever. It could drive you insane, eventually.

I picked the Millennia option (1,000–9,999 years). Enough time to witness our transition to a human-machine civilisation, and our development into a multi-planetary species, able to explore the Solar System and perhaps a bit of the galaxy.

But I have trouble comprehending my life beyond that -- it's honestly quite scary. Imagine living on geological or astronomical timescales, and even seeing the heat death of the universe. I don't think I'd still be "me" at that point. And it could get depressing/maddening.

Perhaps another option might be having my mind/body frozen, and then re-awoken at logarithmic intervals to give me the option of either continuing or permanently checking out.

[weatheriscool]

I wouldn't want to live forever. It could drive you insane, eventually.

I picked the Millennia option (1,000–9,999 years). Enough time to witness our transition to a human-machine civilisation, and our development into a multi-planetary species, able to explore the Solar System and perhaps a bit of the galaxy.

But I have trouble comprehending my life beyond that -- it's honestly quite scary. Imagine living on geological or astronomical timescales, and even seeing the heat death of the universe. I don't think I'd still be "me" at that point. And it could get depressing/maddening.

Perhaps another option might be having my mind/body frozen, and then re-awoken at logarithmic intervals to give me the option of either continuing or permanently checking out.

This is how I think too. I'd want the ability to shut myself off for a certain amount of time(maybe up to a few thousand years) and if the universe is gone then maybe shut it off forever.

Would be better if time travel was possible as then I could live in interesting times of my choice.

[Cyber_Rebel]

Eternity if possible. The thing about when people argue "boredom or insanity" is that within a sufficiently advanced civilization well beyond what we can currently imagine, surely something as novel as these would be solved, no?

This is why a simulation hypothesis also becomes likely, as those who might want to "reset" but without that pesky death side-effect could elect to have their memories temporarily wiped or replaced while living out new simulated lives. Especially if the "time" within said simulations could be adjusted. Maybe a lifetime inside a world more familiar (but better) lasts longer than an average one or much less if computations allow for it.

I could see myself doing this should things within the "outer world" become too incomprehensible within vast timescales. Even without FDVR, I'd still rather live for as long as possible just to see where things eventually end up.

[funkervogt]

I just worry about living so long that the heat death of the universe happens and I'm left floating in space alone for eternity. I'll tentatively cap my lifespan at 10,000 years.

[raklian]

It is highly likely, in few centuries from now, we won't be "human" in the myriad ways we are right now, thanks to mind-boggling technological advances driven by AI which will become godlike from our perspective (unless we tag along by merging with it). All this concern about bone-crushing boredom and insanity, which are human characteristics, we might experience after existing for a long time and undergoing a series of fundamental physical and cultural transformations is kind of jumping the gun. We may become so alien that those human feelings, which used to be the dominant force in shaping how we think and feel, have been reduced to mere background noise or gone "extinct."

[funkervogt]

It is highly likely, in few centuries from now, we won't be "human" in the myriad ways we are right now, thanks to mind-boggling technological advances driven by AI which will become godlike from our perspective (unless we tag along by merging with it). All this concern about bone-crushing boredom and insanity, which are human characteristics, we might experience after existing for a long time and undergoing a series of fundamental physical and cultural transformations is kind of jumping the gun. We may become so alien that those human feelings, which used to be the dominant force in shaping how we think and feel, have been reduced to mere background noise or gone "extinct."

Quite true. If you are still "alive" in 500 or more years, you'll probably exist in an alien form where your current mind and memories represent a tiny fraction of your future mind. Similarly, you are technically the same being that you were when you were five years old, but the continuity of consciousness is tenuous and your body and mind are radically different and more complex.

[urdestan]

Honestly, I would prefer to live long enough to see human civilisation emerge into the stars and perhaps see the red giant Sun die along the way, but not too long when matter begins to disintegrate. That is, if I had my unlimited wish desire to do so.