DailyDirt: Get A Little Bit Older And A Little Bit Slower...
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
As our planetary odometer rolls over yet again (and we thankfully didn't cease to exist after December 21st), lots of folks are coming up with new resolutions for happier, healthier lives... but what about just longer lives? Here are just a few links on extending our lifespans indefinitely.- Do short people live longer than tall people? Studies have shown mixed results over the last 100 years, but more recent studies are leaner towards shorter people having a slightly longer life expectancy. [url]
- The immortal jellyfish has been studied for its unique ability to reverse its aging and repeat its lifecycle without dying. However, there aren't that many jellyfish experts in the world, and we still don't know much about how/why this creature can seemingly live forever. [url]
- Nature (the scientific journal) has made several articles on aging open and free to the public. The science of senescence is fascinating, even if it hasn't really resulted in immortality. Who wants to live forever, anyway? [url]
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Filed Under: aging, biology, biotech, immortality, lifespans, senescence
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quality vs quantity
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Does Stockholm Syndrome make us love the Grim Reaper?
This perhaps sounds like a subtle "burden of proof" error, but the question can be even more misleading than that.
Let's turn it around: "When would you like to die?"
Immediately we're mired in assumptions. Even though the discussion is about the hypothetical possibility of "immortality," there are still going to be a lot of people who will say something about wanting to die when they're too feeble to live properly, when they're in too much pain, etc. These are the people who have forgotten that we're talking about a hypothetical situation.
Which may mean the hypothetical situation is just too poorly defined to have a fruitful discussion. Are we talking about some idiotically poor form of immortality like the Struldbrugs in "Gulliver's Travels," where you live forever but become progressively more feeble? Are we talking about a form of immortality where we retain a certain static amount of youth and continue living until a truck runs us over? Or do we mean a kind of nearly unimaginable physical immortality where almost nothing can damage or destroy us?
But despite this vagueness, the question of "When do you want to die?" retains some validity in itself. As far as we have ever seen, the only people who ever really want to die are those who are physically and/or mentally ill.
Healthy, happy people don't want to die. Now, if you could be permanently healthy and always have at least the potential for being happy, when would you want to die?
You don't know?
That's probably the only reasonable answer. If I could remain physically and mentally healthy for an indefinite period, I don't know how long I'd like to live either.
But I would damned well like to have the option of finding out through experience.
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Re: Does Stockholm Syndrome make us love the Grim Reaper?
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immortal jellyfish
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Re: Does Stockholm Syndrome make us love the Grim Reaper?
Unfortunately, if such a technology were developed, only the most unsuitable people would be able to afford it.
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No Living Forever for Me
Besides, with the above mentioned aging process being what it is, I doubt I'll be able to keep up my current activity, understanding and salary level past say 80 and I do not want to be a sickly, decrepit old person draining on my younger family members who are trying to experience life. Let me go - But yet increase the current medical state so that I age graceful and peacefully.
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Eternally
The current aging population is already placing massive strains on pension funds, health and welfare systems sending many counties into debt.
Imagine the consequences if people lived for an average of an extra five years
I wouldn't mind living for more years as long as both my body and mind were fully functioning and I could continue to learn and contribute to society and not rely on society to care for me.
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