Living for a long time

[Mac]

So according to a scientist, aging may be able to be stopped and people may live for thousands of years. What are your thoughts on this?
Here's one of the articles explaining the prediction: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/04/us-ageing-cure-idUSTRE7632ID20110704

[Tablo]

I won't hold my breath. While this is something I really want, I think they are just throwing around guesses.

[ColonelCossack]

It's those damn free radicals that are the problem.

So do revolutionaries cause ageing?

[leftace53]

1000 years?
I'm barely holding on at 20. Seeking this would not be on my priority list.

of course if it could leave me looking like 20 (preferably 18), I may consider it.

[Mac]

But if you think this was possible to everybody, what effect do you think it could have on society?

[Broletariat]

But if you think this was possible to everybody, what effect do you think it could have on society?

I think there's the obvious problem of massive overpopulation, which could be combatted in the most extreme form by forced sterilisation of anyone who decided to become effectively immortal.

[thefinalmarch]

There was already a thread on this back in July:
http://www.revleft.com/vb/scientist-says-cure-t157497/index.html?t=157497

[piet11111]

Absolutely fantastic it would make deep space colonization not only possible but an absolute necessity.

Also its one hell of an argument for communism if capitalists have to openly admit that only the rich will get this.

[molotovcocktail]

Problems:
The proletariat will live long enough to pay down their debt, before they get pensions. So we can actually choose to not work in shitty jobs.

[Rafiq]

Can you imagine how overcrowded Earth would become, with people living to be 1000 years old? What a ridiculous Idea. Even if we had the technology, I would oppose it, not until we can colonize space or something.

[Grenzer]

Hmm... what are my thoughts. I think that this may be useful to revolution.

Many breakthroughs are being made technologically, particularly in the realm of cybernetics at this time. Unfortunately, these things cost a ton to research and manufacture, and it's primarily only the bourgeoisie that benefit. It cannot escape the people that they are being shafted, and this will lead to greater awareness of the irrationality of capitalism.

Hopefully when it's all over, there will be resources enough that everyone can benefit from such technologies. That's really the point of socialism after all.

[Princess Luna]

Can you imagine how overcrowded Earth would become, with people living to be 1000 years old? What a ridiculous Idea. Even if we had the technology, I would oppose it, not until we can colonize space or something.
Or we could do as another poster suggested and make it a rule, anybody who wants to be immortal must first be sterlized

[Rafiq]

There would still be a population problem

[Broletariat]

There would still be a population problem
Probably, but in the opposite direction.

Many people would opt for immortality and become sterilised and likely die later due to accidents or suicide because life just got boring.

[Rafiq]

Think about it like this.

Family has children

Then the parents get sterilized.

[Manic Impressive]

Probably, but in the opposite direction.

Many people would opt for immortality and become sterilised and likely die later due to accidents or suicide because life just got boring.
But for that to work people would need to sterilized before they had kids. You couldn't have someone have 3 kids then get sterilized and live forever. The population would continue to rise. I don't get why people want to live forever, the way I see it is dying is a part of life I'm completely at ease with my own mortality because at the end of the day I'm just a tiny insignificant piece of carbon.

also accompanying music to the thread
pC4ZOxpu2rs

[Broletariat]

Think about it like this.

Family has children

Then the parents get sterilized.

Well then we could say you can have no children before getting sterilised then >_>

This aint that hard guys.

[socialistjustin]

I personally would choose to get sterilized and live forever. It would be amazing to see all the advancements made over a 1000 year period of time.

[Tablo]

Overpopulation isn't as big of a deal as some of you guys make it out to be. The earth, with just our current tech, can support many many more people than we have. Also, growth will be slowing down more and more as education and birth control are made more widely available. Plus there is always space colonization.

[W1N5T0N]

i want to live forever.
but fuck this bag of organs that fail to even give notice before a system crash!
i advocate cyborg technology.

[W1N5T0N]

i want to live forever.
but fuck this bag of organs that fail to even give notice before a system crash!
i advocate cyborg technology.

[citizen of industry]

To date, the world's longest-living person on record lived to 122 and in Japan (http://www.reuters.com/places/japan) alone there were more than 44,000 centenarians in 2010.


Japan. Yep, the hospitals are overcrowded, often people die while being shuffled from hospital to hospital trying to find an open ER, the retirement age is approaching 70 with reduced benefits and college graduates are competing with 60 year olds for jobs. On top of that, there were many big scandals the past few years involving people hiding the deaths of their relatives and collecting the checks, which got exposed when media started reporting on the abnormally long lives of Japanese people.

The population is declining dramatically because people live a lot longer but don't have the money to raise more than one or two kids. Because of this contradiction (and others) social services are being hammered and the economy is going down the tube.

Living longer means you need more youth and a stable economy to maintain the balance. Living forever means constant human expansion. I suppose it's theoretically possible but all of the planets we've discovered so far, especially all the new ones post-2000 lead me to believe life is special and earth is a very rare and very lucky combination of factors - a coincidence - that we cannot expect to see elsewhere in the universe.

When I die, I wont care, because I will be dead.

[Manic Impressive]

Overpopulation isn't as big of a deal as some of you guys make it out to be. The earth, with just our current tech, can support many many more people than we have. Also, growth will be slowing down more and more as education and birth control are made more widely available. Plus there is always space colonization.
We can refute Malthus but still recognize that population growth is only sustainable if people continue to die.

I can see one advantage for technology which greatly extends life which is to colonize other planets, considering how long it would take us to get there.

[piet11111]

Its our short lifespan that largely causes humanity's lack of ambition as we are too focused on the immediate needs.

Seriously how many of you above the age of 25 would actually consider following a complete education now ?

I know i wont as the debt payoff would hinder my ability to enjoy life for far too long.

If i had the guarantee i would live to 1000 years minimum i wouldn't hesitate to go into debt even if it was a million euro's as the benefits would far outweigh the very temporary hindrance of debt-payment.

Take this drive to better ourselves and extend it to the majority of the population and just imagine what could be accomplished.

[Tenka]

To become immortal should be the endeavour of all thinking persons.
Overpopulation is a non-issue, especially when our city-planning methods start to make sense to humanity and not to capital.

[Princess Luna]

I would only want to live for 1000 years under the conditions
A.) I stop ageing around mid forties, maybe early fifties
B.) Most importantly, my friends and family are also "immortal" to me growing old and watching everyone you know and love die, while still knowing you have 900 years left would be a fate worse death, and I use that expression in its most literal sense.

[Manic Impressive]

Its our short lifespan that largely causes humanity's lack of ambition as we are too focused on the immediate needs.

Seriously how many of you above the age of 25 would actually consider following a complete education now ?

I know i wont as the debt payoff would hinder my ability to enjoy life for far too long.

If i had the guarantee i would live to 1000 years minimum i wouldn't hesitate to go into debt even if it was a million euro's as the benefits would far outweigh the very temporary hindrance of debt-payment.

Take this drive to better ourselves and extend it to the majority of the population and just imagine what could be accomplished.
what makes you think that you would be able to afford it under capitalism?

[Tablo]

We can refute Malthus but still recognize that population growth is only sustainable if people continue to die.

I can see one advantage for technology which greatly extends life which is to colonize other planets, considering how long it would take us to get there.
Who knows. I'm not so concerned about colonizing other planets as space colonies, which I think are more feasible than terraforming planets in the short term. Who knows though. It's hard to tell what kind of advances will be made in the next few centuries.

[Yugo45]

Fuck no, at least not for a while.

It would be yet another thing only reserved for the richest, and I don't really like the idea of capitalists outliving all of us....

[tir1944]

Nope,wouldn't be fair towards our children (and their children etc...)

[piet11111]

what makes you think that you would be able to afford it under capitalism?

The debt ?

I would be able to work it of given enough time but if i can only expect to become 75-ish i wont be going to be paying off debt till i am 60 that would be a huge waste.

[Tablo]

Nope,wouldn't be fair towards our children (and their children etc...)
Why not?

[Princess Luna]

Think about it like this.

Family has children

Then the parents get sterilized.
Even if someone has 2 kids and lives 1000 years, or they have 2 kids and live 74 years they increased the total population by the same amount. I will say I used to be one of those "overpopulation" people but one math problem completely changed my perspective, take the total number of people in the world (7,000,000,000) and divide by the number of feet in Texas (look it up on Wikipedia) , and you will find every person in the world could fit in Texas with 3000 feet of room each

[Broletariat]

Even if someone has 2 kids and lives 1000 years, or they have 2 kids and live 74 years they increased the total population by the same amount. I will say I used to be one of those "overpopulation" people but one math problem completely changed my perspective, take the total number of people in the world (7,000,000,000) and divide by the number of feet in Texas (look it up on Wikipedia) , and you will find every person in the world could fit in Texas with 3000 feet of room each

To be fair, it isn't about the literal space, it's about the limited resources.

[EvilRedGuy]

There is a big fear in technology in this thread. Yes, i would live longer, or even longer, or endless if i could those who wouldn't are just thinking about living forever in the current society, where i see it in a communist-and-after society. If there would be extension of the lifespan it would be either 1. held under as a secret X-file and never told to the public, and only benefit the bourgeoisie. 2. be really so expensive to the point only the bourgeoisie would get it .3 would never come because of the fear of the majority, however the wealthy bourgeoisie would try it out for sure, its in there very social behavior. So i don't expect the majority to be able to get this technology only a small % of those who owns the worlds wealth.

In a communist society it would be different. ;) I'm also against sterilization, its basically destroying a part of a animal being, i think the overpopulation thing is too far in the future, to the point where we would have colonized other planets to the mass.