What if people lived over 1,000 years

[Piscator]

It seems like most people think people living 1,000 years would be a bad thing.

For me, at my age, it seems like it would be great! I'd love to live another 900 years. LOL

Must be mostly young people on this thread.

 

[Crystal Rainbow]

I would be so bored living here on this planet for 1,000 years. I rather have time to checkout in a beautiful retreat from to from time and come back here again.

 

[Piscator]

I would be so bored living here on this planet for 1,000 years. I rather have time to checkout in a beautiful retreat from to from time and come back here again.

But just look around. This planet is a paradise. Best place in the universe. If you can't have fun here...... This life is a miracle. Each of us is a miracle. We are, basically, made of dirt. But something is making the dirt talk, something is making the dirt laugh. Something is making the dirt walk. Try to find that "something". It will make this life worthwhile. It will make this life fun.

 

[unclefred]

I'm sure enjoying it.

If we were a 1000 year living species, It would be much more meaningful when a 40 year old died and some one said "He was so young".

 

[Crystal Rainbow]

But just look around. This planet is a paradise. Best place in the universe. If you can't have fun here...... This life is a miracle. Each of us is a miracle. We are, basically, made of dirt. But something is making the dirt talk, something is making the dirt laugh. Something is making the dirt walk. Try to find that "something". It will make this life worthwhile. It will make this life fun.

It can be a nice place for some people if you can go those places every day of your life, but we all live in different places and some are not so posh and just have to get on with life in the best way that they can. That is why I not like to carry on.

 

[gregorian]

I think it would be wonderful to be able to say "Okay, I've done this. Time to start again." The freedom of large amounts of time. To be able to live long stories, finish them and start something new. 80 years is too short, especially when you start to wear out halfway through.

If there was a treatment that cleared out your overly hardwired neurons. A cleaned and cleared mind every 30 years. If gene therapy solved the issue of cellular degradation and you stayed reasonably fit and healthy.... I'd be all for it.

 

[PragmaticStatistic]

Imagine for a second that this suggested 1,000 year life span was divided up in lots of 100 years, and as you reach each 100 year anniversary you had to decide if you accept the responsibility for next 100 years. As time goes by, how many would actually accept that responsibility if your lot in life had limited civil liberties? Such as a slave or lowly mine worker in east Africa. Or, a murderer locked up in prison for life. Or, as in the case of my mother who suffered from Diphtheria for life. A 1,000 year life span would have different value depending on your wealth, health and class status. For some they would welcome the opportunity , for others it would feel like drudgery .

On the other hand, a 1,000 year life span would add a whole new aspect to incarcerating someone for a period of 950 years at a cost of $50,000 or more per year. A single year of decisions on life sentences could potentially bankrupt the nation forever and the number of prisons would significantly increase.

A 1,000 year life span would also put a new aspect on history. People could tell you if Marco Polo actually visited all the places he claimed in his book. They could fill in any gaps in the Dead Sea Scrolls, and could tell us about the Jesus they came to know personally. A resume for the position of CEO at Goldman Sachs would include such qualifications as assistant to Genghis Khan. Maybe Genghis Khan himself would apply for the job. Wow, imagine choosing between Henry Paulson and Genghis Khan. The primary elections for President could be a choice of John Locke, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Charlemagne, and Gaius Julius Caesar. Those who like to distort history for their own political gain would have a hard time because there would be too many people around who could remember the truth. Lee Iaccoca may never have developed the Mustang because Henry Ford would be still at the helm of the Ford Motor Company. The American Civil War could have been ended by Napoleon. Ancient Egyptians could recreate the volumes of the Library of Alexander. And, Pytheas would be sending me an email about the proper location of the mythical island of Abalus.

And, think about the impact technology would on your life over 1,000 years.

(Oh, I know someone is going to challenge all the foreigners in the presidential primary list, but remember, as I was reminded, this is speculative history, so anything goes.)

 

[Clemmie]

Robert Heinlein posed this same question in his book Time Enough for Love. His main character, Lazarus Long has lived for 2,000 years and he's bored. He's done everything he possibly could have done and there is nothing left to look forward to.

[ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Enough_for_Love]Time Enough for Love - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

 

[Quu]

Imagine for a second that this
A 1,000 year life span would also put a new aspect on history. People could tell you if Marco Polo actually visited all the places he claimed in his book. They could fill in any gaps in the Dead Sea Scrolls, and could tell us about the Jesus they came to know personally. A resume for the position of CEO at Goldman Sachs would include such qualifications as assistant to Genghis Khan. Maybe Genghis Khan himself would apply for the job. Wow, imagine choosing between Henry Paulson and Genghis Khan. The primary elections for President could be a choice of John Locke, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Charlemagne, and Gaius Julius Caesar. Those who like to distort history for their own political gain would have a hard time because there would be too many people around who could remember the truth. Lee Iaccoca may never have developed the Mustang because Henry Ford would be still at the helm of the Ford Motor Company. The American Civil War could have been ended by Napoleon. Ancient Egyptians could recreate the volumes of the Library of Alexander. And, Pytheas would be sending me an email about the proper location of the mythical island of Abalus.
[/I]

Well, there are people that dispute the Holocaust or the Moon landing. Not sure if life span makes any difference.

We certainly would have more eye-witnesses, like you said, but human memory is also unreliable. We probably would have to study age-old texts anyway, like now

 

[Iolo]

Remember the Greek myth about the chap who asked for immortality but forgot to make it immortal youth? 100 years will be hell, a thousand dreadful beyond that, except that our memories and pretend 'selves' would have disintegrated long since. We'd be standing on one another's heads, dribbling and wetting ourselves. What a thought!

 

[Louise C]

There would be the problem of how you are going to support yourself as well. How many centuries would you have to work in order to support yourself in your retirement? That is a fatiguing thought.

 

[PragmaticStatistic]

Well, there are people that dispute the Holocaust or the Moon landing. Not sure if life span makes any difference.

We certainly would have more eye-witnesses, like you said, but human memory is also unreliable. We probably would have to study age-old texts anyway, like now

I was not implying that our memories would replace the old texts, only that with so many memories it could help in filling the gaps. With so many living, we might even have had more old texts written by more people. You assume that these memories and recollections would be recorded 800 or 900 years later. What if they wrote it down sooner as writing technology improved and the printing press was developed?

Therefore, if we can conjure up that our lives would last 1,000 years, and our ... lives would last longer as some have stated in this thread, then we can fantasize that our memories would improve as well. Heck, if our memories and mind wouldn't improve over what they are now, what is the sense in having a 1,000 year life span. Without a better mind we would just be vegetables consuming valuable resources for 92% of our lives.

 

[Guaporense]

There would be the problem of how you are going to support yourself as well. How many centuries would you have to work in order to support yourself in your retirement? That is a fatiguing thought.

Well, I think that if you have a good working body for 700 years it wouldn't be a problem to work for 700 years. Give a few full years of vacation between!

 

[spellbanisher]

Based on what data that proves such? With all the conditions I listed that could be the result of a longer life span, it is likely that those conditions in themselves would shorten life spans over time until by natural selection we found a balance between life span and the planets ability to sustain such lengthy human existence.

Well, one thing that happens is that as a society becomes more densely populated and urbanized their rate of reproduction slows down, as more people chose to forgo having children. This is having Europe, where the population of the EU is expected to decline over the next seventy to hundred years. The same kind of demographic decline is happening in the Northeastern United States, which has comparable urbanization and population density. This is also happening in Japan, where the population is expected to decline from 130 million to 90 million over the next fifty years (they already started declining last year). China and South Korea are also expected to have comparable declines in populations over the next half century.

projections for Japan

Population Projection for Japan

 

[Lilliiana]

Well, I think that if you have a good working body for 700 years it wouldn't be a problem to work for 700 years. Give a few full years of vacation between!

Or learn to really love your job...

Which, for most people, I think it would feel more (literally) like :

after a while.

 

[spellbanisher]

We wouldn't be able to say "life is too short for regrets" anymore.

 

[spellbanisher]

It's just an extra 900 years to procrastinate.

 

[Louise C]

Well, I think that if you have a good working body for 700 years it wouldn't be a problem to work for 700 years. Give a few full years of vacation between!

A lot of people have jobs they don't particularly like though, so the idea of having to work for 700 years at something you don't like is rather daunting.

I remember reading a comment on another site from a woman who was dismayed when the retirement age for women was raised to be the same as men. She said she hated her job and the thought that she would now have to work another 15 years instead of 10 was depressing. Fancy if it was another 700 years!

 

[gregorian]

If you had 700 years though, you could start again . You'd have the time, money and energy to go back to school, learn a new life.

Someone mentionef the the odds are you'd get killed in an accident within 400 years. That statistic would have society being even more wrapped in cottonballs than it is now. Super saf, super regulated, and litigitous. Fear of anything even slightly dangerous.

 

[Louise C]

If you had 700 years though, you could start again . You'd have the time, money and energy to go back to school, learn a new life.

Someone mentionef the the odds are you'd get killed in an accident within 400 years. That statistic would have society being even more wrapped in cottonballs than it is now. Super saf, super regulated, and litigitous. Fear of anything even slightly dangerous.

Yes, I can see that would probably happen. I suppose the thought of another 700 years in employment would spur you on to find something better.

But if people become even more afraid of anything happening to them than they are already, what a terrified world it will be.