[Miriamele]

I stumbed across this article today:

http://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2005/02/16/aging050216.html

It seems that a group of scientists want to research the possiblity that the human body, with the help of biotechnology, could reach a lifespan of 1,000 years.

This idea raises all kinds of questions in my mind, mostly ethical ones. But the most pressing one is, would I want to live that long? Once I got into the triple-digits, I think I would start to feel like I didn't belong on this earth any more. After all, the world belongs to the young, doesn't it? What place does a 100 or 200 or 800 year old person have in society?

I've always felt that death can be as beautiful a thing as birth. It doesn't have to be sad if it comes at the end of a long and useful life. Nor should we fear it, although personally I don't know what lays for us on the other side, maybe nothing.

The whole idea reminds me of the antagonist in Tad Williams' Otherworld series. I can't remember his name, but he was almost 200 years old wasn't he? Lying in a vat of nutritive liquid, his body barely clinging to life through a variety of late 21st century technologies, his mind living in a computer network because he couldn't stand to be in his own body any more.

I can't imagine any quality of life for a person who will use any means to achieve an unnaturally long lifespan.

Thoughts?

[Joe Bloggs]

We'd probably all end up looking like Yoda and Halloween costumes would get very predictable.

[Monty Mike]

very interesting...

I doubt they'll get 100 million a year though, but perhaps....
I'd say that 50 years may also be an underestimate, and 25 is certainly not accurate. However, should it come out in my lifetime I might be interested, who knows....

It reminds me of the Engines of Light trilogy by Ken Macleod, in which the main characters took drugs to make their life-span increase during 2012 (i think). They end up living for many centuries and were the only ones to take the drug (kinda like experiments, but it worked). Great books :D

[hoard]

Raises ethical questions with me as well. Hard to imagine if we were able to have that option to live 1,000 years.

My answer to whether I would want to live that long, no way! That's way to long. I think I can get what I want out of life in the amount of time I'm here.

[magze]

Not Sure I want to see 40 never mind 1000

[Holbrook]

Not Sure I want to see 40 never mind 1000

You wait till HM government write to you informing you that you have "earned" enough brownie points to qualify for a state pension in your own right and how much that pension will be in today's figures....;)

Damn I don't want to work till I am 65! to earn it...lol... just another 10 years if I have too which would make me.....errrrrrr.. lol...

[kater]

Yes I would love to live for 1000+ years. There is so much to see, do and learn about this world that I would absolutely want to be alive to see what waits in store for mankind. Added to which the possibilities for mankind are staggering, imagine experts in their fields being able to follow through on their research for centuries beyond what was once possible, the advances that could come in all areas of life would be incredible. An Einstein with no need to rush out theorems for fear of bad health, scientists that could actually travel in probes to the farthest planets, the options are almost limitless.

[Archren]

Sign me up with kater! I think I want to find out what happens in the future!

[skwirlinator]

Living to 1000 as a fertile vibrant young male with an active mind and no pain or disease. That's not such a bad thing. You could spend 5 years learning all there is to know about anything. then do it again about a different subject, over and over again.
There would be time enough to explore the entire Earth even below the ocean. As technology advances the opportunities would open up to explore off-planet as well.
You could learn every language on the planet and even the dead ones. You could do some serious stop motion photography. You could tune out for a whole generation and comeback and explore what you missed.
I would do it.

[MrBF1V3]

The problem is, this kind of technology is not cheap. So, assume, only 5% of the population could afford to live that long. Of those, maybe half of those would actually want to.

Those, small percentage of people, would watch generations of us regular people come and go, and would probably all get to know each other fairly well. They'd have to be careful, make someone mad, and 800 years later they get revenge. It could turn into a nightmare.
B5