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OpEd Piece on Extended Life Expectancy

Posted by michael on from the read-holy-fire-by-sterling dept.

daksis writes "CNN has posted an OpEd piece from the New York Times that raises some interesting issues. With the current advances in biology, we as a society are facing the real possibility that "immortality" could some day be the norm. What sort of social impact can we expect when/if life expectancies are measured in centuries?"

31 of 832 comments (clear)

  1. What would we do? by dirtydiaper · · Score: 2, Funny

    So no more Mortal Kombat?

  2. This guy knows! by Cybrr · · Score: 3, Funny

    Alex Chiu

    --
    Why did GEAR crush RDP?
  3. Best summary of my position: by Dr.+Manhattan · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Personally, I've been hearing all my life about the Serious Philosophical Issues posed by life extension, and my attitude has always been that I'm willing to grapple with those issues for as many centuries as it takes." - Patrick Nielsen Hayden

    --
    PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
  4. Obligatory by QuantumFTL · · Score: 5, Funny
    Here goes my first attempt at cliche hording.
    without even reading the friendly article, I can already accurately predict (based on my education, which is mostly from slashdot):
    • This means we might actually be around when Duke Nukem Forever is released.
    • Each one of us has a chance with Natalie Portman... Think about it, a nonzero probability (except for you, Cowboyneal) integrated over an infinite time... I can dream at least...
    • In Soviet Russia, forever lives for YOU. Perhaps if we reconstruct Soviet Russia we will be able to figure out what this means.
    • SCO and/or Jeff Bezos already have a patent on immortality. They blatently disregard God's prior art.
    • Think infinite hot grits. Yum.
    • With all the time in the world, we no longer have to only "imagine a beowolf cluster of X".

    Sounds like a blast to me.
    Oh, wait, forgot... we can argue about BSD dying unto eternity as well (and perhaps Apple too).

    Cheers,
    Justin
  5. One big change... by magicsquid · · Score: 4, Funny

    Should we all become immortal, I suspect a lot more people will be using a lot more Viagra.

    --


    "Chances of RHIC-induced Armageddon are exceedingly rare, but... you never know." - MIT Physicist Bob Jaffe
  6. I think it's great! by L.+VeGas · · Score: 4, Funny

    It just gives me more time to subjugate all humans and rule the earth with an iron fist.

    Now I have time to watch some TV first.

    --
    Best Windows Freeware
  7. Lemme seee.... by GeneralEmergency · · Score: 3, Funny


    ...100 more years with the DMCA, Patriot Act, the MPAA and the RIAA getting meaner and stronger?

    Slashdot too?

    Tough choice. I'll get back to you.

    --
    "A microprocessor... is a terrible thing to waste." --
    GeneralEmergency
  8. I don't know about you by prostoalex · · Score: 5, Funny

    But I am planning to insult every person in the Universe.

  9. Oh, that's just great! by dmuth · · Score: 3, Funny

    Oh, that's just great!

    Now when people go Christmas shopping, they'll have to buy Christmas presents for their grandparents, great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents, great-great-great-grandparents, great-great-great-great-grandparents, great-great-great-great-great-grandparents, and the list goes on and on. People will go brankrupt and the economy will collapse, the horror!

    (This is a joke, for the humor-impaired)

  10. Boredom and despair would abound by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I'm 30, and life already sucks. I couldn't fathom living to be a few hundred years old.

    And I wouldn't want to live in a world where someone evil like Jack Valenti couldn't get cancer and die.

  11. Finishing by Dark+Paladin · · Score: 4, Funny

    Assuming that the individual is in decent health and not a 200 year old husk of skin kept alive by machines - I think I know what I would do with immortality:

    1. Finally finish Xenogears (which, after over 6 months of playing, I'm still working on. How long is this game, anyway?)

    2. Try every possible combination of Jelly Belly Jelly Beans. (Hm - Mint Pineapple Peanut Butter - yup, that sucks. Check off the list. Now lets try Vanilla Chocolate Pepper! No...)

    3. Recreate the movie Gone with the Wind frame for frame using my specially trained gerbels. (Once I figure out how little Rett is going to carry Scarlet up the little mouse stairs.)

    4. See Sakura Taisen finally ported to English, or barring that, have the universal translator chip implanted into my brain.

    5. Watch Neon Genesis Evangelion and have the final episodes of the TV series plus the two movies actually make some sense.

    Wahahahaha! Oh, I'm kidding - EVA make sense. My bad.

    6. Finally shoot Pac-Man: The Movie.

    7. Go to space. With my wife. Close the hatch for some privacy. Get our space freak on to the music of "Thus Spoke Zarathrusta" (the 2001 music) for our own "docking manuevers".

    Just some ideas off the top of my head to do with immortaility.

    --
    52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
  12. biggist impact... by Ian+0x57 · · Score: 2, Funny

    there will be a whole whack load of 280 year old virgins reading slashdot.

  13. Re:population by jericho4.0 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Because sitting in one place for a million years is really, really boring?

    --
    "A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
  14. If people live to be centuries old and drive... by Torgo's+Pizza · · Score: 4, Funny

    I soon predict that the first thing to happen is that people will start avoiding farmer's markets completely.

  15. This question could take a lifetime to answer... by JVert · · Score: 2, Funny

    So why not just wait till we have a few lifetimes to spare before we start to worry about it?

  16. Oh great... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I get to be in the last generation to die.

  17. Me being a Nerd... by tomzyk · · Score: 5, Funny
    and some unlucky folks getting their 60, or worse, 6!
    Isn't 6! better than 60?
    6! = 6*5*4*3*2*1 = 720
    --
    Karma: NaN
  18. Re:population by IWorkForMorons · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ah yes...as if it's not already hard enough for me to find a new job...

    Programmer Wanted. Must have 100+ years experience in object-oriented programming, 50+ years as Senior Developer.

    I wonder if they'll start coming up with new levels of experience? Senior Programmer...Guru Programmer...UBER Programmer...God-like Programmer. As if programmers egos weren't big enough...

  19. Re:yeah... not? by Chris+Burke · · Score: 2, Funny

    One way or another I firmly expect they'll announce a cure for death about five minutes after they tie the tag on my toe.

    That'd be great! You're already in a hospital, and they've detected your condition very early!

    Now if they discovered a cure for being -about- to die five minutes after they tie the tage on your toe, now that would be ironic. ;)

    --

    The enemies of Democracy are
  20. Re:population by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    At least we'll have plenty of COBOL programmers prepared for the year 10000.

  21. Re:population by JudgeFurious · · Score: 2, Funny

    My God! I can't even imagine the horror involved in spending 200 years trying to get these morons to stop trying to punching the monkey or to stop opening every single attachment they get sent in Outlook.

    Kill me, please.

    --
    Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
  22. Re:Not quite forever... by Dark+Lord+Seth · · Score: 2, Funny
    Eventually, no matter how hard you try, you will get hit by a train.

    So, basically what you're saying is, that even if I sit my arse on the moon, dig a tunnel down to the core, (why not? time enough!), fill up the entrance and structurally reinforce the lunar core, it will all be useless because the day I turn 500 I'll STILL get run over by a train?

    --
    Hate me!
  23. Re:Funny you should mention this by Mike1024 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Hey,

    Scientists and Engineers live the longest next to pre-med. Sweet.

    What's more, lawyers and liberal arts types die first.

    Maybe there is justice in the world after all.

    TWAJS

    Michael

    --
    "Goodness me, how unlike the FBI to abuse the trust of the American public." -- The Onion
  24. Re:Not quite forever... by useosx · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yes. The rail companies may be failing and weak now, but in 500 years they will be unstoppable. MWAHAHAA.

  25. Hitchhiker's Series had an answer for this by ewanrg · · Score: 2, Funny
    In the Hitchhiker's Series, Douglas Adams had a character who had accidentally been made an immortal. Having quickly grown bored with everything (quickly as compared to infinity of course), he decided to set a life goal of individually visiting every being of the Universe to insult them.

    Nice to see that once again Mr. Adams was ahead of the pack...

  26. Prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    So when you are convicted and go to jail for life, how long would that be exactly?

  27. Lots of bad by JohnnyGTO · · Score: 2, Funny

    ties for fathers day, for a lonnnnnnnnnggg time?

    --
    Si vis pacem, para bellum! For evil to succeed good men need only do nothing!
  28. You better by roman_mir · · Score: 2, Funny

    hand me that piano.
    Now.

    --
    You can't handle the truth.
  29. Re:population by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    De l'eau, fuquephace

  30. Re:population by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    This would allow for ever-increasing advanced in science, medecine, and technology which would appear to "boom" in the first century of this kind of "immortality".

    I have a feeling that the one single "boom" of military advances will make all the other advances suddenly... seem.... so..... very...... quiet.......

  31. Re:population by Alpha_Nerd · · Score: 2, Funny

    And they thought I was crazy when I started building my nanoization machine for humans...