If offered a technology that prevented you from suffering old-age related illnesses

[TheLittleFaerie]

If you were offered a technology that would prevent you from ever getting sick as you age, would you take it? It would prevent you from ever getting dementia, alzheimers, cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, organ failure, brittle bones, and all other age-related illnesses and your body stays as it is/was in the prime of your life...... BUT there is one side-effect... as long as you take the therapy, you will go on living and living indefinitely... since your body is not breaking down and your cells are essentially being restored over and over, there's no reason to ever die. You could still die in a car crash or something like but you won't EVER die of any "old-age" related sickness

For me, the answer would be YES, bring on the therapy!

[JamesG]

I would.

[Caroline13]

I could only imagine that govt and/or tech would be inserting chips or injecting our bodies with their brews... Not me.

[TheLittleFaerie]

I would totally take it, but I'm surprised with all the ppl who are like, "NO!!!!! I don't wanna live FOREVER! I would get SOOO BORED!" For me, I would prefer boredom at age 200 than dementia at age 80.... honestly I do not think boredom would be a thing, humans tend to fit into time very well... I have enough on my to-do list that would keep me busy for at least 2,000-3,000 years, and I'm sure more and more EVEN LONGER lists would be created as I check off those thing... I love the saying, "If you're so bored that you want to die, then you are bored INDEED" lol I just can't ever see myself so bored that I want to either get sick, OR just drop dead even though I'm perfectly healthy... But that's just me

[Duster76]

Well, this could become real complicated in a hurry. Let's look at one aspect of it, financial. Many senior citizens live pretty well, they made some good decisions in life and are pretty well off thanks to pensions, life insurance annuities, social security benefits and whatever else they have put aside. All of that is put together based on actuarial tables, now this comes along, that's a game changer. Based on this premise someone who retired in 2010 at 62 now 75 could make it to the end of this century. These individuals would have to rejoin the workforce and forfeit their pensions and social security or these systems would collapse. As time goes on, trying to absorb individuals coming into the workforce with older people now rejoining fulltime, and folks no longer retiring in sufficient numbers, what a mess.

My point, even if some technology came along making it possible it would be kept for the the richest among us, well beyond the reach of the average person.

[TheLittleFaerie]

Originally Posted by Caroline13

I could only imagine that govt and/or tech would be inserting chips or injecting our bodies with their brews... Not me.

We are assuming that it's all on the up and up, no secret chips inserted, etc.... it would be just like any other medicine or therapy for anything else... It's purpose would not be to make you live forever, it's purpose would be to keep you from getting sick as you age....living forever or indefinitely would just be a side-effect of never getting sick

[Caroline13]

Originally Posted by TheLittleFaerie

We are assuming that it's all on the up and up, no secret chips inserted, etc.... it would be just like any other medicine or therapy for anything else... It's purpose would not be to make you live forever, it's purpose would be to keep you from getting sick as you age....living forever or indefinitely would just be a side-effect of never getting sick

You talk technology in your opener, and now you talk medicine. The medical world does not want life to go on and on and on. As it is we are in the process of reducing population since at least 3 yrs ago actively and it's been discussed decades ago.

I believe you mentioned dementia, well one can do some slowing or eliminating that process with foods like good oils that our bodies need. Our bodies don't need technology in them.

[biffbronson]

I'm going with "no," I don't want to outlive my relatives -- all but a handful are younger than me. I've had enough of family members' funerals and would prefer one of the next ones to be "me," as opposed to going on for decades past my "expiration date"...!

I do believe that doctors want their patients to continue living, both those who are genuinely concerned for their health and the "bad" ones who are motivated primarily by greed -- and can't profit from cash cows that are no longer alive.

[TheLittleFaerie]

Originally Posted by Duster76

Well, this could become real complicated in a hurry. Let's look at one aspect of it, financial. Many senior citizens live pretty well, they made some good decisions in life and are pretty well off thanks to pensions, life insurance annuities, social security benefits and whatever else they have put aside. All of that is put together based on actuarial tables, now this comes along, that's a game changer. Based on this premise someone who retired in 2010 at 62 now 75 could make it to the end of this century. These individuals would have to rejoin the workforce and forfeit their pensions and social security or these systems would collapse. As time goes on, trying to absorb individuals coming into the workforce with older people now rejoining fulltime, and folks no longer retiring in sufficient numbers, what a mess.

My point, even if some technology came along making it possible it would be kept for the the richest among us, well beyond the reach of the average person.

Obviously other things would change also. You should listen to Dr. Aubrey DrGrey, a British scientist who is working on this very thing.... He predicts, likely what would happen is... people would retire and their retirement would last maybe 15-20 years, then they would go back into the work force, and likely they would WANT to, maybe in another career.

He also predicts the birth rate would slow down, as many women would choose to have children LATER in life. Many women and couples complain NOW that they would like to travel, get their careers underway, and do a lot of stuff before being tied down with a family... but as it is now women only have a precious few years if they want to have kids, beyond 35 it starts getting risky.... Soooo... couples would probably enjoy being young, traveling, and doing other things before they decide to have a family.

Of course there would be potential negatives. but that's with anything... back when people died in their 40s and 50s, no one ever got alzheimers or dementia, but now that technology has us living longer, we DO get those things and other age-related illnesses that people did not used to get because they didn't live long enough to. BUT I still think it was a good idea that technology was created to lengthen our lives.

[TheLittleFaerie]

Originally Posted by biffbronson

I'm going with "no," I don't want to outlive my relatives -- all but a handful are younger than me. I've had enough of family members' funerals and would prefer one of the next ones to be "me," as opposed to going on for decades past my "expiration date"...!

I do believe that doctors want their patients to continue living, both those who are genuinely concerned for their health and the "bad" ones who are motivated primarily by greed -- and can't profit from cash cows that are no longer alive.

So, is there a certain age at which you would like to get sick? OR a certain age at which you would like to just fall over dead for NO REASON even if you're perfectly healthy? Those are about the only 2 options, and NEITHER seem pleasant to me.


I always think its funny, most people say they want to die some day, BUT they don't want to get sick... you can't really get rid of sickness but still keep death. People always want to die someday, but they never want cancer, diabetes, dementia nor ANY of the things that bring death on....and it makes no sense to me

[biffbronson]

Originally Posted by TheLittleFaerie

So, is there a certain age at which you would like to get sick? OR a certain age at which you would like to just fall over dead for NO REASON even if you're perfectly healthy? Those are about the only 2 options, and NEITHER seem pleasant to me.

The question, as I took it, had more to do with one's life being extended indefinitely. Like any other person, I don't want to ever have an illness and certainly not an extended illness -- but as a human being, I know that death will come eventually & I'm not going to live my life in fear of illness or falling over dead. Many people die peacefully in their sleep, so I'll take that as my preference -- which you don't seem to be acknowledging as an "option."

Originally Posted by TheLittleFaerie

I always think its funny, most people say they want to die some day, BUT they don't want to get sick... you can't really get rid of sickness but still keep death. People always want to die someday, but they never want cancer, diabetes, dementia nor ANY of the things that bring death on....and it makes no sense to me

Every living thing will die eventually -- it's not a case of that "they want to die some day." It's KNOWING they will eventually die. With that in mind, the question you've posed must have to do with extended life. I don't want to live while all of my cousins, who are younger, have passed on. I hope to die when my natural time for death has come, preferably suddenly (not accompanied by conscious "sickness"). Many religious people believe the time of their death is predetermined from the time of birth. I'm not certain of that, but either way I hope my time is before my younger relatives begin passing on.

[TheLittleFaerie]

Originally Posted by biffbronson

The question, as I took it, had more to do with one's life being extended indefinitely. Like any other person, I don't want to ever have an illness and certainly not an extended illness -- but as a human being, I know that death will come eventually & I'm not going to live my life in fear of illness or falling over dead. Many people die peacefully in their sleep, so I'll take that as my preference -- which you don't seem to be acknowledging as an "option."



Every living thing will die eventually -- it's not a case of that "they want to die some day." It's KNOWING they will eventually die. With that in mind, the question you've posed must have to do with extended life. I don't want to live while all of my cousins, who are younger, have passed on. I hope to die when my natural time for death has come, preferably suddenly (not accompanied by conscious "sickness"). Many religious people believe the time of their death is predetermined from the time of birth. I'm not certain of that, but either way I hope my time is before my younger relatives begin passing on.

But even when we're talking hypothetically and ask someone if HYPOTHETICALLY there was a therapy that would PREVENT death, most people say they wouldn't want it, even if it were possible.


Again, we're talking hypothetically.... IF a technology/therapy, COULD stop you from ever getting sick and as a result you'd go on living indefinitely.... with the exception of things like dying in a car crash, housefire, or something like that, a hypothetical therapy that would cause you NOT to die of "natural causes" There ARE indeed such therapies being worked on now, I think there will come a time when humans will have power over death instead of it being the other way around...may not happen in my life time, but I believe it will happen.

As far as the "dying peacefully in your sleep" yeah that's what most people opt for, but the reality is VERY VERY few people are lucky enough to die that way.... IF you could even call it lucky, because we have no idea what someone is feeling or going through at the moment of death.... and even with that sort of death, there would be something not right with your body..which these therapies would fix.

So that's why my hypothetical was a therapy that will guarantee NO sickness but not dying as a side effect

I agree with Dr. Aubrey DeGrey, humans look at death as a guarnted thing that is DEFINITLY going to happen, and when you present the idea that... MAYBE it will be preventable one day, it scares people

[Yong Fang]

Yes!

[biffbronson]

You've posted a hypothetical based on a fantasy of life with indefinite end, which is entirely yours to postulate. I gave my reasons for rejecting (saying "no" to) the premise for myself.

Now that I've added that I would prefer to die in my sleep -- regardless of however statistically unlikely for humans, yet certainly possible -- you are rejecting my hope for that type of death as a response. In fact, both of my parents and a close uncle all died in their sleep. In 2 of the 3 cases I saw them take their last breaths peacefully. Their bodies had begun shutting down just prior, but they were not conscious of any pain or what was going on within.

In a sense, you are trying to force me to say "yes" to your fantasy-based hypothetical, and ironically using a death stat based in reality to do so! Please don't go to too much trouble to bring reality into my particular reply/take on your fantastic hypothetical. If you're going to do that as a means of trying to force one to say "yes," why give us a "no" option to begin with? You have interjected a reality to support your stand, while rejecting my use of any reality-based option -- unlikely as it may be.

The bottom line is I'd rather not go on with a "vampiric" existence, hard as that may be for you to believe. I've seen enough of this world. Maybe your own viewpoint will change when you become older. So now I'll bow out from the discussion.

[icecream]

This will never happen. After the global flood where only Noah and his family survived, God shortened the maximum length of life to around 120 years, and most people die much sooner than that. Permanently gone are the days of living on earth several centuries, with Methuselah living almost a thousand years. Only God knows when you will die, he sets the rules not any sci-fi like technology. We will all have eternal life after death, but in heaven or hell depending on if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior.