
Living forever is not what it is cracked up to be
There are a few people obsessed with living forever. Some, to the point where they are trying to reverse age their bodies with expensive and painful procedures, while others are just living healthier, better, and trying to take advantage of our medical marvels (and they truly are, we have such high life expectancies now, it is staggering.. unless of course, you’re an American.)
Suffice it to say, it started me thinking about living forever. FOREVER. I mean never dying. Being an immortal (it is why we are also so obsessed with vampires, I suspect, it is that beauty + immortality that draws people in).
I don’t think it would actually be a good thing to live for so long, for a few reasons…
you have to save a lot more
Yeah yeah.. financial nerd coming out. But instead of aiming for a 100 year age, you would have to aim for a FOREVER age. Infinity. And really plan to keep working, or get to the point where your nest egg just keeps building upon itself over and over again that you do not have to work, and just draw down 4% each time. It is possible, but now you have to plan for it.
generations blur together
I think at some point, you are excited for:
grandchildren
great-grandchildren
great-great-grandchildren
… but I suspect it stops there. Before long, your family is just a blur. The more generations you have, the more you have to remember who they are, and that emotional connection you have with your wonderful children, is not the same as you would have with a great-great-great-great-great-great-grandchild. Perhaps. Who knows I could be wrong, but I kind of doubt it.
I would be very excited for Little Bun’s children (if he has any), and their children, but beyond that, it might just end up being exhausting to keep up with how many there are.
Not to mention, family drama. Sure to have a few bad episodes in there.
Things become boring and mundane
By the time you are that old, a few hundred years old, everything becomes the same. Nothing is new any more, and you have all this money, so you have done everything you could do. Your memories are what you have of the past, but even those could start to go as you age, because there are just too many years in between.
Nothing would excite you any more.
I mean I am thinking about it, and even in retirement I am not sure
YOUR BODY WOULD NOT BE AS HEALTHY OVER THE YEARS
Inevitable aging. You aren’t the same as you were at 20 at the peak of your health and youth, than you are at 120. It is just basic, human, mortality. You are not as strong as you were in the past, so travel may tire you more, and things are just.. more fatiguing as you age.
Except of course, if you have some magic pill that keeps you 20 forever, but who wants that? I think I am today, in my best years, and would not trade them for my twenties again. Unless of course, I could keep my experience and so on, and just be 20 again but not even that, perhaps. A good musing to have later on, as I am happy with who I am today, as I am.
I think for those few reasons, I would not like to be immortal. Up to age 150 would be my maximum, probably around 125 years if I am realistic about how long I would like to go.
Thoughts?
4 Comments
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NZ Muse
Soooo I went down a rabbit hole reading about AI but one interesting part from my spiral was the notion that through nanotech one day, over time we might start healing/fixing ourselves bit by bit until eventually we are mostly or entirely replaced part by part and have become… non-natural material (which enables more longevity). Fascinating and kinda creepy idea about how eternal life might actually come to happen
Anne
Ship of Theseus… I don’t think replacing physical bits in our bodies with man made parts would make us less us. We would still the be the “same” individuals. But if it was possible to download our identities and save them forever, maybe in other bodies, I am not sure I would consider the result as us living forever.
I used to visit a very old woman and it was as you say, Sherry. She could remember her children and grandchildren, but had problems keeping track of all great-grandchildren, not to mention great-great-grandchildren. Although she was clearheaded until the end, the memories often got mixed up. The important events remained the same, but details around were told differently, sometimes it was a daughter, sometimes a granddaughter who did or said something. She had lived a very interesting life and was curious and wanted to learn new things and meet new people as long as she had the energy. If it wasn’t for the weak body, I believe she could have lived happily ever after and not get bored.