How Long Do You Want To Live? 813
Hugh Pickens writes "Since 1900, the life expectancy of Americans, driven by improved hygiene, nutrition, and new medical discoveries and interventions, has jumped from 47 years to almost 80. Now, scientists studying the intricacies of DNA and other molecular bio-dynamics may be poised to offer even more dramatic boosts to longevity. But there is one very basic question that is seldom asked, according to David Ewing Duncan: How long do you want to live? 'Over the past three years I have posed this query to nearly 30,000 people at the start of talks and lectures on future trends in bioscience, taking an informal poll as a show of hands,' writes Duncan. 'To make it easier to tabulate responses I provided four possible answers: 80 years, currently the average life span in the West; 120 years, close to the maximum anyone has lived; 150 years, which would require a biotech breakthrough; and forever, which rejects the idea that life span has to have any limit at all.' The results: some 60 percent opted for a life span of 80 years. Another 30 percent chose 120 years, and almost 10 percent chose 150 years. Less than 1 percent embraced the idea that people might avoid death altogether (PDF). Overwhelmingly, the reason given was that people didn't want to be old and infirm any longer than they had to be, even if a pill allowed them to delay the inevitable. Others were concerned about issues like boredom, the cost of paying for a longer life, and the impact of so many extra people on planetary resources and on the environment. But wouldn't long life allow people like Albert Einstein to accomplish more and try new things? That's assuming that Einstein would want to live that long. As he lay dying of an abdominal aortic aneurysm in 1955, Einstein refused surgery, saying: 'It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share, it is time to go. I will do it elegantly.'"
600 years. (Score:5, Funny)
Should be enough for me.
News Flash! (Score:5, Funny)
99% of people are idiots.
Oh Right Around ... (Score:5, Funny)
Long Enough (Score:5, Funny)
To see my enemies buried. After that, I don't care.
640 years (Score:5, Funny)
Ought to be enough for anybody.
Game of Thrones answer (Score:5, Funny)
Barbarian: “How do you want to die?”
Tyrion Lannister: “In bed, when I’m 80, with a belly full of wine and woman’s mouth on my cock.”
640K years (Score:5, Funny)
Ought to be enough for anybody...
Re:600 years. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I have no fear of death. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:600 years. (Score:5, Funny)
I kid, I kid!
Anyway, if you're afraid of getting bored living a very long time, try stepping away from the TV. I can't imagine ever getting bored.
Morgan Industries answer (Score:5, Funny)
I plan to live forever, of course, but barring that I'd settle for a couple thousand years. Even five hundred would be pretty nice.
-- CEO Nwabudike Morgan, MorganLink 3DVision Interview
(from one of the best games ever made [wikipedia.org])
Re:Living is moving (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Longer lifespan = greater population (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Game of Thrones answer (Score:4, Funny)
I disagree.
I'd like to die like my father--peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming in terror like the passengers in his car.
Re:120 years - work in Alzheimers research (Score:4, Funny)
"Do you want to live in a society of really old people enslaving the youth in Hunger Games?"
Don't tease me like that.
Re:640K years (Score:5, Funny)
Considering how poorly people backup, I don't think that will work.
Re:A friend's great-grandmother just turned 116. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:640K years (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Long Enough (Score:5, Funny)
To see my enemies buried. After that, I don't care.
I'd hope you'd also want to live long enough to hear the lamentation of their women.
Yaz
Re:Oh, FFS (Score:4, Funny)
Incept dates. Longevity.
I want more life, fucker.
Re:640 years (Score:4, Funny)
You've got it wrong... it's my death you need to worry about. I'm a solipsist, so when I die everyone else ceases to exist.