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What would you do If there was no way to cure aging?


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#1 The Immortalist

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Posted 18 February 2010 - 10:15 AM


In a hypothetical situation, what would you do if you found out for a fact that there was no way possible to be able to extend the human lifespan?

What I would do is not really care for anything. I would take everything really easy. I would just save up enough money to live somewhere alone in the wilderness so I could live in peace until I grow old and die.
I would also travel the world time to time, visiting cool places. Really I don't see a point in a world with the measly lifespan we have now, I would do whatever I wanted without even thinking of any consequences.

#2 JLL

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Posted 18 February 2010 - 10:45 AM

Be depressed.

#3 David Styles

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Posted 18 February 2010 - 01:07 PM

I'd sigh at whatever fools think they've proven such a negative.

I'd always hold out hope.

To not do so would be irrational.

One should never bet on the end of one's life - one can't collect on it :)

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#4 forever freedom

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Posted 18 February 2010 - 06:21 PM

I'd most likely marry and have children. Right now i really don't want to have children nor marry.

I'd also try to achieve something very significative, you know, all that stuff about "not wanting one's life to pass without leaving a mark". I'd take riskier decisions, that had probabilities of yielding greater returns, like maybe having a business instead of going for a stable job, after all i'd only have a short span of time to do and achieve what i wanted.

I'd also probably do radical sports. Climbing a mountain, skydiving, etc, these are things i think i'd love to do. I'd also not care much about my diet. Would drink every weekend. A lot of meat, i love red meat.

Edited by forever freedom, 18 February 2010 - 06:27 PM.


#5 Mind

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Posted 18 February 2010 - 09:41 PM

It is an interesting discussion in that what drives most of us is this purpose - to extend human life indefinitely. Without it (if it was impossible), I am sure most of us would find some other ways to contribute to society in beneficial ways. However, I could definitely see a bit more indulgence or risk-taking within the crowd, such as was posted a couple of times earlier.

#6 The Immortalist

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Posted 19 February 2010 - 07:29 AM

Be depressed.


Come on JLL in this type of situation you could do anything you want without really being conservative in risk taking. You could have sex with as many women as possible without worrying about STD's, you could be a bodybuilder without caring if your activity's shortens your life span, you could do anything without worrying what happens next. We always need a backup plan if something unexpected happens.

#7 JLL

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Posted 19 February 2010 - 07:31 AM

Be depressed.


Come on JLL in this type of situation you could do anything you want without really being conservative in risk taking. You could have sex with as many women as possible without worrying about STD's, you could be a bodybuilder without caring if your activity's shortens your life span, you could do anything without worrying what happens next. We always need a backup plan if something unexpected happens.


I could, and probably would, but still, on the back of my mind there would loom the fact that it's all for nothing. After I'm dead, it will have been meaningless; hence, it's meaningless now.

#8 The Immortalist

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Posted 19 February 2010 - 07:32 AM

I'd sigh at whatever fools think they've proven such a negative.

I'd always hold out hope.

To not do so would be irrational.

One should never bet on the end of one's life - one can't collect on it :)


Yes I think the same way.

But this is a scenario that we have actually proven life extension is actually impossible and nothing you could do could change that (I know an impossible scenario, I'm just getting people to think outside the box, and think of some sort of alternate plan if such a thing were to happen)

#9 Luna

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Posted 19 February 2010 - 10:52 AM

it's not much difference than now, is it?
now we have hope, then we'd find hope.
Now it seems so far and almost impossible, then it will be I dunno, clinging to something else? saying you can't prove it's impossible? :/

#10 Sebastian

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Posted 19 February 2010 - 11:08 AM

What would you do If there was no way to cure aging?


Nothing differently.

#11 forever freedom

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Posted 19 February 2010 - 06:58 PM

it's not much difference than now, is it?


Yes it is different, actually. Now we can live in a way that maximizes our chances of living long enough to see the time when we beat aging, if we ever do. Even if we don't in our lifetimes, we'll still have made the right choice, it was a calculated gamble.


now we have hope, then we'd find hope.


I don't think so. There'd be no hope if beating aging, by any means (including uploading) was impossible, unless we gave in to delusions of a God and life after death, but to me, that's when we die, that's when we kill our capacity to think independently and become prone to all sorts of mind washing.



Now it seems so far and almost impossible, then it will be I dunno, clinging to something else? saying you can't prove it's impossible? :/


So you're saying that we're immortalists, right now, because we need to cling to something? That our need to cling to something is so strong that we could have turned out to have any religion or some other delusional belief instead of being immortalists? That the fact that we believe in material immortality, instead of some religion, is because of pure chance?

Edited by forever freedom, 19 February 2010 - 07:00 PM.


#12 Luna

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Posted 19 February 2010 - 07:29 PM

I think we might have well been super depressed or suicide or forced to "accept" it or find some other thing to cling to.
I am pretty sure a lot of people here look at the future and feel it's grim and just hope but they probably can't really see it. Hope is what keeps some going, some sane.

#13 N.T.M.

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Posted 21 February 2010 - 11:27 AM

In a hypothetical situation, what would you do if you found out for a fact that there was no way possible to be able to extend the human lifespan?

What I would do is not really care for anything. I would take everything really easy. I would just save up enough money to live somewhere alone in the wilderness so I could live in peace until I grow old and die.
I would also travel the world time to time, visiting cool places. Really I don't see a point in a world with the measly lifespan we have now, I would do whatever I wanted without even thinking of any consequences.


I'd do something similar, HOWEVER.........


I'd eventually find the urge for suicide too great, and sooner or later succumb and put a bullet in my head (I'm serious).


lol Who said there weren't alternative methods to obviating aging? lmao

Edited by N.T.M., 21 February 2010 - 11:30 AM.


#14 caston

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Posted 21 February 2010 - 12:34 PM

I'd eventually find the urge for suicide too great, and sooner or later succumb and put a bullet in my head (I'm serious).


lol Who said there weren't alternative methods to obviating aging? lmao


Your body will age a hell of a lot faster but you won't be around to see it... unless of course you believe in ghosts, spirits, the afterlife and so on.

Edited by caston, 21 February 2010 - 12:34 PM.


#15 mpe

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Posted 22 February 2010 - 07:04 AM

Well, I suppose i'd be no worse off than my grandparents or parents, who have grown old and in the case of my grandparents died.

The thing is though that my current approach to life is predicated on life extension/immortality.
I dont plan to retire my finances are being geared to pay for the treatments for mywife, self and our parents (if their still alive to be treated ).

If their is no significant life extension in the next 30 to 40 years, I would be forced by frailty to leave work and join the "living dead" until i actually died.

I guess that would leave a reasonable sum of money for my children and grandchildren. What a waste of a lifetime of work !!!!!

But while there's life there's hope.

#16 lunarsolarpower

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Posted 22 February 2010 - 09:07 AM

I find this scenario as presented fairly ridiculous. However if you modified it to say that no meaningful life extension methods would occur during one's expected lifetime I would find that much easier to consider as a possibility. I don't really see anti-aging technologies as true immortalist technologies anyway. Their existence certainly will be superior to the current situation where we age right on schedule throughout our lives. However until we gain sufficient control over our consciousness to be able to store it in multiple locations we're still just delaying the inevitable.

Obviously we're closer than we've ever been throughout the history of conscious life forms. The question is, are we close enough to make it directly, and if not do we have tools that can help us get there anyway? Personally I think the answer to at least one of those questions is yes.

#17 Forever21

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Posted 04 March 2010 - 05:02 PM

In a hypothetical situation, what would you do if you found out for a fact that there was no way possible to be able to extend the human lifespan?



I'd look for ways to extend lifespan outside human biology.

1. Brain imaging / scanning then transfer to future artificial intelligent machines (also includes changing of human body into machines part by part)

2. Develop inorganic brains capable of carrying datas from the organic brain

3. Cloning + brain / mind transfer why extend when you can renew? (also includes transferring to lab CREATED human body) sorta still human but its not your human body you extended, just the mind, transferred to ANOTHER human carrier.


So those are the 3 main things. Transferring my humanity to machine, inorganic brain or new body.


But suppose all these are impossible, I will be happy with what evolution designed for the survival of my genes. I would bear offsprings.

#18 bacopa

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Posted 04 March 2010 - 06:13 PM

I disagree with people who say they'd completely give up. Our ancestors many of which led meaningful lives did so knowing that they'd live a regular life span, and they didn't commit suicide.

I do believe our measly lifespans are an insult to our humanity and all we are capable of, however, I would choose to make an impact in some way, otherwise I would be neglecting my whole humanity, which would add more insult to injury.

#19 bacopa

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Posted 04 March 2010 - 06:17 PM

Also I could not give up on my life even if not elongated due to the simple fact that my parents worked hard to live their short lives as well as possible...it would be almost an insult to them to give up even at the face of such gross disappointment.

#20 shadowhawk

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Posted 04 March 2010 - 11:57 PM

The present evidence is this:

http://www.imminst.o...rians-f245.html

http://www.imminst.o...ple-t12979.html

http://www.imminst.o...cts-t26418.html

http://www.imminst.o...rch-t35413.html

http://www.imminst.o...o...=21582&st=0

http://www.imminst.o...o...t=0&start=0

http://en.wikipedia....upercentenarian

Few live to 100 years and only a very few in the entire world live more than 110 year. They are mostly women, very small (well under 5'8') and finish life in a rest home. Most suffer from the afflictions of old age. Want to be scientific and rational? The existing reality and evidence points to the position that 100 years from now we will all be dead,

Like everyone else I see life is a gift, good and valuable. I do not want tp die. I take lots of vitamins, exercise and study life extension but in the end....





#21 Forever21

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Posted 05 March 2010 - 03:29 AM

Oh now I'm depressed.

I need pork rinds.

#22 forever freedom

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Posted 05 March 2010 - 04:43 AM

Few live to 100 years and only a very few in the entire world live more than 110 year. They are mostly women, very small (well under 5'8') and finish life in a rest home. Most suffer from the afflictions of old age. Want to be scientific and rational? The existing reality and evidence points to the position that 100 years from now we will all be dead,

Like everyone else I see life is a gift, good and valuable. I do not want tp die. I take lots of vitamins, exercise and study life extension but in the end....



[/b][/i]


This is linear thinking, and linear thinking doesn't apply to exponentially advancing technology. Although even with various fields advancing exponentially, i agree that there's a very real chance that none of us will make it to the time when aging is beaten.

#23 rollo

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Posted 05 March 2010 - 06:03 AM

I would do nothing differently.


The more time I spend on this forum, the more I realize that the great majority of immortalists here, are the equivalent of the great many theists out there that believe in religion simply out of fear of the great beyond. It's quite pathetic.

#24 Luna

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Posted 05 March 2010 - 06:45 AM

The present evidence is this:

http://www.imminst.o...rians-f245.html

http://www.imminst.o...ple-t12979.html

http://www.imminst.o...cts-t26418.html

http://www.imminst.o...rch-t35413.html

http://www.imminst.o...o...=21582&st=0

http://www.imminst.o...o...t=0&start=0

http://en.wikipedia....upercentenarian

Few live to 100 years and only a very few in the entire world live more than 110 year. They are mostly women, very small (well under 5'8') and finish life in a rest home. Most suffer from the afflictions of old age. Want to be scientific and rational? The existing reality and evidence points to the position that 100 years from now we will all be dead,

Like everyone else I see life is a gift, good and valuable. I do not want tp die. I take lots of vitamins, exercise and study life extension but in the end....




That is not evidence for the possibility of ending aging, that is evidence for the current situation.

The hope to defeat aging is far from using what we have right now, but through research and improving technology and there is no proof that it is impossible, the opposite is quite more pronounced even.
The real question is, will it be available soon enough? I hope so but I am afraid it won't.. let's hope my fears are incorrect.

#25 russianBEAR

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Posted 05 March 2010 - 08:12 AM

I'm already prepared to start slowly deteriorating, really I expect the worst and hope for the best.

Though I'm pretty sure the worst will happen here, since it's pretty much happened to every human being on the planet :)

#26 JediMasterLucia

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Posted 05 March 2010 - 02:33 PM

I'll live my live, grow old and dies on aging or aging related disease...

and I will still don't like getting old.

#27 Cameron

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Posted 05 March 2010 - 06:25 PM

In a hypothetical situation, what would you do if you found out for a fact that there was no way possible to be able to extend the human lifespan?

What I would do is not really care for anything. I would take everything really easy. I would just save up enough money to live somewhere alone in the wilderness so I could live in peace until I grow old and die.
I would also travel the world time to time, visiting cool places. Really I don't see a point in a world with the measly lifespan we have now, I would do whatever I wanted without even thinking of any consequences.


If I can't go on living, at least a simulated version of me can. I would also avoid risks and continue my healthy habits to get as close as possible to the supposed limit. While a proof of aging being inevitable is unlikely. The possibility of it being impossible to extend human lifespans is a possibility, that could come into being, if some catastrophic event takes place that impedes advancing or recedes the current technological frontier.

The real question is, will it be available soon enough? I hope so but I am afraid it won't.. let's hope my fears are incorrect.

If we could get countries with real aging population problems(like japan), and myths favorable to immortality, to view the eradication of aging as a solution to their problems, we could accelerate the arrival of solutions.

When I hear Catholic people advocating reproduction as the only solution, I just find it ridiculous. An end to aging will ensure indefinite sustainable populations.

#28 b0gger

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Posted 07 March 2010 - 08:27 AM

If we could get countries with real aging population problems(like japan), and myths favorable to immortality, to view the eradication of aging as a solution to their problems, we could accelerate the arrival of solutions.

I thought about this too, it must be done.
Dead japanese elderly people still staying vertically at their exoskeletons would be a mockery of a human ingenuity - I gotta make a poster about that somehow.

#29 N.T.M.

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Posted 08 March 2010 - 06:06 AM

I'd eventually find the urge for suicide too great, and sooner or later succumb and put a bullet in my head (I'm serious).


lol Who said there weren't alternative methods to obviating aging? lmao


Your body will age a hell of a lot faster but you won't be around to see it... unless of course you believe in ghosts, spirits, the afterlife and so on.


lmao I suppose so.

#30 GiovanniR

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Posted 08 March 2010 - 03:25 PM

I would sign up for Cryonic Suspension (which I have already done...) and wait...




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