Cerebellum in need of surge

I am in dire need of some cerebral discussion. Open forum discuss whatever so long as no name calling persists. Let's really discuss something, some debaucle of human philosophy, religion, politics I really don't care. Bordom is killing me, I cannot get into SL due to pc problems so this is my connection to the above 120 IQ sect for the moment... PLEASE really anything just shoot...I'll try to do the research and keep it going. Love you guys but miss the heady convos and firey flame free debates of yore.

Hey Isis - maybe I have one for you. Only because I worked on scraping paint off walls until 10:00 last night and woke up this morning so sore I can barely move and I have to go scrape more paint. Oh joy.

Anyhow, the question is: What would be the impact on society as we know it if we no longer aged? People can die but they won't get old. Oddly enough, with genetic engineering and the increasing ability to address age related disease, I don't think that this is an impossible probability in the future.




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I think it would be good.
More energy and a more positive attitude for most people... and more sex, probably. Always a good thing.

Not aging reminds me of the old movie, Logan's Run. In that movie, on your 30th birthday, you have a choice of being "renewed" (executed) or to run for your life. If you ran away from the safety of the domed city you are hunted until your killed or escape to live out the rest of your years.

The concept of not aging is hard to grasp. But, you do raise an interesting point about the future of medical advances. Treatments and prevention of dieseases have already extended the average life span of mankind in general. Over the years life expectancy has increased from the mid 30's to the upper 70's. Right now, the oldest people on earth live to be about 120 years old. Do you think there will be a time in the future that the average person will live to be 150 years old?

It would lead to 2 posibilitys I can foresee, the first being an extrapolation of current events: a society of uber rich served by a society of servants.

With compound interest anyone could eventually save enough money to become rich and therefore not need to work and therefore more people would be forced to do the necessary work and a vicious cycle would ensue so that the poor people would not be allowed to become rich people by investing their meager earnings, or given the access to healthcare to live longer. This would be an unstable situation (like in Mexico, Iraq etc) and the rich long-lifers would most likely die by poision, gunshots, kidnapping etc instead of old age...

OR...

Saner minds prevail, instead of short term goals for profit, long term strategies are implimented. Environmental stabilty, terraforming the Earth (you know what I mean), space exploration etc. With long term goals there can be room for all mankind to live and love...

Hey Loki, looks like they are remaking it.
Is there anything original coming out of Hollywood these days? All I see is remake after remake after remake. Sheesh.
http://imdb.com/title/tt0402344/

Dang, they already remade it once.

I agree - most movies that I have seen playing recently are just remakes or tedious repetitions of the same old theme. The only one that looks even remotely appealing to me is Kung Fu Hustle and it's not playing near where I live yet.

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I would rather see a much shorter life span, but disease and pain free.

Medical science in the United States is currently too concerned about prologing life as opposed to improving the quality of life.

Why would I want to live an additional five or ten years if I am going to suffer from one of the numerous crippling diseases out there, or live an extra six months if it means having a tube inserted in every body orifice and someone having to change my diapers?

To 65 pain and disease free or to 90 with all kinds of medical problems? I'll take door #1.

Tito

If I can't retire until I'm 67, I'd prefer till 75 pain free. I'd like at least a decade to do anything that I want without the burden of having to get up in the morning and go to work. But I do agree, I'd prefer door #1.


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Uh, Tito, my grandfather died a few years ago. He was 82. He was extraordinarily healthy until he got a kidney tumor around 80. They removed his kidney, and he never really recovered. Eventually he got an infection on his dialisis cathether thingy, which made him die of septicemia.
My grandmother is in her 70s, and she is fairly healthy.
I have an 80 year old cousin who is in better shape than I am, heh.
Similarly, my girlfriend's aunt has been a farmer all her life, and even though she is pushing 90, she still digs up her potatoes, cooks, cleans, and lives a fairly independent life.
A friend of my grandfather's is pushing 85 or so, is remarkably fit, heck, she is a gymnastics instructor to this very day.
Who are these people who AREN'T healthy up to their 65th year of life?

Americans

65 was just a number. The idea was quality as opposed to quantity.

My grandfather died last year at 94. Up to the age of 90 he was walking 10 miles a day and even chasing the ladies, until he was hit by a massive stroke.

From that point on, life in bed. He eventually also went blind.

When you get to see a man's man reduced to nothing, crying like a baby from the humilliation of his daughter having to bathe him and change his soiled diapers, every day for four long years...

My grandmother died 10 years ago, same story, a stroke. From full of life one day to daily suffering the next. Year and a half before she died.

Same goes with people I know that have or have had cancer. Doctors are more inclined in doing whatever is necessary to make them live longer, but at what price? They don't even like to prescribe the drugs necessary to control the pain because they may become "addicted", knowing fully they are going to die anyway.

Rejoice in thy youth my friend. The time I always feared when I was a boy, is upon me. The time when you see your family, friends and people you love reach the age when pain, suffering and death becomes a fact of life. It is not pretty.

I totally agree with what you said on being able to be productive into your 90's, but I just do not understand why people cannot just die peacefully as opposed to spending their last few months or years suffering.

I have just seen too much of it in the last few years, so I am sorry for my pessimistic views.

Cheers,

Tito

Tito, thank you for the clarification. Amazing old man of yours
I agree that there is no point in living when you're not enjoying it.
Based on this, I have also been thinking that people shouldn't have a specific retirement age, but rather it should be based on your health and type of employment.
My grandfather worked all his life. Quite literally. He started working at the tender age of 9, and was even taking customers at our home, shortly before he died, when he was already wheelchair-bound and unable to travel to his former place of employment.
It's hard to describe what he did, since his profession no longer exists. He was a "visagist", from the french word for face, "visage". Face specialist or something. Through special massage techniques and creams, he was able to do what people now achieve through botox injections and plastic surgery. As a result of this, a lot of people have been known to think my grandmother is in fact my mother

Yes and I think a some of it has to do with diet. I run into people in their 40's that you would swear were in their 60's because of their diet. Also it's state of mind - I have some friends my age who won't try anything new. All they want to do is sit in front of the television for hours. It's difficult to even carry on a conversation with them anymore.

Most of them have moved to those gated communities where they only allow people 50 and over. I could not imagine doing that - I have friends that range in age from 18 years old to 90 years old and when not on an airplane or trying to enjoy a meal out, I enjoy being around small children. I think it would be really depressing and awful to be locked up with a bunch of people who have nothing in common except that they are over 50.

That's one big thing I noticed about America - that older people have been separated from the community or they have separated themselves from the community, I'm not sure which. Regardless, I don't think it's a good thing for either themselves or the rest of the community.

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That's pretty much the norm here. My grandma is slightly more active than most, in that she has picked up painting since her retirement 10 years ago. She is pretty darn good at it.
Both of our places are covered in her paintings.
Here are a few of them.

yes, diet and exercise (physical and mental) are they keys to health.

If you want to not get obsese, eat stuff that doesn't come pre-made in boxes or has a foil wrapper, those things have oils that make you fat regardless of calories.

great pics Eggy! congrats!