How will human life extension change people's worldviews?

[rocketdodger]

Assuming people will find a way to extend human life indefinitely (whether or not this is a good assumption is not in question here), how would that change people's views?

Will people care more about safety? If it is not a given that we will die, would you be much more careful?

Will people care more about punishing people for crimes? How would we deal with a murderer? Should a murderer be put to death in order to prevent them from ending more lives?

Will people fight for what they want as readily? How likely is it that you would take up arms against oppression rather than simply biding your time, if you had unlimited time? How likely is it you would fight for wealth, or land, or just plain nationalism?

Will people care more about family planning?

Will people care more about preserving the environment and ecological maintainability?

Will people be less likely to kill? Would you kill another human, outside of necessary self defense, if you knew it was ending a sentient life rather than just shortening it?

 

[I Ratant]

Life extension... just get older, or, get older at a slower rate, starting at a young age?
At my age, parts are failing right and left. Extending the period that this goes on for would not be attractive.
Slowing the deterioratoin rate at a very young age, that would be something to work for.

 

[rocketdodger]

Life extension... just get older, or, get older at a slower rate, starting at a young age?
At my age, parts are failing right and left. Extending the period that this goes on for would not be attractive.
Slowing the deterioratoin rate at a very young age, that would be something to work for.

Yes I am talking about remaining a very healthy adult, not simply drawing out old age.

 

[Patsy]

Assuming people will find a way to extend human life indefinitely (whether or not this is a good assumption is not in question here), how would that change people's views?

Will people care more about safety? If it is not a given that we will die, would you be much more careful?

Will people care more about punishing people for crimes? How would we deal with a murderer? Should a murderer be put to death in order to prevent them from ending more lives?

Will people fight for what they want as readily? How likely is it that you would take up arms against oppression rather than simply biding your time, if you had unlimited time? How likely is it you would fight for wealth, or land, or just plain nationalism?

Will people care more about family planning?

Will people care more about preserving the environment and ecological maintainability?

Will people be less likely to kill? Would you kill another human, outside of necessary self defense, if you knew it was ending a sentient life rather than just shortening it?

I think the actual biggest impact of all would be in how family planning, contraception, and abortion is viewed. Humanity would be placed into a corner where they no longer had the option of tolerating unchecked population growth regardless of the personal wishes or religious ideologies of individuals. I can see the struggle over this issue getting very ugly indeed.

 

[Earthborn]

Will people care more about safety? If it is not a given that we will die, would you be much more careful?

It is also possible that at least some people will become less careful. Death may seems such an strange and distant concept to them that perhaps they won't think about it when they should.

Will people care more about punishing people for crimes?

That depends. Such radical advances in keeping people alive won't come alone. They are much more likely to be the result of overall advances in medical technology. And I think advances in medical interventions for controlling behaviour are likely to come sooner than indefinite extension of human life. People may have less reason to care about punishing people for crimes if there are more effective ways to control criminal behaviour: "mind control".

How likely is it that you would take up arms against oppression rather than simply biding your time, if you had unlimited time?

How likely is it that someone would consider as oppressive the system that provides him/her with healthcare that guarantees an incredibly long life?

Will people care more about family planning?

Probably. Some people appear to be interested in procreation to live a piece of themselves behind when they die. Those people would have less of an incentive to do so.

Will people care more about preserving the environment and ecological maintainability?

They likely will, especially because the technology that would enable such life extension would itself cause tremendous stress on the environment.

Will people be less likely to kill? Would you kill another human, outside of necessary self defense, if you knew it was ending a sentient life rather than just shortening it?

I don't think anyone would ever make such philosophical considerations before killing anyone else. So I don't think that longer lives will cause people to be less likely to kill.

Of course, a society that offers life extensions is very likely to be a society that considers death to be highly undesirable, so it is reasonable to assume that people in it tend to think killing people is very wrong. Add to that the likelihood that such a society has technology to make people less likely to kill and it seems reasonable to assume that people will demand that such technology is used to prevent potential killings.

 

[shadron]

I'm going to be a pessimist here. I see more conservatism, more regimentation of society, less freedom. Why? Because everyone has a proportionally higher stake in keeping the status quo steady and not rocking the boat. When people live to, say, 50, the idea is, "I only have one life...". When it's 500, it's, "One mistake here and I'll have to live with it forever. Or not live." Many fewer young people, unless you can call 150 young.

How good is it that you live so long you forget what your first dog was named? Or your first girlfriend?

 

[Wowbagger]

Speaking as someone who is immortal, I'd say life extension will only make people more insulting towards each other.

 

[Dogdoctor]

In order for life extension to occur there needs to be in addition an increase in resources available to manitain life and/or a decline in births. If everyone who was born lived to be 200 years old we would rapidly run out of materials to support them so they wouldn't live to 200.

 

[I Ratant]

Unless it's a really cheap, easy to install upgrade, mostly the rich and very-well-to-do will be able to enjoy this life extension.
These classes don't breed like rabbits in the first place, so the longer-lived will tend to seperate from the teeming masses.