How many of you expect to die?

http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/08/how-many-of-you-expect-to-die/

by huherto • 18 years ago

49 70 18 years ago

newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com

olefoo• 18 years ago

My life plan includes emigrating to the moon at age 80 because I figure the first few generations of settlers are going to have a high attrition rate anyhow and at that age I will be expendable. Also low gravity should be good for joints and heart...

mixmax• 18 years ago

Yes - low gravity and joints definitely sounds like fun.

:-)

eru2• 18 years ago

Mars waits.

dlimeb• 18 years ago

Speaking of expendability at the end of one's life, I just finished Scalzi's _Old Man's War_. Don't settle somewhere, join the army!

huherto4• 18 years ago

I think is worth reflecting about the last stages of life, and how you would like to live them.

For me I would like:

1- A Healthy life. There is plenty you can do, nutrition, exercising, regular check ups, etc.

2 - A productive life. Make sure that every day you produce something of value.

3 - Prepare to die. Understand that is going to happen no matter what.

4 - The present is the best time to enjoy life. You may become a millionaire, but all that money will not buy you more healthy time alive.

byrneseyeview4• 18 years ago

4 - The present is the best time to enjoy life. You may become a millionaire, but all that money will not buy you more healthy time alive.

Incorrect. A huge fraction of medical expenses are from the last few months of life. That money will keep you alive. It's probably not worth staying alive at that point, of course.

I also think it's a little sad that you're so ambitious, but you've given up on living forever. Accepting even a small chance of not-dying, or of living for 200 years, can radically change some of the calculations you might make.

huherto4• 18 years ago

Interesting, what would those calculations be?

wallflower2• 18 years ago

"Spending on intensive care, which today comprises 30-40 percent of hospital costs, may go even higher as the population ages, according to a new Mayo Clinic study."

Here is a tough question. If the bulk of a person's lifetime medical costs are incurred in the literal last days of their life (ICU), is that right from a profit (HMO) or ethical (family, loved-ones) perspective?

http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.com/inside.asp?AID=4088&...

josefresco• 18 years ago

From looking at those graphs, I'll take Cancer. What did Cobain/Young say? "It's better to burn out than fade away"

JabavuAdams• 18 years ago

Well, I suppose he'll never know. Euthanasia is always an option. Why pessimize prematurely?

cawel3• 18 years ago

And thus forsaking (statistically) 10 years of your life? For me it's a non-issue: cancer would be the last option of the three, by far.

dmpayton• 18 years ago

"I'm going to live forever or die trying."

j2d2• 18 years ago

I plan to live forever without dying. So far, so good!

eru2• 18 years ago

You haven't died before. Just do not start the habit.

imgabe• 18 years ago

"I don't want to achieve immortality through my work, I want to achieve it through not dying"

lemon• 18 years ago

what is this?

vaksel2• 18 years ago

I'm fairly young, so hopefully they'll be solutions by the time I get old.

Lets face it, we are in an exponential technological curve, go back 100 years, and probably 90% of stuff in your house didn't even exist back then.

Then take into account that people want to live forever. So hopefully in the next 100 years(I'm 20 now, but chances are the current generation will most likely live to be 150), we'll develop something that can either rejuvenate us, or store our memories, or cloning.

aggieben2• 18 years ago

  Lets face it, we are in an exponential technological curve, 
  go back 100 years, and probably 90% of stuff in your house 
  didn't even exist back then.

Actually, I think there are very few things in my house that didn't exist a century ago. There are a few important items, for sure: refrigerator, AC, microwave, computer, cell phone, CD/DVD players and associated media, automobiles. There are probably a few things I'm forgetting, but there is so much more than that in my house that's virtually no different than what was around in 1908: clothing, wood floors, ironing board, closets, stuffed animals, blankets, plates, silverware, drawers, photographs, tables, chairs, beds, doors (my house was built in 1924, so this list could go on and on and on). For that matter, I think the vast majority of things in my house would have been present in similar forms in any number of centuries past.

I think the prospects of medical advances that will lengthen lifespans is fascinating, but I also think people tend to lose perspective on how the times really aren't as different as they think they are. We end up thinking we're special because of the times we live in, and it's just not the case (no special criticism of you, of course - just an observation spurred by your remark).

vaksel2• 18 years ago

You forgot the super important invention called doors, roof, and windows.

But that's the thing our sciences have taken a huge leap forward in the last 100 years. Another 100 years should bring plenty of new inventions. I mean look 200 years ago, if you got sick they tried to exorcise the sickness away.

ashu• 18 years ago

The more important point is about advances in genetic engineering. That's been going on for maybe 30-40 years, at best. If the pace picks up a little, what the grandparent says (significantly larger life spans) may well be a reality.

maw• 18 years ago

I highly doubt that we're in an exponential technological curve.

But it might be nice if we were!

troystribling• 18 years ago

Many measures of technological development are increasing exponentially: computer processor cost performance, solar cell cost performance, resolution of FMRI, DNA sequencing cost per base pair,....

cawel3• 18 years ago

we'll develop something that can either rejuvenate us, [...] or cloning.

I never understood how cloning could make someone live longer. If you can't transfer your soul/conscience into the clone, it's not going to get you anywhere.

mrdorian• 18 years ago

well,for a heart failure patient,he could have a new cloned heart!

edw519• 18 years ago

I want to die like my grandfather: in my sleep, not screaming and yelling like everyone else in the car.

BrandonM2• 18 years ago

Har har. Old joke.

BrandonM2• 18 years ago

For whoever voted me down:

  1. The joke is old and I assumed that most of us have heard it before
  2a. What he said really didn't comment on the article
  2b. Therefore, I felt the comment didn't add anything
  2c. I would, however, automatically expect to see such a comment on Reddit
  3. The fact that it's being voted up (5 at this point) disappointed me
  4. I voted him down. People always complain when they are voted down without explanation 
  5. I intended my previous comment to explain why I voted him down

That's all. I could make the leap and say that the quality of comments here is going down, but that might be going too far for everyone's tastes.

ph0rque• 18 years ago

If SENS is successfull to any degree, it may be possible to live "young" to a very old age.

jsdalton• 18 years ago

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/39236

The graphic says it all.

seregine• 18 years ago

As with any other project, constraints motivate progress. Mortality makes life meaningful.

huherto4• 18 years ago

Or as Steve Jobs put it. "Death is life's greatest invention"

Herring• 18 years ago

That always struck me as BS, like lying to kids about your flavor afterlife. I understand it's nice for coping & all, but none of the people saying it would choose to die if they could live forever.

sant0sk1• 18 years ago

There is a way to liver forever, but it cannot be achieved through scientific endeavor.

huherto4• 18 years ago

Yes it can. Think of Newton, Galileo, Einstein, etc. ;-)

nazgulnarsil• 18 years ago

here lies nazgul, the world's oldest man. No one knows how long ago he was born, but some say as far back as the 20th century. He died peacefully in his sleep after a strenuous night, several of his girlfriends reported. :p

time_management6• 18 years ago

I thought this was going to be an article about the singularity.

I believe reincarnation is the most likely afterlife, so I'd much rather have a young, quick death than rot away slowly, in order to occupy the smallest proportion of my time with bodily failure. Frailty I can deal with, but dementia sucks. On the other hand, I don't want to die too young, because I haven't lived a complete life yet.

I think the reason why cancer gets a bad rap, even though it has the most desirable dropoff curve, is that it can strike anyone at any time, regardless of age and lifestyle. Therefore, it scares the hell out of us, all of us, in a way that heart disease doesn't. (I'm 25.)

I expect to live to be about 80, working and exercising the whole way to that point. I think that the lifespan itself won't have increased by much by the time I get there (average will be 85-90) but that late-end quality of life will be a lot better.

hugh• 18 years ago

I'm pleasantly surprised that an army of Singularitarians (is that really a word?) hasn't shown up already to tell us how closed-minded we are for expecting to die.

jey• 18 years ago

"I believe reincarnation is the most likely afterlife"

Why?

time_management6• 18 years ago

It makes the most sense intuitively, and it's the only one I've seen evidence (e.g. the work of Ian Stevenson) for.

aggieben2• 18 years ago

I do.

rms• 18 years ago

It's an existential dilemma I haven't quite solved yet. I don't want to die, but I can't help but feeling that immortality is a trap. What if I'm really a 12th dimensional being and death is the only way to exit this false reality? It would be terrible to spend an eternity trapped in a lesser universe. Though with infinite time and infinite wisdom maybe we can bust our way out.

ks• 18 years ago

I doubt anyone would live for an eternity. Even if we had the techology to live for a million years, everyone would have some sort of accident before then. Perhaps you will die in a super nova accident, while visiting another galaxy in 10.000 years?

SteveC• 18 years ago

I recall a study where they said nobody would live beyond a certain age due to the probability of accidents occuring (the age was something like 200-300 years old).

ingenium• 18 years ago

Well, you could in theory live forever if you transitioned your consciousness into a computer. It will soon be possible to simulate a human brain in a computer (see the Blue Brain project http://bluebrain.epfl.ch). Philosophical issues aside, you can effectively live forever this way as long as human civilization is able to continue getting resources and energy to power the computers.

eyudkowsky• 18 years ago

If you feel like not dying, I would suggest signing up for cryonics with Alcor or another reputable provider.

Otherwise, frankly, quit whining. It's not like there are no alternatives to death.

TweedHeads• 18 years ago

This is the only poll with 100% positives and 100% accuracy

inklesspen• 18 years ago

Really? I don't expect to die.

ajkirwin• 18 years ago

Frankly, I am quite happy to die. To know that, all my achievements and all my failures, eventually, will cease to matter.

To know that I too will give way to the next generation and that, hopefully, they can make up for my follies and mistakes, because we are none of us perfect.

And I hope that, as things progress and I get older and progressively more sick, that should I tire of my body, I can choose to leave life at a time and place of my choosing.

Of course, with the way things are going, I'll be in my 50s and the only way to do it will be to run my wheelchair off a cliff. (I couldn't end this on a non-cynical note, it just wouldn't be me!)

lst• 18 years ago

Taboo!!

garethnelsonuk• 18 years ago

If I read the literal question here (ignoring the article), my response is: "I expect to die at some point, horrible horrible reality - but i'm going to fight against it with all i've got"

helveticaman• 18 years ago

Hackers never die...they're just slowly overwritten.

How many of you expect to die?

Related Stories