Stealing can become punishable by death if resources become scarce enough. It's not the crime itself that shapes our laws and our morality, but the value of the thing being taken. If a terminally ill person is killed, it's not a tragedy to us because the person was only robbed of a few months. But if a child is killed, the world weeps. So what would change if human beings lived an average lifespan of 1000 years? Would we still imprison people to life sentences? Would we be so quick to go to war, being that the resources being spent are now much more precious? Would we still be expected to marry until death do us part? Would we become a much smarter species with so much more time to compile knowledge, or would it remain as it is now, with people largely abandoning educational pursuits after reaching a certain age? A person who knows they are going to die soon is a person without restraint — a chain-smoking, junk food-scarfing hedonist. Would a person who knows they have centuries to live be a bubble-living coward? What would happen to activities that carry an inherent risk, like driving a car?
Thoughts?
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It's all relative. To the Mayfly we already live an eternity. To the "Immortal Jellyfish" our lives are as short as the life of a Mayfly. If we lived a thousand years longer, people would just be stupid 900 years longer. There is no cure for stupid. The length of time alive might give our greatest thinkers some advantage but only if they could survive the overwhelming stupidity of the masses. People just aren't that smart.
As it is written "Getting older is not a big deal. You still do stupid things, only slower." Imagine after a thousand years how slow and stupid that is.
@grinseed
Oi, carefully sonny, I resemble that remark. Except I seem to do I EVERYTHING slower ,except farting.,
Besides, I don't WANT to live to be 1000 .
People would still be the talking apes we are, aggressive and stupidly greedy. . I can't imagine the horror of needing to work centuries to survive,
. Be willing to bet that death cults would emerge. Not like christianity, but having death by suicide as the focus.
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Reference "Messiah" by Gore Vidal --it IS a satire, but a good one.
"Messiah is a satirical novel by Gore Vidal, first published in 1954 in the United States by E.P. Dutton.[2] It is the story of the creation of a new religion, Cavism, which quickly comes to replace the established but failing Christian religion.
Plot summary
The novel is written as the memoir of Eugene Luther, one of the first followers of Cavism, founded by John Cave, an American undertaker. Cave teaches, among other things, not to fear death and to actually desire it under certain circumstances. Later followers come to glorify death, and even enforce it on other members. The founder John Cave is himself killed by his followers when he proves inconvenient for the new religion's development.
Eventually, Cavism is successful in completely displacing and exterminating Christianity, even to the extent of all Gothic Cathedrals being systematically blown up and destroyed in order to erase any memory of the tradition. The narrator, having quarrelled with the other religious leaders, finds refuge in Egypt – Islamic countries having forbidden Cavism any access to their territory. He eventually discovers that his name was removed from the Cavist Scriptures which he had himself composed. Also, a woman Cavist leader named Iris, whom he had known, becomes a new manifestation of the ancient Mother Goddess – which had earlier been manifested in The Virgin Mary and before that in Isis and others. This "Irisian" element becomes grafted on to Cavism, as it was earlier grafted on Christianity. "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messiah_(Vidal_novel)
@ Cranky, listen gramps, I share the tendency of slowing in all my activities including, as you so tastefully highlighted, farting...only these days I do that along with all other bodily functions, for much longer. With age comes depth and gravitas.
I will add Vidal's Messiah to my list, ta for that.
@grinseed
Gramps? Mercifully not. I decided a long time ago that ONE like me is more than enough for the world.
Hence "cranky"or "grumpy" is fine.
Gore Vidal wrote many excellent books. If you're not familiar, it's worth looking over a list of his published works. A public intellectual, he died in 2012 . He would have had a wonderful time tearing Donald J to shreds.
The clip below is from 1981 and I think fascinating:
---"the better known you are in a country like the United States , the less power you have"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugLngAw2-5c
@Messiah Complex:
I would assume that the advances needed to give us a 1,000 year lifespan would be accompanied by improvements in other aspects of our biology, such as brainpower, probably through cyborg technology. And if we could achieve a 1,000 year lifespan, we'd probably be able to achieve immortality. I can imagine the aging process being slowed enough for 150 or 200 years of life, but for a 1,000 years we'd need to halt aging altogether.
Given the pace of progress in AI and quantum computing, we shouldn't rule out the possibility of a Matrix-type existence.
Over the next few decades, our technology will either destroy us or lead us on through the end of childhood toward true maturity as a highly intelligent and evolved species free from childish urges toward violence and religion.