Comment by adventured | Hacker News Reader

Comment by adventured | Hacker News Reader

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> Why people want to live forever is beyond me.

I have the same reaction when someone says they only want to live ~80 years. What a terrible outcome when the universe is so massive. There's so much to see, do, try, experience and learn.

There are trillions of galaxies out there and every one of them is different. I could easily happily fill thousands of years just in our solar system.

I'd like to live long enough to explore other solar systems and galaxies and yet the earth by itself is far too large to ever meaningfully explore in a few lifetimes, much less one.

I simply want to see what all is out there. Now, granted, plenty of people consider that a very selfish desire (based on a scarce resources premise) and I'll openly admit to that. It's about as selfish a desire as there can be. I'm ok with that, it's also not a desire that can be actual (not in my lifetime anyway). As such it's equivalent to wanting to be able to fly around like Superman. My desire to learn and experience more will never halt, as such my desire to live an extremely long time will never cease.

But don’t forget, our brain is limited to some extent and won’t be able to hold that amount of information. You’ll live to a thousand years, but you’ll probably only vividly remember the last five decades, and some smatterings from the past. Is that really meaningful?

Actually I also desire for longevity for reasons like yours, but I’ve been thinking, perhaps it’s more important to measure the quality of experiences rather than number of years. Wisdom, basically - and from history, we know that a deep level of that is attainable irrespective of background and age.

And then, there is also the eventual apathy towards life and wonder. I’m most afraid of that.

Edit: typo

You’ll live to a thousand years, but you’ll probably only vividly remember the last five decades, and some smatterings from the past. Is that really meaningful?

I just want to get really good on the mandolin, and that’s probably going to take a few decades more than I actually have. And that’s what I think about when I watch movies about immortals (Highlander and the like). While you’re thinking “oh, the things he must have seen! The rise and fall of empires! The loves won and lost!”, I’m thinking, “he must play a hell of a violin by now.” So I might only remember the last fifty years, but I’ll always be better on the mandolin than I was last year. Who knows, maybe I’d have time to get good on the fiddle?

> I just want to get really good on the mandolin

There’s something sweet about that :) But a few centuries later, you sure you’ll still enjoy it?

Myself, I’m prone to getting frustrated that I can’t learn faster, but we just have to make peace with that. Being in ignorance and pain can sometimes be what makes life so poignant. Who knows, there will never be enough years that we can be satisfied with.

I better take off my musing hat now..

Well any practical thought about extending lifetimes means rich people can live for ever and poor people can’t. If it’s free, good luck figuring out who gets food.

Second of all, superman would not have an enjoyable life. He’s alone, immortal, and can only turn to himself for ethical guidance. This is a central theme of his character.

I want to live a limited life because humans are sad confused little things individually; only generationally do we really make progress as a community. I would like to fully enjoy my life, but why would a longer one mean a better one? Seems like a trick of the mind, and one we will use to endlessly exploit each other.

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