[ExI] Future Bodies

[Ben]

William Flynn Wallace <foozler83 at gmail.com> wrote:

 >we should be able to live for
 >hundreds of years.  But would we want to?  I am thinking, at age 72, 
of all
 >the people I have known who have died already, which has included most of
 >my friends.  Like the Man from Mars in Stranger in a Strange Land who was
 >worried about the accumulation of sad memories, I wonder if suicide 
will be
 >the main cause of death when our bodies are redesigned to near perfection.


This is a common objection to extened lifespans.  But I'd be lonely!  
All my family and friends would be dead!  To which I say: Don't you know 
how to make new friends?

Well, if you assume that you were /the only single person in the world/ 
who had an extended life, it would be an issue.  Your new friends would 
keep dying and it would be sad.  But you won't be the only one!  I don't 
even know where that notion comes from. Highlander, maybe?  One thing we 
can be sure of, there will not Only Be One.  If you live past the 
120-year barrier, you'll have plenty of company, don't doubt it.

The accumulation of 'sad memories' is another issue.  One that each 
person will have to work out for themselves (I don't have so many of 
them, and I tend to forget them in favour of the happy ones, myself).  I 
should hope that suicide *will* become the major cause of death in the 
future.  Sounds odd, but it would mean that people don't die until they 
decide to, and that's really what it's all about, as far as I'm concerned.

Ben Zaiboc