OK, I have the other thread asking for fiction recommendations on the subject. Thanks for all the excellent suggestions!
This thread is about what you think would happen. Obviously we can't know, but let's play futurologist and give it a try.
Here's the premise:
So, given that premise - everyone gets to live a thousand or so years and stay young and healthy all that time, what do you think happens? Here's my guess:
1) Laws would reduce birthrates.
2) If everyone looked young all the time, some people would choose to look older.
3) In fact appearance and identity would be so individual that the idea of a 'normal' appearance would probably go away. Technology might make extreme changes of appearance a trivial thing to accomplish, much like a haircut.
4) Ageism would disappear. In fact age would become a valued asset in terms of experience and knowledge.
5) Many people would just get left behind as they failed to or decided to stop keeping up with cultural changes. We barely do it now as we get 10 years older, let alone a few hundred. Instead, there would be lots and lots of subcultures based around time periods where you could pretty much just stay.
6) People would engage in previously unhealthy behaviours making, drinking, drugs) to a larger extent if disease has been beaten.
This thread is about what you think would happen. Obviously we can't know, but let's play futurologist and give it a try.
Here's the premise:
- It's 2050 or so. People can live a thousand years (barring accidents) and remain looking young and being reasonably healthy for all of that time. It's plastic surgery, and health improvements, and cybernetics, and cloning organs, and stuff like that.
- This tech is widely available. For whatever reason, it is not limited to the rich.
- Disease has been beaten. Anything which goes wrong can be put right.
- There is no tech to upload/download consciousness, however.
So, given that premise - everyone gets to live a thousand or so years and stay young and healthy all that time, what do you think happens? Here's my guess:
1) Laws would reduce birthrates.
2) If everyone looked young all the time, some people would choose to look older.
3) In fact appearance and identity would be so individual that the idea of a 'normal' appearance would probably go away. Technology might make extreme changes of appearance a trivial thing to accomplish, much like a haircut.
4) Ageism would disappear. In fact age would become a valued asset in terms of experience and knowledge.
5) Many people would just get left behind as they failed to or decided to stop keeping up with cultural changes. We barely do it now as we get 10 years older, let alone a few hundred. Instead, there would be lots and lots of subcultures based around time periods where you could pretty much just stay.
6) People would engage in previously unhealthy behaviours making, drinking, drugs) to a larger extent if disease has been beaten.