Ryujin
Legend
Our relation to work, careers and retirement would change. Working is important. It is how most of us spend our existence. It gives us purpose, a sense of selfworth and wealth. It is also a source of depression, frustration and can be tedious. How many careers will one have in such a long life time if careers still exist? Would people periodically return to school to get training in a new job? Older people find it hard to go back to school when they are older. Does the state make sure people can go back to school often without needing to work because it is just a necessacity? Having quasi-immortals just hanging around at home or in bars can be a source of social unrest. Having them work, even in a post-scarcity world might be important.
Our relations to our family would change too. Couples often grow appart and leave each other. How many significant relationships will quasi-immortals have? What about children? Will parents and kids lose sight of each other after a century or two? What about grand-children? Will people want to see their grand-kids if they saw their child for the last time five centuries ago? Will all the face changing people will be able to do, mabe people will date their own famly without knowing. Ew. It seems human relations will be long lasting and at the same time fickle and ever changing.
What will human minds be like? How will memory be like? Will you still remember your childhood after a few centuries of living? Your parents? Your first spouse? Your first kid? Your first job? Will you remember who you are if you can change your face and gender all the time? Identity is gonna be an ever changing concept.
It opens up space travel. If science can keep us healthy and feed, we'll be able to travel between Earth and the Oort cloud and colonize all that is in between. The question is what will people do to occupy themselves during the years is take to travel between colonies?
In my 50s, I'm already finding the mental need to cultivate other skills than those needed for my job. I've started chainmailing, jewellery making, leather working, bow making, and am considering others. If I lived for a thousand years, how many skills would I acquire? How many COULD I acquire, before reaching the practical limits of my puny human brain? In the "Horseclans" novels that I mentioned, in the other thread, High Lord Milo Morai spent his life before the apocalypse learning dozens of languages, tons of survival skills, reading history, and fighting in various wars.
On the interpersonal relationship level how many discrete individuals can I hold in memory, or manage to give more than a general empathetic damn about? I seem to remember another conversation on this matter, regarding how many generations someone can relate to, on this very board some time ago. I can't remember the specifics though. If I can't remember that, then what are the odds I'll remember great-great grand nephew twice removed Egbert, when I hit 1500 years of age? His great grandchildren? How many generations before everyone is related to everyone else, by either blood or birth?