How do YOU think longevity would affect society?

[Morrus]

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:

• 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.

 

[megamania]

First, what we are experiencing in the US now- More medical, home nursing and extended Pensions / Social Security costs.

Something I honestly hope for- the return of extended families.

Then in a generation or two some of your points- the social effects. I would hope we don't start licensing births but I can see it. Huge issues with it that cannot be spoken about currently on this site. Religious, ethic and certain freedoms involved.

From there..... I could see richer groups having areas of towns / cities that are more geared for 1990's culture or 1980's and other Hipsters.

Curious question...... one I have not thought about highly on a social level

 

[Ryujin]

I think that, even with laws in place to limit birthrates, population pressures would result in one of two things: Either constant wars would be fought over the dwindling amounts of free territory left to house the growing populations (thereby reducing those populations at the same time), or that same population pressure would start to force us to look outward, toward colonization of the rest of the solar system.

 

[Umbran]

I think that, even with laws in place to limit birthrates, population pressures would result in one of two things: Either constant wars would be fought over the dwindling amounts of free territory left to house the growing populations (thereby reducing those populations at the same time), or that same population pressure would start to force us to look outward, toward colonization of the rest of the solar system.

John Scalzi, the "Old Man's War" series - only the old who volunteer for military service get rejuvenation.

 

[MarkB]

The concepts of legacy and inheritance would become obsolete barring accidents, and the smarter members of the older generations would become reluctant to pass on their wealth to their descendants, knowing that they might need it themselves for a long time to come.

Large social divisions would open up between generations, as wealth, power and resources became concentrated in the hands of those with the experience and foresight to acquire them. The longer-lived might achieve unprecedented levels of expertise within their chosen fields, to the extent that those of younger generations would find it hard to compete - but at the same time, anyone who specialised too much would run the risk of the career they devoted their extended lifespan to becoming outmoded and irrelevant.

Without physical appearance to differentiate age groups, fashion trends would become more pronounced, as both older and younger age groups sought to distinguish themselves from each other. This might even extend to body-modifications beyond the human norm, on the surgical and/or genetic level.

 

[Tonguez]

I think Zardoz was accurate

you will get an elite group of 'Elders' who hold all the historic wealth of society and don't have to pass it on to heirs. These Elders thus no longer breed and instead employ others to feed them. The elders would become increasingly hedonistic and extreme violent sport increasingly popular as a 'challenge'

You would also have lots of people becoming bored and thus Apathetics - may be not catatonia but a definite raise in mental health dysfunction

long running experiments would be possible including a millennium long eugenics programme intended to creater the uber man (who looks like Sean Connery in speedos)

 

[Umbran]

Also - note that it is unlikely that expanded lifespan would suddenly become easily available to everyone. I mean, even today, we don't have solid healthcare worldwide. Just getting basic vaccines around is hard. To start with, and for a long time, it would be *expensive* - tech only available to rich people in first world countries.

Now we have a competition between those who can live forever (and become rather risk-averse, because they have so much more lifetime to lose) and the masses on the planet who are short-lived, and have much less to lose. A nice dystopian setting, that.

One thing we often forget is that *how* we get to a place matters. Right now, the world has wealth enough that nobody actually needs to go hungry, right? But, people go hungry all the time, for historical and socio-political reasons. How this tech gets deployed will shape how the world ends up with it.

 

[delericho]

Apparently, the median age in Monaco is 51.1 and in Niger it's 15.1.

So that's more or less what I'd expect, but writ large - there will be a very small group of very rich and very old people and a much larger group of young and poor people. The rich will live lives of untold luxury, while the poor must constantly struggle to survive, and probably won't even reach the age when extended lifespan treatments become an issue - whether because of starvation, war, or constantly having to work just to keep afloat.

I'm afraid I've become horribly cynical in my old age.

 

[Janx]

I just read a novel having the concept of downloading minds into new bodies and thus having long-lived people. Polychrome I think it was. character's name was a private dick named Kovachs.

Anyway, as noted before, rich people got richer, and held their wealth longer.

As you live longer, your total family size (great-great-great whatevers) gets so big, it's past the circle of friends size limit a human can handle. The result is, you're close to your grandkids. Couldn't give a hoot about 5 generations removed, as its too many people.

From my own thoughts on the subject:
old people are going to get priced out of the job market. Fact is, you only need 3-5 years to become good at ASP.NET programming (assuming you have programming talent). Me having 15 years of it just makes me charge more for being older, when in the reality, you could get a younger guy and get your project built.

Now consider that when you are looking at an actual 40 year old versus a 400 year old. The old guy's experience in Cobol, DOS, and quaint WIndows architectures don't mean jack taco in today's quantum computing architectures. Which anybody with 10 years in the current tech has mastered. So the old guy gets priced out because his experience doesn't really add more to the quality of his product.

Now an oldster who can keep resetting his career or cost of living expectations (I need more pay now than I did 15 years ago and I am in the same house with the same mortgage), could survive in such a job economy. Without that though, it'll be tough for a lot of people to adapt. Ageist protectionism might kick in, so the oldies can keep their jobs

 

[Kramodlog]

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?