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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 249550" data-attributes="member: 177">I think there's a basic flaw in assuming these people behave exactly as normal humans.  I'm not sure it's a plausible posit.Ever leave a Windows desktop machine running for too long?  It starts going quirky after a while, and eventually crashes.  It isn't designed for excessive up-time, and errors build up.  To get long up-times, you generally go to some flavor of Unix, because it's designed to handle long up-time.At the moment, we have no evidence that the human mind is Unix.  Maybe the human mind can handle time, and maybe it can't.  While it may seem reasonable to assume things are okay, it's also just as reasonable to assume that this is not okay, and that after about a century, these people start going barking mad.And, if they aren't barking mad, then you really need to assume that they are rational, no?  And is "normal" (meaning short-lived) human behavior rational for a people who live so long?  No, it isn't.  They will change their behavior to fit the new situation - this society, for it's own good, will learn to control it's population growth or destroy itself quickly.  They wil learn to delay childbirth until much later in life.So, my suggestion is that they are either collectively mad (and not acting like normal humans), collectively wise (and not acting like normal humans) or collectively dead (having acted like normal humans).</blockquote>