Let's Discuss Aging

H

Human

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Nov 24, 2009
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My great-grandmother died this morning at age 100. She lived through worlds of changes. Heck, the woman was two when the Titanic went down. She lived through World War I, and turned 18 the same year as the Great Depression. She used to tell stories about horses and buggies, yet drove until she was 95 (like a normal person, mind you), and mowed her lawn up until two weeks ago.

She left a lot to this world. What would you like to leave behind? Do you want to live forever, or die young and happy? Does the concept of death scare you, or will you stare it in the face and laugh? What about the aging process? Are you afraid of when you won't be able to do some of your everyday activities today?

Discuss.
 


I laugh at the hardasses that go on about "Man, I wanna live hard and die young!". Keep yourself healthy and being a decrepit old fuck doesn't have to be a likely scenario. I want to live till I'm old as possible, to see how far I can push myself and what I can achieve.. I look forward to the decades down the road where I'm challenging myself with marathons ;P

PS: RIP to your gramma, 100 is awesome and the fact she was mobile her entire life is a good example that advanced aging doesn't always have to mean being a vegetable.
 
It depends entirely on how I age.

My girlfriend's Grandma died last month, at age 107 - a month away from being 108. She was active right up until she died. Used to cycle to church every Sunday, could walk unassisted, live alone and did everything for herself. One day she said to my gf's Dad, "I don't want to live to 108", said her goodbyes and died in her sleep a few weeks later.

Whereas her other Nan is only in her 70s, looks like shit, smokes 40 a day and can't do anything for herself.

So if I'm still doing well for myself and happy when I'm old then I want to be around as long as possible. But as soon as I can't walk on my own or wipe my own arse, I don't think I'd want to be around much longer.
 
We might live to see interventions that will make old age entirely different than what our grandparents experienced.

Scientists that have managed to double the lifespan of c. elegans and fruit flies note that their health-span increases substantially. So its liken to a 150 year old woman looking and acting like a spring chicken but then suddenly croaking without a clear cause because she has reached some mysterious limit.

Most people have made peace with aging and the fact life is startlingly short. Unfortunately this is precisely what impedes the progress of aging research. If the consensus moves toward the view of aging as the precursor to most life threatening diseases, we’ll actually have a shot at getting to the root of biological suffering.
 
guysmy said:
Most people have made peace with aging and the fact life is startlingly short.
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I Disagree. Most people say that they accept death but what they're really doing is just trying to ignore the fact that it will happen by not giving it the thought it deserves. Not to mention that anyone who believes in an afterlife is automatically ignoring the true implications of death.

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Denial-Death-Ernest-Becker/dp/0684832402/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322865306&sr=1-1"]Amazon.com: The Denial of Death (9780684832401): Ernest Becker: Books[/ame]

I'd like to live as long as possible.

Btw I just read this:
Larry King: I want to be frozen - CNN.com
 
guysmy said:
We might live to see interventions that will make old age entirely different than what our grandparents experienced.
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This. I mean shit we're already growing bladders, bronchial tubes and livers with peoples' own cells and transplanting them back into them. How long before mind-uploading, consciousness-transfer, etc.?
 
Don't worry bros. Dr Aubrey De Grey, is working on it!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc4p7adrHmY"]Dr Aubrey De Grey: Cure Aging & Live to 1000...Possible? - YouTube[/ame]
 
I would be very surprised if we do not have an indefinite lifespan within the next 100 years.

So for now I refuse to acknowledge that death is something that is unavoidable.
 
If people did not die the earth would die, Jesus told me so.

Sorry to hear about your Grandmother, my Grandfather was 96 and died a couple years ago it sucked as we were close but once you hit that age you have out lived most people, most of your friends etc. He drove up until he died and it was some scary shit..
 
zingo said:
If people did not die the earth would die, Jesus told me so.
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Yeah, Hispanic gardeners usually tells stuff like this, especially when drunk.
But if seriously, that's actually not far from the truth, if nobody dies it would cause overpopulation and eventually starvation because people couldn't produce enough food for everyone.
 
May she R.I.P.

I would like to live as long as possible and definitely make an impact in this world.

BTW, my great grandmother passed a few years ago at 94
 
cardine said:
I would be very surprised if we do not have an indefinite lifespan within the next 100 years.

So for now I refuse to acknowledge that death is something that is unavoidable.
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Refusing to acknowledge death is either stupidity or ignorance (wishful thinking) at best.

Prepare to be surprised. We're not close to discovering an all-encompassing cure for aging in humans. Once we get to that point, there will be decades of testing/regulating/preparing distribution. It's not at all surprising to think that you won't be able to avoid death for at least 100 years, at which point you'll already be dead.
 
I would love to live forever, but death doesn't scare me whatsoever; the way I die, on the other hand, is all I'm worried about, lol.
 
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