In the next 1000 years....

[the roach]

I was wasting time on wikipedia when I found a chart of human life expectancies throughout the years.

Bronze Age[6]	18
Classical Greece[7]	20-30
Classical Rome[8][9]	20-30
Pre-Columbian North America[10]	25-35
Medieval Britain[11][12]	20-30
Early 20th Century[13][14]	30-40
Current world average[15]	67

So, with all the great advances in modern medicine and increasingly non laborious lifestyles, how far do you think we can push our life expectancy?

Do you think in 1000 years we could live to be 200 years old?
Or do you think we will cap off around the area we are at now?

[thosevacanteyes]

I don't think civilization will be around in 1000 years to be honest with you. At least, not at the rate things are going now, sure people aren't dying of disease as much, but modern medicine cannot fix human nature. We still have wars, murderers and poverty.

-C

[NEbud420]

Dont forget the other P word, pollution...

[Jimbozu]

Theres no reason people shouldn't be able to live forever in 1000 years. I mean, modern medicine is still quite primitive if you think about it. Almost all of our medical techniques suplement the body's immune system, instead of fixing the problem directly.

Hell, we've already figured out the reason for ageing, all that comes now is fixing it.

[the roach]

Originally Posted by thosevacanteyes

I don't think civilization will be around in 1000 years to be honest with you.
-C

Well for the sake of conversation, lets say civilization will still be around.

[NEbud420]

Well thats true about medicine jimbo, but we are making great advances and I see some happening in the near future. Have you heard about that special powder of the US militaries that they are using to grow back fingers and now trying to do it with limbs? Or that odd radiowave cancer killing machine? I'm still guessing 1000 years we're done, whether its from us killing the planet, killing each other with nukes, armageddon/ massive earthquakes and volcanic eruption/ tidal waves, or extraterrestrial takeover .

I heard once a point of view that we're a disease on this planet and now all I can do is link money and the people who run the show behind the scenes (if you know what I mean run different parts of the economy like oil,ores and such) as basic root of this disease and maybe more self suffiency is the answer in many ways.

I feel there is not enough brotherhood among man, man from different parts of the world, countries and race divide us further. While pondering this on shrooms I thought this idea "if there were only one race of human, there would be far more brotherhood and less worldly trouble" . Then I tripped out thinking about each human being anatomically made in a factory similar to the matrix human egg pod interface haha. I believe if the situation was like this the rich countries would have already evened out the troubled countries deficits. Just think of what it would be like for all parts of the world to be united in economy and every other way. War of Man vs. Man would be pointless as it should be. We need to start thinking about becoming more unified as humans, and about using the Earth as we should be and letting the wildlife continue its evolution, instead of raping the planet for its minerals and fossil fuels and destroying precious ecosystems. Maybe in a thousand years.......

[Eru_iluvatar]

ok ok enuf of arguing when humanity is going to die.......lets answere the question will we live to be 200 in 1000 years, I don't think so, no.

[Zylark]

The merging of technology and biology, will not only make more or less perpetual life possible in the next 1000 years. It will make it possible within the next 100-200 years.

Think nano-bots augmenting our body. Fixing disease and malfunctioning cells as it happen. Or an eternal virtual existance in a singularity of human consciousness hosted on machines. Imagine uploading oneself, together with thousands, millions, of others, and set sail for the stars on a spaceship controlled by virtual humans.

Many possibilities exist, but extraordinary long lifespan, is not that far away. I'd hazard to guess, that the first human to live to be a thousand, is already born.

Another question alltogether is, would we want to live that long? Many who live to a ripe old age, feel ready for death. Could it be the human psyche is not entirely ready for a virtually eternal existance?

[seahag]

that information is interesting. imagine all the endless 'dangers' of living in the bronze age to where the average life expectancy would be 18. humans become soo much more irrelevant every single day.

[Zylark]

Just remember these are average numbers of life expectancy. Many died very young. From various childhood diseases that today are very treatable. Also a lot of women died in their teens and early twenties from childbirth complications. Not to mention that the men were more often than not out fighting some war or another.

If a man or woman did get lucky enough to live past their 30th-40th birthday back then, they'd have just a slightly less chance of reaching ripe old age than us modern humans. Though they did have a higher risk of succumbing to some (today) treatable disease, they also lived a generally much healthier life. Much more excersize (no cars or machinery), a healthy diet (no high fat/sugar junk-food) and clean fresh produce all around.

Interestingly, the dip in life expectancy in medieval times, was much due to the Catholic church insistence that filth was a godsend. Well, of god at least like everything else, though not soap for some reason. Bathing was a sin. I can't quite imagine how people smelled back then, but the perfume industry made a killing at least

[amsterdamage]

I believe the absolute oldest humans will ever be able to live to is about 120.

We get more people into their 70's and 80's now than ever before which is raising the average life expectancy, but we really can't push the max. age out.

We might be able to avoid cancers and other diseases 1000 years from now but in the end we have to die from something.
Death is just as natural a part of life as breathing.

[klizzle]

I can't see a reason why people won't be living close to forever (minus freak accidents, natural disasters etc).

They're getting close to preventing aging and all diseases will probably be cured or prevented eventually. Stem cell research will probably be able to replace organs. Nanobots may be able to rebuild the body as damage occurs, so technically in 1000 years we probably won't even be "humans" anymore once we merge with our technology. That is, if humanity survives that long (which it most likely will)

[pavlakos]

well actually atmoshpere conditions play a big role in the life expectancy of more or less every living thing on the planet; and the electro magnetic field playes a big role in the atmospheres conditions. if you look at dinosaur era earth, everything was bigger, stronger, faster(well not necessarily faster, but i felt like saying that), and definently lived longer. even in myths and the beginning of the bible stories the characters were already 400 years old+.

we live in a time when our electro magnetic field is weak. like a battery it recharges itself, and starts spinning counter clockwise. a reversal is inevitable, but after it living conditions will be even better.

in theory it will happen in 2012, in reality its gonna happen but we dont know when.

[amsterdamage]

Originally Posted by klizzle

I can't see a reason why people won't be living close to forever (minus freak accidents, natural disasters etc).

They're getting close to preventing aging and all diseases will probably be cured or prevented eventually. Stem cell research will probably be able to replace organs. Nanobots may be able to rebuild the body as damage occurs, so technically in 1000 years we probably won't even be "humans" anymore once we merge with our technology. That is, if humanity survives that long (which it most likely will)

they aren't getting close to preventing aging. They never will.

We're biological organisms, we live, we age and we die. Aging and dying aren't unnatural things that we have to try to avoid, they're a natural part of our lives and they'll never be able to be removed from us.

[redeyedfuk]

agreed with amsterdamage. They cant prevent aging, time will go by no matter what and our bodies will ware out.