I don't think it's too controversial to say that getting old is shit, and old people have a far more miserable time of things - physically speaking - than young people, and even if we do accept that we will all die some day, nobody in their right minds would choose to let their body waste away if there was a better option.
I suspect the biggest issues would be social ones. There is quite a bit of sci-fi around that gets into this stuff, I think Altered Carbon on Netflix was a recent one that touched on some of the points, like what does it mean to live in a society where some people can effectively live forever? We already see it today - the one benefit of getting old is you have decades to amass wealth that young people do not have, so imagine that compounded. Even if people weren't wealthy to start with, having just enough to afford the treatments could give you a significant leg up over people with now-comparable physical attributes but less experience and starting capital. Maybe society would have less kids, or maybe the kids would rebel, or maybe people would become less competitive and live more for art or simple pleasures, but whatever would happen, it would result in epic changes, far more wide-reaching than anything the climate change deniers and anti-immigrant/anti-trans/anti-woke/etc types already obsess over today. It'd be an absolute shitshow.
I've never seen Altered Carbon, but have just discovered it's on Netflix, so have added it to my watchlist.
I think it will be the most fundamental change to occur to the human race yet. I suspect society would have far less kids if we started living radically longer, otherwise overpopulation would soon be a big problem. There would definitely be some other societal issues to get to grips with, but on the whole I think it would be a net positive for overall human wellbeing.
So for sure, if I'm ever given the opportunity to take a pill that adds years extra of healthy living, I'm taking it!
I suspect the biggest issues would be social ones. There is quite a bit of sci-fi around that gets into this stuff, I think Altered Carbon on Netflix was a recent one that touched on some of the points, like what does it mean to live in a society where some people can effectively live forever? We already see it today - the one benefit of getting old is you have decades to amass wealth that young people do not have, so imagine that compounded. Even if people weren't wealthy to start with, having just enough to afford the treatments could give you a significant leg up over people with now-comparable physical attributes but less experience and starting capital. Maybe society would have less kids, or maybe the kids would rebel, or maybe people would become less competitive and live more for art or simple pleasures, but whatever would happen, it would result in epic changes, far more wide-reaching than anything the climate change deniers and anti-immigrant/anti-trans/anti-woke/etc types already obsess over today. It'd be an absolute shitshow.
I'd still like to live forever, though!
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I think it will be the most fundamental change to occur to the human race yet. I suspect society would have far less kids if we started living radically longer, otherwise overpopulation would soon be a big problem. There would definitely be some other societal issues to get to grips with, but on the whole I think it would be a net positive for overall human wellbeing.
So for sure, if I'm ever given the opportunity to take a pill that adds years extra of healthy living, I'm taking it!
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