A conversation starter, by Jeanne

This conversation starter was inspired by Longevity Threatens the Future, a talk by Lucinda Holdforth at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas and the thesis of her book Going On and On: The Case Against the Longer Life.

There were so many interesting questions in this one that I wrote them down almost as they came:

• What are we actually afraid of when we think about death? The unknown? Leaving people behind? Physical pain? Psychological suffering? Cognitive and physical decline?

• Would eternal life eventually become boring? A lot of people seemed to think so. I'm not convinced! I constantly feel there isn't enough time to do everything I want to do. Maybe with more time we'd simply slow down? On the other hand, after the stresses and exhaustion of a lifetime, perhaps there comes a point when you're actually quite happy to go.

• What would much longer lives mean for younger generations? This was something I'd never really considered. When do we "pass on the baton"? And how much say should younger people have over the planet and society they'll ultimately inherit compared to people who have already been here for a long time?

• And then there was the medical question. If we're becoming increasingly good at keeping people alive, shouldn't we be spending just as much time thinking about how we want to live and die? In other words, our ability to keep people alive may be overtaking our ability to talk about when enough is enough.

Holdforth's provocation is essentially to question something we tend to assume is obviously desirable: is a longer life necessarily a better one? (not just as individual but as a society) and a follow-up question from that coudl be: how long is long enough?

Would love to hear how some of you think about these questions :)

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Remember, you don’t need to be an expert to join the conversation. Questions, reactions and different perspectives are all welcome. Comment below👇🏻