A conversation starter, by Jeanne

This reminds me that it is healthy to be talking more about life and death and aging. Interesting point about what longer lives mean for younger generations; when do we pass on the baton? You're right, it is something we don't think about much, but I realised this when I worked in America for an institution where there was no retirement age. People stayed on until they were in their 80s, taking up spots that could have been filled by younger people keen to get started in their careers.

Perhaps my favourite exploration of aging and love is “Time Enough for Love” by Robert A Heinlein. The premise is that the oldest man in human history, Lazarus Long, has grown weary of living and has tried to sneak off and die. The story revolves around how the leaders of the organization responsible for the stupendous increase in human longevity lead the Lazarus to rediscover the reasons to live: family, children, adventures, and love.

The speculations on how long life impacts society are interesting. If you can live forever, marriage becomes a term contract i.e. the marriage license expires in 10 years, with an option to renew.

While other folks who have lived a long time are more cautious and considered in their lives, Lazarus is the prototypical swashbuckling adventurer with a diverse and ultra-competent posse. He lives his life based on “no regrets”, but the episode in his life which he feels the most regret about is falling in love with a woman who has only a normal lifespan. Outliving someone you love, after practicing how to love for centuries, seems the ultimate cruelty.

There are a lot of factors and questions at work when we consider the consequence of longer life. Longer life spans do not necessarily mean healthy ones. At my job I've witnessed people who are 80 to 90 years old who talk to me about how lonely they are, how many of their friends have passed. They talk to me about how their hands are too shaky to sew, and their legs are too weak to garden. Essentially, they are too weak to enjoy hobbies that may have defined their life thus far.

This is not to say that it is not worth growing old but rather asking if it is worth to draw it out further. Would a longer life imply longer health? Or just stretching out the end like a piece of gum, getting thinner and weaker, but longer nonetheless.

Another factor to look at is the retirement age. If lives got longer, would the retirement age remain where it is? (In the U.S. the age is 67) If not, how could we handle the impact this has on the workforce? Already in my country there are fields such as politics where the older generations refuse to step down, with the most notable recent case being 84-year-old (17 years beyond the retirement age) Senator Mitch McConnell going missing for approximately three months but still being paid and allowed to maintain his position. Of course, part of the reason that people hang on to jobs past retirement age is affordability. I worked at a warehouse with ladies who were in their 70s and 80s because they needed to work to keep their insurance benefits. How do we alter the current system (specifically in the United States, but also everywhere) to accommodate a longer life, a longer work period, and a longer retirement period?

All in all, despite these lingering questions, I do not think a longer life necessarily means a better life. The reason that why so many emotions and experiences have value to us is because they are fleeting. It's like eating a tasty meal, and feeling full, but still craving more because it was just SO good. But then you eat more and you get painfully full. The meal was good, yes because you are a fantastic cook, but also partially because you had the correct and satisfying amount of it. I think knowing that we had more time would make us more wasteful with it. Even with 100 years, people spend hours and hours of their days on their phones. We already are wasting time, and somehow, we think that we need more. It's a common concept of "what would you do differently if you knew you'd die soon?" or the stories about cancer patients using their last few years to live to the fullest. Knowing that our time is limited is what often kicks us into gear to make it interesting. Thinking we need more time when we don't utilize what we have feels greedy at worst and careless at best.

How much time is enough? I think that depends on a person-to-person basis. But I think it is in our nature (humans hate change) to never be satisfied. There will never be enough time, because there is an end at all, because there is unknowable change. I personally think that 80 years is plenty of time, but that's simply for myself, I of course cannot say for the entirety of humanity.

Thanks for the conversation starter.
I think we are afraid to die, so wishing for a longer life means we push dying away. Since we cannot choose to die (at least in Germany) we have to die from an illness or accident. A lot of people suffer before they die. Still, I think we should research ways to improve the healthy timespan which increases the total lifespan. Right now, I wish for the autonomy to decide when I lived enough. When, I do not know. A law to state the maximum age would be a death sentence.

Eternal life would be a catastrophe for the planet. At some point we have to give room to newer generations. But having more generations in a family alive at the same time is a blessing. I love that my children know my grandmother and that my parents can have an active role in my children’s lives.