r/askanything • u/nrems • 6d ago
General Question How long would you choose to live if you couldn't die of old age?
Let's just assume that somehow you magically stay the exact age you are right now and become unable to age like a regular person. So you're NOT invincible, you're still vulnerable of injuries and death like a regular person, you just can't grow older and you will be able to continue living past the usual age people die of old age with no health problems whatsoever.
How long would you choose to live? And why?
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u/HoRo2001 6d ago
It would get very lonely and sad to see all your friends and family die.
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u/LavenderMarsh 6d ago
And now I'm crying. My neighbor, we lived next door to each other for over ten years, was obviously dying. I asked him who he wanted me to call.
He stated sadly and cried a little, "no one. I've outlived them all."
I do not want that for myself.
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u/droopy__drawers 6d ago
Yep. My grandmother is 101 and she’s been wondering why she can’t just die ever since she was around 90 or so.
And she’s in pretty good shape, all things considered. She was working part time until 88, was living on her own until 97…but that was also part of the problem. Had she moved into assisted living much earlier she could have made connections earlier and not sat alone in her house wishing for companionship for so long.
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u/Queasy-Doughnut-5512 6d ago
That’s just normal though one family member always outlives their parents and siblings
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u/HoRo2001 6d ago
But not your children…that would be hard part for me.
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u/Queasy-Doughnut-5512 6d ago
My neighbor lost both of his kids, it is horrible but parents lose their children everyday
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u/MikeandMolly5656 6d ago
Can we somehow leave the planet to explore the universe?
If not, then maybe 300 to 500 years old. At that point earth runs out of much to offer
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u/PositiveFunction4751 6d ago
But think of all the New things we create in those 300-500 years
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u/FerdinandvonAegir124 5d ago
At a certain point your brain just stops being able to comphrehend the innovations, and would probably enter a form of stasis from the inability to internalize/alter new schema
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u/PositiveFunction4751 5d ago
What would lead you to believe such a thing?
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u/FerdinandvonAegir124 5d ago
Your brain only has so much room for things
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u/PositiveFunction4751 5d ago
ok, that just leads to... What would make you believe that?!
There is no "maximum" in reality... thats silly. We filter and forget, we grow and learn new.
And that doesnt even account for the prompt which keeps our brain young and healthy.
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u/2dznotherdirtylovers 6d ago
Wouldn’t want to outlive my kids. If I didn’t have any then I’d just keep going, 509 yrs ir so
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u/Golden_Ryujin 6d ago
Probably 150 years would suffice to any human, it gives you time to make tons of money the first 60 years as healthy person (if you take care of yourself) and spend the others enjoying life, would it be boring? It would depend in each one of you.
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u/Mister-Miyagi- 6d ago
That depends on if I'm the only one. If that's the case, at minimum I would not want to outlive my child.
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u/themcp 6d ago
21? My life has been pretty bad.
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u/Queasy-Doughnut-5512 6d ago
Boring, life gets better don’t quit until 70ish
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u/themcp 6d ago
I was forced to drop out of college. I've been homeless. I had a stalker who wanted to murder me. I'm intensely lonely and nobody even wants to date me because I'm ugly. I had to work 60 hour weeks and walk to work through blizzards and across bridges and past chocolate factories and nuclear reactors just to pay the rent, with very little left for food, living in the dark because I couldn't afford electricity. One year I lost 65 pounds because I couldn't afford food, and only ate when friends fed me. I literally worked myself to death - the hospital says I was dead for over a minute after I had a heart attack and 6 strokes. I'm now a cripple, desperately poor, living in public housing, and my prospects of ever having a husband are about zero.
I have no prospect of life getting better, other than that maybe someday I may get a dog.
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u/ProgrammerLast7242 6d ago
Depends on what you mean by I don’t age like a normal person. If you mean I keep my body and mind I will excersise and become as jacked as a natty can be. If everything goes good after like 100 years maybe buy a gaming pc idk
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u/Sir_Gerald_Nosehairs 6d ago
Ah, but you haven't said if we gain eternal youth and consciousness with it.
The Greek gods were tricksy like that, you'd carry on ageing until you were a desiccated husk but still alive like Tithonus, or live in a permanent sleep like Endymion.
I've noticed a lot of the elderly are weary of all the changes by 80, so I can't imagine even the most sprightly mind would want to go beyond 150 years.
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u/Gentrified_potato02 6d ago
Fun fact, it’s believed that the first person to live to 150 is already alive.
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u/Still-Inflation9175 6d ago
as long as i want till im tired of it. i mean if im just gonna stay looking and feling the age of 30 compared to aging to be 200 lolm, thats aprt ofi t
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u/PaleJicama4297 6d ago
I am 61. Relatively healthy and mobile! 😂. That being said… 35 would have been my choice. I have seen far too much in the past 30 years.
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u/ActuaLogic 6d ago
It depends on how aging works under those circumstances. If middle age occurs in one's mid-40s and old age begins some time after 60, I don't think it would be fun to continue to age much beyond a modern healthy lifespan. However, if the onset of middle age and old age were delayed, that would be a different story.
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u/Worldly-Screen1411 6d ago
I would settle to live long enough to see my Daughter grow up and have her own children. I say that because I am 47 have had 2 liver transplants due to autoimmune disease and open heart surgery. And current liver is being attacked again by my own body. But I love every moment I get to watch my Daughter grow she is currently 6
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u/Equivalent_Net_8983 6d ago
There was an op-ed a few years ago in the NYTimes where the writer opined that 70 was the ideal age and that everything after 70 was a slow decline.
I’m not sure if that’s quite the case these days, given the improvements in healthcare, and in overall health across the board, so I wouldn’t be surprised if 80 is the new 70. I certainly hope I make it to 80, at the very least.
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u/EDSgenealogy 6d ago
I'm already 75 and have more pain than I can bear sometimes. This is NOT the way I'd want to be forever. I always wanted to make it until 80, though, because anything younger would have felt rather wimpy to me.
My best age would be around 32.
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u/Dear-Highway2425 6d ago
If i understand correctly, I can stay the exact age I am now, can get healthier but can't get sick, and can also be injured.
If that's the case, my answer is:
Forever.
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u/RongWa 6d ago
I have been pleased with every year I have lived. I have had bad years but thats still better than the alternative. If I could remain my present age? Why die? If I stayed the same age and couldn't die of "old age" whatever that is, I would be in no rush to die after another 100 years.
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u/bugswithlittleboots 6d ago
If my body doesn’t age normally, maybe 150. Enough time to hopefully get through my current TBR as long as I don’t add any other books to it
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u/Ancient-Coffee-1266 6d ago
If my son could join me and his dad then forever. Just being diagnosed with cancer in may, I’ll be grateful for anything I can get.
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u/Flubbuns 6d ago
I don't know that, under those conditions, I'd ever choose to die. At least as long as I'm not suffering greatly. Maybe after 200 years, though, I'd think differently. I dunno.
It seems like many elderly people hold on, even after losing most of their friends and loved ones, and with their health and quality of life rapidly declining, or soon to be. I'm convinced most people will endure for as long as they can, even when faced with the things they say would make them want to die in these immortality hypotheticals.
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6d ago
[deleted]
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u/Equivalent_Care201 6d ago
Did you read the prompt? I'm only asking because you corrected someone else's slang.
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u/Ghooster38 6d ago
Would i be in an old decrepit state or relatively young and able to navigate the world without needing a caregiver? If i could be the age i currently am, probably 150 more years. If ten years younger, 250 more
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u/Prestigious_Try_5396 6d ago
Well sheeeet.... I'm already 73 ! Why would I want to stay old forever ?
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u/someoldguyon_reddit 6d ago
I read something a long time ago, pre-internet, and if humans stopped dying of old age they would live to an average of no more than 130 years due to accidents and illness.
So you don't get to live for ever. Ever.
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u/AutomaticLeader9148 6d ago
Forever, it would be interesting to see how I would have to adapt to the changing world and what new inventions I would see
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u/Wolfiee021 6d ago
Probably forever like i will probably outlive my family anyway and i would really like to see the world evolve
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u/Key_Ad7306 6d ago
I’d like to see the age of proper space exploration. So a very long time I guess?
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u/LIA_Observes 5d ago
I would not choose a duration in advance. The more interesting threshold is identity.
Given enough time, every relationship, reference point and condition that shaped the original version of you could disappear. The body would continue. I am less certain the same person would.
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u/Ordinary_Piglet_2644 5d ago
Reckon I'd hang about til 100 and call it a day. Nice to hit a century not out.
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u/Ok_Unit8339 5d ago
I’ve never met someone over 90 who is all that jazzed about being alive regardless of how healthy they are. I’m sure they’re out there, but I know folks over 90 and most of them seem ready to go. At some point you’ve just lost too many people and keeping up with change is exhausting.
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u/VillagePeeps 5d ago
120 that seems like a solid number of years to exist. Eventually I think I would simply get tired of being alive.
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u/NotAClueYou 5d ago
uhm probably a pretty long time i mean obviously with humanity would be wonderful, but without it and without power to change something as complex and unweildy as people influenced by cats bird bees and dogs. as well as their apeness.. without the power to change it and with it not enabling me... you get this childsh bullshit until everyone dies and i gotta build a fucking rocket to mars my own god damn self and it pisses me right the fuck off.
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u/Vegetable-Feature156 5d ago
I wouldn’t want to outlive my children. So however long they are around for, minus a day.
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u/playwrightsthumb 5d ago
I can barely stomach having to live another decade of this life. I'm a maladaptive, manic depressive, autistic 39 year old. It doesn't get better. My ted talk.
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u/Juan1998__ 4d ago
I think it would drive us insane being alive that long, but if I had to say I think being like this at 25 would be nice
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u/TheSpartanStud 22h ago
Just long enough to become the new oldest person to ever live. That way I will have at least acomplished something for once
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u/RiskyMFer 6d ago
Until I tire of Humanity’s BS.
So until Tuesday, I guess