HunchBluntley: There's also the matter of the lack of universality of such a thing meaning that the extended-life set get to watch everyone they care about who doesn't have access to -- or doesn't want -- such prolonged life age and die around them. And you know how a lot of very old (and some not-so-old) people have trouble being able to relate to the modern age, the culture that's grown up around them since they hit middle age? Imagine how alienated such a person would feel after living for 250 years or more, as opposed to 100 or less.
thomq: I've noticed people have already gotten used to everyone they knew dying, and getting to know new people. Fatal accidents happen, infants don't make it to childhood, children don't make it adulthood… It seems to me people are already living long enough to reflect on such matters, and I expect each one already continues to feel differently each day, each hour, each minute, as they always have through life.
Your having known a few older people who still readily form new relationships does not by any means make that the rule.
HunchBluntley: Then there's the fact that a lot of changes in societal attitudes and mores only occur with the passing of the older generations.
[…snip…] This is a case where the natural human fear of death, coupled with baseless optimism & failure to practically consider all the ramifications, could lead to crippling problems for all humanity.
(Yes, I have thought about this a lot, why do you ask? :) )
thomq: So you're pointing out you weren't born thinking all of this, that your thoughts have been developing and changing. Are you special in that way? I mean, couldn't anyone you've generalized as impediments to cultural progress also have a change of heart or change their minds along with their life? Wouldn't it be more likely for them to do so as they live longer, observing what happens throughout the ages, and continue to adapt? Maybe even express how they used to think one way (perhaps idealizing) and now think in another (perhaps realizing) after having personally experienced such events?
It seems to me this has already happened…
Have you
met people? Humanity, as a species, adapts very well to change over time. Individual humans, on the other hand, are far less prone to radical adaptations, even when faced with the pressing need for change; and the capacity to learn and adapt easily lessens with age. Most children pick up and new information much more easily than most thirty-somethings, who in turn do so more easily than most sixty-somethings, etc. Capacity for learning is not infinite, and the mind only becomes less elastic after childhood.
Most bigots don't just suddenly stop thinking that way, and selfish assholes don't generally become less self-centered, just as naturally cheery, chipper people don't one day stop making happy chit-chat about how nice a day it is with everyone they meet. The capacity for significant change is there in most people, of course, but any lasting change along these lines seems to be pretty rare.
I'm honestly not even sure what point you're trying to make for most of that paragraph. If you're saying that I wasn't born contemplating mortality, and that I only really started doing so as I grew up, then...yeah? But saying an underdeveloped mind can't grasp heavy concepts as well as a fully developed one isn't (or shouldn't be) anything revelatory. But (contrary to AARP propaganda :P ), minds don't
continue to get better and more capable the more decades of use they've had; they start to wear out and fail, just like any other body part. And again, this affects educability and adaptability.
This is part (only part) of the problem I have with this idea that "living forever = awesome!!!" -- for any kind of extended lifespan to be in any way useful or beneficial, it would have to come with provisions to cease (or tremendously slow) the processes of aging, as well. And, again, solving THAT problem leads inevitably to all sorts of
other social problems for which practical (and practicable) solutions need to be thought out before creating such a world-changing...uh, change.