Living that long does give you the opportunity to meet some interesting people though. We were chit chatting with her and happened along the topic of scientists. and she said "Oh yeah, I met a famous scientist once. I think his name was Esenstern, or something like that." We then found out that the German doctor she worked for came over on the boat with Albert Einstein and he was a frequent visitor over to his house.

Nice… my grandpa died at 76 and at that point there's really no doubt in your mind that you aren't coming close to 100 either.

I'd be happy with 70 years honestly. But I also wouldn't mind being really old. I figure, if you're 110, you've been over 80 for 30 years. Longer than I've even lived. So they obviously have *some* way of living, else they'd be.. well, dead.

I don't know how long I'll make it, but I'd be shocked if 90 weren't the new 70 for my graduating high school class. Medicine is making huge advances every day, and people who are young now will reap the benefits when they're old. Just make sure you don't get too fat or ruin you lungs/liver and it'll work out fine.

I think 90 will be the new 80, but not the new 70. We're good at keeping people alive, but not terribly great at keeping them spry or comfortable. While there have always been a few people who are as healthy at 90 as 70, I don't see any reason to think that rate (among nonogenerians, whom however a higher proportion of the population will become) will increase substantially.

I think you both may unfortunately be wrong. As medicine gets better, personal health gets worse. They'll balance out after awhile. Maybe not exact, maybe you're right, who knows till then anyway...

Call me pessimistic but I'm not entirely convinced life expectancy will continue to rise for much longer. Lol. At least not for my own generation.

Interesting use of lol there, Thucy.

Personally until medical science significantly improves the quality of life we can lead in our 80s+ it doesn't strike me that long life is desirable. My great great... something or other... (my Gran's uncle, I think) was the oldest man in Newfoundland until a short time ago. A fate worse than death. Lol.

well frankly i'm not too broken up about the idea of dying lol

i figure if i make it past 60 i have no right to complain. 60 years is a long time.

I don't think any of us are legitimately afraid of death.. we may think we are, but I haven't seen someone that died naturally that was scared.

Well yeah. You never know you're dead. You're dead. Thus you can't really be scared during the actual experience.

But leading up to it? I'm 20 and dead terrified of it even now, but that's because I've nearly died a couple of times already. Automobiles....

I think that's mostly because people who die naturally usually have time to adjust to their imminent death, bo_sox, so that their fear by the time they actually die is not at a level where it's clear, if it's still there at all. It seems to me that most people _are_ afraid of death on some level, and that it's illegitimate to artificially narrow the field to those who die naturally.

PE, I thought you said (in the past) that you WEREN'T afraid of death anymore, because of those experiences.

I'm not trying to attack, just interested in clarifying the exact effect that they've had. Have they decreased your fear of physical danger, while increasing your fear of death overall, for example?

"Call me pessimistic but I'm not entirely convinced life expectancy will continue to rise for much longer. Lol. At least not for my own generation."

The numbers will be depressed by obesity rates, but if you avoid that then you have a better chance of a long and healthy life than anyone at any previous time in human history. The first heart transplant was only forty five years ago, now it's just another very serious surgery. In another forty five years we could very well be growing new hearts in the laboratory, and even if that's impossible artificial hearts and valves exist already and will only get better. In just my parents' lifetime cancer has gone from a death sentence to something that, while extremely unpleasant, can often be treated effectively. Twenty years ago AIDS killed people in months, now with two pills a day people can live normal lives and die of something else. It's amazing what modern medicine can do, and they never stop trying to make it better.

If anything we'll be victims of our own success. There will be more old people than ever before, and our economy isn't set up to deal with that. We won't be rid of the Baby Boomers in significant numbers till the 2040s, just imagine how long Millennials will hang around.

Old people often die.

"I'm not trying to attack, just interested in clarifying the exact effect that they've had. Have they decreased your fear of physical danger, while increasing your fear of death overall, for example?"

I did, at one point, but I thought more about it and... I don't know. Death is terrifying and anti-climactic all at once. My position's still evolving. It's probably correct to say that my fear of physical danger is diminished from being there before. I feel like I've demonstrated rather solid instincts in high-pressure situations, so I'm not as rattled by them as I might have been earlier in life. But the fear of no longer existing is constantly present.

OK, makes sense. Thanks.

I do think that quality of life is more important than number of years. My grandmother lived 99 years independently and seemed very happy for most of them overall. The last couple of years she had lost the ability to deal with reality. When she went into assisted living things went downhill quickly. Being happy and healthy are paramount.

In sitting with my Dad in his last year or two. He knew the end was coming and was a little tense about it from time to time. By the same token we got to end our relationship in this life on good terms as they had always been. I think the fear of death just takes on a different form when it is imminent and unavoidable.

I even mean outside of obesity Invictus.

I for one am not convinced that Western standards of living and medical will persist and/or be available to someone like me for the rest of my life. And when I say someone like me I mean myself, but also others in similar positions who probably won't get rich but live in a place like America or Europe.

I guess I am just really pessimistic about the inequality trends in the world. I think it is going to keep getting worse for most of my life. And if you follow that to it's conclusion, since I don't expect to be rich, I probably won't have a life much longer than your average Western person's life span today. So around 70.

The world's youngest person was just born!

I told my husband I don't care how old I am.. if I can't read, do crossword or enjoy the basic things I love then he has the right to take me out back and shoot me. Mind I'm talking about having the mental capacity to do these things. Loosing ones eye sight or things like that can still be manageable . Really what's the point of living if you can't do anything you enjoy anymore.

The world's youngest person was just born!

Um... the scary thing about that CF is that what if what you enjoy changes, and your husband doesn't actually know what you enjoy anymore. What if, according to someone else, there's nothing you can enjoy, all your old enjoyments are absent. But if you're still living, you're living for someone. Otherwise you'd just kill yourself.

If you have a goal in life, fight as long and hard as you can to meet it. If you can't anymore, you'll probably die of exhaustion.

There are some basic things that I enjoy that he'd know. Mainly I was talking abot dementia onsetting or being in crippling pain. Nothing fun in losing your mind so completely that you can't even enjoy basic things like reading a book.

"Nothing fun in losing your mind so completely that you can't even enjoy basic things like reading a book. "

How do you know?

I really really love to read, but frankly I love to live more. I know what you're getting at CF, though, or at least I think I do. You're talking about being brain dead right?

I switch between being terrified of death and taking comfort in the assured impermanence of all my problems.