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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   2380 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for August 11, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Whenever the topic of human longevity comes up I always think of things like physical maturity, emotional maturity, the general weight of life experiences accruing over time, memory, and the relative speed of physical decrepitude and cognitive decline.

Say there were in fact a race that had a lifespan of 200 years. One would have to factor in--how long would it take to wean a child ? How long childhood itself? Adolescence? How long until the brain reached its peak, or maturity, or whatever we understand to be top, not-getting-that-much-better-than-this? Would sexual maturity, or fertility for women, be the same as for us, we who live to around 70? Peak physical strength, would it just develop slower and last longer? Would diseases like their equivalent of cancer take longer to kill them?

And what of cognition? My memory is sometimes very good, particularly long term. I can tell you exactly what you said that one time, can accurately quote movie lines from films I've seen once, I can tell you about how thick into the book and where roughly in the page Fermina Daza has her moment of revulsion against Florentino Ariza. But how long will this annoying ability last? How long would it last for them?

Accidents would presumably still happen, meaning deaths by accident would still also occur, culling a certain number and with that culling leaving mourners behind. At my age one of the main reflections I have on my life is how many people I have known and, yes, loved, are no longer in it, because they're in the grave.

Wanting to live forever I often think is a dream of the young, who are still this side of the inevitable losses and life experiences that come to us all. Tolkien had his characters refer to death as "The Gift of Men" (humans).

There is the idea in OPs post that conservatism comes with age, naturally, and certainly that seems intuitive. Arguably so does wisdom, at least up until it doesn't. I think the question is interesting , but the temptation to make it too simple is a danger.

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