There's also the mental aspect of things. At some point I just want to "move on." As you lose loved ones (assuming we haven't cured all of death) and experience great sadness in life, you may not want to live in the torment of all your memories. Or maybe the positive memories out-weigh the bad ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

>> Would you really want to though? I'm relatively young, but after about 70 I don't think I'd really want to live anymore.

All the people that I know that are in their 70s say that it all went by really fast. And they don't look like they are tired of living. This reminds me of the phrase "Youth is wasted on the young"

Agree. I know two people who are in their 90s and it’s no life to live.

I guess I was assuming that it’s possible to have a good life in my 90’s. Your sample size of the 2 people seems a bit anecdotal. Know anyone famous in their 90’s?

Jimmy Carter

Henry Kissinger

Dick Van Dyke

Stan Lee

Chuck Yeager - broke the sound barrier

Anyway, that’s your choice. I suppose if we do learn how to treat aging to delay some of the symptoms, you can always change your mind.

It's more than just the two for reference. It's either dead or dying at that age for most people. In addition, my 94 year old neighbour is housebound and has leukaemia and just wishes someone would kill him. My grandmother is 93 and she can't even recognise any members of her own family any more and just wants to go to sleep forever. That's more the state of things.

The above are minor and major celebrities. They have a higher standard of care.

If we can increase quality of life significantly, I'm all for it but until then, shoot me when I get to 80.

Counter-anecdote, I just had the pleasure of meeting a 90-year-old man who was still very mobile, very compus mentis (we had a nice chat that I could have had with someone of any age), and who was surrounded by a loving, social family. Who would complain about that?

No one would complain about that, but few people are that fortunate. In my academic field, I know of some elderly scholars who managed to reach their 80s and 90s. Only two are still in a condition to do scholarship. The rest had, at best, to give it up because they could feel their minds deteriorating, or, at worst, they just completely vanished from the scene and it turned out they were suffering from dementia and their families had to take care of them.

I’d love to live to an advanced age if I could still do what I do now, but I agree with the OP that old age in a deteriorated state would suck.

What if you were 90 years old but had the body of a healthy 25 year old?

I shall let you know when I get there. Like Merlin, I am growing younger as I get older. It has been awesome.

;-)

Maybe they'll make a movie out of your story.

Genetic diseases are still diseases. They can be addressed too, excluding that would be short sighted.