Over population is a function of choosing to have children. I still think people who have children are not being properly held accountable for the outcomes of their choices -- look at how over populated countries are now the most polluting (even with low per capital pollution). Somehow responsible countries are held to task for their per capita pollution, but not credited with not having created massive amounts of people?
It's also a function of how long we live.
It's also a function of how long we wait to have those children.
If we start having kids at 15 and we live until 25, we have ~2 generations hanging around. If we start having kids at 25 and live to 90, we often have 3-4 generations hanging around. There is a lot of good info from searching "How does life expectancy affect population growth?"
The fertility rate of some stage 4 countries is so low that the countries are in need of more babies. There is plenty of data on this but my favorite anecdotally is "Do it for Denmark"
This is probably the most difficult to answer as reckless youth is often a driving force of change. Aging has negative impact on our mental capabilities, so it seems reasonable to expect the average person to change their mind if they stay young.
> At what point is it ok to choose when we can die
It should be ok right now. In fact it is ok in my country.
> - Will over-population become a serious issue
Maybe, but there is no reason why a bigger population can't use less resources. Longer lifespan might incentivize more sustainable politics
> - How do we support a larger aged population?
If you stop aging, then you increase the population of people who have bodies of healthy 20-30 year olds, not the population with bodies of 70 year olds. This frees up enormous resources that go in elderly care or treating age related disease.
> - Do we expect to also extend "working years" ... and then why?
Probably, but right now, nearly halve of our lifespan is "unproductive". 20-30 hour weeks with 6-12 weeks off per year forever seems better than 25 years getting an education, working 40 hours per week for 40 years with 5 weeks of vacation, followed by 20 years of retirement.
> - Does extending life cheapen our perception of it?
Why would it? If you die when you are 30 you lose around 50 years. Without aging, you would lose so much more.
> Why would it? If you die when you are 30 you lose around 50 years. Without aging, you would lose so much more.
Precisely because you have so much time, it doesn't seem as valuable. eg: why not waste a few more years working in a job you don't like so you can make a few more bucks that will likely come in handy in later years. The more years you need to plan for, the more likely you are to trade time for money while you still can.
OTOH, if you know you are probably not living past 30, you will live quite differently. Why invest in a 401k or learn about IRAs in this case? Also, most people won't want to spend 16 years in school for 8-10 years of productivity and 0-2 years of retirement. Work-life balance probably looks very different in this case.
The world, the technology and the social constructs within it are changing faster and faster every year. Arguably we're already seeing issues with large aging parts of society trying to make decisions on New technologies and trying to maintain what they know (arguably climate change is a problem created several generations ago and not being acted on appropriately by those same generations).
It makes my toes curl trying to mentally find fair and equitable ways to answer these issues. I suspect the anti aging technology will progress faster than our ability to react to it, much like climate change...
Right, who wants to live forever?
There are so many conversations about living longer and they lead in so many different directions:
- How does the world move on from bad influences
- At what point is it ok to choose when we can die
- Will over-population become a serious issue
- How do we support a larger aged population?
- Do we expect to also extend "working years" ... and then why?
- Does extending life cheapen our perception of it?
... etc
The amount of time we have on this planet is a huge unknown to most of us. When any of us learn about a shorter finite time (eg: medical diagnoses), it often inspires us to make drastic changes, sometimes for the better. By finding ways of blanket-extending our life spans, we necessarily change societal expectations. Hopefully this doesn't become yet another area where we have a widening wealth-gap.