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Carrion Luggage #1094742 added August 5, 2025 at 8:37am
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Live Long and Suffer
I saved this article from Time not so long ago (it's from mid-July), but right now I can't remember what I wanted to say about it. Perhaps that's because I'm getting old.
In my life philosophy, there's no point to living longer if, in order to do so, you have to give up the things that keep life worth living. But that's not what the article's about. It seems to be about better health in old age, but I have this nagging suspicion that it's really about being "productive" longer.
As of July 2025, the estimated global average life expectancy is approximately 73.5 years.
There's a couple of important caveats there, and probably some I haven't thought of.
First, from the link provided, "Life expectancy at birth indicates the number of years a newborn infant would live if prevailing patterns of mortality at the time of its birth were to stay the same throughout its life." That doesn't mean life expectancy for someone who's 30, 40, 50, or 60 in 2025.
Second, averages like that are useful for statistical calculations and things like insurance, but nearly useless for individual planning.
High-income countries with advanced healthcare systems, good sanitation, and healthy lifestyles have an even longer life expectancy average, reaching up to 84 years.
It's also important to note, because I live there, that the US doesn't meet those criteria.
Research suggests that we’re entering the largest intergenerational wealth transfer in history, with trillions expected to pass from older to younger generations. But much of that wealth may never arrive.
Oh, wealth is being transferred. It's just not being passed on to heirs, but to insurance companies and healthcare corporations.
We’re not just living longer—we’re also living longer with dementia, Alzheimer’s, and other forms of cognitive impairment. And without meaningful action, this trajectory could accelerate.
While I fear that way more than I fear death, this sentence makes it seem like major cognitive impairment is certain. From what I've read, it is not. The problem is that it's basically a die roll. Also, there's a difference between normal age-related cognitive decline and the profound loss of faculties characterized by Alzheimer's and the like.
If we want longer lives to truly become better lives, we must shift our focus from simply extending lifespan to improving healthspan.
I kind of thought that's what lots of research does.
First, we must prioritize prevention and delay—not just in old age, but across all stages of life.
That might not result in the paradise people think it would. Suppose they ban pizza and cheeseburgers. That might not affect some people, but for me, death would be preferable.
Second, technology is a powerful enabler. AI assistants and care robots can assist with mobility, medication reminders, and safety monitoring to help older adults remain independent longer.
This author clearly doesn't read science fiction. That, too, has its horror elements.
Anyway. I'm not going to belabor this further. I think the article makes some good points, but I flinch every time something like this mentions "lifestyle changes" or "policy intervention." It's not that I don't want to live a long time; it's that I want to live, not exist. |
© Copyright 2025 Robert Waltz (UN: cathartes02 at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
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