How Old Do You Want to Live to Be

Early 90s seems like a good time to go. I think my grandfather was in that sort of range when he died and he was mentally sharp and relatively physically fit. Over 100 seems excessive.

Both of my parents started going senile around 73 to 74 and checked out at 78 and 84.

My visits to the nursing homes convinced me there is much pleasure in this part of life, and I think I'd like a liberating final heart attack rather than a slow decline.

So about 68/69, I guess.

I'm thinking early 70s. idk...I like living but I hate to think of several more decades of my paranoia, panic attacks, and watching everyone around me die!

Err...not much pleasure, rather.

Visiting nursing homes for about 8 years off and on - sometimes every other weekend- was a grim time.

My mom is 73 this year and not in the greatest health. You've just described one of my biggest fears. I'm not ready for that! :/

awww sorry ENBB :(

Aw, it's OK! It's just something I think about a lot, that's all.

seconded. impossible NOT to think about it! my folks both got mortally ill in their 60s. after 70 or so it's a question of quantity vs quality

Yeah. It's a little weird for me because my mom had me later in life so she's older than a lot of my peers' parents (my dad is a bit younger) and it's not something that a lot of my friends have really had to start dealing with yet. Maybe she'll surprise me but I just get the feeling she's not gonna be one of those people that make it past 80 max.

As long as possible. I often lament that I won't live to see the technology 100/500/1000 years from now. I wish I could transfer my consciousness into some sort of awesome robot.

In answer to the OP I guess it all depends on my health/mindset at the time. If I'm one of those people who stays weirdly healthy and young seeming then 90s might be cool - I have a lot of stuff I want to do! On the other hand, I wouldn't want to stick around if everything starts failing and I have a really shitty quality of life so idk - it depends.

i've kinda always felt like I like living, but I've never loved it enough to want to do it forever. might sound a little depressing, but 5 years ago I probably woulda answered 50-59, so I'm headed in the right direction lol

probably fear the actual pain of dying more than the cessation to exist itself!

I expect that, if I can manage to keep my health at par for another 10-15 years, I'm a Charles Schultz/Andy Rooney-type who'll drop dead within weeks of retirement.

I wish I could transfer my consciousness into some sort of awesome robot.

Don't despair, the opportunity's closer than you think.

http://www.tnr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/detail_page/romney2_0.JPG

A rich awesome robot. Yes.

Robot 1%, unite.

probably fear the actual pain of dying more than the cessation to exist itself!

― Neanderthal, Saturday, January 28, 2012 9:46 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I don't believe in an afterlife so ceasing to exist isn't something that scares me in and of itself. If I fear death at all it's that I fear a painful one (like you said) or that I am afraid it'll happen before I've done all the things I'd like to do/experience. Not that it would matter at that point, mind.

150

year 2133 here I come

lol

Voted "I'd like to die right now" but actually I would have liked to have died oooh, aged 1 or so?

probably fear the actual pain of dying more than the cessation to exist itself!

OTM

Despite the longevity on both sides of my family, I think I'd like to drop dead the day after my 80th birthday.

better that than in the middle of the party.

i'll live to my 90s if my fam is any indication of my own longevity. don't wanna, tho, unless i can be healthy. otherwise, 40 would be fine.

would v much like to be a rich awesome robot.

I do very much want to come back as a ghost tho. I wouldn't haunt people, just do really passive aggressive shit like move things to different drawers in the kitchen, making guest appearances at Scientology building in Times Square, etc...

I don't really ever want to die. I've been having a hard time coming to terms with it my whole life. My mother had to tell me I was going to live forever once when I was very young to stop me crying, apparently.

Bodies wear out, but I would be pleased if mine could remain reasonably functional beyond 80. Living beyond 90 seems like begging for a life where you struggle beneath a mountain of amassed decrepitude. But that could as easily be wrong as right. There is nothing inevitable in any aspect of death or dying, apart from the certainty that death will come someday, so I don't spend a lot of time organizing my mind around this question.

Plenty of nonagenarians on my Dad's side of the family, but no centenarians that I know of. I'll give it a shot.

my grandfather died today! at 90. amazingly, his mind didn't start to go until the past couple years, and he was still able to remember faces. had a big birthday party for him a few months ago, and he always seemed happy. but he never had to stay in a home and always had money, which probably had something to do with it.

anyway, i said 80-89, but more specifically late 70s/early 80s, if only because i would like to work as long as my mind and body can last, which seems to typically be around there.

Now that I am having a baby, the whole mortality thing has kind of changed, I want to live a lot longer, like 90 and beyond. My great-grandmother lived to 96, died when I was in college. I have three grandparents, one grandmother is 95 and my grandfather is 90. They are all mentally with it. Have a friend turning 100 in August. He is mentally and physically amazing. He has an older sister who is 103.

Previously, I thought I would live until 50 but hoped for at least 65.

i can't vote in this bc lol too superstitious but without being too exact re numbers i do think you want to live to see your descendants and family and how the world has changed completely while you've been alive, but not too long that you're in blinding pain, or totally non participative in this human project. probably a moving target re number tho depending on level of medical care available, economics, environment, other stuff

I wanna live to see my kids: take over the world with their charm and panache in the forefront, then they pack it for contentment and family lives of their own.

http://images.icanhascheezburger.com/completestore/2008/8/7/fameiwannal128626276229085998.jpg

Not necessarily fame, but.

I don't ever want to die, and I hope I won't (as unrealistic as it sounds).

i want to die when i can no longer be independent, whether that's b/c of physical or mental reasons. i hope i don't get to that stage for a long time.

Voted "I don't ever want to die". As long as I can still function properly. Whatever medical advances come about that extend the human life span, give them to me. I love life. Probably should have voted "100+" because not ever wanting to die is probably too much to ask for, but really at this point in my life, I don't want it to ever end.

pretty much all downhill since 30, so i'm more or less cool with whatever.

though if they have any plans to bring back crystal pepsi in the next 50 years i wouldnt mind hanging around for that.

i've paid in advance so i'm good to check out w/e tbh, fear or worries about mortality/future are strange to me.

Could just be the ultimate aversion to commitment tho 'uh sorry can't plan as far as thursday night, might be dead dunno yet'

determined not to die until Liverpool win the Prem. So immortality beckons.

yes, but every fuckin day a misery- some greek shit right there

Mid 70s. Two score years and ten plus a bit more given that I wont get to retire until I'm about 69 seems fair.

I am afraid that if I answer this question it will come true, in a horrifying monkey's paw kind of way. So, I don't know.

I have a feeling I'm not going to live a long life due to chronic illness, but I'm okay with that. I've spent enough time in nursing homes to not want to end up with an extended stay there.

I don't ever want to die. Don't give me any of that illness and infirmity sophistry either.

why is all this shit kid-based?

How Long Do You Want to Post to ILX For?

til 5 years before America goes full Mad Max

Before? Screw that, I want front row seats at Thunderdome!

Anyway, voted for "never die."

why is all this shit kid-based?

― mh, Monday, January 30, 2012 8:39 AM (25 minutes ago) Bookmark

good question

if I make it past 80, will probly be living in my niece's basement

(she's 5 now)

My desire to live as long as possible is in no way kid based.

Yeah but Jeff you want to be a robot. I neither have kids nor want to be a robot.
ideally I would like to live to be 70-75 provided that I can take care of myself and don't expect too much from others.

I want to be old. I want to continue eating delicious food and watching lovely movies and listening to music and sitting on the couch next to my wife and talking to my kids on the phone and playing strange new immersive videogame systems and reading the news and volunteering at the local library. I would like to drink root beer and make people go out of their way to accomodate including me on picnics, and most of all I can't wait to have an old farty dog as constant companion and familiar. If I can be assured of those things, I will do them forever. As they disapper – one by one – my interest in living will diminish logarithmically.

I assume if I have a child, they would just rebel against their robot dad anyway.

sticking kick me magnets to your power supply

As long as my special lady friend is alive. Hopefully able to enjoy life into my 80s. I hope to go right after her so she doesn't have to experience the loss of a partner.

I'm just getting the hang of this life thing and have the suspicion that I am going to be "getting the hang of it" about once every 10-15 years from here on out. Maybe I can expire if I stop getting it.

willing to stay alive as long as i can poop without assistance or a diaper

Another week, then?

who can say

I quite often fetishise the idea of a culturally rich dotage, listehning to, watching, and reading all the albums, films, and books I've hoarded over my life, and then I remember this...

In recent years the collector had no interest in his collection. Ailing health, bereavement, and slowly declining hearing had sapped his once immense passion for music and left him with little but crosswords and memories of springer spaniels, tabby cats, and a wife who had all passed on. For a long time, he didn’t even have a record player on which to listen to his collection, and it had sat, unmovable and unplayable, in his living room like a giant hibernating creature gathering dust.

...and I don't want that.

"time enough at last"

Can I unremember this thread entirely? I just want to go about my life as I please and not think about the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keNpZG4xxgA

http://cdn.crooksandliars.com/files/vfs/2011/03/Heaven

http://laweekly.blogs.com/.a/6a00d83451afa369e20134877262f7970c-400wi

100+

I've been acting like a grumpy old man for so long now it would seem unfair if I didn't get to fully inhabit the role. my grandma is 101 fwiw so fingers crossed I got those genes...

I just looked up when I turn 30,000 days old: December 23, 2055.

I guess that would be kind of a bummer to the rest of the family, wouldn't it?

for whom the jingle bells toll

hmm i don't think any of my grandparents made 85 lol hardship/potato diet

dunno, I generally enjoy living so I'd like that to go on as long as possible? Not looking for immortality or anything, but I wouldn't mind making it to 90+. But I do figure my body/brain will go to shit long before that, at which point I hope I work up the nerve to off myself.

ultimate punk'd would be to cryogenically freeze a suicide victim they'd be like 'wtf nooooooooooooo [canned laughter'] after being revived by ashton XIV

my grandfather made it to 101 and was in pretty good shape (both physically and mentally) up to around 99. My grandmother turns 99 in a couple of months and is still doing great (lives in a third floor apartment with no elevator).

So yeah, I plan on living to 100+.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

don't they reckon that advances in medical science will soon mean that, barring accidents, everyone reading this will probably live forever? Until such time as overpopulation destroy the ability of the world to support life and we all die of starvation, of course.

if they ever figure that shit out they better also come up with a treatment to de-age my body. if they come up with the "live forever" shit and I'm already decrepit, I'm suicide-boothing my way out of this shit

ideally I would like to live to be 70-75 provided that I can take care of myself and don't expect too much from others.

― La Lechera, maandag 30 januari 2012 16:13 (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^ this is me, basically.

It's odd. Even though life-expectancy feels like such an abstract number, I do think it makes perfect sense, for me personally. It may be a statistic but it's also an inescapable one; not inevitable, but very probable. Seven to eight decades of life seems ample. That's the time in which I want/need to do what I need/want. If I would live longer it would probably mean me decaying to some degree; I would like to (be able to) end that rather sooner than later (=too late).

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

the concept of me getting old seems weird. being a bachelor without kids probably has a lot to do with it, but I've always had this underlying feeling that I'm the one of my clan that won't be long for this world. I don't know why - perhaps it's because I have a latent self-destructive streak that occasionally shows its head, but the idea of being 85 and lecturing a 15 year old about how much better death metal was in my day doesn't seem appealing.

I can guarantee you if I become a patriarch that changes altogether, but part of me thinks I don't have the mindset to have kids. I love kids, but the last thing I want is to be a shitty parent and I'm still not firmly convinced I have it in me. Briefly had a fling last year with an older woman with six kids that didn't go anywhere, but that would have been a nice trial run at least.

Immortality would kinda be fun though because if you knew you had it, the crazy shit that would then be unlocked for you to do....

People rightly mention the concerns of health, pain and the environment/general state of the world allowing us to live at all, but I don't know why people aren't more people afraid of being too jaded, bored and desensitized to enjoy life, because this is one of my biggest worries.

I'm 28 and although I don't despair about it as much as I did a few years ago, I'm still regularly bothered by how rare real pleasure or satisfaction is. My solution is always to enjoy the challenge of finding pleasure and remind myself that I was just a kid when so many things seemed so amazing, but it still scares me that in a few decades that I might not be able to enjoy much at all.

Probably the biggest reason I'd want to live very old is to have a long retirement filled with drawing and painting. If I lived long enough that I'd been doing that for more years than I'd done working jobs, that would be a triumph.

actually I totally have that fear. I go through long spells of time where every activity feels bland (I suspect it's a combination of my anxiety meds and just my random mood swings), no matter who with or what it is. and I also don't want to be 57 years old and still going to the karaoke bar getting tanked either.

I will say I worried more a lot about that kind of thing prior to 30, mid-30 it suddenly was "shit my cholesterol needs to be better"

I also want to retire well unlike my folks who squandered everything. my dad will probably work forever and it's the most depressing thing to see. sacrificed his future to salvage his present too much.

having kids has, in a very short period of time, taken me from "if I live to 80 or so, that's cool" to "I never, ever want to die and can't bear the thought of it"

To put this fear another way, it sometimes feels as if no matter how hard you try, the rewards are never worth the effort. But since you'll never know, you have to keep trying your best. Even if the rewards were disappointing, not trying would be an inferior life.

If I were healthy and in control of my own life, 85-90 years sounds good. In my current sitch, oh about 52.

if reincarnation was a confirmed reality, I wouldn't even bother going past 40. HIt the reset button!

Not too old. Because I'm going to be working until i'm physically unable to.

Don't count on that long retirement.

Yeah, I'm not optimistic about ever getting a retirement.

Getting past 57 would be an achievement as neither my father or his father managed it.

as things currently stand I'm retiring in 2048 with a good pension I'd like to change my answer to "I want to live forever"

I want to live at least until they legalize psychedelics for senior citizens.

I'll be 85, wigging out on the front porch of my lunar log cabin, Slim Whitman echoing out across the dunes.

seconding Adam; after reading latest posts on “psychedelics for adults?” thread, old age seems more appealing, less existentially terrifying

You do realize jobs are going to be obsolete in less than 20 years, and then the real fun starts...