We're All Going to Die

To be honest I don’t find the situation frustrating. I find it interesting how relatively straightforward it is to make a difference.

Obviously life will not be infinite, but to have tools to live a healthier life is a positive situation.

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I guess you don’t know about the AI Scaling Laws.

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I wouldn’t get too hung up on any given bit of technological progress in any given month or year. As they say, “The Journey is the reward”… the focus has to be on enjoying life and living a fulfilling life, and I happen to enjoy learning about the science and biology of aging, and implementing things when I can. It’s a fascinating area to learn about, it provides some benefits to my life in the short term (and I suspect in the long term). Will I still die at some point… probably, but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying every day until then.

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Oh come on, haven’t you seen the other thread here and the article explaining how it’s increasingly expensive to grow old? Things are going to get so expensive you’re going to beg to be allowed to die. Instead of looking for life prolonging drugs you’ll be searching for the ones that can stop it painlessly. Humanity is not so good at coming up with the first kind of drug, but very good with the second. So there is progress, the terminal drugs are getting better and better.

Can you imagine being 97 and homeless? I say that because there was an article in LA Times some months ago about homelessness problems and they interviewed a woman and casually mentioned that she was 97. So, 97 and living in the streets. How much money can she pull from economic activity at that age? Not much, so she’s out in the streets, hopeless and lashed by the elements. It’s better to be 107 and die in a shootout:

Now, you may ask what drugs was the 107 year old on to reach such an age - where he’s not sitting in a wheelchair, but instead engages in a running gun battle, spry old man with good aim. Police tried gas on him and couldn’t get him to budge, because he was immune to the gas - he had excellent lung function. Finally they killed him after an extended gun battle. What’s the lesson here? Guns kill. If he didn’t have a gun, he might have lived a long life, but he made some bad choices and they came back to bite him. No, not dietary or exercise choices, or choices of drugs, but choices of weapons - he should have tried witty remarks, it’s a more powerful weapon than a Smith & Wesson. But he was through talking, it was time for action, and he took on a whole police department and their specialized SWAT team.

There are many such cases, where old people navigate the first 100 years of life OK, but then their luck runs out and they make some fatal mistake and die.

Death is not inevitable. You can still save yourself if you make the right choices. Look at the 107 year old and learn from his experience.

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Unrelated, except location:

Since the dawn of human history, certain archetypal stories have recurred, appearing again and again in myth and legend across cultures, continents, and centuries. The Deluge. The Resurrection. The Hero’s Journey. On the internet, among the most important archetypes is “The Overconfident Optimist and His Ill-Advised DIY Project.” We see it in Groverhaus, in Reddit Island, in the Child-Annihilating Zipline.

On Monday the user @i_zzzzzz – a person to whom I feel personally indebted for their coinage of the extremely useful term “chaos meal” – revealed what seemed like a new instance of this time-honored archetype. “This guy on Hacker News is buying up the entire town of Pine Bluff, Arkansas for reasons that seem unclear even to him. Someone please help him go home to his children,” @i_zzzzzz wrote.

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X Prize has 100+ teams working diligently to tackle aging.

Lots of breakthroughs in the way longevity science is being funded using crypto DeSci like with Pump Science.

A lot of the problems we face currently are logistical/funding/infrastructure/regulation, and those are being worked on.

We’re getting there. Once humanity is aligned on the mission we will knock it out the park.

Mark Hyman is kind of a quack but he does make one great point. Live healthy and long enough to reach the time of medical advancement that will enable LEV.

Longevity Escape Velocity (LEV) is a futuristic concept where scientific and medical advancements extend a person’s remaining life expectancy by more than a year for every year that passes. Reaching this “escape velocity” would mean that aging becomes optional, as the time gained through new therapies would outpace the aging process itself, potentially leading to indefinite lifespans. Prominent futurists, like Ray Kurzweil, predict that AI-driven advancements will enable LEV by 2029 or 2030, although this is a controversial and highly speculative idea

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I think I found the article you are referring to. Facing Financial Ruin as Costs Soar for Elder Care - KFF Health News
It’s stressful even to think about what it describes. I feel completely unprepared. If it comes to facing some disability in the future I would rather relocate somewhere in Thailand (like Chiang Mai), rent an affordable one bedroom and have a home maid for $500/month than living in a nursing facility. I should probably travel there and check it out.

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The situation is even better than that. A lot of women in retirement move to Thailand with exactly such a plan. If you go to the expat forums for Thailand where they discuss life there, times are really good right now. For $500 a month many widowed and retired women experience a second youth, because you can employ a full service strong young Russian guy, whom there are a lot if in Thailand trying to stay away from Russia and military service, they have no work permit, but have to somehow make a living. Of course how long that lasts nobody knows as the war might end and the young guys return to Russia. But meanwhile, opportunities exist.

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I am largely indifferent to death. Let it come when it may. But in the meantime, I am gloriously free of pain because of what I’ve learned on this site. Instead of wallowing in existential despair, make the most of what is offered here. This site emphasizes physical health. Get out of your mind and into your body, and your body will rewire your mind and alter your philosophy.

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I wouldn’t call it an opportunity! :joy:

Doesn’t have to be Thailand - there are other choices (Costa Rica, Dominican, Panama, etc.) - and those choices are much better than what Medicare covers. It’s a shame though that the U.S. older citizens have to flee their own country to the third world “opportunities” as you call it. It’s really a shame. What’s your plan?

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We have the option to decamp to a european country as expats, but at the moment, I think we have enough for a comfortable retirement in the US, unless one of us gets cancer that needs many millions. I’m more worried about simply leaving my wife a widow, as she’s my junior by 16 years. I believe that in these situations where there are bigger age differences, the older partner needs to think carefully and make preparations for the eventuality of their demise. There’s a responsibility, and it’s not purely financial. I have consciously cultivated a good group of younger friends, so as to avoid longer term isolation. We have no kids, but our friends do😅.

Life is one of those survival games where the CPU keeps sending larger and larger waves of enemies until you get overwhelmed. I think we are still too far from escape velocity for any of us to live forever yet, but I intend to get a great score.

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We have cheap homecare in Hong Kong along with an excellent socialized medicine program. I have a domestic helper, but some people have two to cover every day of the week 24/7. They often take care of the elderly performing every task needed.

As for healthcare, my father-in-law had excellent free treatment for his pancreatic cancer, although we did pay extra for some chemotherapy at the end that extended his life another 6 months. So my wife and I bought top up insurance which costs about 1,000 USD a year per person and will cover everything.

The USA really takes advantage of the sick and elderly. The costs you have to pay are insane for help and medical!

The drawback to Hong Kong is housing which is not as big of a difference now that the USA is insane for their housing too.

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Wait, did anyone seriously for a moment think we were NOT going to die? :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

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Bryan Johnson is trying. He will end up like Howard Hughes, still rich and still dead.

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I think the pragmatic amongst us are aiming for a healthy 120 years. :wink:

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However, after watching this video, the end for all of us is probably closer than we thought.

AI has developed new and more deadly viruses than Nature could create.

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That’s what I am aiming for, but I will be happy if I can ride my bike in to my 90s.