When We Live Beyond 200 Years Old
We may soon live beyond 200 years. What does that mean for our societies and cultures, our own sense of identity and psyche? A brief exploration.
Muzi was in an upbeat mood. It was his 185th birthday and he was having his third retirement party after his contracted 20 year tenure as a university professor. Before that he’d been an aerospace engineer and prior to that an architect. His latest health review projected he’d live to around 220 years old and he’d accumulated enough wealth to retire to his cottage outside of Cape Town.
What will it mean when we can live beyond 200 years? Perhaps 300 years? Is this possible and if so, what does that mean for different cultures, the impact on social norms, economic and political systems? What about advancements in AI and robotics as part of that whole?
Our current economic systems are not designed for such a situation. In developed nations, they work around a relatively predictable lifespan. A period of growth and education, career and family time with an accumulation of wealth. Retirement. Death. All within about an average 75 year lifespan, depending on where you live in the world.
In western cultures, there is less regard for the elderly and hitting 55 means you’re on the downswing and considered of less economic value. Asian cultures revere the elderly, so do many African ones. One is still considered economically viable over 55. So here, we see a need to shift how people are valued into later years, based on our current economic systems.
Education systems aren’t really set up for people going through two or three rounds of complete career education. But are more adaptable than most economic systems. Yet the growing influence of Artificial Intelligence over the next two decades is likely to be of value in ongoing learning. And may be critical as a part of education systems and models.
Then there’s social contracts such as marriage. For religions where marriage is well, until death do us part, are humans really desirous of being with the same person for over 150 years? It raises a lot of questions. What would you call someones 150th wedding anniversary? The Rhenium Jubilee?
Is our very sense of what it means to be human, our psyche, able to deal living to 200 and beyond? Our sociocultural systems have evolved alongside our anticipated lifespans. We’ve developed milestones in life that are based around these phases. We form mindsets and identities based around phases of life.
When we are in our twenties, we think we are going to live forever. What about feeling that way in our eighties? When we still have good health and bucket loads of energy? When our midlife crises hit at 130 instead of 50?
Could we perhaps see an employee who gets their 100 year award for working at the same company? Forget a gold watch, I want a platinum one! What will businesses even look like then? The majority of businesses are small ones, but perhaps will change ownership multiple times as we get bored of wiring homes and unclogging drains and go on to something else, again and again.
What about systems of governance? Like term limits for politicians? Imagine a senator serving for 90 or 110 years? When is one then, too old to be in politics? At 190? What will be the political views of someone at 30 and at 130? How does a political party adjust to people changing affiliations multiple times in life? What about a dictator that can rule for 150 years?
Politicians love to punt the ball of social crises that are looming down to some future politician to deal with. That gets a lot harder to do if you plan to get re-elected for 80 or 90 years! Talk about being held accountable!
What does it mean to be an elder in Indigenous cultures when you don’t become one until you’re 190? What about concepts of ancestor worship and associated rituals? How do we deal with memories and what does it mean to remember when you went to school with someone 175 years ago?
What about moving about the planet over such a long period of time? For most, we grow up and live within one culture, we take comfort in the norms, traditions and social structures we know and understand. They help inform our identity. But what if we get bored of our culture of birth and decide we’re done being Italian and now want to be immersed in and feel part of Japanese culture? To switch our identity from Italian to Japanese?
Which then begs the question of what ones identity is. Our identities do change as we age, from student to worker to parent to retiree and all that these entail. Generational identity is part of every culture, but what does culture even mean in a world where we can change and merge into another?
More people moving about the planet throughout a 200+ year lifespan then has us looking at nation states and what it means to be a country, with borders and immigration rules and laws. Can a national identity survive for long? They’re already mutable, but this becomes entirely different in nature.
So many big questions start to bubble up and we can go off any so many tangents as we start thinking about these issues. Our sociocultural systems would definitively change. Economic models will change, political systems, art, music and literature.
We know we are in global population decline, that we are going to need robots and and likely AI agents to augment us. Some might think that if we live so long, we will become quickly overpopulated. The evidence suggests otherwise.
As populations become wealthier, they tend to have less children. So what happens really then, when we become very wealthy and live beyond 200? We may well have to figure out, like we are already doing today, how to get people to have children? Or perhaps we’ll be like Huxley’s “Brave New World” with test tube baby farms? Alphas, Beta’s and Omegas.
The technologies to extend our lifespans are already here and doing this work today. Advances in cancer and other disease treatments, new medications. Research is advancing with growing organs for replacement. Long has the human desire to live longer, forever, been with us.
We are fast approaching a time when this may happen. We are never ready for, or prepared to deal with, revolutionary technological advances. But we do tend to figure it all out. Humans are the most adaptable, well, maybe along with, viruses, fungi and bacteria, species on earth. We are, if nothing else, quite fascinating. See you at your 175th birthday party! Happy third retirement Muzi!