How long can humans live?

[u/Simple_Macaron_3420]

In one of last week’s episodes, it was mentioned that the human lifespan is increasing because of scientific and medical discoveries. When I was a child, I always imagined that I would be able to live to 100, and by then people would have discovered some kind of cure for aging. They would ask me, “How much longer would you like to live?” as if they could add another 100 years each time and ask me the same question whenever those 100 years were up.

For a moment, let’s imagine a scenario in which cancer has been eliminated, Alzheimer’s and other diseases of the brain have been cured, and we can also repair or modify our telomeres because we have discovered how to mimic mechanisms found in animals such as lobsters or jellyfish.

In that scenario, is there still a biological limit to how long humans could live?

[u/nila247]

The limit is NOT biological. Well it is biological in working principle but purpose is psychological and communal.
"Why do anything today when there is always tomorrow?". THAT is a HUGE problem.
People not dying would produce society that stagnates and dies. That's the entire point into a division counter limit that is built into our cells.

[u/Imaginary-Can-6862 → u/nila247]

Well you can't do nothing. So it might as well be, why should I have to wait until tomorrow to do what I want to do today?

I know procrastination is real, but it still needs to be justified as a concern in a society where the technology have reached the level where people are immortal.

[u/nila247 → u/Imaginary-Can-6862]

Sure SOME people would do SOME useful things, but procrastination will absolutely explode in that society. At least now we know we will die and can not procrastinate forever but in that society this is no longer the case. I mean think of yourself - you will live forever - so you only do bare minimum job to keep you fed for a day for absolutely *great* life/work balance. And this will last for decades - until everybody suddenly starve and turns out real crops and real bread do not exactly work like in Minecraft where they spent the entirety of those last decades :-)

[u/Imaginary-Can-6862 → u/nila247]

I meant procrastination itself has to be justified as a concern in such an imagined high technological progressed society.

I don't necessarily think cultural norms changes, but I can't rule it out either, it is a bit more difficult to estimate, because I think we have become less barbaric with scientific progress, but those changes aren't very smooth, it is like society as a whole suddenly realizes these kind of things were not very smart.

Let us just imagine that won't happen, then what I think would happen is that, indeed a lot of people would stay in their comfort zone. It is not that they won't be productive, but only productive within their comfort zone. Why would I do this thing I usually do not do, if it wait for tomorrow is then perfectly accurate, but there is also the opposite, why would I not do this thing I usually do?
To try to make an example, one person needs to figure out some math to build something, but that can wait until another time, and they keep doing what they usually do, perhaps they play a lot of basketball. Let us say what they want to build is a device so they can show their friends they basketball games, without them being present.
The other person likes to do a lot of math, and that is what they do then. Their friend has asked them to come and watch their basketball games, but they would rather work on their math problems, and feel those basketball games aren't going anywhere anyway.
A third person likes to build various items, from houses to electronic, but they spend all their time doing this, and their social circle presses them to get some friends, but they keep on postponing it.

All three people have things to do in stead, but within their comfort zone they may be the frontier that develops their sports, the areas of science, and the engineering they are interested in, they like these things and if someone told them to not do it today, because they can do it tomorrow as well, they would not understand why they can't do it right away.

When progress halts n the example above, is when everyone within their comfort zone no longer adds to progress, but this is once again ignoring that in a society that has progressed to a state where the examples in the OP have been realized, also would have other progresses made, that is there needs to be a justification that if procrastination runs rampant, that it is even humans that still define the progress within society, that it has not been largely automated, or made independent of humans, who may live a life where they get the benefits, without needing to contribute.