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Comment by qrbLPHiKpiux | Hacker News Reader

You sound young.

You will change your thoughts as you age.

Some time in my 40s I accepted death. I don't want it to be miserable but I am not afraid anymore of being dead. I think at some point you just notice that your body has seen its best days and life energy starts to diminish. My mom is in her 90s and she often says that she wants this to be over. She still has fun but feels that it's enough.

That’s nice though. I really hope to feel that way when I reach that age (and I hope to reach the age to start feeling tired of life in the first place).

I agree about growing weary about life is a noticeable trend, among the older relatives I know. Still, human beings are remarkably different. Some are driven by a single overwhelming emotion, like curiosity. To these, I can relate.

Observing different people in my vicinity, I can't help but wonder: why are they so different? Some are energetic, others are not, some are athletic, others are not. Some age faster, others age slower. I can't help but notice that there is some large heritable factor to it, and it waits to be discovered and studied in its fullness.

31 years old here, and felt the same way that @koboll has felt for the past 10+ years. I don't know how old I have to get for that view to change, but if I could take an immortality pill I'd do it in a heartbeat.

You want to be immortal just to assuage your fear of dying? That seems like a bit of an overreaction.

Not really. I’d be immortal if I could.

I would consider it as well, but not because I'm afraid of dying.

Rather because I think I would enjoy being able to learn about more things.

Wanting to be immortal specifically to escape death seems odd to me.

Part of my fear of death is missing out on the future. Well I get to visit other planets? Will I get to see the resolution to quantum mechanics / relativity? Will I get to see extraterrestrial life? Will I get to see humanity spread among the stars?

I desperately want to see those things. And I'm extremely scared of missing out just because of how frail human bodies are.

Seems perfectly logical to me? I’d do it too. Getting tired of living and finding a way around immortality is a problem for future me.

If I can’t, then I’ll eventually go crazy and the effect is more or less the same.

Well this is why I say it seems like a bit of an overreaction.

I think you're trading in your fear of dying for a far bigger problem.

31 is still quite young. The more people you see in a box, the less weird and terrifying the prospect becomes.

I have a fair amount of acquaintances who came to realize it is possible to do something about aging, not just sit and wait. Some of these fear death, many not, for those it's just a principled position they assume. Maybe it's a generational thing.

Yes, youth is temporary, but given how much a person can happen to achieve during their youth, why shouldn't these achievements be related to research on aging and modulation of its aspects? I can't fathom how most webapps or adclick networks could be more important things to spend your youth on, than this noble project.

If our generation won't succeed, then our children, or their children's children will. At the very worst, we will leave a good foundation behind us. At the very best, we will be there in sound mind and body to meet them as equals.

I agree to a point, but immortality seems like the wrong solution. Being stuck in a life you _can't_ escape has the potential to be far worse than death.

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