With greater longevity, the quest to avoid infirmities of aging is more urgent
Somewhat off-topic, but I always thought the most prominent real-life reenactment of The Fox and the Grapes was all of the media and thinkpieces that people have written about how living for an extended period of time would be just _awful_. You wouldn&#x27;t find many people who think that 40 years would be an acceptable lifespan, and most people would probably like to live to 100 if they got there in good health, but as soon as the idea of living potential centuries is floated, it&#x27;s all &quot;it would drive you crazy with boredom!&quot; It seems like a good-sized contingent of people believe that extending the human lifespan wouldn&#x27;t be impossible or immoral so much as it would be _undesirable_. Boy, it sure is convenient that our &quot;natural&quot; longevity (whatever that means) is right at the limits of what humans can reasonably enjoy, huh?<p>I could understand the impulse people would have to not extend their lives if that&#x27;s truly what they wanted, but the almost _cultural_ belief that seeking immortality is Bad and Wrong, something only pursued by cartoon villains and insane emperors seems like a collective agreement among people to throw their hands up and go &quot;well, fine! I don&#x27;t even _want_ to live longer, who&#x27;d like that?&quot;<p>All of this, of course, doesn&#x27;t touch on the moral, economic, environmental, etc. problems that crop up with greatly extended longevity, for which there are a number of altogether more palatable arguments that would need to be engaged with more fully. Still, it&#x27;s an odd piece of ideology that makes people feel like they don&#x27;t need to deploy any of these in the conversation - why would they, when they _totally_ don&#x27;t even want to live much longer than 100 anyways?