Timeline for What would a civilisation be like whose people have predetermined lifespans? [closed]
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
25 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Aug 14, 2018 at 0:58 | comment | added | Wildcard | Read Lifeline by Robert Heinlein. It is close to an answer to this question. | |
| Aug 5, 2018 at 16:43 | history | closed |
Gryphon EveryBitHelps Jarred Allen Aify Ash |
Needs more focus | |
| Aug 4, 2018 at 2:41 | comment | added | JBH | @Vim, I believe you missed that point. The only difference between what you're proposing and what happens to us now is that we don't need Obamacare. That's it. What you perceive as earth-shattering is nothing more than living a healthy life today. Who makes plans today knowing they'll live only 80-90 years? Almost nobody. Most of the answers below don't actually make sense. What does life imprisonment mean when you know you'll spend 80-90 years there? Nothing. That's what you'll spend anyway. | |
| Aug 4, 2018 at 2:17 | history | edited | Vim | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Aug 4, 2018 at 2:13 | comment | added | Vim | @Alexander thanks for your point. Their physical and mental capability will decline at an advanced age, and they may also have non life-threatening "glitches" like tooth decay, but they won't be exposed to a higher risk of death than than the young. Please see my edit. | |
| Aug 4, 2018 at 2:10 | comment | added | Vim | @JBH thanks for your comments. I have made an edit per the points you raised in your first comment. But I don't quite agree with your second comment that this setting won't change religion/politics/psychology etc. I think if everybody knows how long they live then one very important thing they will have to learn to do is to make life plans, what to do in the n-th decade of their life, so to speak. And they would also pay drastically more attention to how they spend their last years/decades of life (Joe made this point in his answer). Economic decisions have to be made much more "rationally". | |
| Aug 4, 2018 at 2:02 | history | edited | Vim | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Aug 4, 2018 at 1:34 | vote | accept | Vim | ||
| Aug 4, 2018 at 1:34 | |||||
| Aug 4, 2018 at 1:31 | comment | added | Vim | @DavidThornley yes everybody the same, thanks. | |
| Aug 3, 2018 at 23:00 | comment | added | JBH | @StephenG, 18-year-olds who all look the same and can't act. #TwilightGaveMeCancer. | |
| Aug 3, 2018 at 21:49 | comment | added | David Thornley | Is everybody's nominal lifespan the same (everybody drops dead on their 90th birthday unless killed earlier), or does it vary (I'll live to be 74, somebody else to 87)? In the latter case, do other people know my set lifespan or only me (and anyone I tell)? | |
| Aug 3, 2018 at 21:02 | answer | added | Carlos Zamora | timeline score: 6 | |
| Aug 3, 2018 at 20:51 | answer | added | workerjoe | timeline score: 2 | |
| Aug 3, 2018 at 20:40 | comment | added | StephenG - Help Ukraine | @RonJohn Logan's Run - Jenny Agutter ! Hmmmh. :-) In the movie version the leads were over 21 and no one wanted sub-21 actors in such a movie so the story was adjusted. Nowadays they'd force some 18 year olds on us even if they were supposed to 31. | |
| Aug 3, 2018 at 20:36 | answer | added | Sarah Stark | timeline score: 3 | |
| Aug 3, 2018 at 20:06 | comment | added | RonJohn | Logan's Run!!! Everyone dies at age (in the book: 21, the movie: 30). | |
| Aug 3, 2018 at 20:04 | comment | added | Alexander | Is their health going to decline gradually, or they will stay in perfect health until the very end? | |
| Aug 3, 2018 at 19:40 | review | Close votes | |||
| Aug 3, 2018 at 23:01 | |||||
| Aug 3, 2018 at 19:24 | comment | added | JBH | Keep in mind, everybody dies. All you're doing is removing some of the random chance of a non-statistical death and narrowing the statistics. It wouldn't change religion, politics, our psychology. Nada. Everybody still dies, and basically at the time we all expect to die anyway. | |
| Aug 3, 2018 at 19:23 | comment | added | Gryphon | This question is very broad. Asking how such a major change will affect four different, and very broad, areas of society would practically require a book to explain. As a result, I am voting to close as Too Broad. | |
| Aug 3, 2018 at 19:22 | comment | added | JBH | No tooth decay? No cuts and associated infection? No broken bones? No curiosity, just wondering what all the tubes and stuff do? Do the plants and animals enjoy the same protection? or is there veterinary science (not all that disimilar to human medical science). How about blood clots that cause stroke, etc. You'd have fewer pharmaceuticals, but my knee-jerk reaction is that life would be very little different from today. | |
| Aug 3, 2018 at 19:21 | comment | added | Gryphon | Welcome to Worldbuilding, Vim! If you have a moment, please take the tour and visit the help center to learn more about the site. You may also find Worldbuilding Meta and The Sandbox (both of which require 5 rep to post on) useful. Here is a meta post on the culture and style of Worldbuilding.SE, just to help you understand our scope and methods, and how we do things here. Have fun! | |
| Aug 3, 2018 at 19:20 | review | First posts | |||
| Aug 3, 2018 at 19:21 | |||||
| Aug 3, 2018 at 19:18 | review | Suggested edits | |||
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| Aug 3, 2018 at 19:16 | history | asked | Vim | CC BY-SA 4.0 |