I've very mixed feelings about this topic. Some people are claiming that immortality is within our grasp - even within a generation or more fantastically that the first person to live to a 1,000 has already been born. I can understand wanting to be healthier as you age and that seems like a good goal to drive for - as long as the economic structures are there to cope with that (and it seems is not the case currently.) But eternal life? Even doubling the average lifespan? I honestly don't see the point. Although imaginary, a basic, average, run-of-the-mill life is tough enough as it is. We're straining at the seams coping with aging populations already. Given that the gap between the richest layer and poorest layers of society has been continually widening, is looks like these benefits will only be available to the top n% (0.1, 1, 5, 10... whatever). Please swat me down on my opinions with actual facts and studies and counter arguments no problem. Just felt like opening the discussion.
I'd venture it's an immature endeavor. What ever anyone will experience at that age, let's say 1000, it won't be anything similar to how they experience life now when they're thinking about it. We weren't made to live that long, period. My conceited self, shitpostting my opinion here, says if anyone wants to believe such an idea is possible, then they have a child-like umderstanding of the cycle of life and death, creation and destruction, balance, and all that mumbo jumbo. Immortality isn't sustainable, all things staying the same. In some lights it reminds me of those attempts to bring back mammoths... Anywho, I'd be interested if you could dig up your source. Hope this doesn't sound too harsh, I'm actually more in agreement with you.
Part of the problem with immortality is that old people need to die so that society can progress and get better. I did a lot of thought on what to reply besides the snark below, but my reasoning is something along the lines of this: Black Americans did not get out of Jim Crow and legal segregation until the people profiting off those systems started to die off in the 1960's. Gay people were not treated as human beings until the bigots got old and started to die off. Irish did not become an acceptable group of people in the US until enough of the old WASPs died and they became a big enough voting block to get Kennedy elected. Think about toe societal norms and customs of 100 years ago. Now think of those folks running everything. It's bad enough that this presidential campaign is the last grasp of the Baby Boomers to mess up the country for four more years, imagine if there were 30 more years of them healthy and hearty enough to keep control of Congress. 100 years ago there were no airplanes, no computers, barely fax machines, no electricity outside the bigger cities, no vaccines, no antibiotics. It would be nice if we could all live to be a healthy 100 years old, and that world is coming. I think we will be better for it when we have the institutional memories of people who were alive five generations ago. There is a significant value in having older people around to help out with raising the kids which is why multi-generational households are a thing. But... what if living to 200 was a normal expected thing? What would that do to the birth rate? When creative types hit their 40's they tend to stop innovating; Nobel Prize winners tend to be in their 40's and the ones who win the prize later in life get it for work they did when they were much younger. If there are mostly 'old' people in a society, and that tanks the birth rate, what happens to our scientific and technical innovation? What do we as a society do when 100 year old women, otherwise perfectly healthy and able, now want to start having kids? It is bad enough that the Octomom was able to have fertility treatments, and that there are women in their 60's giving birth. Oldest verifiable mother was almost 67 and yes, that was via IVF. This is a question that starts an avalanche of ethical minefields that most people are not even thinking of. And as health gets better, as medical technology advances and as we start living longer lives we as a society are going to have to deal with a way of life that is completely not natural.
I'd be interested to see the same poll done in Japan. In the US, the culture favors the young, the athletic and the productive. In Japan, at least historically before they were affected by western culture, the Japanese revered their elders' knowledge, experience and wisdom. If you live in a culture where people are respecting you for your age, it's easier to want to live longer. Some of the oldest people in the world are in Japan. It's not a mystery to me why Americans don't want to live longer. It's more of a mystery to me why Americans don't want to change their disposable culture.
honestly? I'm not interested in a longer life, especially if that life is in a body that is already falling apart.