The Student Room Group

do you believe that the length of life leads us to take it too seriously?

we're all pretty privileged here with long lives and lots of good stuff...nice houses, nice clothes, nice stuff, we're generally healthy and most people are at least fairly good looking.

do you think this leads us to take life/ourselves too seriously?

for overall happiness levels, i'd say life would be better if it lasted maybe 5-6 years and then you died, but you started in your prime by just appearing on the ground, fully clothed, and knowing how to do basic stuff, with somewhere to live. obviously from a self-centred point of view, this would mean less life for you, but those 5-6 years would, i reckon, be happier than any average 5-6 years of your life.

So if you had the same number living on the planet at any time, i reckon happiness levels would be higher.

what would you say?

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Reply 1
also most people would say they're fairly intelligent/worthy of life because they know they're conscious, and with the length of life, will start to see it as cruel that they have to die. they start to take themselves very seriously, which isn't good.

well i say most people...i don't actually know,, how could i? i'm speaking from my own experience here, and i'm guessing it's the same for many from what people have said to me.
Reply 2
i dont know if we take life to serriously- that depends on whether we take death seriously. But I do think I would be happier if i died earlier But imagine if 5-6 years - pro creation would be difficult. Let put it to 13 years maybe then- so youd die as soon as child born maybe. AHhh too much complications.....you have to pick a different age- minimum 16- someone needs to look after the babies.
Reply 3
yazoo
i dont know if we take life to serriously- that depends on whether we take death seriously. But I do think I would be happier if i died earlier But imagine if 5-6 years - pro creation would be difficult. Let put it to 13 years maybe then- so youd die as soon as child born maybe. AHhh too much complications.....you have to pick a different age- minimum 16- someone needs to look after the babies.


say it's a completely different world where things happen differently.

people just appear on the ground and are in their early-mid 20s, fully clothed, without being too freaked out, with knowledge of all the basics for survival and with somewhere to stay.

no reproduction like on this planet.
Reply 4
Our existence may be likely to be completely inconsquentual for the universe(s) at large, but contemplating questions such as this serve no purpose.
Reply 5
It wouldn't work. We need people to help us and enable us to live life less seriously. In order to need people we must pay them and in order to pay for them we must take life seriosuly and earn money. Only the lucky few with rich parents can and often do take life less seriously. It wouldn't work on a large scale no matter how long we lived.
Reply 6
How would technology advance? :s-smilie:
Reply 7
Anonymous
say it's a completely different world where things happen differently.

people just appear on the ground and are in their early-mid 20s, fully clothed, without being too freaked out, with knowledge of all the basics for survival and with somewhere to stay.

no reproduction like on this planet.



Hmmm and technology- advances- can people get sick? But your missing out on death- i think people dont take death serriously enough. Im sort of freaked out by it. I used to not be- but just think you will go-- you will leave and die- and thenn....... we are made to die- so i think your question depends on or is slightly missing out on the status of death.
Reply 8
Wesssty
How would technology andvance? :s-smilie:

lol same thought
Reply 9
Humans only live around 28 000 days, most of you reading this have spent 8 000 of them already. Not that long.
Reply 10
why does technology have to advance?

but i mean people appear in their mid 20s with the training of the person they replace, trained with the knowledge to do the job that the other guy left behind. so technology would advance

and why should not taking life seriously equate to not having a job, as another user suggested? not taking things seriously could just mean not fearing death that much, not fearing the end of your existence. you coudl still have a job that you enjoyed/didn't enjoy. you coudl argue that not having a job and trying to "enjoy yourself" is an example of taking life and yourself too seriously
Reply 11
TerryTerry
Humans only live around 28 000 days, most of you reading this have spent 8 000 of them already. Not that long.


long enough to get worried and get too attached, but still finite. it's a crappy length. life should be either infinite, or very short, or maybe people just shouldn't have the capacity to know that this life comes to an end
if you were here for 3 days, you'd just accept it was very temporary.
TerryTerry
Humans only live around 28 000 days, most of you reading this have spent 8 000 of them already. Not that long.


That is so depressing. Especially because if you are averaging death at 80, the last 8000 days we will have gone rather past our prime then that leaves us 12,000 days left to do something...(Of course I'm not saying one is unable to achieve anything past 60 but it can inhibit you somewhat).
Reply 13
Here's a question...flies and those organisms that live for a short time, do you think they know they have a short life.. Maybe being somewhat unaware....or maybe less intelligent wud make us enjoy lives more....
Reply 14
I would suggest that you would be panicking for most of those 6 years, and as such, if life lasted more like 200 years, you could spend at least 100 years without worrying about death.
Reply 15
OP what motivated ou to make this thread?
Reply 16
No.
Reply 17
Wesssty
How would technology advance? :s-smilie:


I personally think technological advancements make people sad. With more knowledge comes greater sadness.
Reply 18
Magic Dust
I personally think technological advancements make people sad. With more knowledge comes greater sadness.

Yet you just used your 'woeful' computer to make that comment. :lol:
Reply 19
Wesssty
Yet you just used your 'woeful' computer to make that comment. :lol:


Lol. Yeah :P I was thinking that as I typed that comment too. Haha.

It is true though... Like because of the media being able to report to wider audiences' etc parents have become to over protective of kids and now they aren't even allowed to walk to school. I mean, what the hell?!