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prolong and the elderly

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prolong and the elderly
Post by Lord Skimper   » Mon Apr 21, 2014 4:40 pm

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After finally finding the old prolong topic and its degeneration.

I was thinking about prolong and my experiences taking care of my elderly parents, while reading the Honorverse books, and I wonder if the advanced medical will be enough to keep the elderly happy healthy and able bodied into their very long and very old age.

Now over the age of 75 unless one is athletic or active the decline begins. With prolong tripling ones life, instead of a short decline over 10 to 15 years. Prolong might make 30 to 45 years of decline. Going from 95 to 120 with a rapidly declining body till at 115 your very fragile. Only now that is 75 years, a slower decline but a longer decline.

The strain of having to live for decades in decline might not be all that beneficial after all.
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Re: prolong and the elderly
Post by Jonathan_S   » Mon Apr 21, 2014 4:45 pm

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Lord Skimper wrote:After finally finding the old prolong topic and its degeneration.

I was thinking about prolong and my experiences taking care of my elderly parents, while reading the Honorverse books, and I wonder if the advanced medical will be enough to keep the elderly happy healthy and able bodied into their very long and very old age.

Now over the age of 75 unless one is athletic or active the decline begins. With prolong tripling ones life, instead of a short decline over 10 to 15 years. Prolong might make 30 to 45 years of decline. Going from 95 to 120 with a rapidly declining body till at 115 your very fragile. Only now that is 75 years, a slower decline but a longer decline.

The strain of having to live for decades in decline might not be all that beneficial after all.
It's specifically mentioned somewhere that prolong is expected not to lengthen old-age. Basically that it preferentially lengthens adulthood, or middle-age. (it apparently doesn't stretch all parts of your life-span equally) so you should be relatively healthy until you hit a quick decline near the end of your life.

OTOH no one who's received prolong has lived long enough to hit their new old-age; so I guess it's possible that the Honorverse medical community is wrong about how it'll work. But I wouldn't bet any money on RFC deciding that. :)
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Re: prolong and the elderly
Post by kzt   » Mon Apr 21, 2014 7:33 pm

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Jonathan_S wrote:OTOH no one who's received prolong has lived long enough to hit their new old-age; so I guess it's possible that the Honorverse medical community is wrong about how it'll work. But I wouldn't bet any money on RFC deciding that. :)

It's a medical experiment on a huge scale. But what could possibly go wrong?
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Re: prolong and the elderly
Post by Amaroq   » Mon Apr 21, 2014 8:07 pm

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kzt wrote:It's a medical experiment on a huge scale. But what could possibly go wrong?


I was thinking about this the other day. I hope they did a lot of research before they made this available to (mostly) everyone.
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Re: prolong and the elderly
Post by Daryl   » Mon Apr 21, 2014 8:19 pm

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Some parallels to OTL. If medical science has created prolong enabling people to live until 200, then what further developments will happen during those years?
Think back to state of the art medical treatment from 200 years ago.

Quite possibly by the time a prolong recipient reaches 150 they will invest some of their 130 years of savings in a prolonged clone body that they can shift their mind to (pick method; brain transplant, computer interface, some tech that is as unknown to us as TV was to our ancestors 200 years ago).
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Re: prolong and the elderly
Post by HB of CJ   » Mon Apr 21, 2014 9:43 pm

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Greatly increased human life spans may be part and parcel of future technology. Who knows what we may end up over 2000 years from now? This is one of many many reasons why the Weber series of Honorverse novels are so... appealing! They are extremely entertaining AND... they make us think a bit, which I think (???) is good. Sometimes one man, (and author) CAN MAKE a difference. Thank you Sir! HB of CJ (old coot)
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Re: prolong and the elderly
Post by namelessfly   » Mon Apr 21, 2014 10:29 pm

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kzt wrote:
Jonathan_S wrote:OTOH no one who's received prolong has lived long enough to hit their new old-age; so I guess it's possible that the Honorverse medical community is wrong about how it'll work. But I wouldn't bet any money on RFC deciding that. :)

It's a medical experiment on a huge scale. But what could possibly go wrong?
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Re: prolong and the elderly
Post by MAD-4A   » Tue Apr 22, 2014 9:31 am

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Lord Skimper wrote:...with a rapidly declining body till at 115 your very fragile. Only now that is 75 years, a slower decline but a longer decline.

The strain of having to live for decades in decline might not be all that beneficial after all.

I would think regen' would help with most of the physical degeneration. only a small % (like Honor) can't use regen'. most normal people can & like a modern bypass or hip replacement, I would think regen' would help with most old age frailty (can't use your arm anymore - cut it off & grow a new one - don't know if this ability degrades with age or use though).
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Re: prolong and the elderly
Post by Dca   » Fri Apr 25, 2014 9:52 pm

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Skimper, that's the most touching thing I've read from you. Dealing with old age is difficult for all involved, and you raise real questions about what our work to stave off decrepitude and death will really buy us. The HH series seems mostly optimistic in this regard, so far. I hope it stays that way.
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