[joshmarlow]

If individuals did live longer, then we as a society might get better at forethought, as we have to live through longer-term consequences of our actions.

Maybe if more people remembered relatives dying of polio or measles, we would have fewer vaccine scares.

Maybe if more people remembered seeing great species going extinct with their own eyes, we would be more concerned about conservation.

I think the most positive outcome would be that we actually stop thinking about our own little lives and get a sense of the bigger picture - all of the other humans and species that matter as much as the I that I send all day thinking about.

I really hope that if we could live longer as individuals, we would mature as a species. But I'm not convinced that that's what would occur.