Expanding human lifespan and its consequences

[Jaxa]

Hello everyone.

 

I'm new here and I want to start with a question which comes to my mind every now and then. I hope than someone might help me.

When was the moment of the most radical expansion of average human lifespan? I know that it's presumably somewhere in the period of industrial revolution and the beginnings of capitalism, but can someone explain it to me more precisely?

 

And - what is actually most important for me - do you know how does the change modified the quality of daily live? Do people really experienced the expansion, do they felt like they really have more time than before or was it only like a shift of scales, barely noticeable? Maybe you know about a book or an article which examines the issue?

 

Thank you all in advance. Best wishes, Kuba

[MaxWeberHasAPosse]

Probably has something to do with sterilization. 

[Jaxa]

Probably has something to do with sterilization. 

What do you mean? Who has been sterilized?

[MaxWeberHasAPosse]

keeping things clean, preventing the spread of germs, etc.

 

[sociology767]

I think the most precise point was when people started doing their own homework assignments.

Edited September 15, 2015 by sociology767

[Jaxa]

I think the most precise point was when people started doing their own homework assignments.

I've been just wondering whether the contemporary discussions about transhumanism and the opprotunities of lifespan's prolongation in the years to come don't have a blindspot. A few classic philosophers have empathized that we have to make a distinction between quantitative/numberical/measured time (that is the thing our clocks show) and the way we experience sequences of events as such. They have argued that the experiential time is prior to the quantitative one. I find the point very convincing and I assume that it renders the whole discussions on the questions such like 'how would our marriages look like if we are to live around 1,000 years?' really different. It is possible that our experience of time will just adopt to the new circumstances and the difference between comtemporary marriages which last let's say 50 years and the further ones is misconceived and exaggerated. Actually the only change in our lives might be numerical, not experiential. I'd like to write an aritcle on that but I've to find certain examples from the past. I thought that the sociological forum is the right place to start the search.

Edited September 16, 2015 by Jaxa