According to the Lifeclock, I should live to be about 86 years old, and will kick the bucket on June 16th, 2057. If I start exercising and eating rilly rilly boring food, I can stretch it out to almost a century on this rock.

I wonder how many people throughout history have held out a hope that someone will figure out the ‘secret’ to prolonging one’s existence during their lifetime? I’m not saying I have such a hope at the moment, but I certainly have entertained the thought in the past, and I’m curious to find out if I’m the only one.

I think the promise of immortality would make a person lazy — the sense of impending doom does make paying on the mortgage and having a retirement plan a little more of a concern.

LaziER, I should say: 2015 AD — “Reports today show that Obesity-connected Diabetes is on the rise following the announcement of a new “Youth Pill” six months ago.

Hum, I have the same thoughts about being able to have an infinate lifespan...but I disagree with your statement:
I think the promise of immortality would make a person lazy -- the sense of impending doom does make paying on the mortgage and having a retirement plan a little more of a concern.
I would think knowing I will die makes me less concerned about what I leave behind.....where if I knew I would be here a long time, I am more likely to keep my house in order.

on the contrary, i think it would make people more likely to be anal-retentive about things like that...MOST people. how long is your credit record going to follow you around, after all?

well, with all that extra time, i should be able to picket brust's house..."we want the viscount of adrilanka! we want the..."

slow and painful death would be too good for me, wouldn't it?

Immortality would be difficult in a socialist/welfare system as they exist.
KSR hit on this a little in the Mars books, but he has a problem when he started to write about people.

Personally, I think that as medical care gets better and people live longer and better, the thought of "retirement" will eventually go away. At my old job was a gentleman who had hit retirement age in the United States Army, and then worked as a teacher and superindendant until he was forced into retirement because of the number of years he worked there, now he's an education consultant.

Retirement, to me, is archaic and wasteful. I like work, I don't want to be forced to quit something, and it is stupid to force people out with working knowledge.

I don't want to live forever, 100-160 good healthy adult years are enough.

Alan Nourse (a minor SF author of my youth, greatly underrated) wrote an interesting short story on the subject, and brought up just that point -- with a lack of mortality dogging one's heels, one would become more complacent, more willing to wait for the *perfect* answer, not just a usable one, willing to let problems be dealt with better tomorrow, rather than tackling them today. Good stuff.