I think that the failure of long-term planning in humans is not because we live any specific amount of time, but because we live for a finite amount of time. Only when days and years and decades all the way on up become unlimited (or practically so; we may always be limited by the heat death of the universe or something) and too cheap to meter would I expect to see explosions in long-term thinking.
Can you elaborate on why you believe that? I find it difficult to see how, if lifespans were still finite but measured in millennia instead of decades, it could not have major consequences for long-term planning (on the order of decades to centuries).
It’s mostly an intuition backed up by observations of my own thinking around long-term plans; I don’t think I would get any better at making them unless I were outright immortal. However, I’m not bad at making long-term plans to begin with. I suppose I could quite easily be an anomaly.
Does “expecting to live for 10,000 years or more” feel subjectively closer to the current status quo than to immortality for you? I’m guessing so, but it’s certainly not the case for me.
They don’t feel the same—it just doesn’t inspire me to fantasize about doing anything much longer term than I already am when I imagine living to be 10,000. This may be because I haven’t spent enough time fantasizing about living for lengthy, finite periods of time, or it may be because I already think long-term enough to cover that eventuality.
I think that the failure of long-term planning in humans is not because we live any specific amount of time, but because we live for a finite amount of time. Only when days and years and decades all the way on up become unlimited (or practically so; we may always be limited by the heat death of the universe or something) and too cheap to meter would I expect to see explosions in long-term thinking.
Can you elaborate on why you believe that? I find it difficult to see how, if lifespans were still finite but measured in millennia instead of decades, it could not have major consequences for long-term planning (on the order of decades to centuries).
It’s mostly an intuition backed up by observations of my own thinking around long-term plans; I don’t think I would get any better at making them unless I were outright immortal. However, I’m not bad at making long-term plans to begin with. I suppose I could quite easily be an anomaly.
Does “expecting to live for 10,000 years or more” feel subjectively closer to the current status quo than to immortality for you? I’m guessing so, but it’s certainly not the case for me.
They don’t feel the same—it just doesn’t inspire me to fantasize about doing anything much longer term than I already am when I imagine living to be 10,000. This may be because I haven’t spent enough time fantasizing about living for lengthy, finite periods of time, or it may be because I already think long-term enough to cover that eventuality.