Bex shrugged. “You think anybody’s going to listen to a bunch of scientists? No offense. But nobody has so far.” - Stephen Baxter

It seems to me that age, growing old, is a war between wisdom and bitterness. I’m not sure how I’ll come out of that war myself, assuming I get so far.
Maybe some things are more important than life itself.
But what?

In this marginal land accurate information was at a premium; to know the land was to prosper, not to know it meant starvation, and experts were a lot more valuable than bosses.

Information—its gathering, interpretation and storage—is the ultimate goal of all intelligent life.