Immortality...
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Wait. Are we talking about the immortality that you cannot die under any circumstances or are we talking immortality like the Elves from LoTR where they just don't age but can die from mortal wounds?
If it's the first one then I would do it just so I could test thing like jumping out of planes without a parachute but it would get lonely eventually.
If it's the Elves immortality then again I would. I'd love to just sit and watch the world develop. Also if the Earth began to die then I could end my own life to escape it.
If it's the first one then I would do it just so I could test thing like jumping out of planes without a parachute but it would get lonely eventually.
If it's the Elves immortality then again I would. I'd love to just sit and watch the world develop. Also if the Earth began to die then I could end my own life to escape it.
Depends, immortality= you can't be KILLED or immortality= you can't die from old age?
If it's the secound one, I'd take it. Since, if I become tired of it, I can commit suicide. Easy as.
If it's the secound one, I'd take it. Since, if I become tired of it, I can commit suicide. Easy as.
Fuck yeah, I'd take immortality. Don't even care what comes after life, I'm not willing to risk it.
Not sure how memory would work, though. Worst come to worse, I'd have to keep about a million journals, for when my brain literally cannot take any more information. Maybe I'd be able to rig up a hard drive extension for my memory? That would be sweet.
Well, assuming I could work that out, I'd just take the time to learn everything, to do everything. I'd build a gorram spaceship, fly to Proxima-frigging-Centauri, just because I can. I'd just need a push, really, given that time is not a problem.
Not sure how memory would work, though. Worst come to worse, I'd have to keep about a million journals, for when my brain literally cannot take any more information. Maybe I'd be able to rig up a hard drive extension for my memory? That would be sweet.
Well, assuming I could work that out, I'd just take the time to learn everything, to do everything. I'd build a gorram spaceship, fly to Proxima-frigging-Centauri, just because I can. I'd just need a push, really, given that time is not a problem.
Yes, it just boils down how you define immortality.
What happens the day the whole human race dies down because of the final apocalyptic showdown religous warfare nuclear catastrophe kind of thing?
You just walk the barren wasteland hoping to find someone else who is immortal or survived?
How long until it gets boring? 2000 years, 3000 years?
Oh and let us imagine that the sun goes supernova and earth is shattered. Congratulations, you are now drifting into space for about 3,000,000,000 Million years until you hit a planet where there you most likely will be stranded for the same amount of time because no lifeform will emerge there.
No, immortality is too limited. Immortality & Suicide Options might be acceptable but I rather go for godhood.
What happens the day the whole human race dies down because of the final apocalyptic showdown religous warfare nuclear catastrophe kind of thing?
You just walk the barren wasteland hoping to find someone else who is immortal or survived?
How long until it gets boring? 2000 years, 3000 years?
Oh and let us imagine that the sun goes supernova and earth is shattered. Congratulations, you are now drifting into space for about 3,000,000,000 Million years until you hit a planet where there you most likely will be stranded for the same amount of time because no lifeform will emerge there.
No, immortality is too limited. Immortality & Suicide Options might be acceptable but I rather go for godhood.
I wouldn't admit not being enticed by the idea of being immortal, but in general I'd prefer not to live forever, with the thought it would go to better use on someone else. That and the fact I'd kill myself for living forever.
This is something I have had many discussions with friends about. The only major downside is losing the ones you love. Most people in books or games that deal with that become cynical and anti-social. So they don't have the chance to be hurt again. Overall, it is something that I would like to have. You could learn and experience so much! But then again, being immortal and being secret about it would be pretty impossible in this day and age. I mean, if you were known, there would be too many people going after you for testing and such. Secrecy would be necessary for it to work out.
I was working under the assumption that you retained brain and body functions as well as general motor skills. Perhaps if you became like one of those old people that still remain remarkably fit and healthy.Kwaku Avoke said:
http://www.cracked.com/article_18708_5-reasons-immortality-would-be-worse-than-death.html
This. If you can't be bothered to read it. Basically.
-Everyone will evolve while you stay as you are. So you will be a freak in 1 million years.
-It would be bad as hell news if anyone found out. So it's gonna be hard to stop people finding out. You will have to leave everything behind.
-You still get older mentally. Your brain will be crammed with experiences and knowledge, you will eventually go insane.
-Your conscious sense of time will speed up. So when you're 100 years old. 60 seconds will feel like 6 seconds. This will keep increasing infinitely.
-If you get trapped anywhere, you're screwed. You may be found eventually from anywhere from 1 day, to x million years. And lets face it, that's gotta suck.
This. If you can't be bothered to read it. Basically.
-Everyone will evolve while you stay as you are. So you will be a freak in 1 million years.
-It would be bad as hell news if anyone found out. So it's gonna be hard to stop people finding out. You will have to leave everything behind.
-You still get older mentally. Your brain will be crammed with experiences and knowledge, you will eventually go insane.
-Your conscious sense of time will speed up. So when you're 100 years old. 60 seconds will feel like 6 seconds. This will keep increasing infinitely.
-If you get trapped anywhere, you're screwed. You may be found eventually from anywhere from 1 day, to x million years. And lets face it, that's gotta suck.
It might suck, but on the other hand, it could be totally freaking awesome for millions of years and more. Frankly, I'd rather take the chance than not, considering death is guaranteed to be neither. Which would be boring. If I weren't dead at the time obviously.
Whatever happens, I'd jump at the chance. If I can't handle it I'll just off myself later. I'd still be governed by physics, so it's not like invulnerability is going to come with the eternal life.
Whatever happens, I'd jump at the chance. If I can't handle it I'll just off myself later. I'd still be governed by physics, so it's not like invulnerability is going to come with the eternal life.
I think curse. Douglass Adams cam up with the best example of why being immortal would suck.
"Wowbagger The Infinitely Prolonged
Wowbagger The Infinitely Prolonged was - indeed, is- one of the Universe's ver small number of immortal beings.
Most of those who are born immortal instinctively know how to cope with it, but Wowbagger was not one of them. Indeed, he had come to hate them, the load of serene bastards. He had his immortaility inadvertantly thrust upon him by an unfortunate accident with an irrational particle accelerator, a liquid lunch, and a pair of rubber bands. The precise details are not important because no one has ever managed to duplicate the exact circumstances under which it happened, and many people have ended up looking very silly, or dead, or both, trying.
To begin with it was fun, he had a ball, living dangerously, taking risks, cleaning up on high-yield long-term investments, and just generally outliving the hell out of everybody.
In the end, it was Sunday afternoons he couldn't cope with, and that terrible listlessness that starts to set in at about 2:55 when you know you've taken all the baths you can usefully take that day, that however hard you stare at any given paragraph in the newspaper you will never actually read it, or use the revolutionary new pruning technique it describes, and that as you stare at the clock the hands will move relentlessly on to four o'clock, and you will enter the Long Dark Teatime of the Soul.
So things began to pall for him. The merry smiles he used to wear at other people's funerals began to fade. He began to despise the Universe in general, and everybody in it in particular.
This was the point at which he conceived his purpose, the thing that would drive him on, and which, as far as he could see, would drive him on forever. It was this:
He would insult the Universe.
That is, he would insult everybody in it. Individually, personally, one by one, and (this was the thing he really decided to grit his teeth over) in Alphabetical Order.
When people protested to him, as they sometimes had done, that the plan was not merely misguided but actually impossible because of the number of people being born and dying all the time, he would merely fix them with a steely look and say, "A man can dream, can't he?"
And so he had started out. He equipped a spaceship that was built to last with a computer capable of handling all the data processing involved in keeping track of the entire population of the known Universe and working out the horrifically complicated routes involved. "
So yeah. Boring.
"Wowbagger The Infinitely Prolonged
Wowbagger The Infinitely Prolonged was - indeed, is- one of the Universe's ver small number of immortal beings.
Most of those who are born immortal instinctively know how to cope with it, but Wowbagger was not one of them. Indeed, he had come to hate them, the load of serene bastards. He had his immortaility inadvertantly thrust upon him by an unfortunate accident with an irrational particle accelerator, a liquid lunch, and a pair of rubber bands. The precise details are not important because no one has ever managed to duplicate the exact circumstances under which it happened, and many people have ended up looking very silly, or dead, or both, trying.
To begin with it was fun, he had a ball, living dangerously, taking risks, cleaning up on high-yield long-term investments, and just generally outliving the hell out of everybody.
In the end, it was Sunday afternoons he couldn't cope with, and that terrible listlessness that starts to set in at about 2:55 when you know you've taken all the baths you can usefully take that day, that however hard you stare at any given paragraph in the newspaper you will never actually read it, or use the revolutionary new pruning technique it describes, and that as you stare at the clock the hands will move relentlessly on to four o'clock, and you will enter the Long Dark Teatime of the Soul.
So things began to pall for him. The merry smiles he used to wear at other people's funerals began to fade. He began to despise the Universe in general, and everybody in it in particular.
This was the point at which he conceived his purpose, the thing that would drive him on, and which, as far as he could see, would drive him on forever. It was this:
He would insult the Universe.
That is, he would insult everybody in it. Individually, personally, one by one, and (this was the thing he really decided to grit his teeth over) in Alphabetical Order.
When people protested to him, as they sometimes had done, that the plan was not merely misguided but actually impossible because of the number of people being born and dying all the time, he would merely fix them with a steely look and say, "A man can dream, can't he?"
And so he had started out. He equipped a spaceship that was built to last with a computer capable of handling all the data processing involved in keeping track of the entire population of the known Universe and working out the horrifically complicated routes involved. "
So yeah. Boring.
I for one would like to live forever, with one limitation. Accidents and suicide can still kill me. Diseases and ageing, however, cannot. Okay, maybe strike the "accidents" part, I want to decide on my own when to die.
Life just seems so short to me. There is so much to learn and know...and I would like to see how the future works out.
Life just seems so short to me. There is so much to learn and know...and I would like to see how the future works out.
In short: yes. Fact of the matter is; no one wants to die (unless they're suicidal or are suffering from a terminal illness), some people may be able to accept it, but not desire it.
Cracked did and article on this. Immortality is worse than death if you think about it. I'll just skipped to the articles main reason: If you live forever, you're bound to be trapped somewhere forever. You think it's unlikely but if you live forever it's almost certain. Even if you do glide past all that, Earth is certain to be destroyed one day. Although that day is millions of years away, and humans will be gone by then probably, your poor ass will still be there. So it's either death or make your life a living hell.
If by immortality you mean "CANNOT die," it is definitely a curse.
Ever play Lost Odyssey? The hero is immortal and the game explores the fact that everyone he befriends and develops a connection with will eventually die, but he is incapable of dying. After a thousand years of watching history repeat itself and having to say goodbye to countless friends and acquaintances, he realizes that, in the long-term sense, he is destined always be alone. Regardless of how much one loves life or fears death, living without consistent love and friendship is no life I want to live.
Of course, it's conceivable to dodge that bullet if one is surrounded by other immortals, but then your social circle is constrained to other immortals, and depending how many of them there are or what kind of people they are, you might not find yourself in satisfying company and thus may still end up perpetually alone.
Another way to get around this is if by "immortality" we mean "ageless" or "will never die of old age, but can still be killed." That kind of immortality would be kind of neat because you could live as long as you wanted to, then end your life if/when you feel that you are ready to go.
All in all though, I don't want to be immortal. Death is not an enemy, the only reason we treat it as one is because of our fear of the unknown and the fear that we have not lived our life in a way that is truly satisfying. Rather than trying to dodge death, we should be focused on improving life, for however long we have it.
Ever play Lost Odyssey? The hero is immortal and the game explores the fact that everyone he befriends and develops a connection with will eventually die, but he is incapable of dying. After a thousand years of watching history repeat itself and having to say goodbye to countless friends and acquaintances, he realizes that, in the long-term sense, he is destined always be alone. Regardless of how much one loves life or fears death, living without consistent love and friendship is no life I want to live.
Of course, it's conceivable to dodge that bullet if one is surrounded by other immortals, but then your social circle is constrained to other immortals, and depending how many of them there are or what kind of people they are, you might not find yourself in satisfying company and thus may still end up perpetually alone.
Another way to get around this is if by "immortality" we mean "ageless" or "will never die of old age, but can still be killed." That kind of immortality would be kind of neat because you could live as long as you wanted to, then end your life if/when you feel that you are ready to go.
All in all though, I don't want to be immortal. Death is not an enemy, the only reason we treat it as one is because of our fear of the unknown and the fear that we have not lived our life in a way that is truly satisfying. Rather than trying to dodge death, we should be focused on improving life, for however long we have it.