Poll: Immortality, with a catch

mayney93

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yeah i'd sign that contract, i'd make the world a better place, if that means a few undesirables have to be eradicated then well, that's a price the rest of the planet and i will have to pay, even if it costs them their lives and me my sanity and most likely my life too, i'm assuming elf like immortality not immorality like never age and invunerable to every ailment etc till the end of time
 

DeepReaver

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Feb 25, 2009
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Seneschal said:
DeepReaver said:
Seneschal said:
I have a feeling (or rather "hope that I'm not surrounded by despicable selfish sociopaths") a lot of people just read the poll and not the opening post. Jesus Christ, people.
Frankly, i cannot speak for the others but being a riflemen was the only thing i was good at, if i could earn years of my life by doing what i am good at you can bet i would get involved someplace where i could, be it working for a government taking out terrorists or allying with a government in exile in Africa taking care of the current dictator.
Unless 52.7% of this forum consists of riflemen, then a lot of people are overestimating their ability and willingness to take another life.
Very very true, but a lot of people being asked this question are probably gamers, getting strange sense of what your natural psychological limitations are seems to be a common side effect of video games in which you take life.
 

DeepReaver

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Seneschal said:
DeepReaver said:
Seneschal said:
I have a feeling (or rather "hope that I'm not surrounded by despicable selfish sociopaths") a lot of people just read the poll and not the opening post. Jesus Christ, people.
Frankly, i cannot speak for the others but being a riflemen was the only thing i was good at, if i could earn years of my life by doing what i am good at you can bet i would get involved someplace where i could, be it working for a government taking out terrorists or allying with a government in exile in Africa taking care of the current dictator.
Unless 52.7% of this forum consists of riflemen, then a lot of people are overestimating their ability and willingness to take another life.
Very very true, but a lot of people being asked this question are probably gamers, getting strange sense of what your natural psychological limitations are seems to be a common side effect of video games in which you take life.
 

mrF00bar

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Mar 17, 2009
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Yes. I have a deep seated hatred for most people, I don't know why, maybe I'm insane. So killing people to extend my life would be no problem, in fact I would probably go on a killing spree to extend my life by 25-50 years.
 

TheLiham

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Apr 15, 2010
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Easy. Get on the flight with the most people on it. Stab the pilot and co-pilot and set some explosives to timed detonation before jumping out of the door with your newfound immortality. You'd have plenty of years before you had to kill again. I'd do it.
 

sharinganblossom25

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Jan 2, 2011
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I wouldn't be immortal if it meant killing people to extend my time. Plus, all the people I love would die as I lived on. So, no.
 

LukOMar

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Mar 3, 2012
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Huh. Well... I will not even try to morally justify myself: I would go through with it for the mere prospect of being able to watch the world from a point of view beyond that of a single life-span. That's my take on the answer: I would do it for my own, selfish reasons.

However, I don't see any real downside to any of this. As The7Sins mentioned, the "catch" isn't a catch at all: once you get past the moral justification, it becomes an inconvenience, and a minor one at that. Would you even care about one more life after watching billions succeed one another? If you are close to what resembles a god, immortal and powerful, why would you even keep any human values at all?

To top everything off, this is a "free" offer. Beyond the moral implications, there are absolutely no complications to discuss: you get what my fellow posters so aptly described as "pseudo-immortality", but you have absolutely no obligations to go through with anything what-so-ever because there is no "exit clause". You may stop whenever you want.
Whether you will be able to bring yourself to stop is another, in my opinion, much more interesting question, but it's entirely out of line here.

Now granted, it was interesting to see that the majority answered "Yes" in the poll.

It's a pity that the discussion per se was limited to a degree that there really wasn't much to get out of it; on eight pages of discussion, we mostly have: "Yes, and I will kill criminals!", "No, because it's not worth it" and the occasional deviant who misread the OP.

Also there is very little to no debate here. There hardly is any discussion going on; just people laying out their opinions about the OP and nobody actually trying to elevate the discussion any further than the original terms. In fact, many of the more "developed" responses do not account for any previous arguments or counter-arguments at all.

If we were debating, the natural consequence would be actually getting somewhere new by now.
 

dave1004

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Sep 20, 2010
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No, because I do not believe that I have the right to take any man's life, no matter how vile and corrupted he is. Additionally, I don't feel like suffering in an endless eternity of torment, due to the fact that I had murdered someone.

Every life is precious. Every life.
 

Dondonalien44

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Dec 10, 2009
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Questions: Do I start out with a natural lifespan, or do I essentially have to kill someone annually in order to go on living my entire life?
Regardless, I'd take that deal. Guilt and morality would mean nothing after a few centuries of immortal life. If I ever tired of it, I could simply choose to die in a year by not killing anyone else.
 

userwhoquitthesite

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Jul 23, 2009
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SlaveNumber23 said:
You have uniquely been granted the opportunity to become immortal, your body will cease to age beyond its peak physical condition and you will gain strong telekinetic powers.

However, there is a catch. To gain immortality you must first murder a person. Every time you murder someone your immortality will be extended by 1 year. You cannot pay or persuade someone else to commit the murder for you and you cannot set up a trap to kill your victim, you must directly and personally end their life. Killing someone with a terminal illness or who is over 80 does not count.

Would you selfishly rob someone of their life to extend your own and gain power? Converting many potential years of another persons life into a single year of your own? How would you use your power? Would you help the innocent and weak in an attempt to relieve you of your guilt or would you embrace the immorality of your human sacrifices and rule the world as a tyrant? Discuss
Do we have to cover up the murders ourselves, or do we get away with because of cosmic shenanigans? cuz if the former, i dont know. the latter? fuck ALL y'all, i'm an immortal superbeing
 

Nopodop

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Jan 2, 2011
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Definitely. I would break into a prison, kill all the prisoners, escape with no physical evidence left behind, do it a second time and my pseudo-immortality is extended for a while. After that, I would kill a random person every year (just throw someone into the sky) and generally have a shit tonne of fun.
 

Mr.logic

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Nov 18, 2009
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well the answer is going to change based on how much each individual values a life, but many people can't answer this until they know what death is. As for me I wouldn't. I'm not okay with the concept of taking life, especially in a case were I did it out of some horrible need to escape death because then i'm just forcing other people to take my responsibility over and over and over and over and over...
 

IndomitableSam

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Sep 6, 2011
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I would, easily. If I could use my new super-powers to kill someone by looking at them, I'd make sure to attend a lot of political rallies and travel to various war-torn countries and such. Seriously, just point me in the direction of the cartel leaders, heads of sex slave groups, etc. Show me who they are, plop me in their part of the world, and I'll pop their heads as I walk by with my mind.

My first kill would probably be harder since I didn't have the powers - would have to be careful. However, with the number of criminals let loose by the justice system in Canada, it's pretty easy to find someone who deserves to die. Like those girls here in the province who saw a car on the side of the road, found a woman sleeping inside and pulled her out of the car and stole it. Except they claim they didn't realise she wasn't all the way out of the car - she'd been tangled up by the seatbelt and was dragged by the car until she was decapitated. The girls claim they had no idea that happened and cried and begged for forgiveness and shit at their trial.

I'd do those kids gladly.
 

sinsfire

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Nov 17, 2009
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SlaveNumber23 said:
However, there is a catch. To gain immortality you must first murder a person. Every time you murder someone your immortality will be extended by 1 year. You cannot pay or persuade someone else to commit the murder for you and you cannot set up a trap to kill your victim, you must directly and personally end their life. Killing someone with a terminal illness or who is over 80 does not count.
Isn't life a terminal illness? I mean we are all terminally ill. Can you kill people who are under 80 but who have a terminal illness. Does the person have to want to live or can I just open a Euthinasia clinish and get my one per year that way. In that case its mercy killing regardless of age.

Really though, no I wouldn't take it. I don't see the point in deminishing another life to prolong my own, i don't think i am that important.
 

Shadowsetzer

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Jul 15, 2010
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I refer you to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nameless_One for why this would be a horrible bargain. :p
 

rist_violin

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Aug 23, 2012
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What if I became one of the people that conducts lethal injections for the state?

I could live forever..
 

Spartan Altego

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Aug 7, 2012
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God no. Never mind the adverse effects immortality and yearly murders would have on my psyche, the sheer moral wrongness of doing something like that would keep me from mulling over the choice for even a fraction of the time it takes for the scent of a mouse fart to dissipate.

Now if it was only one murder and I was capable of ruling over a world spanning empire, that might be different. Because hey, who didn't want to rule the world at some point?