Poll: Would you accept immortality?

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Fuck yeah ....

Living is better than dying, therefore eternal living > eternal death.

And yeah I can put up with the whole WoD Vampire Masquerade bullshit of having to hide away from humanity till the end of my days because I don't want other people to discover I'm immortal.

 

[standokan]

I would, but just because I am way to afraid of death to think rationally about this.

 

[x EvilErmine x]

Step one: Eat gummy bear (omnom nom nom nom red ones are the best)

Step two: Freak out about the fact that I now need a new wall, coz cool-aid man famously doesn't do doors.

Step three: Sell everything of value I own and maybe a few things I don't. ;o)

Step four: Invest in stocks and shares for stable long term growth companies and start a few savings accounts.

Step five: Travel the world for about a hundred years or until see and do everything i can.

Step six: Use massive wealth generated from step four to invest in space travel.

Step seven: Blast off into space in my bad ass spaceship and tour the universe.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

Hell yes I take immortality, even with the negative aspects as I think you could work around them.

1. Yes you could possibly be out evolved, however you would have knowledge and experience on your side. I magine any new sentient beings would make the same mistakes as humans have and I sure these new creatures are smart enough to know having someone who has lived through all this before could offer invaluable advice. Or if that fails remind them that I have one advantage over them, I can't become extinct they can and there is a likely chance that my body will still carry extinct human viruses and bacteria that these creatures aren't immune to. MUHAHAHAHA!

2. I suppose I could try and hide my immortality eg, changing my hair colour to grey and such as if I where ageing. Though that would only last so long as eventually people are going to start wondering why there is a supposedly 90 year man walking round with no wrinkles or health problems. Though if people do come after me again they need to remember I'm immortal, bullets and knives are like neetle stings to me, so if there coming for to use me for evil purposes they better have alot of expendable henchmen. Though if they come wanting to worship as a god then my ego might just allow it

3. That is a possibility, though I still could keep records and photographs which would certainly jog the memory banks. Also the human brain can hold serveral lifetimes of memories if wasn't for old age and death getting in the way. Staying forever at the peak of my bodies condition I imagine would help slow the loss of memory down quite a bit.

4. Time would possibly fly by quicker and quicker, but I imagine your perspective of how time passes would adapt. Also given that appear time passes quicker you get older maybe because it becomes clear that you will eventually get old and die, which by then you realise that there isn't enough time to do everything you want to do. If the prospect of old age and death is then taken away, in my opinion it might be possilbe that the reverse happens and time appears to go slower like when your a kid as your not worrying getting older and just living in the moment.

5. Getting trapped would be a problem that unfortunately you could nothing about unless you are rescued or soil erotion eventually frees you. Being stuck on this planet after it becomes uninhabitable could be more avoidalbe though, as the sun won't die for hundreds of millions of years, who knows what science will have uncovered in that time. I could possibly leave the planet and travel to a new planet, or even time travel could be possible by then and I could just go back to very beginning of the Earth and live through it all again. At least that way I have a way to go back and see loved ones that have died off, or if I eventually get bored, imitate Wowbagger and insult everyone in existence.

 

[M920CAIN]

I can't really answer the question. Immortality isn't something I really wish for, but I would need to get a taste of it 1st in order to give an opinion. I'm guessin' it would be fun for the 1st thousand years or so, but it would depend of the kind of person one is. Are you emotionally attached to people or other things that fade away over the course of time?... it's really beyond our comprehension at this point, but the personality of the immortal person would be a defining factor that determines mental stability.

 

[smithy_2045]

Only with the ability to say that's it, no more, end it now. I don't want to be stuck alive.

 

[JasonKaotic]

Hell no. Lost Odyssey is a good teacher.

 

[Dr. Crawver]

I would say no. I couldn't live with seeing those who I cared about die as I go on.

The ensuing insanity would also wreck it for me

The tempting part of it however would be that I could potentially become some sort of oracle of humanity, or even the emperor of mankind. Then I would make 20 different types of superhumans, each led by a more powerful superhuman that would travel through the galaxy and...wait, has this been thought of before?

 

[Arina Love]

Yep, will accept gladly even with all conditions i still think is really worth it.

 

[everythingbeeps]

1. Evolution will turn you into a freak: Over thousands of years something better, stronger, faster, and smarter will likely develop from humans, leaving you left behind as a freak.

2. Nobody can ever find out: If you've got immortality then everybody will want it. Governments, CEO's, the masses, you name it. And they don't care what they have to do to get it.

3. You're still getting older (mentally): You will be forced to remember everything that happens over the course of infinity, which your brain just isn't built to do.

4. Time speeds up till you're insane: As time flies by, your different friends, loves, and lives slowly fade from your memory, making 50 years seem relatively equal to a saturday night.

5. You will eventually get trapped there forever: Eventually, you will get trapped in a pile of rubble, or the rest of the human race gets wiped out, and you till be trapped there forever.
[/spoiler]

I would take it because these items are all pretty easily deflected.

1. I just don't really believe this applies. Yes, it's true that you would bear little resemblance to a human from a million years from now, but thousands? There's no reason to think that humans will evolve so much in thousands of years that you can't keep up, especially considering that most of that "evolution" is going to come from augmentations. It won't happen naturally. It'll be implants and surgeries and technical stuff. All stuff that you can take part in. And as for the whole "millions of years" thing, ideally mankind is going to splinter off and inhabit multiple worlds/systems, and their evolutionary paths will go in different directions. Either that or we'll die out completely and you'll be by your lonesome, which might get boring, but not so boring I wouldn't still take it.

Either that or we'll reach postphysical status and just all live virtually, which might make this whole exercise largely moot.

2. Shouldn't be too hard. Just keep changing your name/appearance. You'll have plenty of time to learn new languages, so travel the world for a while.

3. Technology will take care of this fairly soon. They're already working on it.

4. Meh. This is debatable. A year is still a year, and it's still going to last a year. I'm not buying this one as a serious problem. Sure, I imagine you'll hit a rough spot after a few generations and you have this crisis moment where all your original friends are dead, and that you'll outlive all your new friends and every friend you make after that. But I think it's something a person could adjust to, eventually.

The hard part here is letting yourself continue getting emotionally involved with people. And like I said, there would be a rough patch, maybe 200-300 years from "now", where you'll decide that people aren't worth caring about because they'll be gone and you won't, and you'll live in a shack in the woods for a while, but I think eventually you'll learn to deal with everyone else's miniscule lifespans, especially if you keep reinventing yourself as a person.

5. Trapped where? The death of the universe? Who knows what that even is?

 

[EHKOS]

My mind is on the fritz already and 'm only 18. Hell no. Eventually when the planet goes away from whatever happens to it in billions of years, you'd be floating in space gasping for breath.

 

[Yosato]

Hell yes, I'd nom that gummi bear in a heartbeat. All those things I could contend with, and I reckon you wouldn't be so much a freak as unique, remember that your brain would also evolve over time - you could store knowledge of so many things and learn about twenty language until your status was elevated to something godlike.

And then there's number four. "Time speeds up till you're insane: As time flies by, your different friends, loves, and lives slowly fade from your memory, making 50 years seem relatively equal to a saturday night." I seriously doubt that would ever happen - age doesn't really make things faster; seconds tick by at the exact same speed whether you're five or fifty.

People say that things go slower because you get older but it's a load of crap, it's the not doing anything and same daily repetition that makes your hours blur by. If you keep yourself busy and mix things up then it doesn't happen, and I imagine if you were immortal you could think of plenty of things to do with your time.

 

[GotMalkAvian]

I would only accept immortality if there was an escape clause, some way that I could still choose to end my life. There's a great Twilight Zone episode- called "Escape Clause," actually, I believe- where a man sells his soul for immortality, and the devil throws in a clause where he can choose to die whenever he wants.

 

[Vivi22]

Well, I don't believe in an after-life so have no reason to not want to avoid death. I also don't buy most of those reasons for not being immortal. You hear them all of the time, but I've never seen any evidence to back up some of the brain related stuff, so I'll take my chances. Plus if I live until the big crunch and a new Big Bang I can merge with the sentience of the universe and become Galactus, so I really don't see a downside to being the last guy standing.

 

[Nightmare-Child]

I would only except this, if I could grant the same gift to my significant other.

 

[OctoH]

I would probably take it. And then eventually find a way to create a suicide gummi once I get tired of everything.

 

[Scarim Coral]

While I did vote no but I wonder if I take the immortality, couldn't I put myself into a deep slumber/ eternal sleep or at least a place where I just try to sleep forever? I mean I wouldn't die from starvation and I guess this is the closest thing to suicide well no longer want to live. The only bad thing from trying to sleep forever is dealing with any nightmares.

 

[RazielXT]

Does it mean other people cant kill me? If so Id so turn to mafia or something...

 

[michiehoward]

Who wants to live fooooreverrrrrrrrrrrrrrr?

Maybe if it were a "life extension" gummi bear.
My reasons succinctly listed in that summary.