couldn't agree more, being immortal would probably end up with me trying to kill myself but fail in a continuous loopEmperorSubcutaneous said:
Why do people want to be immortal?
- Thread starter lionrwal
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Damn straight. I was more alluding to the same fear of death a fair amount of other users have expressed. Who cares if our lives have no meaning, if anything that imbues a sense of liberation; here's a big blank canvas paint it red, blue, green, whatever the hell colour you want, nothing to confine or weigh you down, no time wasted in fruitless philosophical pursuits, just enjoy what you've got. Besides, very little of what we do in our daily lives amounts to anything significent or constructive, leisure activities generally don't fulfill any kind of purpose, but whose to say they're meaninglessness makes them any less enjoyable? I never got this perception that Nihilism and by extension Atheism has to be expressly pessimistic or that they may as well kill themselves. I mean, surely someone who thinks that this is all there is to our existence would have more of a desire to stay alive than someone who believes in an afterlife, right? Wouldn't we have more of a stake in this than they would? People baffle me sometimes...werewolfsfury said:
Imagine if you actually were immortal, and the earth exploded.
I can already picture it; floating through space...
"Well... Sure is quiet up here."
I can already picture it; floating through space...
"Well... Sure is quiet up here."
The definition of immortal wasn't made clear at first when I posted. Immortality may sometimes be associated with being invincible as well. But knowing what the OP meant now, I probablykrazykidd said:
Well after you have experienced everything ever created, twice, then is suppose it would get boring. Perhaps if you are immortal and ever living then in the few millions, if not billions, of years it would take for the sun to implode(Or explode, whatever both situations are bad)then maybe you will have found a way to expand the time the sun burns.
An interesting topic, the whole imortality thing
An interesting topic, the whole imortality thing
the fear of the unknown NOBODY is 100% sure about what happens when you die even if you are deeply religious you aren't sure that the heaven you go to is the one you expect.
Or the curiosity of the future.
I,m pretty curious about what happens when you die but I,m not that keen on figuring out.
Or the curiosity of the future.
I,m pretty curious about what happens when you die but I,m not that keen on figuring out.
Most people, barring dementia, remember things back to when lasting memories were first formed (about the time that language forms), so there is no reason to believe that you would forget everything even thousands to billions of years back. Many people go insane in the normal amount of time, and since you are still susceptible to disease, you are nearly guaranteed to suffer some sort of mental-deficiency causing problem, except now you are mentally challenged forever.loc978 said:
Thank you for understandinganthony87 said:Because the OP says so apparently....IamQ said:Isn't that logic already stomped to the ground if you're immortal? And for those who chose to be immortal but be able to turn it off and die, how is that not immortality? Why does it have to be permanent immortality?lionrwal said:I encourage to study the universal law. Basically, it states that all things, even the Universe, will die one day. Nothing can live forever. Humans WILL go extinct someday and civilization will eventually crumble. It's just a matter of when.Ledan said:Why is it that whenever immortality comes up someone ALWAYS says that it would be terrible. It wouldn't. It would be friggine awesome:lionrwal said:
Friends: You make friends, you lose friends. Whether you lose them becuase they are dead or because you now live somwhere else and haven't talked to them in 20 years doesnt matter. You lost them, get over it. It's really easy to make new friends, to have new experiences, etc.
Also, if you are immortal you could spend enough time/money or know how to turn other people immortal. So you're "one true love" will be able to share eternity with you. Pretty sweet deal.
Who says the human race will go extinct? or that civilization will fall? As the Immortal you can set long term goals. Like colonizing mars, colonizing other solar systems, galaxies, galaxy clusters. Y'know the whole heat death of the universe? Colonize another big bang cluster! Sure, it could take millions of years to get to another big bang cluster, but by that point technology could have advanced to a point where we can move entire solar systems, and keep them energy efficient.
I honestly think that people who think that Immortality have NOT thought about it enough. You think as if you have no power, but you would be immortal. Which would mean ultimate power. Spend 100 years traveling the globe, another 100 years building up an economic superpower, 1000 years of slow manipulation to control the earth. Invest in artists who will keep you entertained, plan long term goals. And heck, if you grow bored you can go to sleep for 10000 years. Or use people as pawns.
The world would be your oyster. Forever. Enjoy goddamit!
Because then you get to experience so much more of experience than a normal human lifespan could ever afford.
And I have heard every argument against immortality already. Some people want different things than you.
And I have heard every argument against immortality already. Some people want different things than you.
Because, it might occur to you, not everybody thinks there is a god, and not everybody wants to die, hence immortality would be a pretty good thing.
I mean, only for a couple of people, if everyone had it problems would arise.
I mean, only for a couple of people, if everyone had it problems would arise.
Being immortal, humanity would be the least of your worries. You'll get to experience not only humanity's history, but the rise and falls of alien histories as well. Being immortal also makes you the index of galactic knowledge regardless of your limited mental capacity. You could usher in a civilization that spans galaxies, be it biological or a robot sentience. Unlimited decisions, unlimited lifetimes, unlimited outcomes... Sounds fun.
Also, blah blah blah captured for testing blah blah, that titanium/kryptonite/darkmatter hold chamber can only hold you for so long.
Also, blah blah blah captured for testing blah blah, that titanium/kryptonite/darkmatter hold chamber can only hold you for so long.
Because so much interesting stuff has happened in the mere three-and-a-half decades I've been alive, I'm damn curious to see what will happen next. I'm really interested what people five or six centuries from now will be saying about the age I was born.
Incidentally, an interesting take on the possible implications of immortality is the indie film The Man From Earth, where a man gathers his academic colleagues and claims to be 70,000 years old, and they debate the implications from several perspectives including biology, anthropology, history, theology, psychology, etc. A fresh take on the topic, very different from Highlander or various vampire and sci-fi stories.
Incidentally, an interesting take on the possible implications of immortality is the indie film The Man From Earth, where a man gathers his academic colleagues and claims to be 70,000 years old, and they debate the implications from several perspectives including biology, anthropology, history, theology, psychology, etc. A fresh take on the topic, very different from Highlander or various vampire and sci-fi stories.
Eh, from what I've seen, there's a bit of a tendency for those who would eagerly accept immortality to lump that in with a LOT of additional assumptions. One of the more popular ones I've seen is the ability to shape mankind's destiny (politically or otherwise). That itself relies on several assumptions (which are often handwaved as being inevitable given the timespan) notably EVER being put in such a position, to say nothing of being able to affect significant change during it (recent politics should make it evident that the idea is NOT as easy as it sounds).
Another idea popular enough to almost be a constant is the idea that they'll essentially be fiscal geniuses by being able to anticipate long term effects. They never phrase it quite so bluntly, but the gist of it is there. Unfortunately, this relies on variables unrelated to immortality, to say nothing of relying on your long term plans consistently avoiding more immediate complications (including but not limited to those that catestrophicly derail them).
And then of course there's the technology assumptions (most famously a mastery of intersteller travel). Again, those are unrelated variables and it's hardly guaranteed that humanity will ever master that kind of technology. Does it seem likely given our current tech level and the assumption that we'll last a few more millenia at least? Eh, not without a few massive breakthroughs first. At the very least we'd likely need a much more powerful and long-lasting fuel source than we currently have access to.
Though moving on to the gist, what I've noticed in discussions like these is that there's a bit of a tendency for the optimism about immortality to take a variety of variables as a given.
Another idea popular enough to almost be a constant is the idea that they'll essentially be fiscal geniuses by being able to anticipate long term effects. They never phrase it quite so bluntly, but the gist of it is there. Unfortunately, this relies on variables unrelated to immortality, to say nothing of relying on your long term plans consistently avoiding more immediate complications (including but not limited to those that catestrophicly derail them).
And then of course there's the technology assumptions (most famously a mastery of intersteller travel). Again, those are unrelated variables and it's hardly guaranteed that humanity will ever master that kind of technology. Does it seem likely given our current tech level and the assumption that we'll last a few more millenia at least? Eh, not without a few massive breakthroughs first. At the very least we'd likely need a much more powerful and long-lasting fuel source than we currently have access to.
Though moving on to the gist, what I've noticed in discussions like these is that there's a bit of a tendency for the optimism about immortality to take a variety of variables as a given.
Well firstly, you're making rather large assumptions about our future. That's not to say you're probably right, but we still aren't certain. Secondly, I want to see those sorts of changes, in fact, it's the only reason I want to live past forty. Life contains way to many questions for the mere lifespan of a mortal.lionrwal said:
I have always been a person driven by doing or learning something new. For me, the thought of dying and not seeing what tomorrow holds is what really scares me.
I fully understand that I'd have to endure the pain of lost loved ones, but I have done that plenty of times already and know that time takes away the pain to leave behind good memories. The passing of family and lovers through immortality would never not effect me, but it is a pain that I can overcome for the better.
I want to see how history unfolds, where our species will go through the centuries. That is what makes me want to be immortal. That would be my drive to continue through the ages.
I fully understand that I'd have to endure the pain of lost loved ones, but I have done that plenty of times already and know that time takes away the pain to leave behind good memories. The passing of family and lovers through immortality would never not effect me, but it is a pain that I can overcome for the better.
I want to see how history unfolds, where our species will go through the centuries. That is what makes me want to be immortal. That would be my drive to continue through the ages.