# Ennui of Eternal Life **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 21, 2008, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ennui-of-eternal-life/478230 "2008-12-21T21:08:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ennui-of-eternal-life/478230/21 "2008-12-22T04:52:01Z")
In HHG, an immortal being decides that the only way to deal with immortality is to have a purpose, so he decides to insult every living being in the Universe _alphabetically_… > [@](#): > > “Arthur Dent?” “Yes.” “Arthur Philip Dent?” “Yes.” “You’re a total knee biter.” … ---
**Author:** ![Vox\_Imperatoris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Vox\_Imperatoris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vox_Imperatoris)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ennui-of-eternal-life/478230/22 "2008-12-22T05:05:07Z")
I don’t understand the people who say that they would try to keep it a secret. I would at least try to become a world leader, even if only a ceremonial one. Imagine being in a similar position to Queen Elizabeth II, but forever. I certainly don’t think I would ever be irreconcilably bored, as long as the human race continued to survive and produce new creative works. Of course it breaks down once you get to the stars burning out and the universe winding down, and I don’t know what you would do about that. Valete, Vox Imperatoris ETA: Of course it would be a lot better if you could have at least one immortal companion, but still. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ennui-of-eternal-life/478230/23 "2008-12-22T05:24:30Z")
about 200 years, assuming I maintain at least my current physical and mental condition. Who wants to be like those ancient folks who get trotted out for pictures “the last survivng” relic of some war or something - being pushed around in a wheelchair after being dressed and bundled up. God, I am not looking forward to death, but I fear becoming a shrivelled, incapacitated raisin of a person MUCH more than I do death. I suspect that every culture has a legend of on immortal - and they are always protrayed as having been _cursed_, not blessed with immortality. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ennui-of-eternal-life/478230/24 "2008-12-22T14:05:59Z")
I like to think I could be kept busy with this or that for eternity, but by definition almost, at some point things have all gotta start looking the same if you brain can keep storing memories and skills without limit. Now, if there is some finite limit to memory and you start wiping out old stuff to find a place new stuff, eventually forgotten/lost old stuff will seem new again the next time you do it. The thought of eternal life has really bothered me. Of course so has death. So, now as an immortal, eventually sheer boredom. or the overwhelming heart ache of seeing billions and billions suffering from the “human” condition weighs heavily on me. So, I consider ending it. But, damn, death scares me. What a horrid choice to make! Hell, if I go to a nice resteraunt, picking the lobster or the steak is a gut wrenching decison for me! ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ennui-of-eternal-life/478230/25 "2008-12-22T14:42:10Z")
I need a point of clarification on this, are you the ONLY immortal? There’s a set of speculative fiction that does a pretty good job of thinking about it. (John C. Wright’s the Golden Age trilogy, Don and out in the Magic Kindgom by Cory Doctorow, are two that leap to mind…I read a third that was great, but cannot remember enough to google it.) **Reply’s** comment is interesting and leaves a lot to ponder, but it’s also a killjoy argument. There’s a lot you could do with a couple thousand years. Right now, the human condition is _defined_ by several specific chapters: Being a kid, being a young adult, (optionally) Being a parent, (optionally) being a grandparent. What would happen if you could be a parent _without_ the financial sacrifice that parenthood has for young adults? Raising kids when you’re 35 and have an established career is a lot easier than when you’re 19 and don’t have an education. What would it be like if you were 65 (or 165, or 465) before having kids? What happens when 6 billion well fed immortals have kids? There would have to be a rewriting of our genetic drive for procreation. That biological clock will be hard to overcome. ---
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ennui-of-eternal-life/478230/26 "2008-12-22T15:12:48Z")
Someone once said that people yearn for immortality who can’t figure out what to do with a Sunday afternoon. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2008, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ennui-of-eternal-life/478230/27 "2008-12-23T23:33:45Z")
> [@Ronald\_C.Semone](#): > > Someone once said that people yearn for immortality who can’t figure out what to do with a Sunday afternoon. Sure, but not everybody is like that. The only problems I have with Sunday afternoons is figuring out _what I will have to postpone until later_. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ennui-of-eternal-life/478230/28 "2008-12-24T02:03:59Z")
“there are worse things than death awaiting man”… Count Dracula ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ennui-of-eternal-life/478230/29 "2008-12-24T02:08:18Z")
I could deal with it as long as there are other Humans around. Because there are always more experiences, more friends, more interactions, more enemies, more cultures, more cities, more societies. Change is eternal. As soon as I’m the only Human remaining, it becomes Eternal Hell. ---
**Author:** ![Gam\_Zeh\_Yaavor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3e96dc/32.png) [@Gam\_Zeh\_Yaavor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gam_Zeh_Yaavor)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ennui-of-eternal-life/478230/30 "2008-12-24T02:12:50Z")
Never’s a long time. If you stick around until the heat death of the universe, all there’ll be will be your soul in infinite cold darkness, blindly going insane forever. Death, please. ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ennui-of-eternal-life/478230/31 "2008-12-24T02:15:11Z")
Every legend of immortality (though I certianly have not heard them all) has held that immortals can die but it takes some doing to make it happen. They don’t succumb to disease or injury but a wooden stake through the heart or something can end their immortality very easily. If I could be a vampire or own the philosopher’s stone I would take immortality in a heartbeat because it can have an end so you aren’t floating about the universe for the next eleventybillion years. True immortality wouldn’t be quite so appealing but life with no forseeable end or aging could be entertaining for thousands of years! ---
**Author:** ![Vox\_Imperatoris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Vox\_Imperatoris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vox_Imperatoris)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ennui-of-eternal-life/478230/32 "2008-12-24T02:19:55Z")
> [@Gam\_Zeh\_Yaavor](#): > > Never’s a long time. If you stick around until the heat death of the universe, all there’ll be will be your soul in infinite cold darkness, blindly going insane forever. Death, please. But once you go insane, you might not really care anymore. It might be a fair trade for billions of years of life. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ennui-of-eternal-life/478230/33 "2008-12-24T02:25:26Z")
Give me interstellar travel,a decent library and some puzzle games and I’d be grand for a few million years I reckon. An endless stream of good looking women might also help. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ennui-of-eternal-life/478230/34 "2008-12-24T03:13:00Z")
> [@Vox\_Imperatoris](#): > > But once you go insane, you might not really care anymore. It might be a fair trade for billions of years of life. Clearly you have no proper concept of “Insane”. Insane does not mean that you have no mental faculties or that you are incapable of thoughts, feelings or caring about your condition. ---
**Author:** ![Gam\_Zeh\_Yaavor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3e96dc/32.png) [@Gam\_Zeh\_Yaavor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gam_Zeh_Yaavor)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ennui-of-eternal-life/478230/35 "2008-12-24T03:14:17Z")
> [@Vox\_Imperatoris](#): > > But once you go insane, you might not really care anymore. It might be a fair trade for billions of years of life. Well sure, you might not care at first. But forever’s a long time. I don’t know if those billions of years would be any more of a fair trade for a potential eternal horror of nothingness than a hundred years; eternity is eternity. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ennui-of-eternal-life/478230/36 "2008-12-24T03:24:59Z")
But then, since time is only a property of _this_ universe, once the universe ends, so does time. Then there’s no more forever. Even eternity, it seems, is not eternal. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ennui-of-eternal-life/478230/37 "2008-12-24T05:21:00Z")
As soon as I’ve seen all the “Law and Orders”. ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ennui-of-eternal-life/478230/38 "2008-12-24T05:49:20Z")
> [@Gam\_Zeh\_Yaavor](#): > > If you stick around until the heat death of the universe, all there’ll be will be your soul in infinite cold darkness, blindly going insane forever. You could always hop into a wormhole and visit a newly formed parallel universe. But yeah, having nothing to do but watch black holes decay over a timespan of 10[sup]100[/sup] years would really suck. ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ennui-of-eternal-life/478230/39 "2008-12-24T10:17:58Z")
> [@Ataraxy](#): > > I don’t think I would last more than 300 years before I would really want the ability to die. Seriously? That’s like, what, three or four lifespans? You couldn’t think of four sufficiently different lives that would all be interesting enough to be worth living? Plus, there’s the fact that the world keeps changing. First I’d live the life of my choice in the 21st century, then I’d live the life of my choice in the 22nd, then in the 23rd . . . and they’d all no doubt be drastically different, just as our lives are different from those of people living in the 19th century. Also, is it really our ability to be entertained that makes life worth living? As long as I had loved ones, I don’t think I would want to die. Being immortal, you’d have to suffer through watching all the people you love die (which would be hell), but you could always spend time getting to know your great-grandkids, or start over with a whole new family. I think I could last for millennia, easily. ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ennui-of-eternal-life/478230/40 "2008-12-24T10:19:00Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > I could deal with it as long as there are other Humans around. > > Because there are always more experiences, more friends, more interactions, more enemies, more cultures, more cities, more societies. Change is eternal. > > As soon as I’m the only Human remaining, it becomes Eternal Hell. That sounds about right. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ennui-of-eternal-life/478230.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ennui-of-eternal-life/478230.md?page=3)