# Eventual death is a good thing **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 7, 2002, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eventual-death-is-a-good-thing/141198 "2002-12-07T22:00:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eventual-death-is-a-good-thing/141198/41 "2002-12-09T21:59:31Z")
Dragged out screaming, yelling and kicking - lots of tears and wailing…I am not speaking about death, I am speaking about your birth. Coming into this world from somewhere else must have been a terrifying ordeal. Yet we all did it, most of us do not regret it and nobody can remember it. My guess, and my hope, is that death is simply another passage to another terrifying, but wonderful unknown. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eventual-death-is-a-good-thing/141198/42 "2002-12-10T01:55:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DMark \* > \*\*My guess, and my hope, is that death is simply another passage to another terrifying, but wonderful unknown. \*\* Yeah – the unknown of **sitting in the ground rotting as an inanimate corpse!!** Nuts to all this “we all have to die sometime” nonsense. _I want my immortality pills, and I want them **now!** _ ---
**Author:** ![I\_am\_Sparticus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@I\_am\_Sparticus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_am_Sparticus)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eventual-death-is-a-good-thing/141198/43 "2002-12-10T03:59:25Z")
Yes, and let’s get back on topic. While it is interesting to know if you would choose to live an insanely long time, this isn’t really a poll on the same. What are the consequences to yourself and others? ---
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eventual-death-is-a-good-thing/141198/44 "2002-12-10T05:39:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JRR \* > \*\*Bull. Just because you don’t write the next “Hamlet” in your first hundred years doesn’t mean you won’t do it in your next. I can’t play the tuba, but give me an extra millennia and I just might take a shot at it. \*\* LoL, the average joe isn’t even interested in reading _Hamlet_, let alone wanting to write it. With all the diverse amusements, like TV, do yo think they will suddenly change. No. People get MORE set in thier ways with time. Not more flexiable. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eventual-death-is-a-good-thing/141198/45 "2002-12-10T05:44:01Z")
Screw _that_ noise; I’m all for living as long as I possibly can. Sure, eternal life may be boring- but it beats the alternative. ---
**Author:** ![js\_africanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eventual-death-is-a-good-thing/141198/46 "2002-12-10T05:56:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Epimetheus \* > \*\*With all the diverse amusements, like TV, do yo think they will suddenly change. No. People get MORE set in thier ways with time. Not more flexiable. \*\* Most people don’t write plays or do science anyway. Is there any reason to think that the Gausses and Eulers of the world would not be productive for thousands of years? Can you imagine if Gauss lived for a thousand years, let alone forever? Plus, living forever would change the cost/benefit calculations of something like taking up the tuba. I’m 33 and a cancer survivor. Quite frankly, I don’t see a super-long future ahead of me. Why take up the tuba? TV is easy & fairly amusing at times. Some good books. The tuba is alot of work before it pays off and my time is too valuable for that–the easy payoff of watching The Simpsons far outweighs the tuba. But if I lived forever, each moment would be worth approx. zero. I’d be giving up less value in terms of time when I practice the tuba than I am now. Since the tuba costs less to practice, I would practice it more, no? That’s not to say that there wouldn’t be alot of spuds in the world, but there might be fewer because their time is worth less. ---
**Author:** ![SentientMeat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@SentientMeat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SentientMeat)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eventual-death-is-a-good-thing/141198/47 "2002-12-10T11:09:55Z")
I believe in life after death as much as life before birth, which is not at all, and so I wish to decide when I die. If I’ve had enough by three-score-years-and-ten I’ll euthenise. There seems to be no fundamental theoretical bar to effective immortality (or at least extreme longevity), even though within my lifetime it seems unlikely. And head freezing will have to develop a great deal indeed to have any chance of being revived - see what happens to mincemeat in the freezer. Iain M. Banks “Culture” series provides illustration of the various possible options in the far far future. I cannot see any fundamental problems that immortality would cause to society, except perhaps that you must decide when young whether to become immortal or have more than one child in order to prevent overpopulation. Personally, I would love to have a few beers with a medieval housecarl or something. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eventual-death-is-a-good-thing/141198/48 "2002-12-10T21:10:17Z")
My chief priority is the continuation of my awareness. Since death could be the end of my awareness, I will avoid death until/unless I am presented with 100% certain proof of an afterlife (defined as continued awareness after death). I will, regardless of any proof of afterlife, strife to keep my body youthful and healthy and my mind sharp for my entire mortal life (to do otherwise would be foolish). Researchers are learning more and more about the aging process and how to combat it every day. I hope to see the day when all diseases, including aging, have been defeated; my odds of living to see it are actually pretty good. Many people say that they don’t want to live forever. Fine. I have one question, though: How do you want to die? I, for one, refuse the resign myself to being killed by a disease or by accident. If I must die, it will be on MY terms. I will, in all likelihood, die in a hospital, fighting to stay alive. If, however, I manage to escape a so-called “natural death” and avoid accidental death, but genuinely tire of life (and have been presented with 100% proof of an afterlife), I will die the way I want to die. I will put all of my affairs in order, say goodbye to all of my friends and relatives, and then, alone, lying in my bed, calmly slit my wrists. There is no other way I will accept my death. No. Other. Way. It’s either by my terms, or it’s a tragedy. I shall preserve my awareness by any means possible. I believe that I am entitled to self-preservation, and that everyone else is entitled to it as well. So, no. Eventual death is not, in my opinion, a good thing. It is God’s most heinous crime against His creations, and I shall do everything in my power to fight it. ---
**Author:** ![ataraxy22](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ataraxy22/32/307_2.png) [@ataraxy22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ataraxy22)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eventual-death-is-a-good-thing/141198/49 "2002-12-12T05:57:54Z")
For those of you who can’t imagine eternal life due to it becoming progressively more “boring”, what if you had the ability to selectively edit your memories (including the memory of doing the editing) so that you could FORGET certain things, and thus be able to experience some things “as if for the first time”? Wouldn’t this make your “growing weary with life” viewpoint moot? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eventual-death-is-a-good-thing/141198.md?page=2)