# If they came out with a pill that would let you live 1000 years... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 12, 2005, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-they-came-out-with-a-pill-that-would-let-you-live-1000-years/325845 "2005-10-12T03:47:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cornelius\_Tuggerson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Cornelius\_Tuggerson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cornelius_Tuggerson)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2005, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-they-came-out-with-a-pill-that-would-let-you-live-1000-years/325845/21 "2005-10-12T16:45:11Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#): > > Not very much. > > Something is more than nothing. > > Refute. Ok here goes. The universe is actually a single partice that moves faster then light thus making up the whole “sub FTL” world we can see and comprehend. When you die you stop being an instance of that partice at a certain time and place and whats left of you is the particle - ie the entire universe itself (I actually felt like that once, back in college - it wasn’t half bad). Everything is more then something. Me - I’d take the pill, i’m sure it gets much easier after the first 300 years and its not like I’d loose the ability to die, I’d just be able to stick around until there was nothing left in the world that could amaze me. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Controvert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@The\_Controvert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Controvert)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2005, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-they-came-out-with-a-pill-that-would-let-you-live-1000-years/325845/22 "2005-10-12T19:12:58Z")
Heck yeah, sign me up. And if you got some extra pills, I’ll take those too. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2005, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-they-came-out-with-a-pill-that-would-let-you-live-1000-years/325845/23 "2005-10-12T19:41:28Z")
Assuming that the pill won’t magically prevent me from commiting suicide, I’m all for it. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2005, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-they-came-out-with-a-pill-that-would-let-you-live-1000-years/325845/24 "2005-10-12T19:42:12Z")
Of course I’d take it. I want to see what the world will be like a few hundred years down the line. But… my man gets one too, right? I don’t want to have to look for a decent replacement when he dies. Took me too long to find him in the first place. Imagine having to get back to the dating scene every few decades as companions die off? The horror!! ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2005, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-they-came-out-with-a-pill-that-would-let-you-live-1000-years/325845/25 "2005-10-12T20:00:58Z")
“Hey baby, I’m gonna chop my penis off. If it grows back, you have to have sex with me, OK?” Seriously, I would only take it if I could go to sleep, at will, for several decades at a time AND if I could still kill myself if necessary. ---
**Author:** ![Millit\_the\_Frail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/51bf81/32.png) [@Millit\_the\_Frail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Millit_the_Frail)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2005, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-they-came-out-with-a-pill-that-would-let-you-live-1000-years/325845/26 "2005-10-12T20:06:37Z")
I’d do it. I want to see what happens. Experience everything I could fit in. Learn to play piano, for crying out loud! Would I automatically die in 2981, then, because that’s when I’d turn 1000? ---
**Author:** ![Ghanima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Ghanima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ghanima)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2005, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-they-came-out-with-a-pill-that-would-let-you-live-1000-years/325845/27 "2005-10-12T20:10:04Z")
Oh HELL yeah I’d do it. And I’d travel the globe. When I got bored of that, I’d become a wisewoman sitting on top of a mountain. When I got bored of that, I’d start doing art projects that would take fifty years or more to complete, kinda like the Great Wall or the Pyramids or drawings on the earth that can only be seen from miles up or something. Or if available, space travel. Ah, so many possibilities. (But would I have to use birth control for a thousand years? I could see having a kid every hundred years or so, and it would be cool to see your great-great-great-etc-grandchildren, but 969 more years of stupid birth control? That would be a little annoying.) ---
**Author:** ![GrahamWellington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/54ee81/32.png) [@GrahamWellington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrahamWellington)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2005, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-they-came-out-with-a-pill-that-would-let-you-live-1000-years/325845/28 "2005-10-12T21:03:54Z")
It’s simple: Give sex a rest for 969 years. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![GrahamWellington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/54ee81/32.png) [@GrahamWellington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrahamWellington)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2005, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-they-came-out-with-a-pill-that-would-let-you-live-1000-years/325845/29 "2005-10-12T21:06:02Z")
Millit – Yup; give or take a day or two. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Creaky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e68b1a/32.png) [@Creaky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Creaky)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2005, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-they-came-out-with-a-pill-that-would-let-you-live-1000-years/325845/30 "2005-10-12T21:41:57Z")
Oh, yeah. Gimme life, gimme lotsa life!! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2005, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-they-came-out-with-a-pill-that-would-let-you-live-1000-years/325845/31 "2005-10-12T21:48:55Z")
Not only would I live for a thousand years, I currently intend on doing so, or perishing in the attempt. ---
**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:** [October 12, 2005, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-they-came-out-with-a-pill-that-would-let-you-live-1000-years/325845/32 "2005-10-12T21:53:26Z")
Damn straight I’d take the pill. The only thing I want to have a chance of killing me is the heat death of the universe… and, when that comes around, maybe I’ll do something about _that_, too. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2005, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-they-came-out-with-a-pill-that-would-let-you-live-1000-years/325845/33 "2005-10-12T21:56:36Z")
Uhhhhhhh. Just how long would meopause last exactly? ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-they-came-out-with-a-pill-that-would-let-you-live-1000-years/325845/34 "2005-10-13T01:27:01Z")
Hell yeah. Life seems like one big sitcom… I wanna see what happens next. ---
**Author:** ![Maxxxie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f14d63/32.png) [@Maxxxie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maxxxie)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-they-came-out-with-a-pill-that-would-let-you-live-1000-years/325845/35 "2005-10-13T08:54:31Z")
I’d do it. But only if I can still retire in my sixties. That way I’d have the rest of the time to enjoy myself! Also, I’d want MaxBabe to take one too. No point living that long if I don’t have my Babe there with me! Max. ---
**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:** [October 13, 2005, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-they-came-out-with-a-pill-that-would-let-you-live-1000-years/325845/36 "2005-10-13T09:11:06Z")
This idea is explored somewhat in Bob Shaw’s _One Million Tomorrows_; one of the quite plausible things mentioned in this work of fiction is that, after a while, you’d be a different individual, as old habits, preferences, memories and thought patterns wore out or were supplanted by new ones; rather than becoming an immortal individual, you become an immortal body that will be inhabited by a continuum of different individuals, each merging seamelssly into the next. ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-they-came-out-with-a-pill-that-would-let-you-live-1000-years/325845/37 "2005-10-13T10:04:53Z")
In a heartbeat. Just to see what happens next. I’ll eventually get to experience death anyway so why not stick around a while for a little bonus? ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-they-came-out-with-a-pill-that-would-let-you-live-1000-years/325845/38 "2005-10-13T10:06:01Z")
> [@Kythereia](#): > > Not a chance. Mortality can be one of our greatest curses–and our greatest blessings. See, that all sounds deep and mysterious and stuff but considering that there’s no alternative to mortality in real life it’s kind of a meaningless statement. Unless you’re speaking from the perspective of hydrogen particles or something. ---
**Author:** ![Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-they-came-out-with-a-pill-that-would-let-you-live-1000-years/325845/39 "2005-10-13T11:05:38Z")
> [@Silentgoldfish](#): > > See, that all sounds deep and mysterious and stuff but considering that there’s no alternative to mortality in real life it’s kind of a meaningless statement. > > Unless you’re speaking from the perspective of hydrogen particles or something. The two biggest lies in SF: - 1. People would get bored with immortality or a prolonged life. 2. There are some things the human race is not meant to know. Yeah, I’d take it. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-they-came-out-with-a-pill-that-would-let-you-live-1000-years/325845/40 "2005-10-13T14:34:20Z")
> [@Kythereia](#): > > Not a chance. Mortality can be one of our greatest curses–and our greatest blessings. > > > [@Silentgoldfish](#): > > > > See, that all sounds deep and mysterious and stuff but considering that there’s no alternative to mortality in real life it’s kind of a meaningless statement. > > > > Unless you’re speaking from the perspective of hydrogen particles or something. Also…aren’t you still mortal? Just, like, for a lot longer. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-they-came-out-with-a-pill-that-would-let-you-live-1000-years/325845.md?page=1)