# If you could live forever, would you? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 4, 2012, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742 "2012-02-04T08:29:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Strinka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/strinka/32/512_2.png) [@Strinka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strinka)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742/21 "2012-02-04T16:54:36Z")
Of course. Why wouldn’t I want the option to choose if/when I die? ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742/22 "2012-02-04T21:12:53Z")
Think about what could be achievable in research and art. There’s only so much time for people to gain the esoteric education, practice and experience, then only so much time putting whatever that is into action. Plus, there’s a ton of stuff I’m curious about, that I know humanity won’t resolve within my lifetime. Discovering extraterrestrial life. Breakthroughs and deeper insights in physics. Taking part in the resistance against the eventual Cyborg Menace. ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742/23 "2012-02-04T21:15:16Z")
I would do it. I want to see what the future’s like, and as it stands now I wont get to see too much of it before I get too old to enjoy it. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742/24 "2012-02-04T21:39:01Z")
Like most of the others, sure, I’d accept the deal as written… I also know, with a dire kind of certainty, that I would exercise the escape option at some point. It might be fifty years down the line, or five hundred… Certainly before five billion! (After five billion years of life-experiences, is there any meaningful way I could be considered “the same person” any longer, anyway? Hell, I’m only on the ski-slopes of middle age, and I’m definitely not “the same person” I was at 20!) ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742/25 "2012-02-04T21:58:17Z")
I’ve seen that episode of _The Twilight Zone,_ no thank you! Seriously, I don’t even want to live past 65 or 70, let alone “forever.” How am I supposed to \*support \*myself, for one thing? ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742/26 "2012-02-04T22:12:44Z")
I would have said yes. Then I read [The Postmortal](http://www.amazon.com/Postmortal-Novel-Drew-Magary/dp/0143119826/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328393390&sr=8-1) by Drew Magary. In it, people can choose to be injected with a cure for aging. Injection = you are whatever age you were when you got it forever. You can still die, etc., like the OP. Not to spoil it, but it doesn’t have a very happy ending. In conclusion … hell yeah I want to live forever. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742/27 "2012-02-04T22:29:47Z")
Yes, without question. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742/28 "2012-02-04T22:35:26Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > I’ve seen that episode of _The Twilight Zone,_ no thank you! > > Seriously, I don’t even want to live past 65 or 70, let alone “forever.” How am I supposed to \*support \*myself, for one thing? With a youthful 30 year old body that never ages or contracts illness, you could open up a lucrative one-woman brothel. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742/29 "2012-02-04T22:58:09Z")
Hell, I’d wanna live forever even if every year I had to slaughter a small child to drink its blood. So – yes! (Can I still slaughter small children and drink their blood?) ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742/30 "2012-02-04T23:42:37Z")
I would definitely take this deal - if only to be healthier throughout my normal life span. Though, knowing me I’d probably choose to live for a couple of hundred years anyway. Question: Could I have children throughout or would menopause eventually hit? The only downside I see is for those people who believe that suicide would damn them to Hell for eternity; since in this scenario, the decision to die would be essentially a suicide, the escape clause would be worse than meanless to them. ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742/31 "2012-02-05T00:03:41Z")
Yes. Let’s get this started right away! I know a theme of fictional immortality is that eventually the immortal becomes weary with despair at their unending existence blah blah blah, but I never understood that. There’s always new stuff to learn, new sights to see, new talents and skills to practice. You could spend 50 years becoming an expert at art history, 50 years studying quantum physics, 50 years skiing every mountain on the planet, 50 years learning a new musical instrument, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Jasper\_Kent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9a28c/32.png) [@Jasper\_Kent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasper_Kent)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742/32 "2012-02-05T00:05:38Z")
> [@Tapiotar](#): > > I suppose, if I had the physical condition of a 30 year old, hormonally inspired zest and enthusiasm… Would youthful immaturity return also? Would I keep making the same mistakes over and over again? I don’t want either of those things. Exactly. If I had the body of a 30-yr-old along with my current hard-earned wisdom through experience, then YES of course! But even an eternity of zest & enthusiasm wouldn’t be worth repeating the last 22 years of painful learning in the school of hard knocks. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742/33 "2012-02-05T01:36:46Z")
Hell yes. Sign me up right now! Joe ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742/34 "2012-02-05T01:44:45Z")
Hell yeah. I got a lot of shit to do. Where do I sign? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742/35 "2012-02-05T01:49:19Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > Do any of you remember the movie “The Hunger” with Catherine Deneuve, Susan Sarandon and David Bowie? > > [Spoiler ahead for this movie] > She was an immortal would could make quasi-immortal companions through some weird blood ritual or something (I can’t remember the details). The downside for _them_ was that they’d be immortal for some length of time and then they’d rapidly age and then … not die. They’d age and age and age until they were incapacitated living corpses, essentially, that she had stored away in boxes in the attic. It was absolutely hideous. > > To me, this would be the ultimate question: would you take 100 years of youth, living with a beautiful immortal companion, only to suffer this fate at the end? If I recollect correctly, Catherine Deneuve didn’t tell these companions that this is what would await them, so she was screwing them over for her own pleasure/company. > > That movie was sort of wacky but I’ve pondered its premise off and on for years. Never saw the movie, but I read the book and it was definitely creepy. IIRC, she’s basically a vampire, or the creature vampire legends are based on; not a undead style vampire, but the “different species that looks very human” variety. And her ability to transform humans into semi-immortals is the basis of the legend of a vampire’s bite turning you into a vampire. Except as you say, what actually happens is they become a poor & temporary imitation. ---
**Author:** ![Sudden\_Kestrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecd19e/32.png) [@Sudden\_Kestrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sudden_Kestrel)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742/36 "2012-02-05T01:55:58Z")
Ack! No way. I’d maybe take an extra decade or two of being young enough to hope, but after that I’d be glad to turn in my keys. ---
**Author:** ![Who\_me\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/958977/32.png) [@Who\_me\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Who_me_1)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742/37 "2012-02-05T02:10:19Z")
Add me to the yes side. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742/38 "2012-02-05T03:01:21Z")
Of course. Since there is only nothingness after this life I don’t have anything to lose. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742/39 "2012-02-05T03:22:07Z")
Of course, as long as there’s the escape clause. And the age thing should prove to be interesting. I’m 66, and my partner is 46. If I suddenly look like a 30-year-old, that’d make him the “old man” in the relationship . . . in appearance only. ---
**Author:** ![PandaBear77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@PandaBear77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PandaBear77)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742/40 "2012-02-05T04:02:34Z")
Watching everyone I love die? No thanks. Plus this world sucks ass. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742.md?page=3)