If you could live forever… would you and why? (here’s an intelligent answer I found in my travels)
I would not live forever, because we should not live forever,because if we were supposed to live forever, then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever."
Miss Alabama in the 1994 Miss Universe contest
Myself… I wouldnt live forever because I think that at some point in time, our work here is done. We have children who are our future and even tho I will be gone…I will be watching very closely as to what happens in this world.
“Friends are angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly.”
Even if I didn’t age, and stayed where i am right now, I think I’d pass; the boredom of living millinia after millinia would kill me (figuratively speaking, I guess).
Hell, yeah! I’d live forever. What ya’ll can’t think of enough things to occupy yourselves with from here unto eternity. Come on, It’s not like you’ld ever run out of books to read, or music to listen to. There are always new hobbies to pick up. You could never meet even half of the most interesting people.
Hell, I could probably occupy several decades hopping between UBB boards and finding all the fascinating people there. (And maybe I will!)
Pass. Never. No way. Why live forever? I think a good 80-90 years is plenty of lifetime for me. I love life as much as the next guy, but we’re talking FOREVER here.
Later…
In Barbara Hambly’s vampire book “Those Who Hunt the Night” (or maybe it was the sequel), a vampire offers a surprising perspective on immortality. I don’t have it in front of me, but the gist of it was that when people say they want to live forever, what they really mean is they want their environment to remain the same, too. And when the world moves on, they keep up for a while, but eventually there is nothing left but to withdraw from a world that has become incomprehensible and alien. That, and (of course) the hunt.
I am gonna live forever. It sorta sounds to me like you all don’t know the meaning of life yet.
This reminds me of the tired, old idea that evil is more fun than good because good is boring while evil is at least exciting. Pooey to that jive. I expect to have more and more fun as I go along. You oughta push away from the computer screen and go take a nature hike or sumpin’. Oh, look, there’s a birdie sittin’ in the sun.
If I did live forever, PLEASE let it be with my body when I was 21 and my brain/backbone and mental nuts after 28. If it was the other way around, forgetaboutit.
OTOH, if I lived forever, I would really rock on Jeopardy4001 and could taunt Alex Trebeck XII on what a condescending prick his Great Great (etc) really was.
Living forever would suck because of everyone who you get close to dying. Just the death of my mom wrecked me… Still has… Imagine knowing that everyone - your SO, your family, and every friend you ever make, dying before you. It would drive a man insane, or to suicide…
Yes, I would want to live forever on the condition that I wouldn’t grow older and would always have a healthy body and mind. It would really stink to live forever with an incurable disease.
So assuming that, I am very curious about what will happen down the road. I don’t think that curiousity will ever fade so I would always be interested in the things that tomorrow would bring.
No, I wouldn’t like to live forever. A lot longer, maybe, but not forever.
I can’t remember if it was Anne Rice or Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (one of those vampire folks) who got me to thinking about this. There’s something to be considered that maybe the physical body wears out at about the same rate as the mental and emotional capacity to absorb new experiences.
After a while, watching life go on and on and on could become numbing. I wonder how long a human being could continue to change along with times, and deal with all the times and people who have passed. (Apologies to Satan for building on his point.)
Dunno, but a fascinating topic. I lean toward the view that immortality would be a curse, not a blessing.
When I was a boy, I knew that everyone died sooner or later, but I was sure an exception would be made in my case. That’s probably true of most children.
Now that I know better, I’m okay with it. I agree with Veb. It would be a curse. I pass.
I’ll agree with Satan here. Even if we assume that everyone else gets the same boon of eternal life, there are just too many other kinds of pain to be tolerated for millennium after millennium.
The very callous, the very self-centered, or the very preoccupied might last for a few centuries. I have difficulty believing that most of the rest of us would want to see their 200[sup]th[/sup] birthdays.
“Kings die, and leave their crowns to their sons. Shmuel HaKatan took all the treasures in the world, and went away.”
Nope. I wouldn’t want to live forever. What might be kind of cool, though, is to take a century-long break, then come back for a week or two, just to see what’s new, and maybe check on my descendants, if any.
I would like to be able to live forever, with the option that I could end it at any time I choose. I wouldn’t want to be trapped in an existence when I find it to be wearying.
How long would I be able to find interest in life? That’s a difficult question to answer. I see that even in our short lives we tend to cling to the past. One poster said “there are always new books to read and new music to listen to.” Yes, but how much of the music you listen to is 200 years old? How many of the books that you read are 300 years old? And many other art forms suffer from the same “obsolescence.” Culture changes, tastes change, and most people don’t change along with it.
La franchise ne consiste pas à dire tout ce que l’on pense, mais à penser tout ce que l’on dit.
H. de Livry
It sorta sounds to me like you all don’t know the meaning of life yet.
I expect to have more and more fun as I go along. You oughta push away from the computer screen and go take a nature hike or sumpin’. Oh, look, there’s a birdie sittin’ in the sun.