# What would you do if you knew you were immortal? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 2, 2006, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-knew-you-were-immortal/342611 "2006-02-02T01:39:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-knew-you-were-immortal/342611/21 "2006-02-02T14:59:51Z")
I’d buy a remote, secure cabin and start stocking it with supplies so that I can be as self-sufficient as possible for as long as possible so that I can survive the aftermath of the collapse of the US Economy, the fall of civilization and the robot apocalypse. Other than that I’d live my life as normal. ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-knew-you-were-immortal/342611/22 "2006-02-02T15:06:53Z")
Host my own TV show called “I’m Frickin Immortal” where I go out and do all sorts of crazy dangerous stuff like taunt bikers in bars, kickbox tigers, and crash helicopters through giant panes of glass. Just when it looks like I’m a goner, the camera zooms in and I give a wink and a smile and say “I’m Frickin Immortal!” ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-knew-you-were-immortal/342611/23 "2006-02-02T15:09:10Z")
I’d do the same thing I do every day-- read. The only problem I have with my eventual demise is that there are books I will never get to read. I don’t need or want a lot of wealth. Just enough to buy the necessities and a comfortable home when it comes time to move on again. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-knew-you-were-immortal/342611/24 "2006-02-02T15:13:25Z")
> [@Cluricaun](#): > > Host my own TV show called “I’m Frickin Immortal” where I go out and do all sorts of crazy dangerous stuff like taunt bikers in bars, kickbox tigers, and crash helicopters through giant panes of glass. Just when it looks like I’m a goner, the camera zooms in and I give a wink and a smile and say “I’m Frickin Immortal!” Ha! Great! I’m very tied to people and community. While being immortal might be tough for me because of that, it would also free me to do some things I might be more apt to do now if I wasn’t so concerned about not leaving the people/places I love. There’s that thread going on about spending a year and a half sailing around the world. Things like that. Travel. Immortality is a long time, but the world is a big place, and it’s changing all the time. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-knew-you-were-immortal/342611/25 "2006-02-02T15:14:31Z")
Whatever Dick Clark is doing, it works for him. ---
**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:** [February 2, 2006, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-knew-you-were-immortal/342611/26 "2006-02-02T15:15:01Z")
Learn to play poker. Maybe become a silent partner in hollywood movies. ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-knew-you-were-immortal/342611/27 "2006-02-02T15:19:16Z")
[Peter Griffin]\ I’m gonna’ jump off this building[/P.G.] ---
**Author:** ![Nature\_s\_Call](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nature_s_call/32/19006_2.png) [@Nature\_s\_Call](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nature_s_Call)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-knew-you-were-immortal/342611/28 "2006-02-02T15:47:52Z")
One of the things I hate most about my threescore and ten is it forces prioritization. I’d love to learn to play guitar, become a master at chess, and still squeeze in time to paint my Warhammer 40k dudes, oh, and go to work and raise a family. But where does one find the time, so I have to choose. If I was immortal, the pressure’s off! I can work for a hundred years before starting a family knowing that’d be a drop in the bucket. After 100 years I’d study guitar so I could serenade the pants off of some bombshell. It’s almost certain I’d pull some bonehead move (lose all my money, incite a country to truly despise me, marry a she-bitch from hell) and have to live with the consequences for 50-500 years or so. So what? That span of time is the equivalent of stubbing my toe, curse and swear for a sec and by tomorrow it’s forgotten. I too would read every book (try writing a couple) learn every language. It would be interesting to discover what happens when the human mind’s RAM becomes full. As for loved ones (prepare the tomatoes for throwing) yeah I’d cry every generation or so, but then move on. I love my dogs and have had four now. It’s heartbreaking each time they die, but I’ll get me another. Every millenia or so I’d give away all my assets and enter some new city/country completely broke to see how long it would take to build an empire. Then I’d try to beat that record. At least once I would try to found a religion - one with the goofiest of rituals, so I can sit back and laugh. Then I’d mount a campaign to thwart it. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-knew-you-were-immortal/342611/29 "2006-02-02T16:04:42Z")
roshia: > [@](#): > > It reminded me of this novel whose name I can’t remember for the life of me (BAD PUN?) where, basically, everyone was essentially immortal and some of these people decided to make a game out of finding creative ways to die. I don’t know of a novel by that description, but in Neil Gaiman’s comic book _Endless Nights_, there’s a story about an island which is stuck in time in a way that none of the residents can die, and that’s exactly what they do. I remember one of them arranging to get crushed between two virgins at the moment of orgasm (obviously, they were no longer virgins at that point), by having an elephant step on them. (Eventually, Death finds her way onto the island.) ---
**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:** [February 2, 2006, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-knew-you-were-immortal/342611/30 "2006-02-02T17:26:08Z")
Like many here, I’d work and save until independently wealthy. I would then fill the years with travel, post-secondary study (starting with biology, philology, cognitive psychology and economics) , and spending time with friends and loved ones. I don’t expect to tire of life: By the time I’ve seen every country, most will have changed since I last saw them. It is probably impossible for one man, no matter bright and energetic (even an ageless one), to learn everything that the world’s universities have to offer. **Nature’s Call** ’s analogy about dogs reflects my attitude about losing loved ones. If I really want to change things up, I’d try to install myself as god-king of a country. ---
**Author:** ![davenportavenger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@davenportavenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davenportavenger)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-knew-you-were-immortal/342611/31 "2006-02-02T17:42:24Z")
> [@Nature's Call](#): > > One of the things I hate most about my threescore and ten is it forces prioritizationAs for loved ones (prepare the tomatoes for throwing) yeah I’d cry every generation or so, but then move on. I love my dogs and have had four now. It’s heartbreaking each time they die, but I’ll get me another. No tomatoes, just a question: wouldn’t this drive someone to insanity? Knowing that you and you alone would live forever, and that you could never find anyone to share in your life situation? It would be like a person living on puppy and kitty island. Sure, it’s cute for the first couple years, but after that your inability to form a meaningful, life-long connection with any of the other creatures would drive most people to madness. Unless you are an extreme loner, I don’t think you’d be happy with this. I think that after a few hundred years most people would become hardened sociopaths and solipsists. Now that I know I can kill myself under this scenario, I’d do that, as soon as I felt ready. This time would probably not exceed an average lifespan. ---
**Author:** ![archmichael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@archmichael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/archmichael)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-knew-you-were-immortal/342611/32 "2006-02-02T18:35:56Z")
> [@soulmurk](#): > > I’d take up as hobbies things that normally require a lifetime of study and patience and diligent work, like archaeology. At a certain point, you would become archaology. The Bane of Historical Revisionists. Go on the lecture circuit talking about Life in the Nth Century. [future student]Soulmurk, in Smith’s latest book he claims that Bush was universally loved and respected by all the peoples of the world. Was this true?[/future student] [future student]Do you know any details about the life of the Prophet L. Ron Hubbard?[/future student] I would invest. Collect speculatively. Study all the things I love but at a leisurely pace. Do a 2000 post count party on this board in the year 8000 CE, and probably get banned. I would worry about dementia more than anything. Years seems to fly by for me at 34yo. I assume it will get to the point where decades seem to fly by. Ultimately grow uncomfortable with the evolving human race. I assume they will become more and more alien looking to me, while I seem more and more cave-man to them. People will have a harder time understanding my archaic English. I assume my intelligence level will get comparatively lower and lower. I would buy a starship. Load it up with AI’s and robots and set off to explore the galaxy at that point. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-knew-you-were-immortal/342611/33 "2006-02-02T18:53:36Z")
Take a long walk. Under the Pacific. ---
**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:** [February 2, 2006, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-knew-you-were-immortal/342611/34 "2006-02-02T19:05:51Z")
> [@Nature's Call](#): > > At least once I would try to found a religion - one with the goofiest of rituals, so I can sit back and laugh. Then I’d mount a campaign to thwart it. Genius. Pure Genius. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-knew-you-were-immortal/342611/35 "2006-02-02T21:15:58Z")
[tiny hijack] Wouldn’t life without parole for someone who’s immortal and can prove it be considered cruel and unusual punishment?[/tiny hijack] I’d start urban legends, to make the world seem stranger than it is anyway. Either nice, cool ones like the flowers on Poe’s grave, or, if I got crazy, a Ripper-type one. Run all over the world just doing odd things, flaunting my immortality by crazy stunts. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-knew-you-were-immortal/342611/36 "2006-02-02T21:43:08Z")
Okay, how’s this for frickin’ creepy: I’m reading this thread, laughing at some of the posts. Outlook dings in the background to tell me I’ve got mail. I flip over and find this in my Inbox: > [@](#): > > Want to live forever? > Want to live forever? Or at least, longer than you was to? Here is the way to trick Mother Nature! > > Its widely known, that there is a special hormone, which is responsible for the rejuvenation and growth of human tissues. Its produced by your anterior pituitary gland in the brain, and as you grow older its produced less and less by your body. > > But what if bring this Human Growth Hormone from somewhere outside and into your body? The scientists has found a formula for a rejuvenation course, so dont wait and find the solution of the eternal problem here! > –link deleted– What the fuck? ---
**Author:** ![Menocchio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Menocchio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Menocchio)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-knew-you-were-immortal/342611/37 "2006-02-02T22:17:46Z")
The key to surviving eternity sane is to be continually reinventing yourself. That, and to occasionally _forget_. I’m a scientist now, let’s say I spend the next century on my research. Then I get bored. So I become an author, and write for the next few decades. Until I move on. I can be a soldier, an actor, an astronaut, a carpenter, a monk, a father, hell, if biotechnology continues, maybe I’ll spend a few decades as a woman for a change and be a _mother_. Maybe I’ll spend some years living like an animal in the forest, then move into a futuristic technological citadel. I’ve got time for it all! Time to experience it all! Sure, I’d have to learn to let go, but really, even as a mortal, that’s a skill I should still cultivate. There’s a very real possibility that I may outlive everyone I love. I’ll mourn them sure, but they were just one chapter in my life. Time to start writing another one! ---
**Author:** ![Obsidian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/51bf81/32.png) [@Obsidian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Obsidian)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-knew-you-were-immortal/342611/38 "2006-02-02T22:24:40Z")
> [@davenportavenger](#): > > No tomatoes, just a question: wouldn’t this drive someone to insanity? Knowing that you and you alone would live forever, and that you could never find anyone to share in your life situation? It would be like a person living on puppy and kitty island. Sure, it’s cute for the first couple years, but after that your inability to form a meaningful, life-long connection with any of the other creatures would drive most people to madness. Unless you are an extreme loner, I don’t think you’d be happy with this. I think that after a few hundred years most people would become hardened sociopaths and solipsists. > > Now that I know I can kill myself under this scenario, I’d do that, as soon as I felt ready. This time would probably not exceed an average lifespan. I tend to think so. I’m working on a book in which the main characters are immortal, so I’ve given way more thought to what the human mind would do with immortality than your average person. One of the premises I work with (because I think it’s true) is that alone, and completely immortal, everyone’s mind goes eventually. One of my characters lost it when he realized everyone he’d ever known was dead and everything that had made up his world was completely gone-- langauage, culture, buildings, people. Another lost it when she tried every possible method of suicide, to no avail. Another lost it after being in a shipwreck and sinking. Since she didn’t and couldn’t drown, her only option was to aimlessly wander the black floor of the Atlantic ocean, slowly going crazy in the worlds biggest sensory deprivation tank. It depends on individual personality whether you turn that insanity inwards or outwards. To not go insane, or to come back from insanity, the thing they need is to either not be alone (having found another immortal to have friendship/companionship with) or to have a way out at thier disposal. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-knew-you-were-immortal/342611/39 "2006-02-02T22:29:03Z")
> [@Zakalwe](#): > > Want to live forever? Or at least, longer than you was to? Me live you long time… ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-knew-you-were-immortal/342611/40 "2006-02-02T22:33:09Z")
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