# What would you do if you were immortal? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 3, 2012, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-were-immortal/636628 "2012-10-03T21:56:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-were-immortal/636628/61 "2012-10-06T12:09:03Z")
You’re visited by a Scottish Egyptian. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2012, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-were-immortal/636628/62 "2012-10-07T18:43:32Z")
> [@Max\_the\_Immortal](#): > > Interesting how many mortals see immortality as a path to riches. What they fail to realize is that greed is driven largely by the instinct for self-preservation. When self-preservation is a given, accumulating a fortune seems rather unimportant. Yes, but investing is one of those activities where “slow and steady wins the race”. Most people try to save for retirement, but a medical emergency wipes out their life savings. If you are immune to disease, and can recover quickly from serious injury, you have fewer obstacles to becoming wealthy. If you are never too sick to work, and never too old to start over, you have many more opportunities to become wealthy. With a modicum of self-discipline, even a minimum-wage worker should eventually be able to save enough pennies to become rich. Especially if you can take the long view, and not panic every time the stock market crashes. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2012, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-were-immortal/636628/63 "2012-10-07T21:10:25Z")
As for the point you were actually making, I don’t think you need “I’m afraid of dying” for motivation. I think “Living in a cardboard shack during the Great Depression was a damn nuisance, and I don’t want to do that again” will serve quite nicely. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2012, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-were-immortal/636628/64 "2012-10-07T21:46:58Z")
> [@Szlater](#): > > Damn, that’s dark. > > _adds drastic\_quench to the list_ Be careful. If you get caught doing something to someone on the list, you might get 20 years\* to life\*! ---
**Author:** ![Aquadementia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aquadementia/32/555_2.png) [@Aquadementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquadementia)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2012, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-were-immortal/636628/65 "2012-10-07T22:06:54Z")
I’d get to know people. An immortal person would be an invaluable first hand eyewitness account of history. Eventually I would tour the galaxy. If faster then light travel never happens I would be about the only one that could make the journey to other stars. If FTL travel does happen, I would still be the only one that could live long enough to visit all the stars. Assuming immortality is unique. For more information on life as an immortal, read “The Boat of a Million Years” by Poul Anderson. Or, if you plan on being a immortal jerk, read the third book of the Hitchhikers guide the the Galaxy. (as I suspect most of us have) You know, if I took up the yo-yo I bet I would get astoundingly good at it after a few hundred years. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2012, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-were-immortal/636628/66 "2012-10-08T04:11:04Z")
People with a finite amount of life to live spend it sitting on a sofa, eating chips and watching Honey Boo Boo and these are people who know they are going to die someday. People with an infinite amount of time would be even bigger couch potatoes. ---
**Author:** ![mage-girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cc9497/32.png) [@mage-girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mage-girl)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-were-immortal/636628/67 "2012-10-09T04:24:12Z")
I actually had a character in a tabletop RPG campaign who was immortal due to reading a magical scroll. Hundreds of years later she became a superhero! She could still be killed in combat, though with her defenses that was unlikely. One of her teammates used to leap in front of her to take hits, sure that the reasonably-pretty sorceress was as fragile as she looked. :smack: She perpetually looked about 30, and owned a bookstore. Every so often she’d have to go reinvent herself. (In the past she’d been a midwife, courtesan, etc.) Given the nature of the campaign, which only spanned a few years, she didn’t have to make such arrangements. Immortality like that might be kind of cool, but it would be horribly sad to watch people die around you. I think I would still get attached - people still adopt pets, even knowing their lifespan is so much shorter than ours. Having magical powers might make it even more fun, but I shouldn’t get greedy. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-were-immortal/636628/68 "2012-10-09T05:07:26Z")
I’d buy a really nice house far above sea-level, then be dungeon master of a super long Dungeons & Dragons campaign. And buy everything on my Amazon wishlist. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-you-were-immortal/636628.md?page=3)