Based on a recent thread it occured to me that if ‘immortality’ was possible, why would you **want **to live forever?
You would never be able to retire. There would be such an overpopulation of humans, as if there aren’t already. Just wondering I guess.
Me, please. Assuming the brain could handle it, there’s an infinity of things to learn about humans, their culture, and the world. I can’t imagine wanting to move on, especially if there’s nothing to move on to.
Sure you could retire… Just not forever. That’d get boring anyway.
I’d save up enough to take a few decades off, then when the money ran low, go back into the workforce and make some more.
With unlimited time, there’d be unlimited career paths to explore. I’ll bet at some point I’d stumble onto some ways to keep an up income stream indefinitely – amass a few lifetimes worth of patents and collect royalties, e.g.
I could make some very long-term investments too. Imagine what your 401k will be worth in 753 years!
This was discussed here pretty recently. My own opinion: genuine immortality without the option of death is a horrifying thought. Sure, the first five or ten billion years might be great, but after the heat death of the universe it would just be your consciousness, floating in freezing absolute darkness, forever. Stephen King’s short story “The Jaunt” paints a pretty unpleasant picture of this sort of experience. No thank you, I’ll take death.
Does it ever! I read that story as a kid, and it absolutely terrified me. I still don’t like thinking about it. So, thanks for that.
Me! I’ll happily take immortality.
A few months ago, I was in the ICU when the doctors came in about midnight and told me I probably wasn’t going to live to see the morning so I needed to start signing over papers. The only thing I could think was “Sounds like a plan. I need to get some sleep now though”. It was WAY less traumatic than I would have thought. I am only 36 now but at 18 I was terrified of that type of prospect. I suspect things change a great deal for most everyone as they get older. I might be a terror at age 75 because I probably won’t give a shit what happens anymore.
As long as I still look young and not feel like a 900 year super grandpa, then yes! If we all lived that long I like to think we would be a very wise people and would all get along.
I think when most people talk about “living forever” they really mean “living for an arbitrarily long amount of time.” They don’t mean that you can’t possibly die, just that you can keep living as long as you want.
I think that anyone who would be happier aging and dying at < 100 or so as humanity has always done than potentially living longer and longer and having more experiences is either unhappy, insane, or has a pitifully weak imagination.
Your biggest worry about living forever is that you won’t get to retire? Yeah, I guess death is preferable, then.
I wouldn’t mind living a long life, but certainly not much longer than the typical lifespan of a person. Somethings people don’t take into account is that, by living a long time, you have to deal with the loss of loved ones, and not just parents, friends, siblings, and spouses, but ultimately children as well.
Sure, there’s enough on this Earth to last many lifetimes, and in that time there will be just that much more to see and do; but if you expect that you’ll get to see and experience all of it, either you’re exceedingly fortunate and are already independently wealthy, or you have to build that wealth and be patient to make it possible. I think that’s what people meant by the “unable to retire” bit.
There’s other complicating factors as well. Are we in a world that would be aware of and able to deal with immortality? Will we have to result to tricks like they often do in the Highlander universe, where they fake their deaths and pass on their belongings so people don’t get too suspicious when they look EXACTLY the same for decades on end.
So, sure, give me a long life, but I don’t want to live forever.
I could live forever as I am now, but if I reach the point where my dad was in his last year I’d be ready to go. Life on dialysis was not worth much to him.
The Man From Earth is a movie that deals with this. The titular character is effectively immortal, never aging. He quits his job and moves to a new town every time the people around him begin to notice that he doesn’t age, which usually takes about 10 years. The movie takes place at a goodbye party during one of those times and his friends finally manage to pry his story out of him, which is the first time he tells it.
No thanks. I’m happy with the 75 years I can reasonably expect.
I’d definitely want to “live forever”; or at least, to live as long as I still feel like living and not be condemned to death whether I want it or not.
As for the public reaction to my immortality? I’d just volunteer for scientific studies to determine and duplicate what makes me ageless. Both because I would regard it as my social duty, and because that’s just the easiest way to deal with the matter. This isn’t 200 years ago where I’d seriously risk getting killed as a witch or such, and the easiest way to explain not aging is just to be known as “that immortal guy”.
If I felt as I did 20 years ago I would. Now, I’m not so sure.
If you say “yes, thanks” to the option of living for ever, every bit of death anxiety disappears, and that in itself might be a strong enough argument. And then if you argue against eternal life, “well,” one thinks, “I don’t mind dealing with that later”. On the other hand, if you say, “oh, I prefer death,” you invite the anxiety of the fact that one day, perhaps soon, you do not exist. The nothingness, nothing.
I believe most people who actually understand the reality of not existing, if I may be so bold, not saying that I have any insight, but sorting out probably a majority of young fellows for instance, judging from my self and others, would prefer any existence. I believe that that is part of human conciousness: The Ego, so to speak, exist for life; and if life disappear, ego do not exist, and hence the Ego, or I, is afraid of dying.
So you ask the Ego, “do you want to live, or do you want to die, in the future”, the natural reaction is: “I want to live.” “But you will be bored, etc”. “I’ve been bored before, but it is in my nature to stay alive, and if you will, to reproduce.”
However, I do believe Shagnasty’s experience is common, nonetheless. And asking me if I would like to live forever, or to die, my answer would be: “I’d like to die when I’m ready.” And God willing, that is how I hope I’ll end my days on earth.
Yes indeed! Not only to experience as much as possible, but to create as much as possible. Even the prospect of losing everything and starting a new life every 50 years or so sounds like an adventure to me. Unless I had to age and shrivel into a grasshopper.
I don’t need immortality. I’d settle for a lifespan of a few thousand years. Well, quite a few, to be honest.
It’s going by so fast, and there is so much more I want to do. Many lifetime’s worth.
Hell, no.
Life is a chore with no prospects for improvement. Why would I want to extend that beyond its allotted time?