Immortality

[Musicfreak]

So as I was browsing through the Escapist forums trying to fend off my boredom I came across a thread that made me think about Immortality. It got me thinking, In more than a couple shows,video games,stories,etc that involve Immortality It is often portrayed as something that is ultimately bad, but I don't buy it.

One of the arguments against it I have heard is that life is pointless without death. This seems to make sense in theory after all couldn't one argue that without evil you couldn't have good? But lots of things sound good in theory but just don't work in reality. Doesn't life have meaning because of all the experiences you have during it, and it's not like you would ever run out of things to experience. The world isn't some static object, it is constantly changing. A couple hundred years ago you couldn't have a conversation in real time with someone hundreds of miles away, and you couldn't find the knowledge of an entire library in a strange relatively small electrical contraption either.

I've also heard people say living for so long might cause one to go insane. I don't really see why though. Sure your views of the world might change dramatically over time and you might experience some tramatic events but theres no reason you wouldn't be able to cope with the changing world.

The only real major downside I can think of is that you might be the only immortal. The knowledge that you possess immortality and you're friends do not would be depressing. It probably wouldn't matter at first but over hundreds of years it may become tiresome to make friends when there only going to die later. Then again 70 years is a pretty long time(Maybe not so much for an immortal though).

So what are your thoughts. Immortality, is it a good thing, a Bad thing, Would you get bored, Would you be unable to handle losing your friends over and over, Or would you eventually go insane.

(Sorry about the long read but this thought jumped into my head and I just had to get my thoughts down.)

 

[Erana]

Its a "meh" thing.
First off, our minds aren't equipped to last very long, and we need a sense of scale. To never die would to loose all sense of time, being another path to insanity.

And inevitably, you'd do something that would get you in trouble, wether it be torture or imprisonment for life.

 

[Nova Tendril]

Of course I would want to be an immortal. Death is the only enemy of mankind that we can not defeat. To evade death would be to spit on God himself.

 

[SmilingKitsune]

Well one reason immortality could be a burden is that while you lived on, all those around you would die of old age, a bit like the paradox Arwen faces in the lord of the rings.

 

[garjian]

unfortunately... life has no meaning if it ends...

personally i think immortality can only be good...

 

[SmilingKitsune]

Its a "meh" thing.
First off, our minds aren't equipped to last very long, and we need a sense of scale. To never die would to loose all sense of time, being another path to insanity.

And inevitably, you'd do something that would get you in trouble, wether it be torture or imprisonment for life.

Not a very compelling argument. I have less than no sense of time. I rarely even know the month.

And jail? You can escape from jail eventually. If you do something to get yourself tortured...eh.
That might be a compelling argument.

Well one reason immortality could be a burden is that while you lived on, all those around you would die of old age, a bit like the paradox Arwen faces in the lord of the rings.

Not much of a burden. You just need to accept that human life is fleeting, unlike your own.

As you may have guessed, I have always wanted to live forever. People around me die anyway. My living on won't affect or change that, so why not?

Tch, well you're not fully mortal anyway so of course you'd say that.
You make a good point though, you'd just have to learn how to get over the deaths of others, and something tells me you wouldn't have much trouble with that.

 

[Fairee]

Not really something I've considered, cos it's impossible in real life.

Also, I take little interest in the kind of stories/movies that involve immortality.

 

[Musicfreak]

Its a "meh" thing.
First off, our minds aren't equipped to last very long, and we need a sense of scale. To never die would to loose all sense of time, being another path to insanity.

And inevitably, you'd do something that would get you in trouble, wether it be torture or imprisonment for life.

I don't really see how you would lose your sense of time you may never change but everything else does. You need only turn on the T.V or plug in your i pod to know that none of it even existed hundreds of years prior.

You would probably go to jail at least once but that wouldn't end your life and you could escape. The only thing I can see ruining Immortality would be a tramatic event that you just can't seem to recover from but even then you have all the time in the world.

 

[Sewer Rat]

I would not want to be immortal, it disrupts the natural order. Old things must go to make way for the new, there is no light without darkness, there is no life without death.

 

[sky14kemea]

i think the bad image immortality has gotten is because all bad guys want it so they can rule the world forever, or something

if you think about it, if a really good person got immortality, it'd be a good thing

i wouldn't mind it... as long as my body doesn't age either

 

[Nmil-ek]

Eternal life would be infinatley more terrifying than the prospect of death for me.

 

[Nova Tendril]

Not really something I've considered, cos it's impossible in real life.

Also, I take little interest in the kind of stories/movies that involve immortality.

Technically it is possible. You just need to find a way to prevent cells from decaying.

 

[GothmogII]

Well. There's already plenty of highminded thought about it...but here's some of the common againsts:

One, a human's sense of time, as mentioned above. As it's currently thought, due to our short lives, we perceive time a certain way. That is, our lives -seem- pretty long to us. A year is a long time when you only live maybe 70-90 years. But, from an immortal's perspective, it's thought that time would kind of blur together, days become seconds, years become minutes etc.
I don't know whether this is actually something I believe however, being that there has been no immortals (that we know off) so it's not exactly as if you could just ask them if their sense of time was skewed.

Two. An immortal can not form permanent attachments. Related to the sense of time too, the idea is, that being immortal, you'll see all you're friends and family die. And while you could eventually make new ones, you may find yourself not caring anymore, after all, taking the time thing, if everyone around you has from your point of view the life span of a may fly, how can you form lasting bonds? This leads to a form a kind sociopathy in itself, as you may just cease to care about -anything-.

Three. What happens when the earth, and it will, eventually dies? I mean, if at that point you've got some kind of spaceship with unlimited fuel, great. But, if you don't, you're in for a loooooooong and lonely float. In space, it's not like swimming, don't think you just have to float long enough and you'll get somewhere, and given how big space is, you're not going anywhere fast.

(This is disregarding the distinctions between clinical and total immortality. Clinical immortality is where you simply have an increased lifespan. But someone could still shoot you say. Total immortality is where you are quite literally immune to everything. However, with the regards to the former, clinical immortality is a least somewhat more plausible, although still fiction at this time. Total immortality is a bit more out there, as anything we can think of a the moment all suffers from degradation and is capable of being destroyed i.e. cloning yourself, putting your brain in a jar, digitising your conciousness, and only temporary long term solutions at best.

 

[Jaqen Hghar]

This.

Eternal life would be infinatley more terrifying than the prospect of death for me.

And, if you do become immortal, I assure you that you would eventually go mad. The thing is, you would probably recover from it as well. I think in this case that madness would be a defense mechanism your brain would use so that you could cope with it. But you would eventually outlive your madness.

Since immortality is impossible, I can just as well make crazy theories like that.

 

[garjian]

Not really something I've considered, cos it's impossible in real life.

Also, I take little interest in the kind of stories/movies that involve immortality.

Technically it is possible. You just need to find a way to prevent cells from decaying.

hmm.. i reckon thats probably the most important thing we could invent i hope its available on the NHS...

 

[Nmil-ek]

Your still subject to mortality, natural disasters, murders, war, disease, the earths eventual cold death, not to mention regulating birth rates to control the amount of food or we would all starve.

 

[MoganFreeman]

Hell yes, there is so much to do in life, and so little time.