Poll: If you could, would you "live forever"?

[K12]

I picked the third option partly because of the aggressive way it was phrased (it isn't my fault if I have thought of an important aspect of the issue that you didn't include in your one sentence question) and partly because of the immortals from Gulliver's Travels. They live forever and continue to age for that entire time so are basically mindless and immobile for thousands of years.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

Yes...I would.

I want to see how far into the future humanity will get before self destructing.

 

[Nickolai77]

Based on what the OP has told us, there are totally justifiable reasons to turn down immortality, but I don't understand why anyone would reject immortality on the basis of boredom. How could you ever get bored with life if you are physically fit and able to enjoy it?

If I were immortal I'd plan my life on the basis of working for 20 years which will support me for 10 years of "retirement" were I travel, write, party, socialise and pursue my hobbies and interests before either resuming my career or re-training for a new one. Given how much the world changes over the course of 20 years I don't see this ever getting boring. Countries will change, regimes will rise and fall, and scientific and technological advancement will change how we live.

The main risk one takes in never ageing is that you will inevitably have to try and survive some sort of horror or destructive event- like a world war or a pandemic and could die horribly.


I'd almost certainly opt to be "immortal" (in the sense of never ageing) if I could have kids before becoming immortal- if not, then I'd have to give it a bit more thought.

 

[kommando367]

if it came with the necessary secondary powers such as immunity to disease, eternal youth, a decent healing factor, etc..., then I would. If not, then no.

 

[Souther Thorn]

I am terrified of losing my wife. Not because 'she left me', if that ever happens we're mature and grown up enough to try and be civil about it and move on. I'm afraid of 'losing' her, to happenstance, to accident, to horror. I would still elect to live forever (lose forever, I first typed....Freudian slip?) if only because of the good it might allow me to do....and maybe some of the naughty it would allow my great age to excuse (OR EDUCATE ME ABOUT).

 

[Entitled]

Whilst kinda cool initially, to live forever would be hell. To see your loved ones die, to see your species evolve beyond you, to one day simply not exist because heat death... as well as this, what if I fell down a mineshaft or something? I have increased odds of being trapped forever.

OP wasn't talking about magical immortality, but the transhumanist concept of indefinite life extension through scientific means.

So there is no reason why your loved ones would die either, and if you fell down a mineshaft the fall would kill you.

The question is whether you would suspend the inevitably time-limited nature of life.

 

[Entitled]

You can read the responses to the threads and can spot the younger participants. That's not a comment to ridicule or belittle them. Merely an observation based on experience. And the crux of the issue is "experience". You see I'm at the other end of the age scale and as I've aged I've been filled up with experiences and memories. What is very apparent is that life is cyclic and everything repeats. Music, fashion, ideas, etc., and after so many repetitions it gets to be very predictable and therefore dull.

So, you have been "filled up with experiences and memories", yet evidently you keep on living. You could kill yourself right now, yet you go on.

You look forward to retirement, but if suddenly you would be cursed with a young, unperishing body, and you would b denied retirement on that account, would you be so disappointed as to kill yourself over it?

You bring up some rationalizations for why a second 60 years aren't AS MUCH fun as the first 60 years of experiences, but it seems to be a basic truth that life is better than than non-life, and healthy people want to live one more day.

Maybe the difference is not so much between age groups, but between people who can property extend "I want to live a bit more" into something that their healthy 80 year old self and 120 year of self, and 250 year old self would also say, and those who imaging that since they are OK with dying in the hypothetical distant future, that means they will eventually be OK dying the next day.

 

[Entitled]

I have no real reason other than being a total coward when it comes to death and being an insanely nosey person who wants to know how things play out.

I think we're probably better off with a younger population, a stagnant ageing society might not be the most fertile ground for progress. Individuals within the ageing population would possibly carry all of their deep seated prejudices and ignorance with them.

You are not a coward, you are a humanist.

We have made some progress in the past millenia, but what is "progress"? You intuitively feel, that humans not dying, IS progress.

You wouldn't support nuclearly bombing the Middle East to reach world peace. You wouldn't support burning homeless people for extra energy. You wouldn't support bioengineering viruses that kill the people with the lowest IQ. Because the only reason why energy, pece, or higher IQ are valuable, is if they are used to decrease human death and suffering. Reaching them through death, defeats the point.

Likewise, whatever progressive-sounding values a society that rejects immortality could improve on, would pale in comparison to the choice to accept billions of avoidable deaths over and over again to reach it. Whatever change could be reached by a permanent global holocaust of everyone, doesn't deserve to be called a progressive change.

 

[Piorn]

Sure. The most glaring problem with those questions is usually that you eventually end up floating in space or inside the sun for all eternity, so with those factors eliminated, yes definitely.

 

[verdant monkai]

"Immortality is not a gift it is a responsibility."

Yeah I would be up for that. If I was the kind of immortal who just couldn't die even from things like injury/starvation/disease, I'd become the worlds greatest soldier. There would be no greater form of adventure. If I was the sort of immortal who just didn't die of old age, I'd probably just walk the earth helping people, sharing my knowledge and all that.

 

[halisme]

No. It would be fine for the first few years,but after a few millennia or so I'd start to feely really out of place. It gets worse the further you go along. Humanity would evolve but you wouldn't, meaning you'd become the equivalent of a Neanderthal. Worse still would be if humanity was wiped out before full space travel was achieved. The sun would eventually expand and if you were trapped on earth, you'd be trapped and burning for ever.

 

[Kotaro]

Depends. If all of my friends and loved ones are doing the same, then sure. But if there is one thing in this world that I quite simply do not want, beyond anything else, it is to significantly outlive everyone I care about.

 

[Tayh]

It wouldn't be a proper transhuman scenario if there wasn't some kind of tiered society with people too poor to live forever glaring in envy at the centuries-old upper crust.

So, basically, it's the plot to the movie In Time [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1637688/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1]?
Anyway; hell yeah! Sign me up for immortality.

 

[Mimic]

I honestly don't know. I am afraid of death and would certainly be fine for living an awful lot longer but forever? - I don't know about that. I'm not particularly interested in having kids so that's not really an issue for me but I would be one of those prats with a lot of questions before I would agree to it. You mention 'curing' aging what would that mean though? Would we age slower or remain 'fixed' in our prime? Who else would get the opportunity and would it be something you buy? I can see that creating some unrest. I'd want to read the small print first

 

[Trippy Turtle]

I'd take it if it was an option.
I'd prefer it was only me for overpopulation and other concerns but eh. I'll take what I can get.

I'd prefer invincibility so nothing could kill me, provided I can kill myself if I wished though. That would be lovely.

 

[chocolate pickles]

Without doubt, yes: I have no plans to have kids, and am certainly afraid of death.

Also, like the 3rd option: god those people piss me off.

 

[renegade7]

However, if the use of age-defying technology came with the stipulation that you couldn't reproduce, would you?

Well, I don't intend to ever have children (got the ole' snippy-snip and everything) so immortality would just be another bonus to not having screaming brats running around.

As for overpopulation, I strongly disagree with this argument. It shouldn't be my obligation to die for someone else's selfish desire for children.

And as for loved ones dying, well, people will always be coming into and leaving your mortal life, for reasons of death or any of an infinite number of other possibilities. Loss is a part of life. And as such, there's no way to avoid that it will also be a part of immortal life.

But it only gets more massive, imagine 10101010 or 1010101010

What about 10101010101010101010
These are numbers beyond all human comprehension, i can not even begin to wrap my head around their approximate magnitude, and yet these are nothing compared to eternity. Eternity just goes on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on ...

Remember when you were a child, and Summer seemed like it would just go on, and on, and on, and on? You didn't think about when it would end, you just lived your life day-to-day. It's not about the net result of the time you're going to be alive, but being able to live your life day-to-day. With just an unlimited number of days.

 

[JoJo]

No. It would be fine for the first few years,but after a few millennia or so I'd start to feely really out of place. It gets worse the further you go along. Humanity would evolve but you wouldn't, meaning you'd become the equivalent of a Neanderthal. Worse still would be if humanity was wiped out before full space travel was achieved. The sun would eventually expand and if you were trapped on earth, you'd be trapped and burning for ever.

To be fair, the last sentence would only apply if it was some sort of magical invulnerability as opposed to the technological immortality the OP was talking about. You could always commit suicide once you felt you had lived enough.

 

[EeveeElectro]

Hell no. I wouldn't want to get close to anyone knowing I would just outlive them then have to get my heart broken time after time when they die. It'd get so damn boring too. Even if I had loadsa money to go travelling, it'd just get boring after a while.

I'd only be willing if I actually helped the world somehow.