Poll: Who wants to live forever?
- Thread starter Oneirius
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I'm fairly sure my feeble human mind would be destroyed by the psychological impact. But if not, then it would be truly great.
I think no one who really thinks about it wants to live for all eternity. After a few billion years there is just nothing more to do, nothing more to experience. Everything has been said and done. Wait a little while longer until the universe itself doesn't know interaction anymore and you'd be alone in a very dark and cold place.
No, no eternal life for me. Living very very long (as in, a couple of billion years) and/or being impossible to kill is an entirely different matter though. I would sure like that.
No, no eternal life for me. Living very very long (as in, a couple of billion years) and/or being impossible to kill is an entirely different matter though. I would sure like that.
Sadly the human mind is not capable of grasping the concept very well, let alone dealing with the effects of it. The biggest being that we are emotional based creatures, and this leads to a constant stream of pain and suffering, eventually capitulating in a hellish existence once the prospect of death is removed from the table. It is just not in our nature to be able to think on true immortality past the 'oh my god, it would be cool, I could swim in lava and not be deaded!' Swimming in lava... gets boring fast, particularly when you find yourself stuck at the center of the earth.
It is for this reason that beings which are timeless, let alone immortal, are sociopaths at the very least. Their brains are wired not to feel emotions, not to make all but softest of links with each other, just so they will be shielded from the misery that comes with out living all those around themselves. Even the ones that make emotional connections, normally to other timeless beings, are wired so differently from us that we can not fathom how they think. They are that alien, normally very beautiful but so very alien.
Addams wrote about it, and that man was far greater then I.
As for humans whom find themselves with immortality? They tend to take it either of two ways. First lot go through several different levels of insanity before focusing on brief moments of pleasure without a care for anyone else, developing a few layers of shielding to protect themselves. The second undertake mind boggling 'quests' that can never be completed, just so they have something other then sinking into endless depression.
Example of the later is from Addams work, the guy who dedicated his life to insulting every single person... ever! Not just those he came across in his life, but to actively seek everyone to ever be born and insult them at least once. As for the former, Jack Harkness springs to mind as that guy is so cold and yet so hot at the same time. He had no qualms about sacrificing kids, even the child of someone he loved and whom saw him as a uncle, without even a moment of hesitation.
The human brain is just not meant to be timeless, let alone immortal.
It is for this reason that beings which are timeless, let alone immortal, are sociopaths at the very least. Their brains are wired not to feel emotions, not to make all but softest of links with each other, just so they will be shielded from the misery that comes with out living all those around themselves. Even the ones that make emotional connections, normally to other timeless beings, are wired so differently from us that we can not fathom how they think. They are that alien, normally very beautiful but so very alien.
Addams wrote about it, and that man was far greater then I.
As for humans whom find themselves with immortality? They tend to take it either of two ways. First lot go through several different levels of insanity before focusing on brief moments of pleasure without a care for anyone else, developing a few layers of shielding to protect themselves. The second undertake mind boggling 'quests' that can never be completed, just so they have something other then sinking into endless depression.
Example of the later is from Addams work, the guy who dedicated his life to insulting every single person... ever! Not just those he came across in his life, but to actively seek everyone to ever be born and insult them at least once. As for the former, Jack Harkness springs to mind as that guy is so cold and yet so hot at the same time. He had no qualms about sacrificing kids, even the child of someone he loved and whom saw him as a uncle, without even a moment of hesitation.
The human brain is just not meant to be timeless, let alone immortal.
Gabanuka said:
Daystar Clarion said:
XJ-0461 said:
coxafloppin said:
Haha, I can top you all with that. No-one considered the other possiblity...
Yes, I went there...
Anyway, back on topic. No, I wouldn't want to live forever. Oddly enough despite being Christian, I also believe in Spiritualism, so a part of that is reincarnation. And I would very much want to be reincarnated as something different rather than live forever like this.
Not to mention that even if that's all a load of hooey, I still don't want to live forever when eventually everyone I know and care about will die, the world will end, and all humanity and exsitence will eventually cease to be, and I'll be drifting around in nothingness for eternity (and space for eons before that, too). And since I highly doubt there are UK-standard electric sockets in space or nothingness, and thus nowhere to charge my DS and laptop, it'll be a very boring eternity indeed...
I would love immortality, i wouldn't need to do anything. No job i wouldn't need food or anything. Then theres all the power of being unbeatable
To live forever would mean I'd lose all my best buddies and enjoying life just wouldn't be as awesome without them. Sure I could play games till everyone dies or something or I could invest so much money I'd be rich, but without anybody to give two shits about I don't really see the purpose in any of it.
I would. It'd never become boring because the world is constantly changing. You'll be there when they discover a cure for cancer, when jetpacks become the travelling norm, when space-flight is popularised and we start colonizing other planets etc etc. There will constantly be new and fun things to do. You can try out every job ever, spent forever learning everything and becoming the worlds smartest person, you can have thousands of children if you want. The possibilities are endless cos time isn't an issue any more, it would rooooock!!!
I'd like a longer lifetime, say around 200 years (and the aging thing is changed for us humans), but eternal life would suck, especially if others didn't have it. Watching everything die around you while you sit and survive? That is a worse hell than I could ever imagine. Death is a release from life, and should be treated that way, not like it is horrific.
It is just a shame that sometimes people's passings are untimely.
It is just a shame that sometimes people's passings are untimely.
I wouldn't mind being immortal. The kind where nothing hurts or you don't age, not the kind where you just heal from any wound.
I would take a lot more risk that way. Need someone to go on a dangerous space mission? I'll be your man, or just jumping from a plane with no parachute would be equally fun. Taunting grizzly bears was never funner.
I would take a lot more risk that way. Need someone to go on a dangerous space mission? I'll be your man, or just jumping from a plane with no parachute would be equally fun. Taunting grizzly bears was never funner.
Eternal Life isn't all it's cracked up to be. First off the people who said they want to live forever would only want to if they also had eternal youth. I don't think they would want to live forever if they kept aging yet because of their immortality did not die. Without eternal youth you'd be nothing but a withered husk kept alive only by your immortality. Without eternal youth your body would decay leaving you in an immobile state of consciousness. That would probably drive you mad. Letting that issue go unless everyone else is immortal you'd eventually be found out. You could hide your immortality for a while by living in third world countries that may not keep very good records of it's population; but as time goes on eventually even those places will. What happens when the government realizes that you are older than should be possible? They will find out if you keep the same identity for say 200 years, and it is not easy to keep switching identities every hundred years or so. I don't know how it works in other countries but in America I imagine that it would not be easy to get new social security numbers to keep with your new identity. The only jobs you could get to avoid being detected would be jobs involving crime. If the government found out and eventually they would, They would probably want to study you to find out how you can still be alive after so long. If the general population finds out and they freak out which they most likely would you have to deal with them and when people are confronted with things that they don't understand and scare them they usually react with violence. Plus if they don't react with violence at least one person will most likely rat you out to the government or some kind of corporation with scientific interests in you.
Now moving away from the real life little details that most people might not think about lets move on other reasons why living forever isn't good. Do you really want to live forever watching everyone you ever care about grow older and die? The only way this wouldn't effect you is if you didn't form connections with anyone. In that case, do you really want to spend eternity alone?
Also we know that stars eventually burn out. Our sun will eventually burn out. What happens then? The planet will die yet you will not because you live forever. What will live be like then? Your body would most likely die yet you would not die. Imagine existing like that for the rest of eternity. Your consciousness would be where your body was as I don't imagine you would become like a ghost being able to go wherever you want. You would be stuck in one place disembodied forever. That doesn't sound good to me.
Now moving away from the real life little details that most people might not think about lets move on other reasons why living forever isn't good. Do you really want to live forever watching everyone you ever care about grow older and die? The only way this wouldn't effect you is if you didn't form connections with anyone. In that case, do you really want to spend eternity alone?
Also we know that stars eventually burn out. Our sun will eventually burn out. What happens then? The planet will die yet you will not because you live forever. What will live be like then? Your body would most likely die yet you would not die. Imagine existing like that for the rest of eternity. Your consciousness would be where your body was as I don't imagine you would become like a ghost being able to go wherever you want. You would be stuck in one place disembodied forever. That doesn't sound good to me.
Sure! I'd be a superhero!
Nothing can kill me, right?
Well then, off I go to stop evil!
EDIT: See how awesome this is? I just realized!
I could take tons of steroids to get freaking huge, without any ill side-effects!
I'd be a tank! Hook me up, please!
Nothing can kill me, right?
Well then, off I go to stop evil!
EDIT: See how awesome this is? I just realized!
I could take tons of steroids to get freaking huge, without any ill side-effects!
I'd be a tank! Hook me up, please!
