Poll: Would you accept immortality?

[ExileNZ]

I'd probably accept it then live to regret it.

 

[Rawne1980]

Of course I would.

On the one hand, it doesn't matter how far humanity evolved. Whether it be faster, smarter, stronger or the ability to urinate through a finger ..... i'm immortal, i'm going to outlive the lot of the smug bastards.

I'd get to see everything that happens.

I'd outlive everyone.

And if I did happen to go insane then it wouldn't matter, i'd be insane, I wouldn't bloody notice.

And me and my pet rock, Bob, will rule over the rubble thats left. I'd be a fair and just rubble god and not punish my collapsed building subjects for every minor infraction. But if they pissed me off, woe betide them.

 

[PixelKing]

I'd take it, being alone wouldn't bother me.

 

[skeliton112]

no i wouldn't, but I would take to ebay! Hello new life as a rich man.

 

[[The]Rock]

I'm already absolutely bat shit psycho, I could probably handle a billion billion years of constantly gaining knowlege.

And plus, I could eventually find out how the "Gummy Bear of Immortality" works anyhow and have one more person to share my eternity.

EDIT: I would be immortal, the rubble would not, QED.

 

[Uri]

I already pay for my current life with death at the end. madness for a few extra centuries seem like a good deal to me.

 

[bakan]

Spoiler: click here for the full post

A green kool-aid man from the future shows up at your front door. You let him in (he seems trustworthy enough) and he gives you a box. Inside the box, there is a magic gummi bear that, when eaten, gives whoever ate it immortality. You live forever and cannot be physically harmed or killed. You feel pain, but it is greatly nulled and maxes out at like a 3 on the 1-10 pain-o-meter. Do you eat the gummi bear?

Now at first the answer may seem obvious. "Why wouldn't I eat it?" you may ask. However, I reccomend reading this Cracked article. If your too lazy to read it I will provide a short summary.

Spoiler

1. Evolution will turn you into a freak: Over thousands of years something better, stronger, faster, and smarter will likely develop from humans, leaving you left behind as a freak.

2. Nobody can ever find out: If you've got immortality then everybody will want it. Governments, CEO's, the masses, you name it. And they don't care what they have to do to get it.

3. You're still getting older (mentally): You will be forced to remember everything that happens over the course of infinity, which your brain just isn't built to do.

4. Time speeds up till you're insane: As time flies by, your different friends, loves, and lives slowly fade from your memory, making 50 years seem relatively equal to a saturday night.

5. You will eventually get trapped there forever: Eventually, you will get trapped in a pile of rubble, or the rest of the human race gets wiped out, and you till be trapped there forever.

If you have any questions about that list, read the article. It is way more detailed and well written than the above summary.

So, would you eat the gummi bear?

EDIT: Just to make things clear, you would not physically age.

You should watch the movie The Man from Earth[footnote]http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0756683/[/footnote], it gives some cool ideas of what could happen if you are immortal.

Btw I would probably take it, just to see what will happen to us all and if we are able to colonise space on a bigger scale and to witness the first contact with other species.

Maybe I would go insane for some time, but in time I will get over it and I would have a lot of time...

 

[Jedoro]

Yes, because it would mean surviving the nuclear apocalypse and getting to punch a Deathclaw in the face.

 

[chaosyoshimage]

Yeah, the positives far out way the negatives. However, I don't have that many attachments in this world. Let's say I had a lover that I planned to spend the rest of my life with. I'm not sure if I would take the immortality gummi if I knew I wouldn't be able to spend that time with him. But, for now, immortality please!

 

[brunothepig]

I would absolutely take it. For one, I am amazed at the scientific advancements we're making, being able to see where we are in a thousand years is a chance I couldn't pass up. Plus, fuck yeah immortality.
As for the drawbacks.

Spoiler

1. Evolution will turn you into a freak: Over thousands of years something better, stronger, faster, and smarter will likely develop from humans, leaving you left behind as a freak.
People may become better, stronger or potentially smarter, but I'll be fucking immortal, and will have millenia of knowledge.
2. Nobody can ever find out: If you've got immortality then everybody will want it. Governments, CEO's, the masses, you name it. And they don't care what they have to do to get it.
If I go public people would notice my absence, and if kidnapping still happened I'd walk around with a bomb strapped to my chest.
3. You're still getting older (mentally): You will be forced to remember everything that happens over the course of infinity, which your brain just isn't built to do.
No, you won't be forced to remember everything. Can you remember everything that happened to you now?
4. Time speeds up till you're insane: As time flies by, your different friends, loves, and lives slowly fade from your memory, making 50 years seem relatively equal to a saturday night.
I doubt it. Pure speculation, and I really don't think my view of time would be warped so severely. It doesn't even make sense.
5. You will eventually get trapped there forever: Eventually, you will get trapped in a pile of rubble, or the rest of the human race gets wiped out, and you till be trapped there forever.
So I'll be careful. Emergency button, plus that bomb would help for the rubble scenario. As for humanity disappearing, I find that incredibly unlikely. Yeah, if it happens it is the one thing I agree would really suck, but I really really doubt it would happen.

 

[GM.Casper]

Why is it always -die at 70/ outlive the heat death of the universe- ? Why is never the middle option of living one billion years a choice?

 

[MassiveGeek]

No.

I don't want to live forever, not unless I have the option to fucking die.

 

[Robertus2210]

yes, I'd eat it! without a doubt! there's always going to be something new to see and do. and all the bad stuff, pfff I'll outlive it.

 

[RadiusXd]

Snip

First of all, I laughed incredibly hard at your OP- was hilarious and brilliant all the same. Second, I am very impressed that you brought up the flaws of immortality instead of just asking about it anyhow. Alright, time for my answer.

OT: No, I don't want to be immortal. Why? Because, I wasn't made to be given immortality. What would I possibly do over a course of a thousand years and counting? Eventually I would get to good at everything with much practice, thus couldn't expose myself (or have to change my identity every now and then) because I never will age so people will pick up on that.

Couldn't imagine outliving everyone I love or get close to. That's sticken depressing. That means I can never live happily with one wife, and continuing to see my kids, grandchildren, and so forth die out. Let's not even get started on how many pets I will have that pass away, never seeming to have any (not even a turtle or tortoise that could outlive me) pets to be with me forever. Life would blow, including mental pain from every incident. What if I somehow get trapped somewhere or held hostage? I'd suffer for years for who knows how long. So many things can backfire on immortality, along with losing yourself... because immortality can corrupt you. I'll pass.

if they can put music on a cd why cant we download your wife's brain into a computer?
I'm cave Johnson, immune to neurotoxin.

 

[Dylan Blackler]

1.With all this time I would have, I would create robot suit to keep me better then everyone (nanosuit or something)

2. That's easy fix just move every 100 or just don't be a fool

3. assuming you are immune to all disease, I would train my mind so I don't go mental (read books etc)

4. I don't think you would go insane, you would learn to enjoy your time with friends

5. this is only true assuming humans die out.

 

[Zeriah]

Only thing that makes me hesitate is knowing eventually I'm going to spend the rest of my days floating in a dark black space for a few billion years until the Big Crunch.

As we know Earth and our solar system will eventually be destroyed and the Universe will keep expanding until there is an insurmountable space between each object in the Universe. Even if you happen to colonize another planet the same thing would keep happening until eventually there's no options left. Floating there alone, with no companions or materiel goods for billions upon billion of years would be hell.

 

[Jaime_Wolf]

1. Evolution will turn you into a freak: Over thousands of years something better, stronger, faster, and smarter will likely develop from humans, leaving you left behind as a freak.

Smarter is very questionable. Human brains already perform optimally on almost all tasks. You would probably see better input and output systems, but also better technology to afford you the same abilities and more (and you have infinite time, so if someone else won't, YOU can invent it).

2. Nobody can ever find out: If you've got immortality then everybody will want it. Governments, CEO's, the masses, you name it. And they don't care what they have to do to get it.

What are they going to do to you? You can barely feel pain, they can't threaten to kill you. The thing to do here is obvious: instead of telling no one, tell EVERYONE. Make them love you, become a celebrity. If you suddenly "disappear", everyone needs to react extremely negatively. Hell, use your immortality to become a super hero and win the hearts of the world.

3. You're still getting older (mentally): You will be forced to remember everything that happens over the course of infinity, which your brain just isn't built to do.

This might be more worrisome if we actually had any idea what "growing older mentally" actually meant. There are plenty of people who don't ever develop any sort of age-related dementia or mental illness despite old age. There are plenty of elderly people with great memory and capacity for learning. So it's only reasonable to assume that these things are not a result of aging, but a result of some other weakening that comes with age. Since you aren't affected by such things, it's very unlikely that age-related mental problems would ever be an issue.

4. Time speeds up till you're insane: As time flies by, your different friends, loves, and lives slowly fade from your memory, making 50 years seem relatively equal to a saturday night.

I completely fail to see why you would expect the sensation of time to change dramatically with extreme age. While it's true that there's an age difference in people reporting how long time periods seem in hindsight, I have never heard of any suggestion that on-line perception of time differs for different age groups.

5. You will eventually get trapped there forever: Eventually, you will get trapped in a pile of rubble, or the rest of the human race gets wiped out, and you till be trapped there forever.

This is probably the most terrifying one. However, it's pretty likely that you could figure out a sort of neural suicide by setting up environmental stimuli such that it would effectively overwrite the information currently in your brain given enough time.

 

[Vuljatar]

I'm wise enough to know that I'd regret it in the end, arrogant enough to do it anyway, and self-aware enough to know that it's my arrogance that would make me do it.

And I'd still totally fucking do it.

 

[Felix 'Solomon' Hultgren]

Only if there was a way for me to die by my own hand.

 

[Shia-Neko-Chan]

Why wouldn't I want to be immortal? Assuming my body stays young, I see no reason not to accept it. :/

It's either die for the rest of eternity sometime down the road or be aware and as far as I can tell there's no benefit from becoming nothingness for the rest of eternity and being immortal gives me all the time in the world to do whatever I want at any point in life I want. I can make things stay interesting. I have all the imagination I could ever need to fuel myself for as long as I want.