Poll: Would you accept immortality?

[Womplord]

Well ordinarily I'd say no, but I don't know if I'd be able to resist a gummi bear...
But seriously, there's no way I could say yes to such a thing. My arguments are basically summed up by the cracked article, especially the last point. You would be stuck for billions of years inside some black hole. Eternal consciousness is basically the ultimate form of torture.

Watch this if you say yes. Imagine Grahams number representing a number of years, would you still say yes?

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

I know it would end up being like the twilight zone where its awesome at first and then i'll be haunted forever by some very ironic and unfortunate events.. but oh well, if someone offered me immortality i'd take it.

 

[Ledan]

Split the gummy bear in half. Hope that it still works, then keep the other half so that I could give it to someone else later on.
Living forever would be awesome! I would just buy ALL the games. Well, the good ones. And all the books. I could read the entire internet. And rule the world, lets not forget about the ruling of the world.

As for the heat death of the universe... by that time there would be enough technology to be able to send me to another universe. I would just take a very long nap. Eventually be woken up because I crashed into something, and then I can go out AND CONQUER .

EDIT: I'm pretty sure that 3. on cracked is wrong. When you get older, you start erasing memories. You do it all the time. Remember when you went to the bathroom last week? No? It's because your brain has no need to remember it, so after a while it gets erased. Haven't spoken french since high school? Yeah, you can't speak it anymore.

 

[moh21]

Can I eat like a half or a quarter of the bear and be able to die by mortal wound?
Also, with hundreds(thousands?) of years, you would look at A LOT OF PORN.Just saying that in case nobody else does.By the time you are 400, japan would seem normal.

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

Well ordinarily I'd say no, but I don't know if I'd be able to resist a gummi bear...
But seriously, there's no way I could say yes to such a thing. My arguments are basically summed up by the cracked article, especially the last point. You would be stuck for billions of years inside some black hole. Eternal consciousness is basically the ultimate form of torture.

Watch this if you say yes. Imagine Grahams number representing a number of years, would you still say yes?

The point of that video pretty much skipped over me because i couldnt stop thinking of how much that guy sounded like snake from MGS.

I kid but yeah, i figure if 7.6 trillion years is actually miniscule on the scale of infinity then ive got a while to invent whatever i want.. maybe more magic gummy bears, maybe a time machine so i could go back in time and stop myself from taking the gummy bear (woo for time paradoxes).. maybe i'll invent my own race of sentient machines to keep my company once organic life has died out after 3^^^^3 years.

 

[lRookiel]

Yes, because once civilisation falls you can create your own for whoever/whatever still inhabits the planet. It would be like Minecraft/Terraria!

Also if you lived for Billions of years you would be able to actually witness evolution and that would be incredible, and the rise and fall of more civilisations.

If you get bored, take a walk through the world, and swim across sea's, and meet new people. Literally being immortal also means you have no limits, just start jumping off of stuff to receive a thrill, being immortal wouldnt make feeling a rush redundant..

Plus as your immortal, cant die, feel pain etc. pretend its Grand theft auto and break a bunch of laws, steal cars and weapons and go on a spree! If it gets too much and the authorities want you dead, just hide out in a different country, even in a hole for a hundred years.

And all you Naysayers out there, you could do absolutely anything, frickin hell whats going to stop you?

I'd love the idea because then I would be able to cut myself away from the system and live my own life the way I want it and not let my life be determined by what grades I get or how much money I make.....

 

[SweetNess_666]

I wd take it, as for evolving I suppose you cd always evolve in your own way, think of the things you could accomplish in an eternity, I'd like to see how the world finally ends

 

[Elsarild]

Not in a million years.

I'd accept my life to be extended as long as I also got pretty much unlimited money or atleast a good income from doing nothing.

And you need to put down some ground rules:

Do I keep living as I am now, never aging from this point on?

Do I start to be "immortal" when I should have died?

Can I be killed by weapon, gun, knife, hunger, exposue, etc? or am I totally indestructible as well?

But, my main reason for saying no, is the same reason that cracked article listed, I read it a few months ago, but also, IF I'm stuck my age now, I'd also be doomed to work to get some cash, unless I didn't die from hunger, but If I still felt hunger eating would be necessary, so I'd need money, meaning I'd either Study, or work, but then I should either aim high and get a really well paying job so I didn't have to work as much, Or I've just doomed myself to an eternity of working 9-5 everyday for the rest of time.

I don't see that as a very promosing thing.

 

[Elsarild]

I wd take it, as for evolving I suppose you cd always evolve in your own way, think of the things you could accomplish in an eternity, I'd like to see how the world finally ends

Evolution dosen't work that way.
sorry.

 

[idarkphoenixi]

Hell I'll take it...
But that whole thing about being an evolutionary freak i don't buy. I've already made my theories about that which is humanity will never evolve because we have no need to. Machines have made life so convenient and easy that the old rule of only the fittest survive and pass on the best possible genes no longer exists. If anything, humanity will de-volve and you will be the ultimate species on the planet, pretty cool eh?

 

[NicoDK]

I would accept it, because even though i might live forever and one day would be floating around in space as the world ends, i'd be too insane to really give 2 shits.

 

[pope_of_larry]

question if you where taken apart atom by atom would you live die and if you lived would you reform.

 

[g3ko]

i would also accept it.
lemme mention a character (I know it's a comic book character but hey, it's the first thing i thought of when i read the title of this post)
Vandal Savage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vandal_Savage
also, to answer one of the points against it
"The brain isn't built for this", neither is the body, but the brain is part of the body, and the body doesn't age, so neither does the brain, except for knowledge, and also, it wouldn't be forced to remember anything, does anyone remember their entire life up to now? the brain automatically chooses to remember more important things and forget other things (individually, according to what's more important to each individual).
also, it very much depends on what type of immortality... What i mean is, yes, no physical aging, does that also mean rapid healing, almost instanteneous, or would a cut off limb (after eating said green gummy bear of immortality) grow back anywhere from a couple of seconds to, say, infinity? or would that remain a scar and missing.that would solve most time related mind problems, since the brain would also heal itself from any physical problem, and as such.
another food for thought:
if the one who ate the gummy bear was of age 8, would he/she still age to, let's say, prime age of, mid to late 20's? would it also allow self physical evolution, be it natural or artificial. the future is close to gene splicing(probably no one reading this would actually live to see it, but let's say that). would the immortality gained disallow any modification to your own genome, or will it be a modification in itself?

edit: replaced "quote" with "mention" at beginning of post

 

[drosalion]

I'd take it without a doubt in my mind if I was also able to end my life at a time of my choosing, but if it was true immortality lasting for eternity then nah i probably wouldnt.

Points 1, 2, 3, 4 in the OP honestly dont concern me, only point 5 would.

 

[folieadeux]

Probably not. Although the prospect of living long enough to perfect anything looks good, I know I would never be bothered to finish it. If I lost a limb or two, or contracted some horrible disease that caused unbearable agony, the prospect of suffering for an indefinite period without euthanasia is almost too terrible to imagine.

I can also imagine a Prometheus-like punishment because the fourth millennium thought police caught me thinking about pizza or alcohol with wistful nostalgia, such things having been branded in a similar fashion to cocaine in today's laws.

 

[Crazy]

Of course, I won't be divine or any of that nonsense. I can still kill myself if the need arises.

 

[Psychedelic Spartan]

Short answer: yes! long answer: Yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss sorry, I couldn't resist. I'd do it

 

[legendp]

if you wanted to die you could find a black hole and fly into it, black holes destroy physical atoms so you may not die but you will be destroyed wich is the same outcome.
personally never growing old would be cool but never faceing death would be bad. then agian you would surely die when the universe ends, and if humanity ended you could try and find aliens to keep you occupied (Its a BIG universe after all)

 

[Soods]

Rather be insane and alone, than be nothing.

 

[Quietus Legion]

I have to admit that with those exact terms it would be a very hard decision, if I had the possibility to end my own life just in case then yeah I'd definitely go for it. All the other points in the article I consider moot after that.