Why do people want to be immortal?

[loc978]

Immortality is madness defined.

The average human-being lives for what, 40-60 years? By then, they're tired of everything and they are mostly glad to go, reluctant, but glad.

Show me someone who has lived for 1000 years, and I'll show you utter madness and terror. Gods, angels and demons are thought to be immortal. Something to think about.

An average human at the end of their life is suffering the effects of the physical degradation of their body. Most really old people can barely remember their youth. They're not so much tired of life as missing the ability to enjoy life... at least in my experience.
Show me someone who has lived for 1000 years, and I'll show you someone who has forgotten most of their life.

 

[lionrwal]

Simple answer to a simple question: fear of the unknown. Death is that big question mark we'll never really understand because on the other side of it we don't exist.

And I'm here to tell people what they need to know about the consequences of immortality.

 

[Vegosiux]

Well, basically, people are afraid of dying. Not necessarily death, but dying. Me, I don't want to be immortal. It'd get really boring really soon.

 

[Infernai]

You repeatedly make the claim that people will burn in the sun when the earth crumbles. I still would like to point out that is a very very VERY long way away...so much so that, by the time it likely WILL happen, we as a species would be in space. In other words, yeah earth goes boom but you'll be safe on a space ship.

I know it's only tangibly related to the thread, but thought i should bring that up as, Humanity likely WON'T be on planet when it dies (Which, by extension, would include the immortal being who will probably go on to become like Captain Jack..IN SPACE!).

 

[Ledan]

*snip

And there was a law stating that nothing can go faster than the speed of light. Yet that has been disrpoven.
Furthermore, my point is not to argue that this "universe" will eventually "die". There are other "universes" out there, formed from other big bangs. An infinite amount of them, that are continually generated. There is no "end" to something like the Universe, it will keep fluxating. Science has advanced exponentially in these last 100 years, where do you think we will be in 100 million years? At a stage neither one of us can understand, and we will have a greater understanding of the universal laws.

If you ever do get the chance to gain immortality, send it to me? Please? Seems like you don't know what to do with it.

If I got immortality I'd be happy to send it to you because that's not how I want to live. And regardless of whether the Universe will end, the Earth will get destroyed, and so will any planet humans inhabit at that time, and you will still be left drifting in space.

Not if I am leading humanity to another artificial world. Earth doesn't really matter, but i guess with the technology we will have in a billion years we could move it somewhere else. Or take it with us as a museum piece.
Look, I believe in humanity. I believe in our awesomeness. And I want to be a part of that for as long as possible. We have an amazing capacity for survival, no matter what the challenges, so I firmly believe that with several million years of research we can overcome any problem. If i were an immortal I would not allow myself to end up stranded and alone. And I don't think humanity will allow itself to end up like that anyways. We just have to get by these next 2to 3 thousand years without killing each other. After that we'll be able to outlive our big bang cluster.

 

[brazuca]

There is a saying where I come from: Everyone wants to meet God, but no one wants to die.

Simple fact is that no one really knows what happens after we die. Also self preservation is a basic instinct of any healthy human.

 

[anthony87]

Simple answer to a simple question: fear of the unknown. Death is that big question mark we'll never really understand because on the other side of it we don't exist.

And I'm here to tell people what they need to know about the consequences of immortality.

....You don't know the consequences of immortality. None of us do.

That's why this is all speculation/fun.

 

[loc978]

Simple enough question. Every few days it seems a thread involving immortality comes up and I have to ask, why do some people want to be immortal?
I used to wish to be immortal until I realized that would mean I would have to see the death of everyone I grew close to. I would be cursed to live to see the entirety of the human race go extinct, to see civilization crumble, to experience the pain of the Earth being engulfed by the Sun, then be left floating out in space when the Sun consumes our solar system for all of eternity, helpless.

Anyway, that's my view on immortality. What say you?

Why is it that whenever immortality comes up someone ALWAYS says that it would be terrible. It wouldn't. It would be friggine awesome:

Friends: You make friends, you lose friends. Whether you lose them becuase they are dead or because you now live somwhere else and haven't talked to them in 20 years doesnt matter. You lost them, get over it. It's really easy to make new friends, to have new experiences, etc.

Also, if you are immortal you could spend enough time/money or know how to turn other people immortal. So you're "one true love" will be able to share eternity with you. Pretty sweet deal.

Who says the human race will go extinct? or that civilization will fall? As the Immortal you can set long term goals. Like colonizing mars, colonizing other solar systems, galaxies, galaxy clusters. Y'know the whole heat death of the universe? Colonize another big bang cluster! Sure, it could take millions of years to get to another big bang cluster, but by that point technology could have advanced to a point where we can move entire solar systems, and keep them energy efficient.

I honestly think that people who think that Immortality have NOT thought about it enough. You think as if you have no power, but you would be immortal. Which would mean ultimate power. Spend 100 years traveling the globe, another 100 years building up an economic superpower, 1000 years of slow manipulation to control the earth. Invest in artists who will keep you entertained, plan long term goals. And heck, if you grow bored you can go to sleep for 10000 years. Or use people as pawns.

The world would be your oyster. Forever. Enjoy goddamit!

I encourage to study the universal law. Basically, it states that all things, even the Universe, will die one day. Nothing can live forever. Humans WILL go extinct someday and civilization will eventually crumble. It's just a matter of when.

The concept of individual immortality breaks that law. A single immortal could, by the same vague reasoning you employed there, become a catalyst to break the law on behalf of his or her species.

And have you ever met or seen an immortal organism? We're talking about a hypothetical situation, of course nothing will live forever. I'm asking why anyone would want to.

...and then trying to define what is possible within such an impossible world. Problem is, you're asking other people, who have defined immortality differently than you. Other people would like to be immortal because they see it as an opportunity to live out science fiction. You wouldn't like to be immortal because you see it as living out horror fiction. Either way it's impossible. Your view doesn't adhere to actual fact any more than theirs.

 

[Delsana]

To see if things change... to have a new chance at a better life and to be able to experience what life has to offer entirely. The people who live the worst lives should probably be granted immortality until they've had their shot at a good one.

So people should be immortal until they have a good life, then they lose it? I don't think that counts as immortality.

Because it could quell a lot of our fears.

For instance, I have a fear of losing one of my limbs. Particularly, one (or both) of my arms. If I were immortal - or just invulnerable - then that fear would be gone because I could never lose either.

Note that this is the Baccano style immortality I'm talking about. The one where you can a) live forever and b) when something is cut or removed, it just all comes back to you. Arm chopped off? A few seconds later, all the blood comes back into you and the limb reattaches itself. That would be awesome.

Honestly, I don't want true immortality on this Earth because unless we go somewhere else, the sun is eventually going to explode. And then there's the whole bit about the Heat Death of the Universe/end of the universe in some manner. It would, however, be nice to have the aforementioned Baccano immortality at about 27 years old for a few thousand years, or a million or so, just to see where humanity is going.

And, of course, so I could play all the newest video games at my leisure. Also not needing food would save me a whole lot of money, and not needing sleep would save me a whole lot of my already-considerable time, enabling me to earn more money!

On a final note, everyone should go watch Baccano now, no matter your opinion on anime (Hint: The performances are excellent and the humor isn't bad at all). Genius, that show.

The immortality I'm talking about is that no matter what, you won't die. Every kind of injury normal people have will have the same effect on you, albeit death. If your arm is cut off, it's cut off, and you have to stitch it back on to get it back. Just clearing up any confusion I caused.

That's not immortality, that's not even really being a god, its a hybrid between being a zombie and not aging.

Immortality is when you don't age and don't thus die of age. Barring exotic events, you don't die.

And I specifically said you will never die. You will feel all the pain, but you will never die.

A head shot and decapitation will still kill you, that's the trick about immortality.

Not exactly. Sure, the connection to your body will be cut, but the brain cells still exists, and they are still alive, the can still work. You may be reduced to a single brain cell organism, but you will still be alive.

This is becoming pretty ridiculous, isn't it?

No, the body would shut down, you'd be dead, braincells require numerous things to work, can't work independently and also aren't actually identified as "you", that's a small region smaller than a peanut that's in the brain that houses the "conscience and personality".

 

[SyphonX]

An average human at the end of their life is suffering the effects of the physical degradation of their body. Most really old people can barely remember their youth. They're not so much tired of life as missing the ability to enjoy life... at least in my experience.
Show me someone who has lived for 1000 years, and I'll show you someone who has forgotten most of their life.

You're right, the aspect of the physical body wasting away has a lot to do with someone being 'tired of life', but you finished up with kind of a point I was trying to make, in that.. your mind would be gone completely, you certainly wouldn't be human anymore.

One of the marks of madness is that you start forgetting, you turn inward and start eating your own memories. Depression can be defined as the inability to remember or recognize the good things in your life. If a human lived for 1000 years, they would be the most self-destructive, most insane 'creature' the world has ever seen, in my opinion.

 

[lionrwal]

You repeatedly make the claim that people will burn in the sun when the earth crumbles. I still would like to point out that is a very very VERY long way away...so much so that, by the time it likely WILL happen, we as a species would be in space. In other words, yeah earth goes boom but you'll be safe on a space ship.

I know it's only tangibly related to the thread, but thought i should bring that up as, Humanity likely WON'T be on planet when it dies (Which, by extension, would include the immortal being who will probably go on to become like Captain Jack..IN SPACE!).

Even though you are probably right, the Universe is either going to end or come to a great big halt, killing everyone but you and leaving you drifting around in whatever is left.

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

Why would I want to be immortal? Well, I'm a Nihilist. I'll let you put two and two together on that one.

 

[Peteron]

People want to be immortal so they can live forever, its really not that hard to get. At all.

 

[lionrwal]

To see if things change... to have a new chance at a better life and to be able to experience what life has to offer entirely. The people who live the worst lives should probably be granted immortality until they've had their shot at a good one.

So people should be immortal until they have a good life, then they lose it? I don't think that counts as immortality.

Because it could quell a lot of our fears.

For instance, I have a fear of losing one of my limbs. Particularly, one (or both) of my arms. If I were immortal - or just invulnerable - then that fear would be gone because I could never lose either.

Note that this is the Baccano style immortality I'm talking about. The one where you can a) live forever and b) when something is cut or removed, it just all comes back to you. Arm chopped off? A few seconds later, all the blood comes back into you and the limb reattaches itself. That would be awesome.

Honestly, I don't want true immortality on this Earth because unless we go somewhere else, the sun is eventually going to explode. And then there's the whole bit about the Heat Death of the Universe/end of the universe in some manner. It would, however, be nice to have the aforementioned Baccano immortality at about 27 years old for a few thousand years, or a million or so, just to see where humanity is going.

And, of course, so I could play all the newest video games at my leisure. Also not needing food would save me a whole lot of money, and not needing sleep would save me a whole lot of my already-considerable time, enabling me to earn more money!

On a final note, everyone should go watch Baccano now, no matter your opinion on anime (Hint: The performances are excellent and the humor isn't bad at all). Genius, that show.

The immortality I'm talking about is that no matter what, you won't die. Every kind of injury normal people have will have the same effect on you, albeit death. If your arm is cut off, it's cut off, and you have to stitch it back on to get it back. Just clearing up any confusion I caused.

That's not immortality, that's not even really being a god, its a hybrid between being a zombie and not aging.

Immortality is when you don't age and don't thus die of age. Barring exotic events, you don't die.

And I specifically said you will never die. You will feel all the pain, but you will never die.

A head shot and decapitation will still kill you, that's the trick about immortality.

Not exactly. Sure, the connection to your body will be cut, but the brain cells still exists, and they are still alive, the can still work. You may be reduced to a single brain cell organism, but you will still be alive.

This is becoming pretty ridiculous, isn't it?

No, the body would shut down, you'd be dead, braincells require numerous things to work, can't work independently and also aren't actually identified as "you", that's a small region smaller than a peanut that's in the brain that houses the "conscience and personality".

If we're allowed to talk about immortality, I don't think realistic depictions of bodily functions really matter anymore. Yes, what you said is true, but if you have the power of immortality, that means you WON'T DIE. Just because something kills regular people does not mean it will kill you. That's why it's called immortality.

 

[Seagoon]

Simple enough question. Every few days it seems a thread involving immortality comes up and I have to ask, why do some people want to be immortal?
I used to wish to be immortal until I realized that would mean I would have to see the death of everyone I grew close to. I would be cursed to live to see the entirety of the human race go extinct, to see civilization crumble, to experience the pain of the Earth being engulfed by the Sun, then be left floating out in space when the Sun consumes our solar system for all of eternity, helpless.

Anyway, that's my view on immortality. What say you?

because despite all the down points, death is really, really, really scary.

 

[ElPatron]

If you people think will will be able to survive for 5 thousand million years without getting bored of the solar system you are wrong.

With future technology and a fast ship, you will visit every planet around here before the sun runs out of fuel.

 

[lionrwal]

*snip

And there was a law stating that nothing can go faster than the speed of light. Yet that has been disrpoven.
Furthermore, my point is not to argue that this "universe" will eventually "die". There are other "universes" out there, formed from other big bangs. An infinite amount of them, that are continually generated. There is no "end" to something like the Universe, it will keep fluxating. Science has advanced exponentially in these last 100 years, where do you think we will be in 100 million years? At a stage neither one of us can understand, and we will have a greater understanding of the universal laws.

If you ever do get the chance to gain immortality, send it to me? Please? Seems like you don't know what to do with it.

If I got immortality I'd be happy to send it to you because that's not how I want to live. And regardless of whether the Universe will end, the Earth will get destroyed, and so will any planet humans inhabit at that time, and you will still be left drifting in space.

Not if I am leading humanity to another artificial world. Earth doesn't really matter, but i guess with the technology we will have in a billion years we could move it somewhere else. Or take it with us as a museum piece.
Look, I believe in humanity. I believe in our awesomeness. And I want to be a part of that for as long as possible. We have an amazing capacity for survival, no matter what the challenges, so I firmly believe that with several million years of research we can overcome any problem. If i were an immortal I would not allow myself to end up stranded and alone. And I don't think humanity will allow itself to end up like that anyways. We just have to get by these next 2to 3 thousand years without killing each other. After that we'll be able to outlive our big bang cluster.

I believe in humanity as much as you do. But the Universe is going to end or come to a great big halt, and everything but you will end, leaving you drifting around in space.

 

[Delsana]

To see if things change... to have a new chance at a better life and to be able to experience what life has to offer entirely. The people who live the worst lives should probably be granted immortality until they've had their shot at a good one.

So people should be immortal until they have a good life, then they lose it? I don't think that counts as immortality.

Because it could quell a lot of our fears.

For instance, I have a fear of losing one of my limbs. Particularly, one (or both) of my arms. If I were immortal - or just invulnerable - then that fear would be gone because I could never lose either.

Note that this is the Baccano style immortality I'm talking about. The one where you can a) live forever and b) when something is cut or removed, it just all comes back to you. Arm chopped off? A few seconds later, all the blood comes back into you and the limb reattaches itself. That would be awesome.

Honestly, I don't want true immortality on this Earth because unless we go somewhere else, the sun is eventually going to explode. And then there's the whole bit about the Heat Death of the Universe/end of the universe in some manner. It would, however, be nice to have the aforementioned Baccano immortality at about 27 years old for a few thousand years, or a million or so, just to see where humanity is going.

And, of course, so I could play all the newest video games at my leisure. Also not needing food would save me a whole lot of money, and not needing sleep would save me a whole lot of my already-considerable time, enabling me to earn more money!

On a final note, everyone should go watch Baccano now, no matter your opinion on anime (Hint: The performances are excellent and the humor isn't bad at all). Genius, that show.

The immortality I'm talking about is that no matter what, you won't die. Every kind of injury normal people have will have the same effect on you, albeit death. If your arm is cut off, it's cut off, and you have to stitch it back on to get it back. Just clearing up any confusion I caused.

That's not immortality, that's not even really being a god, its a hybrid between being a zombie and not aging.

Immortality is when you don't age and don't thus die of age. Barring exotic events, you don't die.

And I specifically said you will never die. You will feel all the pain, but you will never die.

A head shot and decapitation will still kill you, that's the trick about immortality.

Not exactly. Sure, the connection to your body will be cut, but the brain cells still exists, and they are still alive, the can still work. You may be reduced to a single brain cell organism, but you will still be alive.

This is becoming pretty ridiculous, isn't it?

No, the body would shut down, you'd be dead, braincells require numerous things to work, can't work independently and also aren't actually identified as "you", that's a small region smaller than a peanut that's in the brain that houses the "conscience and personality".

If we're allowed to talk about immortality, I don't think realistic depictions of bodily functions really matter anymore. Yes, what you said is true, but if you have the power of immortality, that means you WON'T DIE. Just because something kills regular people does not mean it will kill you. That's why it's called immortality.

If your immortality was based on the immunity to natural death via aging and disease and degradation, that could be explained realistically by micromachine nanites in your blood that attack diseases and infections or viruses. Also, they would clean the organs and purify your blood consistently. If they were advanced and programmed well enough, they could quite easily allow for that. A method to decrease or eliminate aging could feasibly be possible too. So no, you have to think of how things work still since immortality in that sense isn't impossible.

 

[Generalissimo]

Because I don't want to die.

Simple as that.

/thread
also: i would want to be able to remember all of history and look on the goos side of things.

 

[loc978]

An average human at the end of their life is suffering the effects of the physical degradation of their body. Most really old people can barely remember their youth. They're not so much tired of life as missing the ability to enjoy life... at least in my experience.
Show me someone who has lived for 1000 years, and I'll show you someone who has forgotten most of their life.

You're right, the aspect of the physical body wasting away has a lot to do with someone being 'tired of life', but you finished up with kind of a point I was trying to make, in that.. your mind would be gone completely, you certainly wouldn't be human anymore.

One of the marks of madness is that you start forgetting, you turn inward and start eating your own memories. Depression can be defined as the inability to remember or recognize the good things in your life. If a human lived for 1000 years, they would be the most self-destructive, most insane 'creature' the world has ever seen, in my opinion.

Everyone forgets. Memory loss may be an effect of dementia, but dementia isn't the only cause of memory loss. I know I don't remember much that happened 20 years ago beyond the vague impression of events, and I'm only 30. I imagine a person 1000 years old would have a somewhat longer memory than that, but... well, time does not necessarily equal dementia. There are people who are 80 years old who retain mental clarity, and there are people who are 40 years old who don't.