Why do people want to be immortal?

[lionrwal]

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.

You're assuming a lot of things, mostly that A) mankind will go extinct B) mankind will go extinct before developing a superior form of space travel C) there is no life in the universe save for mankind and D) there isn't a way for others to gain immortality the same way you did.

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

It mostly depends on how my immortality is granted. But even then, I'm not keen on taking immortality if I don't get any other abilities in the package. Immortality alone generally just means that anything that would normally kill me results in a fate worse than death. Buried alive is a pretty standard one, but say you get set upon by a pack of carnivorous predators. You'll be torn to pieces and devoured, yet because immortal means you can never die, you'll get to be alive for the whole ordeal.

Throw in a few extra abilities and maybe I'd take it. I'd much rather be unstoppable in the Juggernaut sense of the term. That has immortality built into it, simply because being unstoppable means that not even death can stop you. Plus, y'know, superhuman strength and stamina, that sort of thing.

First of all, mankind will go extinct. Probably not before we discover viable space travel, but we will go extinct nonetheless.
Second, when did I imply that humans are the only species in the universe? I believe the exact opposite. Humans are a small speck in the scope of the universe. And third, I want you to tell me one way humans could become immortal.

 

[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.

Please explain to me how the nanomachines would be able to rebuild your arm when they are in the blood being poured out of the wound.

Rebuilding an arm could be done with stemcells and other such things but that's not immortality in any sense of the definition for anyone, that's regeneration of limbs.

What the nanites would do would be close off the area, fight off any infection and necrosis of the flesh, and then cauterize it.

Explain how they would keep the several billion brain cells you have alive and in perfect condition please.

Constant monitoring of the body through blood channels and veins, recycling of oxygen and purification / cleaning upkeep of the organs such as lungs, liver, kidney, heart and the like, ability to target and analyze for problems via an indexing system that categorizes problematic information and attacks it separately from the body, ability to breach the blood-brain barrier and target anything attacking the brain, and the ability to rebuild damage through protein chains, stem-cell implementation / stretching, and other expected advancements. They could feasibly reinforce muscle tissue and organs with organic technology such as nano-carbon sheathes or enhancements inside or around them.

And eventually they will run out of protein or stem cells or any nutrients. Simple logic. No matter can be created or destroyed.

Well that's not true. The real law is that no matter can be created or destroyed barring certain circumstances. That much has been pretty evident.

You can easily fix that issue with constant injections every few years, or having a surplus or giving them means to use the basic nutrients from food to create that. A lot of options.

And under which circumstances has matter been created or destroyed? I'd like to know.
Besides, my point is the Earth will run out of those materials, and so will the next planet we live on. And if humans become dependent on nanomachines, it will be a catastrophe if the make a mistake or stop working.

These plans would only work for a limited time, eventually someone, something, or some event would render you dead. Perhaps you'd survive a fire and the damage would be repaired, perhaps you'd survive a gunshot and the damage would be repaired, perhaps even survive the deadliest disease, but at some point you will be killed. Maybe by a tornado, maybe by a vacuum, maybe by an explosion, but something SERIOUS will kill you. Your immortality will last for a while though, so use that time well. Be it 10,000 or 100,000 years.

Then that's not immortality is it?

Actually, it's the literal definition of it.

You survive aging and most diseases and have an ability to regenerate interior and exterior damage (not limbs) that others don't. But a decapitation, massive explosion, and other forms of damage can still kill you. Immortality never meant you don't "die" it has stipulations of what you don't die from, instead.

 

[GeneralFungi]

I would think that over the many years I would have, (MANY YEARS) I would occasionally take time out of my day to create some sort of serum that put myself into a permanent, or at least a VERY long coma. Should something happen to our sun and we haven't figured out a reliable form of space travel, I'd drink it and simply sleep for the rest of eternity, lost in my dream.

 

[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.

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.

Please explain to me how the nanomachines would be able to rebuild your arm when they are in the blood being poured out of the wound.

Rebuilding an arm could be done with stemcells and other such things but that's not immortality in any sense of the definition for anyone, that's regeneration of limbs.

What the nanites would do would be close off the area, fight off any infection and necrosis of the flesh, and then cauterize it.

Explain how they would keep the several billion brain cells you have alive and in perfect condition please.

Constant monitoring of the body through blood channels and veins, recycling of oxygen and purification / cleaning upkeep of the organs such as lungs, liver, kidney, heart and the like, ability to target and analyze for problems via an indexing system that categorizes problematic information and attacks it separately from the body, ability to breach the blood-brain barrier and target anything attacking the brain, and the ability to rebuild damage through protein chains, stem-cell implementation / stretching, and other expected advancements. They could feasibly reinforce muscle tissue and organs with organic technology such as nano-carbon sheathes or enhancements inside or around them.

And eventually they will run out of protein or stem cells or any nutrients. Simple logic. No matter can be created or destroyed.

Well that's not true. The real law is that no matter can be created or destroyed barring certain circumstances. That much has been pretty evident.

You can easily fix that issue with constant injections every few years, or having a surplus or giving them means to use the basic nutrients from food to create that. A lot of options.

And under which circumstances has matter been created or destroyed? I'd like to know.
Besides, my point is the Earth will run out of those materials, and so will the next planet we live on. And if humans become dependent on nanomachines, it will be a catastrophe if the make a mistake or stop working.

These plans would only work for a limited time, eventually someone, something, or some event would render you dead. Perhaps you'd survive a fire and the damage would be repaired, perhaps you'd survive a gunshot and the damage would be repaired, perhaps even survive the deadliest disease, but at some point you will be killed. Maybe by a tornado, maybe by a vacuum, maybe by an explosion, but something SERIOUS will kill you. Your immortality will last for a while though, so use that time well. Be it 10,000 or 100,000 years.

Then that's not immortality is it?

Actually, it's the literal definition of it.

You survive aging and most diseases and have an ability to regenerate interior and exterior damage (not limbs) that others don't. But a decapitation, massive explosion, and other forms of damage can still kill you. Immortality never meant you don't "die" it has stipulations of what you don't die from, instead.

im·mor·tal·i·ty
   [im-awr-tal-i-tee]
noun
1.
immortal condition or quality; unending life

 

[shelwyn]

Yes I'd go for immortality.
Boring pots down below no need to read if you don't want to.

The topic started to get a bit odd when OP started to impose his own limits of immortality, onto others.

I'm sure most people would get numb to others dying so most arguments about how it would be awful and so on seem rather simple minded. Humans can adapt so eh. Most of these arguments can be made null by the fact that everything evolves with time. Humans might be gone soon but that doesn't mean everything would too. Sure you might feel pain for a long time but what is a few thousand years to infinity? Those silly arguments made by OP on how a limb is gone, it stays gone are well once again simple minded. I'm sure there could be something done. Again the time arguments. Would you still be immortal if let's say your brain was destroyed but your body remained intact? Is that considered immortal? The topic is very broad and OP's views seem limited.

Yes I'd go for immortality.

 

[walrusaurus]

"Give me immortality, or give me death."
~Patrick Henry. 1775

 

[JediMB]

Life itself is a kind of struggle for immortality, but through replication, so I suppose it's just instinct?

But, yeah, there's that whole fear caused by the concept that one day you won't exist anymore. And that's why we invented all the various kinds of afterlives.

 

[lionrwal]

Yes I'd go for immortality.
Boring pots down below no need to read if you don't want to.

The topic started to get a bit odd when OP started to impose his own limits of immortality, onto others.

I'm sure most people would get numb to others dying so most arguments about how it would be awful and so on seem rather simple minded. Humans can adapt so eh. Most of these arguments can be made null by the fact that everything evolves with time. Humans might be gone soon but that doesn't mean everything would too. Sure you might feel pain for a long time but what is a few thousand years to infinity? Those silly arguments made by OP on how a limb is gone, it stays gone are well once again simple minded. I'm sure there could be something done. Again the time arguments. Would you still be immortal if let's say your brain was destroyed but your body remained intact? Is that considered immortal? The topic is very broad and OP's views seem limited.

Yes I'd go for immortality.

You know you could just quote and say "you" instead of the op. And anyway, yes you would be alive. If whatever gave you immortality gave you immortality, it would be able to make sure you were still alive after that happened.

 

[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.

Please explain to me how the nanomachines would be able to rebuild your arm when they are in the blood being poured out of the wound.

Rebuilding an arm could be done with stemcells and other such things but that's not immortality in any sense of the definition for anyone, that's regeneration of limbs.

What the nanites would do would be close off the area, fight off any infection and necrosis of the flesh, and then cauterize it.

Explain how they would keep the several billion brain cells you have alive and in perfect condition please.

Constant monitoring of the body through blood channels and veins, recycling of oxygen and purification / cleaning upkeep of the organs such as lungs, liver, kidney, heart and the like, ability to target and analyze for problems via an indexing system that categorizes problematic information and attacks it separately from the body, ability to breach the blood-brain barrier and target anything attacking the brain, and the ability to rebuild damage through protein chains, stem-cell implementation / stretching, and other expected advancements. They could feasibly reinforce muscle tissue and organs with organic technology such as nano-carbon sheathes or enhancements inside or around them.

And eventually they will run out of protein or stem cells or any nutrients. Simple logic. No matter can be created or destroyed.

Well that's not true. The real law is that no matter can be created or destroyed barring certain circumstances. That much has been pretty evident.

You can easily fix that issue with constant injections every few years, or having a surplus or giving them means to use the basic nutrients from food to create that. A lot of options.

And under which circumstances has matter been created or destroyed? I'd like to know.
Besides, my point is the Earth will run out of those materials, and so will the next planet we live on. And if humans become dependent on nanomachines, it will be a catastrophe if the make a mistake or stop working.

These plans would only work for a limited time, eventually someone, something, or some event would render you dead. Perhaps you'd survive a fire and the damage would be repaired, perhaps you'd survive a gunshot and the damage would be repaired, perhaps even survive the deadliest disease, but at some point you will be killed. Maybe by a tornado, maybe by a vacuum, maybe by an explosion, but something SERIOUS will kill you. Your immortality will last for a while though, so use that time well. Be it 10,000 or 100,000 years.

Then that's not immortality is it?

Actually, it's the literal definition of it.

You survive aging and most diseases and have an ability to regenerate interior and exterior damage (not limbs) that others don't. But a decapitation, massive explosion, and other forms of damage can still kill you. Immortality never meant you don't "die" it has stipulations of what you don't die from, instead.

im·mor·tal·i·ty
   [im-awr-tal-i-tee]
noun
1.
immortal condition or quality; unending life

According to the encyclopedia for immortality, the term has never been considered to mean an inability for one to die by physical extreme trauma.

 

[Charli]

People fear the unknown, death is the unknown.

Case solved, next question.

 

[SD-Fiend]

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

so that you can live a pointless life forever?

 

[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.

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.

Please explain to me how the nanomachines would be able to rebuild your arm when they are in the blood being poured out of the wound.

Rebuilding an arm could be done with stemcells and other such things but that's not immortality in any sense of the definition for anyone, that's regeneration of limbs.

What the nanites would do would be close off the area, fight off any infection and necrosis of the flesh, and then cauterize it.

Explain how they would keep the several billion brain cells you have alive and in perfect condition please.

Constant monitoring of the body through blood channels and veins, recycling of oxygen and purification / cleaning upkeep of the organs such as lungs, liver, kidney, heart and the like, ability to target and analyze for problems via an indexing system that categorizes problematic information and attacks it separately from the body, ability to breach the blood-brain barrier and target anything attacking the brain, and the ability to rebuild damage through protein chains, stem-cell implementation / stretching, and other expected advancements. They could feasibly reinforce muscle tissue and organs with organic technology such as nano-carbon sheathes or enhancements inside or around them.

And eventually they will run out of protein or stem cells or any nutrients. Simple logic. No matter can be created or destroyed.

Well that's not true. The real law is that no matter can be created or destroyed barring certain circumstances. That much has been pretty evident.

You can easily fix that issue with constant injections every few years, or having a surplus or giving them means to use the basic nutrients from food to create that. A lot of options.

And under which circumstances has matter been created or destroyed? I'd like to know.
Besides, my point is the Earth will run out of those materials, and so will the next planet we live on. And if humans become dependent on nanomachines, it will be a catastrophe if the make a mistake or stop working.

These plans would only work for a limited time, eventually someone, something, or some event would render you dead. Perhaps you'd survive a fire and the damage would be repaired, perhaps you'd survive a gunshot and the damage would be repaired, perhaps even survive the deadliest disease, but at some point you will be killed. Maybe by a tornado, maybe by a vacuum, maybe by an explosion, but something SERIOUS will kill you. Your immortality will last for a while though, so use that time well. Be it 10,000 or 100,000 years.

Then that's not immortality is it?

Actually, it's the literal definition of it.

You survive aging and most diseases and have an ability to regenerate interior and exterior damage (not limbs) that others don't. But a decapitation, massive explosion, and other forms of damage can still kill you. Immortality never meant you don't "die" it has stipulations of what you don't die from, instead.

im·mor·tal·i·ty
   [im-awr-tal-i-tee]
noun
1.
immortal condition or quality; unending life

According to the encyclopedia for immortality, the term has never been considered to mean an inability for one to die by physical extreme trauma.

Then that would just be life extension.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Because people are afraid of the unknown (what happen to us when we died) since it not like we can turn around and head back toward the living.

 

[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.

Please explain to me how the nanomachines would be able to rebuild your arm when they are in the blood being poured out of the wound.

Rebuilding an arm could be done with stemcells and other such things but that's not immortality in any sense of the definition for anyone, that's regeneration of limbs.

What the nanites would do would be close off the area, fight off any infection and necrosis of the flesh, and then cauterize it.

Explain how they would keep the several billion brain cells you have alive and in perfect condition please.

Constant monitoring of the body through blood channels and veins, recycling of oxygen and purification / cleaning upkeep of the organs such as lungs, liver, kidney, heart and the like, ability to target and analyze for problems via an indexing system that categorizes problematic information and attacks it separately from the body, ability to breach the blood-brain barrier and target anything attacking the brain, and the ability to rebuild damage through protein chains, stem-cell implementation / stretching, and other expected advancements. They could feasibly reinforce muscle tissue and organs with organic technology such as nano-carbon sheathes or enhancements inside or around them.

And eventually they will run out of protein or stem cells or any nutrients. Simple logic. No matter can be created or destroyed.

Well that's not true. The real law is that no matter can be created or destroyed barring certain circumstances. That much has been pretty evident.

You can easily fix that issue with constant injections every few years, or having a surplus or giving them means to use the basic nutrients from food to create that. A lot of options.

And under which circumstances has matter been created or destroyed? I'd like to know.
Besides, my point is the Earth will run out of those materials, and so will the next planet we live on. And if humans become dependent on nanomachines, it will be a catastrophe if the make a mistake or stop working.

These plans would only work for a limited time, eventually someone, something, or some event would render you dead. Perhaps you'd survive a fire and the damage would be repaired, perhaps you'd survive a gunshot and the damage would be repaired, perhaps even survive the deadliest disease, but at some point you will be killed. Maybe by a tornado, maybe by a vacuum, maybe by an explosion, but something SERIOUS will kill you. Your immortality will last for a while though, so use that time well. Be it 10,000 or 100,000 years.

Then that's not immortality is it?

Actually, it's the literal definition of it.

You survive aging and most diseases and have an ability to regenerate interior and exterior damage (not limbs) that others don't. But a decapitation, massive explosion, and other forms of damage can still kill you. Immortality never meant you don't "die" it has stipulations of what you don't die from, instead.

im·mor·tal·i·ty
   [im-awr-tal-i-tee]
noun
1.
immortal condition or quality; unending life

According to the encyclopedia for immortality, the term has never been considered to mean an inability for one to die by physical extreme trauma.

Then that would just be life extension.

At some point you need to accept you've been using or considering a term to mean somethign taht it does not, that or you're reading into it what you want it to mean via use of making it vague or not understanding its term. The truth is that immortality is as I've described and has always been depicted as such. It would be infeasible for anything living to not die when its vital organs were no longer given a means to be nourished.

 

[Winterfel]

You are resorted to being stranded out in space with nothing to do, extreme pain, and knowledge that this will continue untill the universe itself ends.

If your going to use sound logic then answer this: how would you feel pain when no harm can ever be inflicted on your body?

 

[IamQ]

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.

Isn't that logic already stomped to the ground if you're immortal? And for those who chose to be immortal but be able to turn it off and die, how is that not immortality? Why does it have to be permanent immortality?

 

[anthony87]

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.

Isn't that logic already stomped to the ground if you're immortal? And for those who chose to be immortal but be able to turn it off and die, how is that not immortality? Why does it have to be permanent immortality?

Because the OP says so apparently....

 

[Knight Captain Kerr]

Living is awesome despite all the bad parts. I like living I want to keep doing it.

 

[krazykidd]

Why do I want to be immortal? Good question, why would I want to be an un-killable, hang-gliding vigilante who drops himself like a bomb towards criminals from 8 stories above?

Immortals still feel pain, you could still get hurt or break bones , you aren't invincible.

OT: i'd hate to be immortal , at some point life would become boring , every heard the saying "theres nothing new under the sun"? Yup at some point i would see and do everything and then couldn't even end my life.

 

[Random berk]

Partial immortality would be great. If you could only be killed by one very specific set of circumstances that would be unlikely to happen by accident. Then you could live through the ages, doing as you want, unbound by society's laws, only by your own morality and common sense. You could achieve so much. And then, when you got bored, or felt that your purpose had been served, you could end your own existence as you saw fit.