Would you want immortality?

[Barracuda]

My point is, murdering anyone for the sake of killing is repulsive. If you're going to camp on top of building killing people, do it in a video game.

Everyone in this world is evil. Some are just more evil than others.

I would never kill anyone. Not that I wouldn't do it given the right circumstances, I just would rather not ruin my life, and as you said, get raped in jail. All im saying is being immortal really brings out that oppourtunity.

Lets let the thread get back on topic shall we.

 

[niky]

What topic?

Well, given Danoff's idea of limited immortality... I may bite. I actually would like to live about 200 years, but anything more would be such a chore...

 

[Alfaholic]

Yes, because life is too short. Given the option, I'd be immortal like a Highlander, i.e. self healing and not actually immortal, just very hard to kill, and of course, non - ageing. Oh, and I could do without the 7 foot tall Kurgens chasing me around with swords.

 

[Touring Mars]

Immortality would be weird - very weird... depending on the scenario...

1) all humans became immortal - well, where's the fun in that? That way, you'd be frozen for all eternity in pretty much your social standing/status... everyone else would also have infinite time for 'self-improvement'... and it would depend on when immortality became possible... would only newborn be bestowed with the "gift" or could you just 'plug and play' an immortality pack? Would the babies (or anyone else) age? How badly would it suck to be geriatric or an infant for all eternity? If no-one aged, the world would be completely dominated by those who dominated it before immortality began - the young wouldn't have anything to look forward to, infact no-one would...

or 2) Only an elite became immortal - that would be a poisoned chalice if you ask me... they'd survive to see the extinction of the human race and everything thereafter, but the world would become populated by their immortal offspring, hence the situation is the same as above... or maybe only a few elites are made immortal and immortality is not hereditary? In that case, this small band of people would be destined to either spend eternity together or completely alone...

Which ever way you slice it, it looks like a major gamble to me. An infinite length of time to do whatever you wanted would, ironically, be completely at the mercy of the mortal world around you...

 

[Muzaffar]

Immortality would be weird - very weird... depending on the scenario...

1) all humans became immortal - well, where's the fun in that? That way, you'd be frozen for all eternity in pretty much your social standing/status... everyone else would also have infinite time for 'self-improvement'... and it would depend on when immortality became possible... would only newborn be bestowed with the "gift" or could you just 'plug and play' an immortality pack? Would the babies (or anyone else) age? How badly would it suck to be geriatric or an infant for all eternity? If no-one aged, the world would be completely dominated by those who dominated it before immortality began - the young wouldn't have anything to look forward to, infact no-one would...

or 2) Only an elite became immortal - that would be a poisoned chalice if you ask me... they'd survive to see the extinction of the human race and everything thereafter, but the world would become populated by their immortal offspring, hence the situation is the same as above... or maybe only a few elites are made immortal and immortality is not hereditary? In that case, this small band of people would be destined to either spend eternity together or completely alone...

Which ever way you slice it, it looks like a major gamble to me. An infinite length of time to do whatever you wanted would, ironically, be completely at the mercy of the mortal world around you...

Haha! Good scenario. Its hard to live life like that. Thats why god lets us live and die at a certain age! Good post, must +rep you. 👍
Edit: D'oh! Need to spread.... grrrr

 

[Omnis]

Immortality would be weird - very weird... depending on the scenario...

1) all humans became immortal - well, where's the fun in that? That way, you'd be frozen for all eternity in pretty much your social standing/status... everyone else would also have infinite time for 'self-improvement'... and it would depend on when immortality became possible... would only newborn be bestowed with the "gift" or could you just 'plug and play' an immortality pack? Would the babies (or anyone else) age? How badly would it suck to be geriatric or an infant for all eternity? If no-one aged, the world would be completely dominated by those who dominated it before immortality began - the young wouldn't have anything to look forward to, infact no-one would...

or 2) Only an elite became immortal - that would be a poisoned chalice if you ask me... they'd survive to see the extinction of the human race and everything thereafter, but the world would become populated by their immortal offspring, hence the situation is the same as above... or maybe only a few elites are made immortal and immortality is not hereditary? In that case, this small band of people would be destined to either spend eternity together or completely alone...

Which ever way you slice it, it looks like a major gamble to me. An infinite length of time to do whatever you wanted would, ironically, be completely at the mercy of the mortal world around you...

When you put it that way you have to account for the fact that you'd never be able to produce a child at all.

Think about it. Your seed would never cede to the production of new life. The woman you shot your load into will forever have your sperm in her system and will constantly churn out 23 chromosome half-humans with your sperm swimming around in its eyeball jelly.

 

[Perfect Balance]

I said no, but if I could quit whenever I wanted to and become mortal, then I would.

How awesome would it be to go skydiving everyday, jumping off huge things. Doing crazy stuff like parkour with no fear.

 

[kikie]

Like I said, I don't want to be immortal but want I do want is not to get older, stay a certain age until you die. The only way to die is from an accident. You can't die from illness. Like "highlander" but still be mortal (==> accident).

 

[Touring Mars]

Omnis, have you been at the medicine cabinet again?

I recommend people who would like to live 'forever' to watch a film called 'Zardoz' and then see what they think about immortality... It's not a great film, but atleast it's relevant to this thread... Sean Connery does get his kit off though, so don't say you haven't been warned...

As for staying the same age forever - or even just for a very extended period of time - I'd personally hate that - it would be like being Cliff Richard To coin an old saying, "Variety is the spice of life"... There's a paradox involved here: What age would you choose to be?? The only way you'd know that being younger was better is if you've aged and experienced something different. On the other hand, you may decide simply that you don't want to get any older than you currently are, but where do you decide where to stop? I think there's general agreement that most people try to stay 'young' (fit/active) for as long as possible - and nobody I know of ever 'looked forward' to being geriatric, but if you listened to raw statistics, we'd all choose to stop aging at 19 or 21 or something... but I'm glad I didn't do that, since being 19 sucked and being 32 is really quite good (although I've heard that 33 sucks...) Oh what is a mortal to do?

 

[Venari]

Yep. I'm broad minded. I can think of one or two things I'd do. And being 33, I'd tell you, I'd take my early twenties body back in a cold second.

 

[Alfaholic]

I'd take my early twenties body back in a cold second.

I second that.

 

[Omnis]

Omnis, have you been at the medicine cabinet again?

I am the Salvador Dali of hypotheticals.

 

[Stevisiov]

I said no, but if I could quit whenever I wanted to and become mortal, then I would.

How awesome would it be to go skydiving everyday, jumping off huge things. Doing crazy stuff like parkour with no fear.

It sounds nice in theory but, a pipe dream in reality, given that you have no fear, how do you get your adrenaline rush, sure it would be ace at first no one else can do it, you have a totally unique ability, but it will get very boring very fast.

The best analogy is of course computer games. Ever cheated? ever cheated to make it easier. In almost all games cheating will ruin it. The 'no challenge' bit comes into play, usually it is great fun at first but what would have been a good game is ruined.

There are exceptions to this, sometimes cheating can save a bit of time on labotomus tasks, benifical and not making the game easier.

The same can be said for real life, there will be situations where immortality would be better, without question. So really, it isn't immortality good/bad, it is how much control you have over immortality which would decide whether it is good or bad.

You can look really deep itno this topic if you wanted to but, I am not going to, I am not much of a philosopher.

As for this poll, I said no. But there could be certain tweaks to the rules and then I would say yes without hesitation to 'immortality' however it wouldn't really be immortality at all after the tweaks.

 

[Danoff]

There seems to be some confusion in this thread about the term "immortality". Some people seem to think that immortality is the same is indestructibility. That if you are immortal, you cannot die no matter the circumstance. Others here seem to think that immortality means not aging, but not necessarily indestructible.

I've seen the term immortality applied to ageless situations all the time, even though the thing being described can certainly be destroyed. Music or writing, for example, is often referred to as immortal - even though a particular work can certainly be wiped out of existence (ie: Vanilla Ice). Dracula is often referred to as immortal, even though he could certainly be killed. The Highlander guys were considered immortal, even though they did mostly get killed.

I think before the question can properly be answered we should get clarification over whether we're talking about indestructibility or agelessness and perhaps near-indestructibility.

 

[Stevisiov]

im·mor·tal
–adjective

1. not mortal; not liable or subject to death; undying: our immortal souls.
2. remembered or celebrated through all time: the immortal words of Lincoln.
3. not liable to perish or decay; imperishable; everlasting.
4. perpetual; lasting; constant: an immortal enemy.
5. of or pertaining to immortal beings or immortality.
6. (of a laboratory-cultured cell line) capable of dividing indefinitely.

Strictly speaking, immortal means without death, therefore no end, but as you stated, things are described as immortal, that can be destroyed. Immortality for humans is impossible and therefore cannot be defined simply as it is interpreted differently by different people, like you said it would be impossible to describe without clarifying exactly what is meant by immortality. So for now I am going to take it as meaning unable to die, therefore by that definition i would not like to be immortal.

 

[Dave A]

Being immortal doesn't have to refer to you as a living person either. You can be immortalised by memory, granted the liklyhood is that you will be forgotten about pretty soon after you die, but in theory a memory of you could be passed on from generation to generation, much like definition 2 in your post Stevisiov90.

 

[Stevisiov]

Being immortal doesn't have to refer to you as a living person either. You can be immortalised by memory, granted the liklyhood is that you will be forgotten about pretty soon after you die, but in theory a memory of you could be passed on from generation to generation, much like definition 2 in your post Stevisiov90.

Quite true, a bit like danoff said about song can be immortal. Without a an agreed term for immortal, you cannot decide whether immortality is a good thing.

 

[kikie]

im·mor·tal
–adjective

2. remembered or celebrated through all time: the immortal words of Lincoln.

"*Jesus Christ*"

 

[Driving Park]

No. Overcrowding. Life would be hell.

I would definitely want immortality as long as it was only me and my friends that had it so there wasn't any. Also I'd only do it if there was no aging.

:-)

 

[Touring Mars]

I would definitely want immortality as long as it was only me and my friends that had it

Be careful what you wish for... if this happened, even with 'all' of your friends and family (a few hundred people, presumably), you'd soon start to suffer from a rather major case of 'undercrowding'... and you'd have a serious case of cabin fever too...

e.g.) you were pals with Jim at High School - and so you decide to bestow the gift of immortality upon him (simply because he's 'a friend')... but Jim always had a bit of a habit of interrupting people - but it wasn't enough to classify him as annoying, it was sufferable in small doses... now, picture having to put up with him for eternity! I'm guessing it wouldn't be too long until you ran out of things to say to each other. The games you packed into your immortal spaceship are getting a bit boring too. You and your 'friends' (and family) would be a cosy little sanctuary of immortal human souls for a while - immune to the pain and suffering and death of the rest of the natural world - travelling through space seeking out new places to while away the hours. But how long would it be before you couldn't stand the sight of each other, especially Jim who has been interrupting people incessantly for hundreds of thousands of years!

I'm guessing that immortals would have to have a pretty grand purpose - otherwise what would be the point? Presumably you'd have little choice but to colonise and recolonise as many places as you could, just to stave off the perpetual boredom of having to put up with your immortal pals (presuming that you kept in touch with any of them)...

On another note: Immortals have the dubious 'advantage' of not needing to reproduce or procreate - but presumably procreation is an activity that is as naturally human as anything, therefore I'm guessing that immortals would still procreate even though they didn't have to. If the offspring of immortals were also immortal, then overcrowding would inevitably follow - since nobody dies. If the offspring of immortals were mortal, however, the immortals could only hope to create pseudo-immortality in the form of a never-ending supply of new human populations wherever they could find a suitable location for them... but in order to avoid an eternity of nothingness (in terms of human contact, that is), it would be necessary to either a) create more immortals or b) involve yourself in a never-ending task of colonising other planets - I don't know about you, but that sounds too much like hard work to me

 

[Pupik]

Yep. I'm broad minded. I can think of one or two things I'd do. And being 33, I'd tell you, I'd take my early twenties body back in a cold second.

I second that.

I third that. I'd like to keep my 33-year-old brain, though.

I'm going to run against the grain on this one; immortality would probably be a lot of fun at first, but then all sorts of weird and annoying crap would start to occur:

Bad:

1) People are going to constantly wonder why you aren't dead.
2) Guinness is going to keep knocking at your door (if they bring free samples, that wouldn't be so bad).
3) Scientists would be asking to do experiments.
4) Government agents and such might quarantine you, and ask you to do dangerous things for them.
5) Reporters and historians are always going to ask questions.
6) The media will always use your name as a synonym for old things (ala Methuselah).
7) Everyone you get to know will die.
8) People will try to kill you. Or at least, prank you all the time, since you won't die.

Good:

1) You can prove that Social Security will run out (only valid in USA).
2) A handful of people might actually take your advice. You could start a cult.
3) You'll finally get to see a flying car.

 

[Touring Mars]

6) The media will always use your name as a synonym for old things (ala Methuselah).

You missed 9) You could run up unfeasibly massive charges for forgetting to return library books...

 

[Danoff]

9) You could run up unfeasibly massive charges for forgetting to return library books...

10) You could put on a cape and fight crime.

 

[FoolKiller]

10) You could put on a cape and fight crime.

Wouldn't that be a good?

 

[Omnis]

You could have sex with a starfish forever until you create a perfect regenerative immortal being.

Then you could have more fun with guns.

 

[EXelero]

as obviously this is a fantasy question, i'm not gonna let things like over crowding etc get in the way of the dream!

i would love to be 25 ish again and for ever! i was able to keep up with my kids at 25, the gym was easy. as was working in a pub til nearly midnight, then going clubbing and still getting up with the kids for school! The blokes were all much fitter then too!!! I went clubbing at least 3 nights a week and all my clothes fitted perfectly!!!

of course the downside is that sooner or later the kids would be and stay the same age as me... lol