Would you want to live forever?

[Escaep]

Inspired by the singularity thread, if technology truly did get to the point where humans could live forever, would you really want to?

Assume its irreversible.

 

[Stigmata]

Absolutely. There's so much on this planet to experience, and you can only take in a tiny fraction of it in a lifetime. And even if you live forever, you can only be in one place at once. There's always going to be something new to discover.

 

[Headcrab Pie]

I have to ask a question, can we still feel pain, pass out, and otherwise be discomforted?

 

[Wanted Bob]

I really dont know at this point. As I said in the other thread, part of the joy of life is making the most of the time that you have alive. Without that sort of pressure, would you really have the motivation to do anything. There would be no concept of wasting time, because you could always do something later.

If we were motivated enough to do things consistently on a regular basis, yes it would be worth it. But I think given our tendency to procrastinate, immortality would lead to an unsatisfying existence.

 

[Schall]

Yes, as long as I can still die from fatal injuries.

 

[Acepilotf14]

Yes. Especially to watch mankind evolve, flourish, and destroy itself.

 

[MJ12]

This totally depends on how physically painful living forever is. Also, if loved ones would also live forever.

 

[Vegeta897]

It'd be nice if I could just live in a god-like position, able to observe anything I wanted and not have to actually live mortally, with responsibilities.

 

[VirusType2]

Absolutely not. Perhaps it would be nice to live longer, but the hell if I want to live forever.

 

[Sheepo]

 

[Qonfused]

No way.

 

[Warped]

I want to live to be like 9000 years old or something Epic like that. also that concept of a man living thousands of years reminds me of that one movie i saw. i can't think of the name but it raised a cool thought about immortality. fast regeneration, lots of stem cells, staying healthy....man these are things i do not possess. but i do know the more i exercise i get the more i feel good about life and the better i eat the longer i'll live. steps can be taken right now to expand your destined fate and i think we all can try a bit better. quit smoking, have frequent sex, and maybe have a glass of wine once in a while. tea is also a good start. life is too short to die young

 

[Tollbooth Willie]

Depends.

 

[Stigmata]

I want to live to be like 9000 years old or something Epic like that. also that concept of a man living thousands of years reminds me of that one movie i saw. i can't think of the name but it raised a cool thought about immortality. fast regeneration, lots of stem cells, staying healthy....man these are things i do not possess. but i do know the more i exercise i get the more i feel good about life and the better i eat the longer i'll live. steps can be taken right now to expand your destined fate and i think we all can try a bit better. quit smoking, have frequent sex, and maybe have a glass of wine once in a while. tea is also a good start. life is too short to die young

The Man From Earth? That movie was great.

 

[Warped]

The Man From Earth? That movie was great.

yeah that movie was an eye opener. i want to believe that someone out there has been living for centuries. the discovery would be the greatest of all time me thinks.

also aliens

 

[Danimal]

If we were an intergalactic-travelling species then I suppose the temptation of immortality would be greater than it would be now.

But in all honesty: **** no.

EDIT: Unless I became OMNISCIENT!

 

[StarBob]

There was a book based on the MMORPG Anarchy Online called Prophet Without Honour. It was about a post-nuclear world that was divided between the people that went underground and survived and the people that stayed above and survived. It split them between two classes, the former using nanotechnology to extend their lives indefinitely and the latter being fairly normal humans, but being used as basically slave labor because of their standard life spans. After a certain amount of time, the immortal humans became infertile and, because of that, they became depressed and killed themselves due to the inability to procreate.

There's more to the story but I just wanted to stop there. I think the importance of procreation in the long term is sort of an overriding factor and nature's way of granting "immortality" though passing on genes... but being granted immortality yourself would probably lead to depression because ultimately everything gets repetitive.

The book is a pretty decent sci-fi read if you ever get bored. I'm pretty sure you can get it for free online somewhere because they posted the entire thing for the game.

edit: googled it for you http://www.anarchy-online.com/anarc...download/documents/prophet_without_honour.pdf

 

[mastag]

I don't want to watch everybody I know eventually die, then meet new people, watch them die, etc.

Yeah, you'd experience a lot of interesting shit, but you'd basically have no room for personal relationships.

 

[Shem]

The idea of becoming immortal is tempting, but I'm not sure. It seems like it has many advantages, but there also must be some consequences.

 

[Ren.182]

I would if I could die when I eventually got bored/sick of watching friends/family/loved ones die or if everyone died somehow.

It would be awesome to see us finally get further into space (if we ever do) and possibly meet a new intelligent species. I'd love to see how advanced technology gets too.

 

[unozero]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L8-FTvSVxs

 

[AJ Rimmer]

If I could still kill myself and if the majority of humanity would also live forever, IE there's a medical breakthrough which is spread to most of the population, yes.

 

[Danimal]

No it isn't. Delete my post.

 

[Azner]

Ab Aeterno.

I would. I don't know why.

 

[Colonel Kernel]

It definetly deppends. One of those things I don't want to experience as an immortal is pain - man, pain is very bad for me, thats just not my cup of tea. The other one is reletives - friends and family, I probably wouldn't stand one of them dieing knowing that I will live forever, instead of them.
The thing is, I don't really know. I think not forever, just long enough to whitness where technology and innovation takes us - outher space I sincerely hope.

 

[YROC]

I'd choose yes, but only if I could end my life when I felt like it.

Technology means nothing when a gun meets a brain. :O

 

[Bob_Marley]

Eh, the question is far too vauge. Saying live forever is useless - why would I agree to something when I don't know the conditions.

Take for example "Clinical immortality" from Alpha Centauri - you get stuck as a brain and a pair of eyeballs in a jar.

Or it could be simply being stuck on a life support machine to keep the brain funcitoning while comatose forever, which would also suck.

 

[Dynasty]

I think if we took a page out of Star Trek's book and invented warp drives and explored new galaxies etc, THEN I would like to live forever, just to see what is out there. Its something that amazes me.

To be the first person to discover a new type of Alien. And ***k it.

Then everyone back home would be like 'There he goes. Homeboy ***ked a martian once'.

 

[ktimekiller]

I would, for the sake of seeing the world change around me

 

[Remus]

Assume its irreversible.

Killing yourself = easy
Finding a way to live forever = hard

So yes given the option I would want to live indefinitely and be able to choose whether I want to put an end to my existance at a much later date. Maybe a few milion years.

I'm sure the OP meant "irreversible" as in, once you choose immortality, you're doomed to be indestructible for all eternity.

Spoiler

Which is nonsense.

 

[The Monkey]

The fourth option is the second option.

 

[Sulkdodds]

Assuming I can commit suicide, then absolutely yes. There is too much to do and too much to know and too much to see and too much to have sex with. Imagine seeing the transition from the Norman Invasion to the present day. The differences are huge, and I want to see what happens next. That simple, really.

 

[taviow]

Yes, as long as I can kill myself or be killed.

It would be nice if I could look like I'm around 21 forever, too.

 

[Shift]

Yes just so as everyone has that option too and we gain access to the ability to explore the galaxy and even the universe. But yes, I will still like to be able to be killed otherwise life would loose its beauty really.

 

[dfc05]

No, because living forever would just be really exhausting (for me at least).

And I'm pretty sure when the op said "live forever", he really meant being stuck living forever. So everyone who wants to live forever as long as they can kill themselves, is actually acknowledging that they don't (or might not) actually want to live forever. You just want to live a really long time.

I assume the point is that there's a trade-off -- you can do and see everything for all of time, but you lose the ability (privilege? right? can't come up with the right word) to die.

 

[Sulkdodds]

It's true, it's a bit of a cop-out but for me the emphasis of any such question has always been: would you want death to be purely voluntary? Yes, of course. This is the key question to ask with any possible immortality plan in the real world, since magic mythical curses that trap you forever in a life worse than death are unlikely to actually work. Anyway, he made this thread in reference to the Kurzweil one, so most people are assuming a plausible technological solution.

 

[VirusType2]

As much as I like living, there are often times I feel as if I'm just suffering, serving out my life sentence and taking comfort in the fact that one day I can rest in peace. When you consider eternity, it just doesn't sound like a lot of fun to me.

Now if we were living in this world without pain, strife, boredom, misery, loneliness, etc., then yeah, living forever sounds ****ing grand. Unfortunately, that's not what life has in store for us.

 

[Darkside55]

Am I the only person here who wants to live forever even if I can't be killed or kill myself? I want to live FOREVER, without fear of death. More than the rise and fall of civilizations I want to witness the rise and fall of stars. If I could, I'd like to see the ultimate fate of the universe, heat death or the big crunch or whatever comes at the end.

I want to live until it is impossible for my life to continue, until the universe itself would no longer support it.

 

[Eejit]

if the majority of humanity would also live forever, IE there's a medical breakthrough which is spread to most of the population, yes.

That would be an absolute disaster unless a lot of other breakthroughs were made to facilitate it.

 

[Unfocused]

Yes, as long as I can still die from fatal injuries.

This, pretty much. Also I'd need to have my body not age and be immune to sickness etc., as I'm pretty sure living as a human wreck physically is not fun at all.

If it's the scenario when you cannot ever die, then no.