What would you do with immortality?

[dlgoff]

So if this become a reality, what would you like to use the extra time for?

I'll start. Learning the Mathematics and Physics needed to understand how reality works.

 

[Evo]

Aubrey De Gray is a crackpot.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Aubrey De Gray is a crackpot.

Regardless, Aubrey De Gray is a cool name.

 

[Drakkith]

If I could live forever, I would do EVERYTHING.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

Aubrey De Gray is a crackpot, not least because his devotion to the idea is fanatical rather than based on much science. Saying that though regenerative medicines have great potentially to increase lifespans; liver failing? get a new one. Lung collapsed? get a new one. Skin wrinkly? get a new one.

If my healthy lifespan was considerably increased I would consider working for several decades putting a good fraction of my salary away each pay day so that I could go traveling around the world for years on end.

 

[Dadface]

Assuming you could overcome the problems caused by the burgeoning human population,such as reducing living spaces and food supplies then I guess that as the years pass just one of several effects would be that you would become increasingly disenchanted and tired through boredom.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

Assuming you could overcome the problems caused by the burgeoning human population,such as reducing living spaces and food supplies then I guess that as the years pass just one of several effects would be that you would become increasingly disenchanted and tired through boredom.

IMO if anything the birthrate would decline. In most first world countries the birthrate has massively decreased (thanks to contraception and women's rights). Add into the mix the expectancy to live for hundreds/thousands of years and why would anyone think of having kids within their first century or so?

I also don't see boredom as a possibility (unless one suffers from a lack of imagination). You can always retrain and try a new career for a few decades, not to mention that new things to do are always being invented. Just a mere century ago people couldn't travel globally, sky dive, chat online etc etc.

 

[Dadface]

IMO if anything the birthrate would decline. In most first world countries the birthrate has massively decreased (thanks to contraception and women's rights). Add into the mix the expectancy to live for hundreds/thousands of years and why would anyone think of having kids within their first century or so?

I also don't see boredom as a possibility (unless one suffers from a lack of imagination). You can always retrain and try a new career for a few decades, not to mention that new things to do are always being invented. Just a mere century ago people couldn't travel globally, sky dive, chat online etc etc.

My comments were based on the concept of everyone living forever.If that were the case the population would approach infinity even for a birthrate approaching the vanishingly small. Also,every individual could experience every activity an increasing number of times which approached infinity as the years passed.Sky diving is fun but I can imagine it starts to get tedious after the ten millionth jump,especially when the adrenaline element is reduced by the knowledge that the jump can not result in death.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

My comments were based on the concept of everyone living forever.If that were the case the population would approach infinity even for a birthrate approaching the vanishingly small. Also,every individual could experience every activity an increasing number of times which approached infinity as the years passed.Sky diving is fun but I can imagine it starts to get tedious after the ten millionth jump,especially when the adrenaline element is reduced by the knowledge that the jump can not result in death.

I would agree were it not for the false premise of the OP, whilst biological immortality may be entirely possible through medical science at some point some accident will kill you

 

[Dadface]

I would agree were it not for the false premise of the OP, whilst biological immortality may be entirely possible through medical science at some point some accident will kill you

I think the whole idea is daft and I'm not taking any of it seriously

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

If I could live forever, I would do EVERYTHING.

as the years pass just one of several effects would be that you would become increasingly disenchanted and tired through boredom.

Following the Drakkith program, when you were finished doing everything, you'd have no less days to spend than when you first begun. The Dadface phenomenon would occur.

 

[dlgoff]

Aubrey De Gray is a crackpot.

OMG. I cleaned up the post.

 

[aegrisomnia]

If it were guaranteed that I'd live forever? Kill all humans.

 

[Jack21222]

Forever? No, forever's a ridiculously long time. I would not want to outlive Sol. I think I'd be happy with 1,000 years of life. I'd be mainly interested in observing technological progress and new discoveries.

 

[skeptic2]

If nobody dies then nobody could be born. Would you want to live forever if there was no procreation, no children?

 

[Ricky116]

I'd prefer not to spend the course of human history stuck inside a rock, or after having fun on Earth with people for 0.0[insert 0s here]1% of my lifetime to drift through space doing apsolutely nothing for the rest.

Even if humans survived for a million years (which would be a great outcome for an immortal person), you'd be one hell of a freak to all the other evolved humans.

I think this is a great read, put things in perspective in a first person humourus way: http://everything2.com/user/santo/writeups/Immortality+blows

 

[Willowz]

It's probable that I would become some Vandal Savage or I'd live on some planet and create the perfect woman that could accompany me throughout eternity.

 

[jobyts]

Anyway I've plenty of time in hand, why do I have to plan something?

 

[Ryan_m_b]

I suppose if there was nothing that could ever kill me I would spend my time trying to avoid the heat death. But I'd probably just bum around for 10¹⁰⁰ years and do an all nighter just before.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Greg Bear treats this in some of his stories. There is seriously a hell of a lot to do. How many books are there out there to read? How many more are published each year? If you took some time to learn other languages just how many more books would you have access to? I could probably spend hundreds of years on reading alone. If you would seriously get bored in less than a couple thousand years then I pity your lack of imagination.

 

[Constantinos]

I take that "Living Forever" means that I live for an indefinite time (i.e I can't die of old age but a truck can still kill me)

I'd split my time in two halves. First half I'd still try to maximize my probability of survival. Second half, I'd do anything that pleases me. It's pretty much what I do now. Annihilation of old age is just like annihilation of a disease, so nothing would really change, people will still die and overpopulation could be controlled by regulations for people deciding to go Highlander. I'd be cool though to live like that for thousands of years, or even until absorbed by Multivac :P

If we take "Living Forever" to literally mean unable to die (not even by heat-death somehow), then I'm not sure if this is a situation that one wants to be in. It'd be a never-ending evolution and it could end up being in a state of constant pain, but unable to die to relieve it! A bad fate. I guess I'd still split my time in two, and the first half would be spent to maximize the probability of avoiding unwanted discomfort (the second as above!).