Would You Opt for Immortality Despite the Universe's Limits?

[Tom McCurdy]

If you had the chance, would you live forever... meaning that if you did choose yes, you would never die. You could never choose to die you would simply live forever.

 

[Dooga Blackrazor]

I'm not really sure, but I voted yes because I think I'd end up selecting that option. The possibility of ceasing to exist is difficult for me to fathom - I don't want non-existance even though it wouldn't matter logically if I didn't exist.

 

[dekoi]

Because i am a theist, i would rather spend eternity in eternal bliss rather than on Earth.

 

[False Prophet]

If I couldn't self-destruct, then I wouldn't want immortality. If peace is something I know I can never have, then I can never have peace of mind knowing this.

 

[abitofnothingleft]

i wouldn't want to live forever because 1) i wouldn't want to live forever with loved ones just passing me by and 2) think of how many enemies you would suddenly have. people would either worship you or want to kill you because they'd think you're either jesus or satan living forever now in human form.

 

[Moonbear]

I voted no. If there was no way to ever choose to die, this planet could turn into a pretty miserable and lonely place, and there'd be no way out. I mean, it might be fun for the first 500 years or so, but once you seen and done everything and history starts to repeat itself for the 10th time, you'd probably get pretty bored with it.

 

[recon]

Back in the days when I was a kid, I used to ask my father this question. He would answer no because he would eventually get very tired of the world. I couldn't understand his choice, and even now, at 15, I still can't comprehend it fully.

I chose not to vote on this poll because I feel that the question should only be answered by people who have been in this world longer.

 

[pace]

oh Yesh! Why the heck doesn't everyone agree with me? :)

 

[Gokul43201]

I went with YES. I don't think I'll ever get bored. I'd also like the capabilities of a 25 year old for the rest of my eternal life - thanks !

I'm sure all the "wise folks" here picked NO.

 

[Mk]

yes, I would never get bored. I would also learn so much, and become so wise!

 

[plum]

A better question would be "Would you want to have the power to choose when you die?"

I suspect that most people would answer that question in the affirmative.

 

[Polly]

I chose no for a simple reason, wouldn't want to give myself another reason to procratinate. And as a buddhist I also believe the end is also another beginning. Would be nice to have a bit of variety in the circumstances one finds oneself in.

 

[Padford]

we have to have some inevitability in our lives, it sounds morbid, yes but death is the only one...

 

[Matt-235]

No. In short, "to live is Christ, to die is gain." I trust I'm going somewhere better after this life.

 

[BobG]

I went with "Yes". I'm very happy with living and I'm fascinated by life in general. History may have some amazing similarities crop up, but it never repeats itself. Maybe for most of human history, things have changed so slowly that one could feel that living forever meant living today over and over. Not so today - things change too fast to get bored with life.

 

[MiGUi]

Of course, I will live forever. Its a fact, not a wish.

 

[Tom McCurdy]

Of course, I will live forever. Its a fact, not a wish.

I am assuming you are religous, then the option about living forever is on Earth (in our universe) not in any afterlife.

 

[MiGUi]

NO

I'm not religious !

I don't believe in something like that !

 

[Evo]

I voted no. The Earth isn't going to last forever and it will be uninhabited long before then. Eternal life without any quality would be eternal torture.

 

[Gokul43201]

C'mon Evo, you're getting into technicalities now. Perhaps the Universe itself will cease to exist at some point (Big Crunch)...but I would go on ?

 

[Chaotic42]

No, the sun will die, the Earth may disappear, and I'd still be floating out there, suffering every second of my never-ending life.

 

[singleton]

I'd go for the 1000 year subscription with free annual renewals if I send in the lousy little card

Oh and try the black angus + hot sauce, it's great!

 

[Evo]

C'mon Evo, you're getting into technicalities now. Perhaps the Universe itself will cease to exist at some point (Big Crunch)...but I would go on ?

Yeah, but you would continue to live, hey Tom's making the rules, not me.

We don't even know the details. Tom said you would live forever, but he didn't say you wouldn't age. It would be like the Myth of Tithonus. The Goddess Eos fell in love with the human Tithonus and asked that he be made immortal and Zeus granted her wish. Unfortunately, she forgot to ask that he also have eternal youth. He ended up as a grasshopper.

Be careful what you wish for.

I'd go for the 1000 year subscription with free annual renewals if I send in the lousy little card

Now that I might go for.

Also, once the cows are gone, will life even be worth living?

 

[Moses]

Living forever, but changing the "universe" around you after "life" ended on earth, is a good idea if you are ahppy afterweards. but if you are in deep... [fill in the balnks] thus hoping death is extremely logical...

Simply as the situation now, happy want more...not happy ..not anymore you want..

 

[meteor]

There's a philosophy called deathism that has this definition
"The set of beliefs and attitudes which glorifies or accepts death and rejects or despises immortality"
http://www.orionsarm.com/eg/d/De-Dh.html
I think that I consider myself a not deathist

 

[pace]

Me neither

 

[aeroegnr]

I would love to life forever. Sure...this planet won't be here forever, but that means I would still have a few billion years to nail interstellar travel. I mean, I wouldn't even have to worry about life support, would I?

I would hope at some point though, that the universe collapsed back onto itself, and was reborn again. Being able to live to see multiple cycles of an entire universe would be...awesome.

 

[decibel]

you guys are nuts, i would never want to live forever. After about the first 500 years, you will probably wish you were dead.

 

[Evo]

you guys are nuts, i would never want to live forever. After about the first 500 years, you will probably wish you were dead.

I think people aren't understanding this. They seem to think that along with the inability to die they assume other superhuman powers.

Honestly people, if you could not change ANYTHING, and you could not die, would you want that?

 

[Gokul43201]

Evo...there are some technical difficulties to be overcome, but if you take them too seriously, no one would answer "yes".

 

[Evo]

Evo...there are some technical difficulties to be overcome, but if you take them too seriously, no one would answer "yes".

That's my point. Darn optimists!

We're talking about life as it is now, not Utopia.

 

[pace]

But living forever, you've entered an utopia ;)




You're feeling pain when you're body is degenerated somehow or another. Since you'll live forever, I take it that you don't degenerate.
And imagine all the things you could do after a while with your wisdom which you could create and explore. Unlimited things! ))

 

[Smurf]

In a heartbeat, I can't immagine ever getting bored of watching history being created right in front of you, of watching empires rise and fall... so many possibilities.
"The only thing holding me back is time"



I like to compare the 'Living forever would be boring" argument with the "Suicide is for cowards" argument. Both largely based on obscure myths of no apparent origin. Neither make any sense to me.

 

[pace]

I'm sooooooooooo going to rock them in Go when I'm 1346548176548237567845 years old!

 

[Smurf]

lmao. I could do the 'Highlander' thing and keep creating new identities. awsome!

 

[jimmy p]

I would live forever... if I didnt age.

 

[matthyaouw]

I forget how long the sun has 'til it goes red giant, but I'd bet a whole lotta money things would go downhill reasonably fast from there on. my answer therefore is no.

However on the positive side- when the big crunch does/doesnt happen, you could be the only person ever to say "Ha! I knew it!"

 

[Smurf]

i think its something like 6000 million years, if I havn't figured out a way to get out of the solar system by then.. then I deserve whatever is happenin.

 

[Moses]

There's a philosophy called deathism that has this definition
"The set of beliefs and attitudes which glorifies or accepts death and rejects or despises immortality"
http://www.orionsarm.com/eg/d/De-Dh.html
I think that I consider myself a not deathist

Mmmmm...
Well, being not a deathist as well [as you pace, without "intimidating" you ] . However, still say : Do you want to live WITHOUT HONOR, SELF-RESPECT, HAPPINESS...this kind of life wil made me less than a "virus" thus "rest in peace" or "rest in honor is cool"
A peot from my family 1496 years ago says:

Do not let me drink the life-syrup cup in dishonor,
But let me with honor the bitter cup.

BTW: He was an extremely great soldier, and he was slave at the beginning of his life...

 

[Smurf]

Does that accually mean anything?

 

[Alkatran]

Yes

If I get bored I can give myself amnesia (I have forever to figure out how...)

Wait, are we immune to mental defects? Physical defects? ...

 

[Smurf]

even if we are i think we'd be able to find a way around it after the first few millenia

 

[puf_the_majic_dragon]

i plan to live forever, of course. but barring that i'd settle for a few thousand years. even 500 would be pretty nice.
- from the game Alpha Centauri (wonderful game :) )

if i did live forever, i expect it would get pretty boring.. i'd prolly have to create a planet full of people who didn't listen to me...

yes i do think living forever would get boring... sure you can watch empires and dynasties rise and fall, but in the end they're all the same.. "it's just another empire, who gives a #$%^&?" not to mention the pain of watching those you love die. fall in love, live one normal lifetime with them and watch them go... after once or twice of that i'd have to become a hermit.

but one thing that would never get boring... the sunrise. i would never get tired of watching a beautiful mountain sunrise or sunset. i'd just wish i had someone living forever with me to enjoy it with.

 

[franznietzsche]

I'd live forever only if i got god powers to go along with it. That would cure boredom quickly enough. After all Life is God's COmedy Central.

Barring that, i guess i'd settle for living forever if i get to spend it on an islamd surrounded by a polynesian race of gorgeous women, with no other men to turn to when they get posessed by "urges."


Otherwise living forever would really just suck, for all of the aforementioned reasons.

 

[pace]

I never ever get bored. I don't understand the bored principle anymore. I've got soo much things I want to do, and should do. I NEED to live forever!

 

[franznietzsche]

I never ever get bored. I don't understand the bored principle anymore. I've got soo much things I want to do, and should do. I NEED to live forever!

Existence would get boring after a while. Too manystupid mortals making the same mistakes over and over again. Buts it not their fault, that's just how they were raised...

 

[Smurf]

I don't get it, everyone seems to think that life won't change and that 'history will repeat its self' over and over and over again without change. I'm facinated by the future, I will never seize being facinated by the new discoveries of our race. There's so much I don't know, I don't think I'll ever know everything, I don't think I'll ever get bored.
If you get bored of living forever its not because life gets boring, its because you get boring.

 

[Moses]

The "rate pf receiving ,comprehencing, memrizing infotmation" is far far less the the "rate of increasing of informations in the existence" thus who want to live forever ,I gurantee you forever that you will never get bored because of "repeativity"

Put you may live a "hech as hell" life.. and...ohhh ..you know the rest..

Personally, i believe in the after life that will be forever, but not in this "universe" i will live for ever..

 

[i_wish_i_was_smart]

i would like to live forever, you could learn everything there is to learn, you could experience everything, see history being made, by the time you get bored on earth, or Earth's time is up, chances are there are colonies on other planets moons, if not you'll float until you hit a planet, then well if its an uninhabitable wasteland i gues your screwed till something pases along or its colonized

 

[mathlete]

As long as I can pick a few people (family, some friends) to come with - sure! There is so much just on Earth we'll never get to do or see since we have so little time.. imagine having all the time you want to learn a new subject or see an exotic land! Curse death!