Would you become an immortal?

Many people are saying what a crappy rock we live on or what a crappy race we are. What the hell are you people basing your opinions on? what other planet or race are you comparing us with? If you expect to live in some eutopia your living in a dream world and should grow up. If you can give me an example of a world and race which is better than our own and prove its existence and that its better than our own i'll give you a thousand pounds.

[edit on 24/4/06 by theBman]

Who is complaining? The discussion is whether or not you would choose to be immortal. Inhale and exhale a couple of times really slowly and then try again.

Immortal? Never thought of it, but if offered I would be quite humble about it, but it would depend on any strings attached to the offer.

I certanly wouldnt want to be an Immortal as a slave........... Imortality would suit me well if I was allowed to right the wrongs on this old planet

Being immortal might somehow make you grow unappreciative about your life. Cause it can give you this mindset where "hey maybe I'll do whatever I'm suppose to do tomorow cause I'm not dying anytime soon". You know at least knowing that you could die at any moment somehow reminds you to make full use of your given life. Well that is in my own opinion anyways.

Originally posted by theBman
Many people are saying what a crappy rock we live on or what a crappy race we are. What the hell are you people basing your opinions on? what other planet or race are you comparing us with? If you expect to live in some eutopia your living in a dream world and should grow up. If you can give me an example of a world and race which is better than our own and prove its existence and that its better than our own i'll give you a thousand pounds.

Well I always end up comparing the human race to any other kind of lifeform that can just exist without the need to tamper with environement, change their habitat or wage pointless wars over such trivial things as greed, money or faith. Plus these other creatures don't have the means to actually blow up the planet, they all just live for the hell of it.

Take wild horses. Have you seen them when they run as a herd? Or when they just jump about for the hell of it? Thats how I'd like to spend my eternity, as a blissfully wild creature without any cares apart from living.

Oh and FYI, I don't think we live on a crappy rock. I think we live on something that was once pure and uncorrupted but was tainted and darkened by the everexpanding hand of man.

[edit on 24-4-2006 by JackofBlades]

There are definitely problems with immortality.

People are driven in their biological existences by balancing out pain and pleasure, excitement and peace. This in itself is a kind of torture that would certainly get very tedious after a few hundred years.

But if a person was free from pain or the fear of dying, what would motivate them to continue through life? If you knew you would never get hungry, would you still eat? If you didn't need to go to work every day to put a roof over your head, would you go?

I also don't think it would be at all pleasant to watch all of your old friends die, again and again, while you continue on. It would make me want to not get any more friends, just to avoid the pain of watching them slowly die.

You could take all that time and slowly work your way through the accumulated knowledge of mankind, reading every book ever written. You could learn all the languages spoken. And then what? What comes after that?

You could sit in one place and watch the Earth slowly revolve around the Sun for a hundred years if you wanted to. But why would you want to?

Many problems with immortality.

Nah, if you were immortal you'd have the ability to slow your mind and watch time fly. There'd be no problem with trying to fill in the gaps between the ages. Just relax and concentrate on passing time.

Originally posted by iamjman
Nah, if you were immortal you'd have the ability to slow your mind and watch time fly. There'd be no problem with trying to fill in the gaps between the ages. Just relax and concentrate on passing time.

That sounds to me like it might get a little boring after a thousand years.

Who is complaining? The discussion is whether or not you would choose to be immortal. Inhale and exhale a couple of times really slowly and then try again.

perhaps if you read the entire thread you would see some of these peoples excuses.

Daneel Olivaw you raise some good points but I think that if an individual was to live forever they would overcome these issues. We would all hate to see our friends and family die. However if you did have eternal life would you not get over such trivial things such as people dieing? If you lived for thousands of years you would experience people you loved die all the time. IMO you would become immune to the pain and be able to move on far more comfortably than you would at the moment.

Who knows? this is another issue which is beyond our comprehension.knowing your going to die is a part of being human. So immortality would change us completely. We would no longer think the way we do and our way of thinking would be transformed.

I would definatly choose Immortality.

There is a neverending stream of questions that I need answered, and will not be satisfied until I know.

What if human DNA did not become fully active until a thousand years of sustained health? Death - or birth for that matter - could be the reason why evolution takes so long. A short lifespan allows only to pass on the DNA; and given the fact humans can only reproduce in a shorter period...

Who knows what higher orders of the mind we could access? And the ability to avert tragic mistakes in the past - simply because "we were there" , and no cover up could hide it, no re-writing of history could distort the truth.

Of course there are down sides, like some one evil being immortal. But for those of us who are able to resist the temtation to enslave the universe with this gift....there is no greed in immortality if you intend on using your gift to better others lives.

I’m not sure, but I think I’d choose to live for a long, long time; maybe thousands of years.

You know, people under the age of 40 right now may indeed be presented with this possibility within the next 10-20 years. Cambridge University geneticist, Aubrey de Grey, thinks so, anyway. And despite his looks, he is one of the top research scientists in the field of genetics today. He believes all the major components of extending life indefinitely have already been proven in the lab, and that once the pieces are put together we humans will be able to live virtually endless, youthful, healthy (physically and mentally) productive lives. He claims that dying of old age, and getting common diseases now associated with old age, will become a thing of the past. Basically we will live on with youthful vigor and excellent health until some outside force causes our death (like a car accident, etc.). Here’s an article with some of his thoughts: news.bbc.co.uk....

The idea of death bothers me a little, since I’m not particularly religious and haven’t seen any convincing evidence of reincarnation or whatever. It’s hard for me to believe in something through blind faith alone. Plus, I’m really curious about what’s to come of us. I figure us humans will either annihilate ourselves or turn the human experience into something indistinguishable from magic via advanced technology.

I wonder what dating will be like 1,000 years from now. Maybe when I’m 1,040 I’ll date some hot, young chick at the tender age of 625. Man, talk about robbing the cradle. The mind reels …

We would all hate to see our friends and family die. However if you did have eternal life would you not get over such trivial things such as people dieing? If you lived for thousands of years you would experience people you loved die all the time. IMO you would become immune to the pain and be able to move on far more comfortably than you would at the moment.

Right now, is there anyone that you love in your life? If so, would you find their d-y-i-n-g to be trivial thing? Hopefully not. In so answering, you could conclude that the same would follow no matter how many years you lived. If you truly loved someone, their death would never be an easier thing to experience just because you had gone through it before. I have actually had people I held close to me die, and then shortly afterward I went through it again. It was not any easier. In fact, the feeling was actually more difficult to swallow because I HAD tasted it before. I don't believe immunity to the pain of death is possible. If you could be immune to people you loved dying simply because you happened to be two thousand years old, then I think you were always cold to begin with, and did not ever truly love. At least not past the first.

JackofBlades, I thought about this as well, but the rate we mutate at is extremely slow, a snails pace, it takes 1000's of yours for a mutation to spread.

We will be able to enhance ourselves through technology, we will be true cyborgs, we'd have implants for everything, things like changing gender will be considdered as changing cloths, same could be said about your appearence, imagine changing your race! that would truely solve racism, or will it?

The only reason i'd like to be immortal or less mortal is to witness this incredible future that's waiting for us...incredible or horrific...it's yet undecided...

Wow, yeah, cyborgs. That's the wave of the future alright. Time for me to go take my bath in toxic waste so I can have super-strength for the day. Chances are the human race won't make it past the next several years, so I can't really see this cyber-punk future everyone is waiting for actually happening.

I'd totally go for it. Yeah, it might seem a little selfish, and i know most of my friends and family would choose not to become imortal, but i'd totally do it if only to see "what happens next?"

As for how i'd become imortal... no idea at all. If i knew that, i'd probably be well on my to becoming rich

Originally posted by GrOuNd_ZeRo
JackofBlades, I thought about this as well, but the rate we mutate at is extremely slow, a snails pace, it takes 1000's of yours for a mutation to spread.

Did you ever consider the fact that humanity remains in one state because we are the only species on the planet that doesn't need to adapt to our environment? And why is that?
It's because whenever we find somewhere new it ends up becoming a dull, grey metropolis full of cars and pollution and stagnation.

As we were, we are and we will be, Soul is eternal, Are we not eternal already?

Would I want to be immortal? No. I'd probably end up going insane and getting a life sentence in prison. That would SUCK.

I would refer you to Karl Edward Wagner fictional character of Kane.
Kane is cursed with immortality by an insane God. Over time Kane has also become insane. He's not really good or evil, but he delves into the occult and and has a lust for power.
Whatever he can do to not be bored, he will, good or bad. This makes for some interesting reading. I would highly recommend any Karl Edward Wagner Kane stories, but paticularly Bloodstone and Darkness Weaves .
But the answer as to whether or not I would become an immortal, after reading all of the Kane novels, the answer is definetly NO.

Chezz you just gave me another reason for immortality!
Say if I put some money in a bank and forgot about it for three centuries (passing it off as inheritance to my 'son'). It will have grown by quite a bit right?
Allowing me to become powerful and possibly RULE THE WORLD MWAHAHAHAHA....geez I think I'm already insane.

Seriously though, immortality could be the way to extreme financial gain couldn't it? You will be able to use your vast amount of experience to play the stock market, and even if you lose it all so what?
You won't exactly need food right?
Although Robert Gadling, an immortal human in the Sandman does say "Do you know how hungry you get if you don't eat but don't die?"