Would you become an immortal?

this is such a fantastic question. At first, i thought....yes, i would love that....to be alive forever, to see new things as they develop. And then someone mentioned how you would feel to see your loved ones die and i thought....hmmm.
So maybe we should rethink this in terms of......would we wish to be immortal IF our loved ones could be too.
In that case.....definitely. There are SO many things i want to do in life, and i know that i'm never going to achieve all of them. And it would be great if my children could be immortal too (of course, this means, THEIR children, and THEIR children)
But if only i had immortality....then no.
This is such a rambling post....lol....but then again, kudos to the OP....its an interesting question, and the more you think about it, the more pros and cons you think of.

JackofBlades-actually there was a story about that. The guy put his life savings in the bank, (say 70k) I don't remember the actuall amount, went into cryogenic sleep for about 3 centuries, wakes up, pulls his money out of the bank. He now has about 4 or 5 million. He goes to the store, pulls a shirt off the counter and the cashier looks at him and says "That'll be $85,233 dollars please."

HAHAHA

Forgot about our good friend Ian Flation (get it?)

I apologize for being different... but we are immortal.. either way you look at it..

age is simply the effects of improper protien production due to constant negative thought...

and if u can't maintain your bodily form... energy cannot be destroyed ...

I'd love to be immortal, as long as eternal youth comes with the deal.

What good would being immortal if I'm in a body that's become so old it's turned into a puddle?

I don't want to die til I've learned everything I want to learn, do everything I want to do, see everything I want to see, and experience everything I want to experience.

It's not like I'm afraid to die either. I've had more close calls than I care to keep track of, and was clinically dead for 4 minutes back in 01. (4 minutes with no breathe, no brain activity, and no heart beat.) Before that occurred, I thought dying was scary. It's actually kind of peaceful.

When i read this i was thinking more about Taoism and their belief in immortals

Chuang-Tzu (399 - 295 BC), writes of the Immortals. They are perfect beings who dwell in a far away place, celebrated in poetry and painting as the Isles of the Immortals (also known as the Mystic Isles or the Isles of the Blessed). The location of the Isles (Penglai, Yingzhou, and Fanghu) was in the Eastern Sea, off the Jiangsu (Kiangsu) coast of China. They became a favourite subject of Chinese and Japanese landscape painting.

They believed they could obtain it via alchemy, the first step was to ingest Jade. Unfortunately Jade is toxic and would kill, it is still a symbol of immortality.

Apparently you get your own island as part of the deal, although i'd get a bit bored being a hermit forever, i'd prefer to travel.

I think the majority of the posters are speaking of material immortality rather than spiritual just to clarify. I was certainly referring to that.

But what is Immortality?

Living a 1000 Years or Living forever?

First, I opted for the Immortality, if the Generation of man was still numbered at 1000 years or so. Living forever, is not the realm of man, but the place of the Spirit/Soul

Second, it was noted previously, but none considered it. This earth can not sustain longevity, due the the natural evironment and changes that occured over the last some 8000 to 10000 on earth. Nano-Nothing, will return this planet to it's former state. What was here on earth at one time, needs to rebuilt, but that is likely beyond mans ability alone.

Third, we had, in our not to distant past, the Immortal, (but numbered), lifespan. Many figures in our past lived for 100's of years, and still where active and viable and contributing to society. Unfortunately, depravity, and miss-directed thoughts along with interference, seemed to have re-numbered the days of man to 120 years and again to 70 Years, but as someone noted, if our forefathers lived this long would it be diffcult to think building Pyramids, and Athenes, and other wonders, would be all that much of a time consumption.

And last, I am of the perticular belief, many of those alive today, will become "Immortal" being we live in the days of "This Generation shall not pass". A Thousand Years of Learning is coming soon, and sooner than somemay think.

Good Post though! And a lot of Good Responses.

Ciao

Shane

I'd love to be immortal except for one thing. You could live long enough to find out if the universe would eventually collapse back in on itself.If it did would it kill you therefore you are not truely immortal and if it didn't kill you how are you going to keep yourself entertained with everythink else gone?. Actually i would like to change my answer .Iwouldn't like to be immortal but a very long lifespan would be an acceptable substitute. Also what would be the optimal age at which you stop aging if you were to become immortal?

immortality is a hard subject to think about would you want to live forever with all your friends and family dieing around you it depends if you dont have many friends or family members then the decision is easier. Sure live a couple 100 years and see what the future holds but after awhile the constant cycle of finding someone and watching them die would drive you insane id think unless you could somehow make them immortal then having them with you might make it worth it.

Then again if you believe in the Spirit and the soul then maybe we are immortal or at least are soul part is and when our body dies it passes on to some other life or a heaven or hell then there are those people that claim to of had an oob exprienced which i find hard to believe but im not much of a religous man myself. For me id have to say yes why not so much you could exprience if the weight of society is not on you but if you still had to eat and maintain a job in society then maybe not idk its a tough decision.

If you believe in the SPirit and the soul why would you grieve when someone died? WOuldn't you rejoice at their ascencion to a higher state of being and know that they are always with you???

Hmm I read this book called "Gulliver's Travels" and the author just basically roast 18th century english government, religion, and science. It's very interesting...

During the third voyage...the main character Gulliver encounter a group of people called the "Struldbruggs" they basically obtain immortality, and well...here's a passage:

"...they commonly acted like Mortals, till about thirty Years old, after which by degrees they grew melancholy and dejected, encreasing in both till they came to four-score. When they came to four-score Years, which is reckoned the Extremity of living in this Country, they had not only all the Follies and Infirmities of other old Men, but many more which arose from the dreadful Prospect of never dying. They were not only Opinionative, Peevish, Covetous, Morose, Vain, Talkative, but uncapable of Friendship, and dead to all natural Affection, which never descended below their Grand-children.

At Ninety they lose their Teeth and Hair, they have at that age no Distinction of Taste, but eat and drink whatever they can get, without Relish or Appetite. The Diseases they were subject to still continuing without encreasing or diminishing. In talking they forgot the common Appellation of Things, and the Names of Persons, even of those who are their nearest Friends and Relations. For the same Reason they never can amuse themselves with reading, because their Memory will not serve to carry them from the beginning of a Sentence to the end; and by this Defect they are deprived of the only entertainment whereof they might otherwise be capable.

The Language of this Country being always upon the Flux, the Struldbruggs of one Age do not understand those of another, neither are they able after two hundred Years to hold any Conversation (farther than by a few general Words) with their Neighbours the Mortals; and thus they lye under the Disadvantage of living like Foreigners in their own Country." (Gulliver's Travel, BookIII - Chapter 10)

I think it would suck being immortal, unless we don't experience the affect of aging, so eternal youth would be good, like some had mention above.


[edit on 1-5-2006 by skyblueff0]

I won't have to choose.

In the other dimension, heaven is waiting.

[edit on 1-5-2006 by Christian IX]

well u no the weirdest thing about bein immortal would be if u were setenced to life in jail u would be in jail forever, also being immortal would start to get repetative after a while

Sure i think so if it was eternal life and eternal youth.

I dont know but i seem to almost completley loose track of time most of the time anyways

Imagine if any of the great scientists would have lived to say 400 years or something.. might have made a great deal of difference.

Isn't it Ray Kurtzweil (spelling) that said something aboug technology will becoming able to repair most or all of our bodily imperfections including solving how aging works and beeing able to reverse it. This in the next 35-50 years or something IIRC.

Would be great to witness how technology unfolds in the next centuries

A LONG time ago there was a show on the disney channel called so weird. it was like teenager x-files,it had an episode about a girl who was imortal


she was like 12k years old an had to move to a different place every 2 years or so so people wouldnt notice she doesnt age

the girl was played by Cara DeLizia

heres the show
www.imdb.com...

shes was weighed a little more back then also

2 differnt pics




[edit on 14-5-2006 by DalairTheGreat]

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[edit on 14-5-2006 by DalairTheGreat]

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watching the apocalyps and floating around in space?
no thanks.

I've read alot of the imperfections of immortality and i've come up with ideas for the few.

immortality is the devils way of keeping us away from god- Yes, that is, until we die. This subject leads us to a 'What Dreams May Come' discussion over if in quasi- immortality, you do die. Also, whether or not we'll have God's grace and stuff while we live immortally.

love hurts- Consider love is a chemical reaction more than an emotion. Couldn't immortality cure this also since the body may not need to send off any more pheromones. Reproduction (the reason behind love), is to send children off into the next generation and keep the race going. You're doing your kid's job. Besides "You're on your own in the end. Always. Where the hell else would you want to be?"

Watching the Apocalypse- Sure, if we live that long we may watch the world end, but with all that time don't you think a spaceship may have been built or contact been made to another world. If not, why worry? You'll have all the time in the world.

Inflation of the Future- worrying about the prices of stuff go up, i realized you've lived through history. You'd make the best History Professor money can buy. Colleges would hire you to tell Oral History of the U.S. And if you're impervious to bullets, you'd be the ultimate soldier.

Also, quasi-immortality connects to euthanasia in the idea you control your own fate. It would be great though. I personally would prefer extended life like Wolverine.




[edit on 30-5-2006 by Herbert_West]

I was in a shop the other day and Queen's 'Who Wants To Life Forever?' was playing in the background. I found myself listening to it and thinking how sad the song is really. Who'd want to live to bury your loved ones and friends?

I would like to be imortal so I could be a definitive cronical of earth history from this point onwards. When people want to write a text book about the 20st centuary in 2000 years time they would just ask me. For example:

"Is it true the people of the 21st centuary worshiped the burger under the gaze of the letter M?"

"erm yeah something like that... "