Would you like to be immortal?

[Celtore 2,770]

I thought about it, and ultimately, I'm going with not being immortal (at least not without a "kill-switch".) While I love watching the human hivemind make new discoveries daily, I think I would eventually grow tired and weary. The stupidity would wear me down the most I think, especially being a living history textbook and all...

 

If I could be a ghostly presence instead, I would be leaning more towards immortality since human affairs wouldn't affect me. I could just simply exist and be content to watch the great play known as life carry on rather than being a permanent pawn. A pawn that is probably still susceptible to pain, illness and tyranny.

Edited October 12, 2012 by Celtore

[Anonymous~ 591]

If someone offered me a special potion that turns you immortal.. I would reject it. Heck, I'd love the opposite -- I would like that someone would give me a potion that would make me die in a quick and painless death.

 

But, if, as you said, that dude would make the potion better by adding a side effect to the potion which errases any current diseases, both mental and normal diseases, then maybe (but just maybe) I would take the potion.

[tanoshii 131]

No, watching your friends and family die around you, even newer generations, would be horrible. Plus I'm sure that you'd eventually get bored.

[silvadel 1,393]

There is one other issue that has not been brought up here -- that is evolution. Lets say that you became immortal and were immortal as you are -- with your current human structure and more importantly human brain. As time went by the human race would actually evolve while you watched. Whatever direction it tracked in, you would stay the same eventually not being anything like whatever humanity changed into over long periods of time. You might eventually be the stupidest thing on the planet.

[EpicMuffinTime 216]

Im trying to choose between yes or no. To be honest im leaning more towards the yes by 3.098 percent. I know it could get boring doing whatever the heart desires but just the thought of never dying. I mean, as long I could kill my self if I get to bored or go insane from psychological trauma from seeing my loved ones die around me, sure.

 

There is one other issue that has not been brought up here -- that is evolution. Lets say that you became immortal and were immortal as you are -- with your current human structure and more importantly human brain. As time went by the human race would actually evolve while you watched. Whatever direction it tracked in, you would stay the same eventually not being anything like whatever humanity changed into over long periods of time. You might eventually be the stupidest thing on the planet.

 

This makes no sense. Im not an evolutionist but even if I was I'd be like. What? I mean seriously? C'mon, what do you think we'd even evolve into?

[Cooliboo 10]

I'd live forever, I mean think about it, sure my friends and family will soon die and be gone, but that doesn't mean I can't make more friends and start many families. I would take the opportunity and become immortal, I'd spend years perfecting every skill I can think of. Piloting aircraft, playing many many instruments, singing, dancing, wood carving, drawing, anything at all. I'd be entertained for many a century. Sitting and watching humanity as it either grows or fails? Sounds pretty fun to me. After a long long time perhaps I would end my own life, should I finally acomplish my goal at being the best at everything ever. of course, not without training many students and people and giving them my wisdom that I should have gained over the centuries. Help them out, maybe point humanity in a good direction, assuming I know what a good direction would be. Maybe I'd even live long enough to become a villan.

[sugarfree314 24]

I'm terrible at reading multiple pages of thread, so forgive me if I'm being repetitive.

However, I would never want to live forever. I would not be able to go through the massive anguish that is watching those you love dearly growing old and dying while you linger on. Yes, I could travel anywhere I wanted and do anything I wanted. But, referring to my previous point, if there is no one to share it with, what's the point?

Now, in response to the ability to kill myself by thought, were I to have that, I would be long dead now, much to the despair and anguish of those in my life who love me and vice versa. I don't regret for one minute not following through with those suicidal temptations. However, I know that I am still probably susceptible should they ever decide to manifest again. Should that situation arise, I by no means want to be able to just think myself dead. It would be a mistake of such magnitude as cannot be properly expressed.

 

PS. I feel like I'm using overly flowery language in this post. I blame it on the past 2 hrs of filling out job applications lol

[Lucky<>Sphere 9]

It would actually depend a lot on your can and cannot do's. It would also depend if you'll be called a freak or a "miracle" of some sort by the society and locked in a laboratory for the rest of the eternity... ô.õ

 

But my opinion is this: Being immortal is kind of greedy, and not only because you can live forever and the ones you love can't... I mean, you go around, shooting yourself and jumping off cliffs just for the lulz, having a good time... But you'll get bored of it at some point.

 

I may sound kinda dark and negative here, but my philosophy teacher once said that there's nothing more thrilling than death. Independently of your beliefs, nobody knows and nobody will ever know what happens after you die unless the time comes and we see for ourselves. It's a cycle that should never be broken.

 

+EDIT+ But yeah, if you could kill yourself and end your 'immortality' whenever you want, then it might not be as bad as it sounds... o.o'

Edited October 12, 2012 by Lucky<>Sphere

[Mizune 37]

Let's see... live for 60 or so more years and die or...

 

Live in an eternal hell where everything you will ever love will die as you slowly degrade into a rotted mess on a planet that will slowly waste away, leaving you as a sickly and gross husk vapidly floating through space, long past the era of humanity, a worthless relic of a time no one remembers, because you are completely and utterly alone forever...

 

I think I'll keep my mortality.

[biggrog7 9]

I would choose to be immortal so that I can spread actual GOOD music. I would try to make sure that Justin Beiber never becomes a classic. I would also play pink floyd and pearl jam full blast. And I could persuade Hasbro to be faster at releasing episodes too!

[Strawberry Tart 161]

Personally, I don't want to live a normal life, but I don't want to live forever. 130 years sounds fine, but only if:

1. I start to look bad around 115 years old, not the usual 65-70

2. I get to pick people to stay with me so I don't have to die alone.

[silvadel 1,393]

I'd much rather be an immortal alicorn in Equestria than be an immortal human on earth. And when I said evolve I meant it -- Humans have evolved quite a bit over the last millions of years. We are continuing to evolve. Once you get into geologic time scales I have little doubt that a human from 10 million years from now would be very different from a human of today. This assumes we are still around which I find unlikely.

[Winged Squiger 11]

I would like to live a normal life. To me, if you live forever, you get to see your friends passing away, and everyone who you hold dear, and I could never really bring myself to commit suicide. So I would prefer a natural death, like sleeping or something like that.

[Dsanders 5,747]

Hmmm...I contemplate this matter, often actually. I mean it's seriously a great stretch to think on. Being immortal would most likely have me go psycho, or extremely depressed after at least a century or so, all my friends would be gone, passed away. Then again, I could always make new companions, heck my friend's sons and daughters possibly.

 

And to see where all the technology goes, and how it advances. How much knowledge I could retain after centuries of reading, learning, experiencing. I could very well become a highly intellectual man.

 

Would I want to be immortal? Overall...not really. I'd want at least live a millieum...

 

This reminds of Timelords somewhat....oh well.

 

 

 

*"Off to the Tardis! Allons-y Derpy!!"*

[Abstract 832]

Suicide option at any time? Count me in. Like everyone has said, there would be pros and cons to immortality. You'd get to experience so much in life, pretty much whatever you wanted. But then there's the inevitable crushing loss of loved ones and things of that nature. But this clause is pretty much a free pass. If you couldn't handle immortality, you wouldn't have to accept it. Why wouldn't you give it a go, and just off yourself if it ended up being too much?

[Broccoli 127]

I'd live a normal life. If you watched Doctor Who, then you would know that the Doctor didn't like living so long. He also told Lazarus in series 3 that humans are supposed to die, that is human nature. Immortality is impossible no matter how advanced medical science is. Think about it. Already many people die of accidents in a regular lifespan. The longer you live, the chances of you dying from a freak accident or an unexpected event would go up.

 

Another thing is that, if you are immortal, and scentenced to life at prison, wouldn't that just suck? Spending the rest of eternity behind bars...

[Brave Hooves 113]

No, pretty sure I'd get tired of everyone around me dying. I would eventually fall into a state of unwillingness to do anything. And what if you fall into a volcano or something? Burn forever with no relief from death. I guess I could become the earth's ruler, rule them into a 1000 year era of Equestria-tier prosperity... And then for the next 1000 years, go full out evil crazy tyrant!!! then I'd vanish for another 1000 years and make them wonder if I ever existed to begin with. And then make a triumphant return!

[~Asuka <3~ 867]

Most certainly not. If see all my loved ones die, then I'd be forever depressed. Making friends, only to seem them die, would be one of the worst feelings ever.

[Sakamoto 103]

How... Just a minute ago I was looking at nyancat!

 

So you got to live as long as you like, then killing yourself when you got bored? That is seriously the best kind of deal!

But that's not immortality, eggheads

 

If I got the usual case of 'can't die and can't get hurt' immortality, I would take it

Swimming on lava, here I come!

[Zygen 6,066]

Well if I couldn't kill myself when I pleased to I don't think i'd want to live forever, eventuely i'd be bored and watching all my loved ones die and watching the world change around me would be quite depressing.

 

So not really, unless I had control over it kinda. Like I could live until I felt like I didn't want to anymore. Then maybe.

[Apollo 297]

Well seeing as how I am a time lord, this is a bit irrelevant.

 

But honestly, I might, but with different circumstances. Like killing myself with a thought, that would be a bit impractical. Especially if I did it on accident.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ORANGE! MONKEY! EAGLE!

*bleh*

[verycreativeusername 1,800]

Probably not. Even if you are living a happy life, it will soon get old and boring like everything does. Imagine living forever in an imperfect world that is godless and any thing that exists is locked by these laws for all that exists, in which is called science. I would rather die than live a very repetitive life.

 

If I was immortal and could not stop it, then I would possibly run my own nation.

[Night Shine 767]

Oh, I cannot wait until I publish the fanfic I'm working on. It deals with this exact concept, proving beyond the shadow of a doubt that immortality is, in its own way, the cruelest possible fate which can befall any living being...

 

But, given that I'm not done with that fic, I'll just list the reasons here why I personally would not like to be immortal:

 

-Without the possibility of death, there is no risk, and therefore no excitement

-As you move from hobby to hobby, from activity to activity, everything will become boring

-You will have to watch all of your friends, family, relatives, acquaintances, and people you love die with the knowledge that you will never see them again

-Given that I'm a Christian, that'd mean I (according to my beliefs) could never go to Heaven

 

Please note that all of these inherently 1) are only my opinion and therefore should be taken as such and 2) vary immensely depending on the properties and definition of immortality.

I am sure that, if the definition/properties of immortality were tweaked in the right manner, it could completely sidestep any and all of my concerns.

 

 

EDIT: I just now noticed that I already posted in this topic and now I feel like a complete idiot.

._.

Edited May 14, 2013 by Night Shine

[Scootalove 10,689]

It would get pretty boring when your immortal, because when you have done everything that you wanted to do then it would just get very boring. But, there are some advantages of not being able to die.

Except it would be pretty sad, if I'm the only immortal and all of my friends and family die.

 

So, I say no to immortality.

[Broseph Stalin 103]

Maybe partial immortality. Time enough to do lots of things, but not so much that you would get bored.

so, maybe. If some other people have it as well, then I would.