jhkayakr

This site would be too big we would all have 15 million posts.

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........gotta need for speed....

Zyeox

Death is and will always be my biggest fear. To not be able to enjoy this gift that god has given me any longer than 100 years defentily makes me want to live longer.

DownwardSpiral

If I could live like a vampire in the sense that I retained my youthful form then I'd be all for living an eternity.

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"So Keep on Pretending.
Our Heavens Worth the Waiting.
Keep on Pretending.
It's Alright."

-- H.I.M., "Pretending"

Hain

Of course you can die when you want to--free will. I am sure that not one thing in this universe will survive the Big Crunch or better yet, the time when all mass disappears. Or if you can't wait till then, I am sure a leisurely journey to the nearest black hole (only 15 odd light-years away) will give you time to make sure you really wanted to die.

And in fact, I wish everyone could at least VOTE if they would like to live forever, but not everyone needs to explain why they would or wouldn't live forever. By now the most common reasons have probably been posted.

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Paradise Lost

I would, ONLY if I got to go back to 800 BC first. (This would also include not being
able to die due to sword thrusts, disease, what have you...)

Basically same reason as Augi, to leave stuff, but I need a good starting point, starting
from here would just be learning history. I'd want to be learning while the advancements
are happening.

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"Marino could do it."

Gilda

Easy choice. There's no way I would want to live forever.

Imagine being thrown into a bare prison cell for the next thousand years. Just a bare, empty room. You can never leave. There's no internet, no tv, no books, no form of entertainment or distraction of any kind.

That's what living forever would eventually lead to, as the universe approaches complete entropy and heat death. All matter would eventually break down into waste head, subatomic particles, and low grade background radiation. And you, floating in space, all lone (yes, there are others, but how do you stay with each other without solid matter to anchor you, and without air to carry voice, to communicate?)

Now if we change that to be live for a very, very long, but finite amount of time with eternal youth and perfect health, then hell yes, I'd do it. John Varley's Nine Worlds stories are basically set in such a universe--medical technology has advanced to the point that everyone is eternally youthful, gets to choose and change their sex at will, gets to choose their physical form if they don't want to be human. The most common causes of death are suicide and murder; there is no such thing as death by natural causes.

I'd kill to be able to live in such a situation.

ironmaiden7o7

Life could be difficult at times, I don't think I would want to live forever because of the difficulties. There are times when I want to just go away and start over, but death is final, so I'd like to die when I accomplish every dream and visit the places with no regrets.

Hain

For as long as I remember, Forever meant however long you wished. Forever could be towards infinity, or till tomorrow if you wish. The topic here is the Opportunity to live towards infinity.

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Gilda

Never heard "forever" used to mean anything but "infinity", but if what you meant was live as long as you want, then I can't really see the point of not doing it. Count me in.

Suave

I said yes, but I think I would only choose "yes" if I could at any point decide to end my eternal life and youth, and say farewell to the material plane. And I don't mean by putting a bullet in my grey matter either.

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"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions." - Albert Einstein

"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something." - Plato

Zeraph

I said yes, because I took it that the assumption is that we don't live forever, meaning a final non existence and death of the soul. So, if that was the case, I'd want to live forever. (Though I do believe we actually do live forever in some way or another, either through souls or other's memory or whatever)

I also think that we measure time by our experience/age, which means the older you get, the faster a day becomes because it is a much smaller part of your existence. So a single day, after living 18,262.5 days (50 years old) would seem much faster because its only 1/18,262.5 of your current existence. I'm 20 years old, and so far that seems to hold true. A day seemed much much longer to me as a child, now its gone in an eye blink. I can't imagine how fast it will be if you were a 1000 years old. That is of course assuming that it doesnt top out.

The only question left to your hypothetical question is how you live forever, are you invincible? (sorry if this has been answered already, havnt read through the whole thing yet) If I was I'd totally play the super hero role for a 1000 years or so at least. I think I'd even play the villain occationally...ooooh to have an arch nemisis!

Someone mentioned Heinlein, I love his books, he's really got some great ones and he says sooo much just under the surface of the obvious.

Hain

So you believe that your mind might reach a point where essences and forces through the universe could be disciplined to your will? Like you would move your arm, you would generate a magnetic field or warp space-time.

I was waiting for this, some people get tired when I openly express that I believe that our reality can be manipulated as easily as one would a lucid dream.

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Zeraph

Oh if that were the case why wouldn't anyone want to do it? If it's because you would have to choose when you die, I think we already do that in many ways, so this question holds no water for me.

krwlz

I definatly wouldn't want to live forever, sooner or later you are going to realize that your doomed to a life of lose, as everything around you grows old and dies time and time again.

FngKestrel

One of my favorite "literary" characters is Hob Gadling from the Sandman. In a simple phrase that is overheard by Death and Dream, he wishes for immortality and gets it. He's a fascinating character as he deals with eternal life and the blessings and curses that it brings.

tecoyah

Couple thousand years maybe....but forever....nah

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Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. - Buddha

little_tippler

I'd like to live longer than is possible right now, but not forever. Funny that most people haven't mentioned practical issues, like the very simple, how will we all fit on this earth if we all live forever? Now there's a mess for ya! Living forever...seems selfish to me.

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Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.

Fernando Pessoa, 1918

Hain

With this new longevity given to everyone, how would people view death? Would it still be that fearful unknown anti-existence where one cannot truly say what lies a head? Or would it be a denouement to a life well lived, well spent, and well learned? Wouldn't the power to live as long as one chose allow one to find their self meaning to existence? And once this is found, what left is there to find peace but to no longer continue with that peaceful mind fresh?

Then the question truly becomes what meaning would suicide have? At this point suicide is not as heinous as it is seen now, for I do not believe that anyone who takes on the quest to live indefinitely would end their life quickly. But when they did, it would be at a time where as their life has been lived to the fullest extent.

So there would always be this constant rate of death and birth, eventually, and mathematically speaking it would occur. Even if you take out the limits of space and food on this planet (which would be solved by moving somewhere else), eventually the Firsts would find their own peace, and simply die, I believe.

And as far as I can tell, for me, forever still isn't long enough because "there are other worlds than these" (read King's The Gunslinger!). But then again, I am an optimist to the future human society where power doesn't corrupt, and greed doesn't dominate.

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