Who wants to live forever?
 

This is just a thread to poll on who would like to live forever.

Choose either yes, no, or are you indifferent, and then if you wish, post your reason why.

EDIT: Sure, this is a Tilted Philosophy question but why not here? This place gets more hits than Philosophy, IMO.

Because of some bad wording on my part, I did not specify my definition of forever. Forever, in the sense that the question was meant to be used, means to exist indefinitely with eternal youth, for as long as you wish.

Yes I would and no I would not. Yes to see how technology advances, and to see the true future of humanity. No because of losing my family and going through the stresses of society.

Also when creatiing threads like this, it helps to start off with your own opinion.

Hey, I'm having this much fun, imagine once I screw up everything at least once and learn from my mistakes... I'LL BE INVINCIBLE!

Oh, and having a birthday cake with 345,873,124,983,004,128 candles on it would be very cool.

Most dreaded phrase in University Math / Stats class: As the limit approaches infinity....

:crazy: And imagine if you continued to put all your loose change in a jar

The problem about living forever is that you never do anything because you'll always put it off. Whereas living as if you're going to die makes you live life to the fullest and that surely it is what it is all about. Also if you live forever you'd have to work forever and i'm sure all those people who have been doing that for the last 30 - 40 years would agree that isn't too great.

I would absolutely want to live forever... as long as I also have eternal youth.

waiting for Augi's opinon....

if it doesn't show up soon.. poll will be closed. Onus is on the thread starter to start a DISCUSSION not a poll or "Yes, count me in" thread.

I always figured that this body and this earth were only a very small part of the real deal. If by live forever you mean as a corporate being trundling about eating and dumping and watching 99.999% of everybody doing the same old same old, then no definitely not. I have things to do that don't involve being stuck in 4 dimensions forever. That said, I intend to appreciate what I got while I got it because dammit, it is so beautiful and so important to have lived.

If I were an elf, yes.

If I were not an elf, no.

Because if I were an elf I could marry Legolas and live happily ever after with my Elven prince. Having to share him with Gimli would be the hard part.

Not if you're kinky. Just imagine the possiblilities!

That's the funniest thing i have seen all day. Wow the images in my head are blowing my mind. :crazy:

I would happily live for much longer than what we humans get. I would enjoy centuries, or maybe even millenia...but forever...that's a long time!

I guess you would learn all about the long and the short term possibilities ;) Actually, Gimli would be dwarf dust long before you two elf types ran out of things to try (and try, retry, try again backwards etc etc ad infinitum)

That would be cool - millenia vs eternity. Then I could get some work done before calling it a day.

Sure, Though the downside would be having that Queen song stuck in my head.

So far, so good in any case.

Yeah, I'm not really into dwarf/elf sex...but he's welcome to watch.
:D

There can be only one...

Eww ... in any event, yes.

why not- it states that others can live forever too
there would be other questions, though regarding whether one would live in perfect health.

I would have put my opinion but I ran out of time in class. My opinion, yes I would live forever. There is so much to learn and to explore... I'd have all the time I'd need.

Also, I thought I put this in the poll Question, People you know can live forever too.

I would disagree. I am not impatient, but I like to get things done right away. I also have to deal with the fact that those around me who may not be living forever, are bound to my actions, and my inactions. By your quote I figured that you would have the same idea.

Also, Yes you would be living in perfect health, because prolonged life most likely endows enhanced knowledge. Knowledge of oneself most certainly would come along before incapacity set in. Or you could just wait for technology to advance to the point where if this problem was not previously dealt with, it would be then.

Well, Legolas and Gimli had a friendly rivalry going on. You would have to share him with Aragorn. You could cut the sexual tension between Orlando Bloom and Vigo Mortensen with a knife it was so thick.

Anyway, no, I wouldn't want to live forever. I want to die young and messily.

im pretty sure that living forever would be boring as hell

I see it as a challenge. Just think - you couldn't possibly know right now what it would be like. Even imagining it is improbable. As beings with limited life spans, we evaluate living forever in a useless way. At first I worry about getting bored, but then I think "well wouldn't that be boring, so why don't I go earn another degree, this time in science?" Think of the wisdom you could acquire!!

Think of the experiences you could have. I look forward to it (I mean I would if it would happen).

Am I immortal, or am I simply capable of living forever, assuming that I am never murdered, killed accidentally, or the victim of some deadly illness?
"On a large enough time line, the survival rate for everyone will drop to zero." - Fight Club
If I'm not immortal, but simply capable of living forever, then I'll die eventually anyway. So sure, why not? Sign me up for the longevity shot!
Also, anyone else here ever read Robert A. Heinlein's Time Enough for Love? Lazarus Long lives for 2000+ years and starts to get really bored. So bored in fact that he has himself cloned and the zygote made into a female, and at that twins. He gets to raise female twin versions of himself... damn, how bored can you get in 2000 years? Not that I don't think the idea of raising a female version of myself would be interesting, but seriously, how much can you do in 2000 years? How fast would you get bored? I'd give it a shot though.

That book was soooo much fun to read.

Interesting social commentary on deviance and sexuality as well... We have a lot to learn about acceptance.

well.. it really depends

i don't think i could really live forever. i think the waiting would drive me insane.
time flies by fast, but not fast enough for forever. after a certain point you've seen everything, done everything, and grown tired of it like an overplayed song
after you've reached that point, you'd simply be waiting for something new to grab your interest. after a while.. that to would get old

i could only do it under two circumstances..
1) i could hibernate decades, or even centuries away whenever i got bored, skipping the waiting ;)

2) i could choose my own time to die. after awhile, i think life would just lose its appeal, having a way out would be a must

i chose "no" because...well living each day knowing that i dont have FOREVER makes me enjoy every second more :)

Ah yes! One of my favorite songs of all time!

Asta!! :D

Oh, I'd gladly cut that sexual tension any day of the week...are you kidding me? Hello?! Yes! Please!

If I could pass eternity with Legolas...BRING IT ON.

No I wouldnt want to live forever. In fact Im finding this one life a little too hard going at the moment and kind of wish that I hadnt had to live through this one .

Can't imagine working at my job for the next 1500 years!

No I would not want to live forever. It would ruin the balance.
Death is the ultimate relief to living, one that I'm awaiting to experience.
Imagine not feeling any emotion, not having any thoughts.. A year ago that scared me to no end, but today, it sounds quite nice.

hell yeah I'd wanna live forever, but as Charlatan said, I'd have to have eternal youth.

Sorta vampiric, only without the blood sucking eh?

Of course I'd want to live forever. Think of all the things you could learn, do, see and experience. I don't see how you would get bored, especially if other ppl continued to be born b/c from each person you encounter you can learn something from so you will never run out of things to learn.

Nah, it would kinda suck after a while

i'd get bored living forever. then i'd just try to die. on purpose.

vampires can be killed cant they??

Everyone that believes that one would become bored, or do everything eventually enough that you would tire of it, I honestly think that you people do not look up at the night sky enough.

I know that is where I would spend my time. There is far too much out there that we see, and even that which we can't see, to explore out there.

I want to live forever because I want to be there when we discover life on another planet (or, more likely, moon)

I want to be there when we walk on mars and inhabit other worlds

I want to be there when we can look back at the year 2005 and say "Wow, what the fuck were those heathens thinking?"

Sure, as long as "living forever" didn't mean that you couldn't die if you wanted to. I think it would be freeing for everybody to have exactly as much time as they need to do everything that interests them, without having to compromise because your biology is only going to give you maybe 40 peak years, and you feel that you have to spend most of them only doing something that can provide for your remaining 10-20 declining years.

I think that the wording of the poll is somewhat restrictive: "live forever" implies eternity. I think it would be more accurate to ask if everybody wanted to live as long as they felt like it, and be at peak efficiency the entire time. I don't know anybody who'd turn that down.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. :D 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.