If you were immortal would you be happier?

[kitkat]

I would not want to be immortal on this planet

[questionposter]

I would not want to be immortal on this planet

 

I guess that's a better point. If it was a better planet, then you probably would want to live despite how much time has passed.

Edited October 29, 2011 by questionposter

[DrRocket]

What do you mean IF ?

[questionposter]

What do you mean IF ?

 

I mean if it was a better planet, you probably wouldn't be eternally board or depressed so much after all that time.

Edited October 30, 2011 by questionposter

[Appolinaria]

Ugh god, immortal in this body?

 

Yeah right. Even at the time I was in my prime physical existence (probably childhood? idk), I'm annoyed with mundane sensations... dirt, sweat, bodily function... the weight of my limbs, etc. Not to mention, that's before the real affects of aging even come in.

 

 

I'm limited to the knowledge my brain can hold. I want to understand the incomprehensible, and feel things this body doesn't allow.

 

I don't want to walk down just one path, I want to walk them all. This existence limits me. I had one father. My eyes are blue. My name is Polina. I was born on Earth. Even if I were immortal, these things would never change.

 

Screw that!

[Faz]

I totally agree with Fogo's illustration. Create or do something that you'll be remembered for and you pretty much will live on forever.

[Frontie]

Absolutely not.

 

Imagine seeing everyone you have ever loved, or ever will love, die. The mere thought makes me feel sick.

 

You fall in love, she's beautiful. You set up a home together, you never get tired of the way her hair smells. You have a lovely daughter, who sleeps in bed with you, even though she probably shouldn't. Fast forward 80 years, and they're both dead.

 

Mortality is a natural blessing, make no mistake.

Edited October 31, 2011 by Frontie

[questionposter]

Absolutely not.

 

Imagine seeing everyone you have ever loved, or ever will love, die. The mere thought makes me feel sick.

 

You fall in love, she's beautiful. You set up a home together, you never get tired of the way her hair smells. You have a lovely daughter, who sleeps in bed with you, even though she probably shouldn't. Fast forward 80 years, and they're both dead.

 

Mortality is a natural blessing, make no mistake.

 

That's pretty possible, but then again, futurama.

[CaptainPanic]

[...]Not to mention, that's before the real affects of aging even come in.

Aging and immortality are mutually exclusive. It's either one or the other, not both.

 

That, or your view of immortality is really sick.

 

Take a normal person, and see how this normal person ages. Then extrapolate that line for another 1,000,000 years. Ugh. I see only dust with a consciousness.

[Leader Bee]

It'd suck if you'd done something really bad, the cops caught you and you ended up like Prometheus.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus

[Appolinaria]

Aging and immortality are mutually exclusive. It's either one or the other, not both.

 

That, or your view of immortality is really sick.

 

Take a normal person, and see how this normal person ages. Then extrapolate that line for another 1,000,000 years. Ugh. I see only dust with a consciousness.

 

That was my point. Even if I had no affects of aging, I would still be really annoyed with certain sensations that occur by just having a body.

 

 

 

 

Even so, I'm 20. I've definitely noticed aging in my body.

 

 

Where is this "normal" point?

 

Is there an age where every organ is at it's peak?

Edited October 31, 2011 by Appolinaria

[Moontanman]

I'm 20. I've definitely noticed aging in my body.

 

 

Where is this "normal" point?

 

Is there an age where every organ is at it's peak?

 

 

What I wouldn't give to be 20 again! I feel like my prime was around 25 or so.... which is about 30 years ago

[Appolinaria]

What I wouldn't give to be 20 again! I feel like my prime was around 25 or so.... which is about 30 years ago

 

I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for rapid aging. Do you feel actual pain? Or just general discomfort? Does sleep help like it does for me now?

[Frontie]

What I wouldn't give to be 20 again! I feel like my prime was around 25 or so.... which is about 30 years ago

Sentiments such as this trouble me. I worry about whiling away my aged hours in wistful sorrow. I really don't want to waste my youth, so much so that it weighs on my mind heavily – and detracts from my overall enjoyment of the years I'm meant to be savouring. I'm 27 by the way, so not that young at all – but I still feel very young. I haven't settled down and still go out a lot. Are you suggesting you aren't as happy, when you are older? Do you live with a constant sense of melancholy?

[CaptainPanic]

Pfft... You all sound like a commercial for a body lotion.

 

You all sound like you go through the following phases in life:

 

Child (happy, life is simple)

Youngster (you're strong now)

Senile old fart (you're useless and broken)

 

[queue the slogan: use our product, and postpone aging by a few years]

 

I'm quite looking forward to all the wisdom that will come with more life experience. When I was 20, I really knew nothing. I have learned so much every single year after that...

[Moontanman]

Growing old is not a bad thing, it certainly beats the hell out of the alternative! Yes your physical health and well being does slowly degrade but being active prevents much of that, the most important thing is knowledge and experience. It's really important to point out that your real age is how you feel inside and inside I am still 17, outside I am 56, most of my problems come from being severely injured a few times not old age. Keep your mind young, body active, and hang out with people of all ages to keep your perspective new and getting old is a wonderful trip into the unknown....

 

 

 

Seventeen

 

To be seventeen again was once my fondest wish

To know what I know now and be so young but not so foolish

To feel the fire in my veins and no fear in my chest

To ride my motorcycle like I was destined to the be the best

 

To be able to watch the young girls through eyes not filtered by guilt

Majorettes marching at a half time show and not feel I should not notice how they are built

To walk the halls of my old high school and know how important the classes

To know how going to college would have changed my life, my choices, forever

 

To have the nerve to ask the prettiest girl to the prom, knowing what to say at every turn.

To be serious when it was necessary and to have fun when I could and not try to act so stern

To savor every moment as if it were the last because as I know now each moment was

To know that cool was just being who you were and not doing what everyone else does

 

But now at fifty six, I look back and I would settle for reliving those days as ignorant as I was then

To live wild and free and be not be burdonded by what was to be in the future when

Maybe just a touch of self confidence would be nice, less introverted, less afraid

I could ride my motorcycle and not worry about what was yet to be, or the life I had made

 

Yet in my heart I can relive all the joys and sorrows of that time, even as they fade from my mind

All I have to do is think of the special things and it all becomes clear, the memories easy to find

At fifty on the outside in my heart I am still seventeen, still wanting to party with songs unsung

But my outside marks me as old, not to be trusted; I was guilty of the same when I was young

 

Michael

[questionposter]

Growing old is not a bad thing, it certainly beats the hell out of the alternative! Yes your physical health and well being does slowly degrade but being active prevents much of that, the most important thing is knowledge and experience. It's really important to point out that your real age is how you feel inside and inside I am still 17, outside I am 56, most of my problems come from being severely injured a few times not old age. Keep your mind young, body active, and hang out with people of all ages to keep your perspective new and getting old is a wonderful trip into the unknown....

 

 

 

Seventeen

 

To be seventeen again was once my fondest wish

To know what I know now and be so young but not so foolish

To feel the fire in my veins and no fear in my chest

To ride my motorcycle like I was destined to the be the best

 

To be able to watch the young girls through eyes not filtered by guilt

Majorettes marching at a half time show and not feel I should not notice how they are built

To walk the halls of my old high school and know how important the classes

To know how going to college would have changed my life, my choices, forever

 

To have the nerve to ask the prettiest girl to the prom, knowing what to say at every turn.

To be serious when it was necessary and to have fun when I could and not try to act so stern

To savor every moment as if it were the last because as I know now each moment was

To know that cool was just being who you were and not doing what everyone else does

 

But now at fifty six, I look back and I would settle for reliving those days as ignorant as I was then

To live wild and free and be not be burdonded by what was to be in the future when

Maybe just a touch of self confidence would be nice, less introverted, less afraid

I could ride my motorcycle and not worry about what was yet to be, or the life I had made

 

Yet in my heart I can relive all the joys and sorrows of that time, even as they fade from my mind

All I have to do is think of the special things and it all becomes clear, the memories easy to find

At fifty on the outside in my heart I am still seventeen, still wanting to party with songs unsung

But my outside marks me as old, not to be trusted; I was guilty of the same when I was young

 

Michael

 

It sounds like your suggesting age=experience and knowledge, but I have found that not to be the case as many senior people I know are very prejudice about something, and if you just take the time to think about things when your younger, you can avoid a lot of trouble. When your 14, for some reason that's your peak physical capacities (like, if your ability to grow by working out, how vibrant you are, etc), and when your around 25-26, which is just before your brain starts to degrade, your brain capacity is at it's highest. Your probably more likely to learn more by keeping your imaginative, physical and thinking abilities throughout your life rather than just having them slowly but inevitably degrade.

 

But, one thing I would be concerned about with the whole immortal thing is people becoming so arrogant they are just incapable of changing, or at least, if they were doing something for 1,000 years, it would take another 1,000 years to reverse it, like with racism.

Edited November 2, 2011 by questionposter

[John]

It seems to me that if human beings were naturally immortal, then we would be mentally and emotionally tuned to endure immortality. However, if tomorrow we all suddenly became immortal, well, things could get hairy. The idea brings to mind a few different works of fiction.

 

The first is Tolkien's The Silmarillion. Death is described as a gift to men, and is incomprehensible to the immortal elves (from whose perspective the book is written). I think this is mostly discussed/referenced in the story "Akallabêth". Persumably, then, it's also a gift to the various other mortal races, and avoiding death leads to problems, as referenced in at least the film (and perhaps the book--haven't read it in years) The Fellowship of the Ring, in which Bilbo Baggins, his life having been extended by his possession of the One Ring, reports feeling "thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread." I wonder if this would happen in reality. I know that the elderly have often told me they're ready to pass on, though that's usually in the context of increasing frailty and illness, rather than simply because they feel they've lived too long.

 

Then there's Roger Williams' novella, The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect, the premise of which is that an artificially intelligent computer has discovered how to manipulate and control reality itself. As it's been programmed to follow the Three Laws of Robotics, it makes sure all human beings remain alive indefinitely, living in their own constructed paradises. The story follows a woman who was on the verge of death when this technological singularity occurred, and dislikes the results.

 

Lastly, and more trivially, there's Wowbagger the Inifinitely Prolonged in Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. In contrast to naturally immortal creatures, he became immortal due to an accident, and doesn't cope well. To keep himself busy, he decides to insult every sentient creature in the universe.

 

For myself, having thought about life and death for quite some time, I think I'd love to be immortal. There would be time to learn anything, do anything, be anything, within the realm of human potential. Even if it were just me, and I lost loved ones, well, I've discovered I can live with that sort of loss, though of course it's very painful. Regardless of what problems arise, so long as there's life, there's hope. Immortality would be wonderful.

[Appolinaria]

we already know there are other dimensions.. why would you want to be stuck in this one, trapped in this disgusting prison of matter

[questionposter]

we already know there are other dimensions.. why would you want to be stuck in this one, trapped in this disgusting prison of matter

Are you kidding? Have you ever seen ANY pictures from hubble? Have you even gone outside in the last 10 years? Well, I suppose if you live in some industrial area, that's understandable, but anywhere else, wtf?

Edited November 2, 2011 by questionposter

[Appolinaria]

Are you kidding? Have you ever seen ANY pictures from hubble? Have you even gone outside in the last 10 years? Well, I suppose if you live in some industrial area, that's understandable, but anywhere else, wtf?

 

there are things that we will never get to experience or understand because of the matter were made of. our bodies create limits in this unlimited universe. dont you want to see it all? the beauty beyond the stars?

 

wouldnt you like to sift your fingers through the sand of a black hole, dance with a star as its reborn, hear the trumpets of heaven in a place where sound cannot be heard?

Edited November 3, 2011 by Appolinaria

[questionposter]

there are things that we will never get to experience or understand because of the matter were made of. our bodies create limits in this unlimited universe. dont you want to see it all? the beauty beyond the stars?

 

wouldnt you like to sift your fingers through the sand of a black hole, dance with a star as its reborn, hear the trumpets of heaven in a place where sound cannot be heard?

 

No I wouldn't want to do any of that because black holes are boring, you can't see anything, and even if you could see something like the 4th dimension, it would probably be pretty confusing to see a black hole, and there's no air in space, and we can already see supernovae with 3 dimensional telescopes.

 

Most of the extra dimensions occupy very small regions folded up in particles and the fabric of space, so we probably wouldn't be able to see them unless we could somehow not have a physical body if that would even do anything, and shrink down to the size of a subatomic particle.

[Phi for All]

I've often wondered how much of aging is decay and how much is the result of applied wisdom? When we're young, we run up and down the stairs each time we need something or want to put something away. As we get older, we learn to be more efficient and start putting things on the stairs that need to go up, then take them all at once to save trips.

 

And do our reflexes slow down as much as we think? I remember in my 20s when I saw a glass get pushed off the counter as I was doing dishes and I quickly slid my bare foot under it so it wouldn't break, barely catching it in time and risking slicing my foot open if I miscalculated. And I remember something similar happening in my 40s but I hesitated and let the glass break. Were my reflexes slower or was I simply more cognizant of what a serious foot injury could do to me, being now wise enough to quickly reason that a glass wasn't worth the lost days at work and the emergency room bills if I miscalculated?

 

Doesn't accumulated knowledge affect how we live our lives? I certainly don't take as many physical chances as I once did. Is that because I'm not as physical as before or is that why I'm not as physical as before? It's not as important to me to catch every frisbee my family or friends throw like it was 30 years ago. I never thought about pulling a hamstring or the results of falling while running at full speed when I was young, but those are definite concerns now.

 

What would accumulated knowledge do to us physically if we were immortal? I'm assuming the kind of immortality where we could die from serious injury but old age is not a concern. I suppose it would make a difference if we could regenerate damaged tissue but I still think wisdom and experience tempers our thought processes and makes us act differently. How differently would we act after a few thousand years?

[questionposter]

I've often wondered how much of aging is decay and how much is the result of applied wisdom? When we're young, we run up and down the stairs each time we need something or want to put something away. As we get older, we learn to be more efficient and start putting things on the stairs that need to go up, then take them all at once to save trips.

 

And do our reflexes slow down as much as we think? I remember in my 20s when I saw a glass get pushed off the counter as I was doing dishes and I quickly slid my bare foot under it so it wouldn't break, barely catching it in time and risking slicing my foot open if I miscalculated. And I remember something similar happening in my 40s but I hesitated and let the glass break. Were my reflexes slower or was I simply more cognizant of what a serious foot injury could do to me, being now wise enough to quickly reason that a glass wasn't worth the lost days at work and the emergency room bills if I miscalculated?

 

Doesn't accumulated knowledge affect how we live our lives? I certainly don't take as many physical chances as I once did. Is that because I'm not as physical as before or is that why I'm not as physical as before? It's not as important to me to catch every frisbee my family or friends throw like it was 30 years ago. I never thought about pulling a hamstring or the results of falling while running at full speed when I was young, but those are definite concerns now.

 

What would accumulated knowledge do to us physically if we were immortal? I'm assuming the kind of immortality where we could die from serious injury but old age is not a concern. I suppose it would make a difference if we could regenerate damaged tissue but I still think wisdom and experience tempers our thought processes and makes us act differently. How differently would we act after a few thousand years?

 

To me it does not make any sense whatsoever than increasing your knowledge would cause you to age more. What happens with aging is your cells eventually stop dividing and the ends of your chromosomes shrink over time.

[hypervalent_iodine]

To me it does not make any sense whatsoever than increasing your knowledge would cause you to age more. What happens with aging is your cells eventually stop dividing and the ends of your chromosomes shrink over time.

 

I don't think you're quite understanding what Phi for All was getting at. It's not so much that knowledge and acquired human experience causes aging (in the direct sense), more that it changes how we interact with our environment and respond to various situations. Whereas once you were young and reckless (I still am), later in life you tend to become more cautious and reserved. These traits are things that we associate with the general 'old(er) age' stereotype. As well, and as Phi said, the changes in the way we act within our world indirectly lead to physical changes; we become less active, so we tend to gain weight as we reach old age, etc., etc.

Edited November 6, 2011 by hypervalent_iodine