Immortality, who wants to live forever?

[Paige Turner]

'I'm not afraid of dying. Why should I be afraid? There's no reason for it. You've got to go sometime."

I'll bet 90% of you have heard this quote, but if somebody can name the source, I'll be very impressed.

As to death, I want something dramatic, probably gravity-related, maybe fiery. Real front-page stuff.

Skydiving Centenarian Brings Rush Hour To Standstill.
'I thought it was a meteor until I saw the gumboots' says shaken trucker

Oh yeah.

[HoopyFrood]

Hehe.

Hmm...No, I don't think I'd be interested in immortality. There's only so much to see in this life. And even if things do constantly change it will ultimately get tiresome.

I'm still at a point in my life when I consider myself immortal, in the sense that I don't consider the possibility of something happening to me, I believe I'll have a long and happy life and won't die until I'm very old (which I hope will happen!), which at this age seems like an eternity away.

I think I'd like a bit more longevity. Maybe be able to live for a couple of centuries. Have time to do pretty much everything I want before I go. I don't fear death (although I certainly don't want it to come anytime soon and I definitely don't want it to be painful!) and I don't believe that there's anything 'waiting for me' after death. And I'm not scared of this, I happily accept that this is our one chance and after that is just nothing. (If there is something, I'll be momentarily surprised, but I think I'll be able to get used to it quite quickly!)

I'd prefer to gain immortality the other way, as in doing something so momentous in the time I've got that will cause people to remember me for centuries to come. Preferably through writing, but hey, if I discover a cure for the common cold or something like that, I don't mind receiving eternal acknowledgement for it!

[Threddy]

What age would you be if you lived forever, if i took the little green pill as such, would I be 13 forever?
Some parts of it would be very good. Others not!
The problem is we would all die in 4 and a half billion years anyway unless we work out how to travel around different solar systems to different planets where we could actually live.

[andrew.v.spencer]

I'm surprised so many would choose death. The little green pill would mean you would cease aging from your adult state. So around early twenties when one is full grown. If you were seventy you would stay seventy.

I wonder though if truly faced with the little green pill people would not take it. The hypothetical faced with the real.

But yes overcrowding and risk perception would be huge problems. But on the upside each individual would eventually have a vast reservoir of skill and knowledge, long term projects lastin say fifty years would no longer be unusual. We would have the chance for some grand engineering projects.

[Parson]

I'm happy to settle for the old fashioned kind of living forever: spiritual eternal life. For all of the reasons listed above living forever on this old planet just would not make it.

But I'm surprised by the response to this post. Why are we struggling so hard to add a few months/years on a person's life that will most likely be highly expensive and highly painful if there is not a large share of us who want to "live forever?"

[Nikitta]

1) I don't want to live forever
2) I don't want to die

Yeah - I know that's a self-contradicion, but I have both sides in me, but since 1) just feels like an abstract thought, I can't say that I wouldn't take the pill, even if I'd regret it later.

If I had a deadly disease and the pill could cure me of that as well as giving me immortality, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to resist.

Yeah - it could have many bad consequenses for our planet if such a pill became available, but how many would be able to think that far and act on it if the situation was real? We know that many of the things we do already are bad for the planet, but we do them anyway.

[Paige Turner]

Because I could not stop for Death --
He kindly stopped for me --
The Carriage held but just Ourselves --
And Immortality.
—Emily Dickinson

[Foxbat]

Death is nature's way of providing space in a population in order that it can better itself through mutation/evolution. To live forever would effectively sentence the species to stagnation. I agree with j. d. - we need something to drive us and the fear of death does that just fine.

I don't want to die. I fear it. But, I understand the logic of why one day I must bow to the inevitability of my own death.

[SpaceShip]

I'd hate to think what the journey along the A21 from Hastings to London would be like - it's horrific now, but if millions (if not billions) of cars had to make the journey - well, need I say more!

[Sharukem]

honestly who would want to live forever? Like seriously, yea it'd be cool to do so but after at least a couple centuries you will wish that you were dead because you are BORED. to be honest if i could extend my life i would like to live to see my grandkids get married and then perish without anyone knowing about it. that is what i would do. and besides immortality would only cause a bigger loss on natural resources, we would run out faster than they produce. and trees we only haev a certain amount of them before they run out on us just like food and water, by the time we are demanding more they would ahve run out. so as i said yea it would be cool but after a couple centuries you would be bored out of your mind.

[andrew.v.spencer]

If we were to achieve immortality as suggested in this thought experiment then the following would be possible.

1. If you're fed up of life, then you could end your own life.
2. The prospect of immortality would likely make people think a lot longer term. After all it would no longer be just your children's earth, it would be yours.
3. How do you know you would get bored after 200 years? You might not, would you spend your life and refuse the pill on an assumption?
4. Long term projects around resources, planetary management, taking decades could be reasonably undertaken.

[jackokent]

I've looked at all the arguments against immortality and they are all good ones. However i would opt for it every time. I cannot ever imagine gettig tired of life. There is so much to see and I've got a crap memory so I'd forget half of it meaning it would all seem fresh after a while.

As for what age I'd freeze at, every year of my life has been better than the one before it so that's a hard question. I think Late 30's is a great age. You're old enough so that everyone has to take you seriously, you have an income, a house, a car, holidays, you're in charge of your own life and you've just realised that growing up is a myth made up by teachers.

[Specfiction]

Talking about Immortality, has anyone seen The Fountain? Took me a day to decide whether I liked it or not.

[HoopyFrood]

I wouldn't like to be stuck at a certain age all my life. I loved been a child but I also love being this age.

And I think you would eventually get tired. Just going on...and on...and on...and on ad infinitum would get so tiresome. This is immortality we're talking about, people. As in forever. Can you really imagine going on for that long? I don't think people really grasp the idea of infinity, because everything we know comes to an end. You have to stop and think immortality would have no end (unless you chose to end it yourself, of course). Death may seem scary, but I'd be more terrified of having to go on without ever having the chance to...well, just rest.

[SpaceShip]

RIP Hoops. Oh, and look at Jackokent's post - he's a millionaire!