Would you be a "Highlander"?

[I, Brian]

Originally Posted by dwndrgn

I already pay a poor tax, my bank charges me for not having enough money in the account!

Those ones are the most fun.

And to think - in ancient and mediaeval times - people thought themselves hard done by with a 5% income tax!!

[dwndrgn]

Taxes aren't so bad (even if it can be annoying to see a great deal of the money you worked for go away before you can use it). I think the worst part about taxes, as least for those of us in the States is that we don't have a lot of say in where it goes. I mean, ostensibly by using our democratic right to vote for the people we think will do well by us we have a 'say' in what happens to our tax dollars but really it is like a crap shoot.

I think it would be nice if when we do our taxes each year we would have a list of things that tax money pays for and we could allocate our little part in percentages, say I would like 20% to go to education, 20% to police, 20% to defense or whatever. And, salaries for people like congressmen and other elected officials, should be tied to the overall budget. In other words if the defecit increases, their salaries go down and if there is a surplus their salaries could go up. That way they have a huge incentive to work together and get things worked out. Heck, a great deal of the stuff they have is free for them anyways, why do they need such huge salaries? Ok I'll stop rambling now.

Still wouldn't mind being a Highlander!

[I, Brian]

That's actually not too bad an idea about assigning taxes.

[dwndrgn]

Of course it is...i'm a genious! Just kidding. Actually it would be very difficult to administrate (I'm sure) and would probably cause more trouble than it saved. But, it is a nice idea anyway.

[I, Brian]

Ideas don't have to be practical.

[kiwimac]

Being Immortal could be a lot of fun!

Kiwimac

[I, Brian]

Well, hello, kiwimac - good to see you back.

[polymorphikos]

To be immortal wouldn't have any problems attached because you could simply build a guillotine and behead yourself when you got sick of life. Assuming you got a job as a librarian, then it would be great, because you got read every book ever written. I love the idea of an immortal getting gaoled for life. What would the warden do when you'd been in there for a hundred years and were still fine and dandy.
The question does arise, however, of what would happen if an immortal got cut in half. Would they live on forever without an abdomen? What about if they were blown-up in an explosion but the head, neck and shoulders remained intact? I cooked-up a character once who was an immortal who still aged, and suffered all the wounds recieved over the years. He was basically a decrepit mass of scars with only half his limbs and various unpleasant attributes.

[Vodstok]

wow, could you imagine a lazy immortal? someone who would live for thousands of years and never accomplish a thing.....


Okay, i would think after the first 30 years, he may be the FAttest immortal ever...

I always thought i would love the idea of being immortal, but now that i am engaged, the thought of living for centuries without my future wife really bothers me.

[polymorphikos]

Hence the guillotine

[knivesout]

I've quite seriously wanted to live forever, and have read up on frontier technologies in medicine and biology that promise a prolonged life-span. Lately though, I've decided that when it comes to life, as with all other things, quality matters more than quantity.

BTW, here's one of the more interesting things I came across in on the topic of extending lives, an interview with Aubrey de Grey, a Cambridge anti-aging researcher: http://www.speculist.com/archives/000056.html

[kiwimac]

Obviously the need is for immortality plus healing plus youth plus not going senile (an immortal vegetable, WONDERFUL!)

I chose Vampire, nice clothes, able to sneak into things disguised as a mist or a rodent of some kind, liquid diet, sleep all day up all night, regenerative abilities, control of animals and the weather and even if someone does kill you, only little drop of blood anywhere near your corpse and GUESS WHO'S BACK?

Kiwimac, nice to be back after a lengthy soiree elsewhere

[Elohim is plural]

...immortality

...spent a lot o time thinkin' about that one...

i loved the original "highlander" so much that i automatically gave respect to its cinimatic offspring by watching them...even that mario van peebles monstrosity...i only rent, so my tv series experience is limited, but i have watched it...unimpressed

...i shall now leave the limitations of headlessness and comment on true immortality...

...given the choice i would kill for immorotality...sorry, but its true...the first thing i would do is walk around the world...literally...i would walk west from my east vancouver home right into the pacific and walk on the bottom of the ocean clear to japan...i would be forced to be creative concerning buoyancy, obviously...

...sanity would be my biggest worry...but how to know what sane is after 2000 years?..$hit, i'm not so sure what sane is after 31 years especially after saying i want to walk under water...

...i realize that watching your peers fade away may be seem as a major draw-back to immortality but i think you'd get over it...not to sound cold-hearted but i'm already watching loved ones die and peers wasting away, i can never expect it to change...acceptance is paramount to immortality...

...imagine the projects you could get done when you knew time was not an issue...10 minutes a year adds up

...i would think that after a few epoch had passed that you woud find yourself in some pretty strange situations...like an immortal ameoba...though i have no doubt that an immortal homo sapien would seem very impressive to another homo sapien, but what about when homo sapien is long gone?...an un-killable freak out of antiquity?..ameoba's were once top of the food chain

...now what if all the inherint benifits of ever-lasting life(ie. reading all books, expanding your conscienciousness, understanding women) became moot...
what if the limitations of humanity plagued you forever...you could watch a lifeform be born ,with more abilities than you coud ever accumulate, in time...devolving to the significance of an ameoba...and always representing for homo sapiens

immortality is a responsiblity much larger than the human equation...are you really up for it?

sign me up
EIP