Happy Atheist Forum

If you were given the choice would you chose to be immortal, or would you rather just live a good, long life? (I'm not saying I would just wanted to know what everyone else thinks ).

P.S.: The laws of physics pretty much make immortality impossible, the second law of termodynamics says that entropy(disorder) always increases. Therefore everything will eventually decay and break down, physicists predict that instead of ending in a "Big Crunch" the universe will continue to expand. It will expand to a point when all the energy and matter will be so spread out that the universe will become a soup of elementary particles with temeratures everywhere reaching near absolut zero.

It's interesting to think about.  Could you ever get bone-weary sick-and-tired of living? Let's say that along with immortality came wealth sufficient to keep you living very well in perpetuity, a legacy that would grow and grow so you'd never have to worry about money. You could live anywhere, travel anywhere, live in a mansion filled with the greatest books and music and art, and that you would always be healthy and active and alert and, well, virile...

I don't know. Since there's every likelyhood that this planet will be destroyed sometime in the distant future, when the sun goes supernova or an asteroid slams into it or nuclear war wipes out humanity, what would happen to you then?

I think I'd say, "Okay, given that I'll be indepentantly wealthy and reasonably young and active for as long as I live, I'll take it on the condition that whenever I choose I can pull the plug on myself."

Given that option, hell yeah I'd take it. Who wouldn't?

I wouldn't want to live forever.  I would like to be able to fast forward into the future or go back to the past.  Of course I would like to have money so I could be comfortable regardless of which way I moved .  Right now this moment is OK too.

I would take immortality if it came with the option to kill myself if life became unbearable (like if I was the last human and there was no one to talk to).

I would choose immortality.

Are we talking about one person being immortal in a planet of mortals or are we talking about the whole world being immortal?

Quote from: "notself"Are we talking about one person being immortal in a planet of mortals or are we talking about the whole world being immortal?

The whole world being immortal would be crazy.  Do you think people would ever get tired of fighting with each other in that scenario?  Would war still exist or would it exist in a different form since no one could kill anyone else?

Immortal, definitely. I wouldn't want to be indistructable though. That would be hell.

Quote from: "pinkocommie"

Quote from: "notself"Are we talking about one person being immortal in a planet of mortals or are we talking about the whole world being immortal?

The whole world being immortal would be crazy.  Do you think people would ever get tired of fighting with each other in that scenario?  Would war still exist or would it exist in a different form since no one could kill anyone else?

It would depend on whether there are children born. Are the immortals fertile and their children immortal?  That would be interesting as resources shrunk even more.  Wars are predominately about money and power over resources which amount to the same thing.  If everyone was immortal than even the stupid would be immortal. http://wwwcsif.cs.ucdavis.edu/~leeey/st ... /basic.htm (http://wwwcsif.cs.ucdavis.edu/~leeey/stupidity/basic.htm)
It could get really nasty.  Decapitation would be refined into an art and a science.

Yeah, it would be miserable if you couldn't kill yourself and were indestructible.  There's an awesome Superman comic where a jaded, haggard, and terribly depressed Superman comes back in time from a future where he's the lone survivor on Earth after war/disasters, and he's spent many years trying to perfect time-travel so he can come back and prevent the apocalypse.  It gave a pretty good depiction of how much it would suck if you were invincible/indestructible and everything around you was dying.

if you where the only immortal would you be able to fall in love? or love at all? or would it just get that old watching loved ones wither and die over and over again?
and would money matter to you? if i couldnt pay my rent and was kicked out of my house why would it bother me? i would be unemployed, lazy, and most likely downright mean (meaner than i am now). i doubt id care about money because i could see the world whenever i wanted. why not walk across the world? what would i need money for? am i going to freeze to death without a home?
i dont know if id be a criminal, the thought of immortal life in prison sounds pretty crappy.

Given the choice, I think I would choose mortality. Without death, life would cease to be an opportunity.

Hi all - this is my first post here (came via Happy Atheist twitter).

I choose immortality.

It's an interesting question - to be or not to be.  I used to resist the idea of immortality both on the grounds that it seemed impossible to me (technically it still does, but I think we might one day achieve something so darn close to actual immortality that there is no practical difference), but also because, like others in this thread, I thought eternal life would make life meaningless, or at least a whole lot less special.  Without the prospect of death's sting, would we enjoy life?

I have shifted over the years however.  When discussing immortality, people (including me once) seem to be assuming that the process of becoming an immortal is irreversible and confers complete indestructibility.  That to be an immortal means to be condemned to eternal life, whether one still wants it or not.  Who says immortals cannot die if they choose to?  If the process of making me immortal can be reversed by me (and by me alone I guess, otherwise am I really immortal?), then becoming an immortal seems a zero-risk proposition to me -- in the unlikely event I become bored with life, I can always end it.

If, for the sake of argument, I assume that immortality is somehow irreversible and it makes me indestructible, does it also make me compelled to be conscious at all times?  If not, and if I become bored with life, I guess I could render myself completely unconscious - essentially ending my life for all intents and purposes, at least as far as I am concerned.  Perhaps I could set up a system that wakes me every few millennium or so, just to see if I've changed my mind, or if the universe has gotten more interesting while I was "away".

All this assumes immortality is even possible of course.  If the question is changed to "radically lengthened lifespans in the order of billions of years", then it becomes slightly more realistic, and doesn't change my answer.

Thanks!

Skevos Mavros

Hi Skevos! Welcome to the forum. And good post

Quote from: "skevosmavros"Hi all - this is my first post here (came via Happy Atheist twitter).

I choose immortality.

It's an interesting question - to be or not to be.  I used to resist the idea of immortality both on the grounds that it seemed impossible to me (technically it still does, but I think we might one day achieve something so darn close to actual immortality that there is no practical difference), but also because, like others in this thread, I thought eternal life would make life meaningless, or at least a whole lot less special.  Without the prospect of death's sting, would we enjoy life?

I have shifted over the years however.  When discussing immortality, people (including me once) seem to be assuming that the process of becoming an immortal is irreversible and confers complete indestructibility.  That to be an immortal means to be condemned to eternal life, whether one still wants it or not.  Who says immortals cannot die if they choose to?  If the process of making me immortal can be reversed by me (and by me alone I guess, otherwise am I really immortal?), then becoming an immortal seems a zero-risk proposition to me -- in the unlikely event I become bored with life, I can always end it.

If, for the sake of argument, I assume that immortality is somehow irreversible and it makes me indestructible, does it also make me compelled to be conscious at all times?  If not, and if I become bored with life, I guess I could render myself completely unconscious - essentially ending my life for all intents and purposes, at least as far as I am concerned.  Perhaps I could set up a system that wakes me every few millennium or so, just to see if I've changed my mind, or if the universe has gotten more interesting while I was "away".

All this assumes immortality is even possible of course.  If the question is changed to "radically lengthened lifespans in the order of billions of years", then it becomes slightly more realistic, and doesn't change my answer.

Thanks!

Skevos Mavros

There is also the option of a super natural medium causing your immortality. Perhaps it will watch you suffer eternal boredom to satisfy it's own.

Quote from: "Ellainix"There is also the option of a super natural medium causing your immortality. Perhaps it will watch you suffer eternal boredom to satisfy it's own.

I hope it eventually gets bored and puts us out of its misery.

Given the choice between immortality and mortality, I would choose the latter.  I just do not think that the human psyche--even if perfect cognition were maintained--could enjoy an unlimited existence.  Humans seem driven by change, and I think that the change from "alive" to "dead" may be the most important of all.  I think that we really only enjoy things which necessarily end; it is the possibility of not having a thing that makes having the thing worthwhile at all.  This is why I find the concept of some eternal consciousness in the afterlife to be more frightening than any fiery pit of damnation.

I picture an immortal life like a massive ice cream sundae.  The first few bites are amazing, the next few are okay, but scraping up the dregs of hot fudge and melted ice cream from the bottom is really not that enjoyable.  By that point, it is actually more pleasant to not eat ice cream than it is to eat it.  In much the same manner, I think that no matter how enjoyable life may be, eventually not being alive will be more enjoyable than being alive.

But I would take the option to live an extremely long life, whether it be thousands, millions, or even billions of years.  Or if the immortality were conditional, as in suicide remained an option, then I would probably do it.  However, any sort of death seems contradictory to the concept of immortality.

I once wrote a story about an immortal being that found a way to kill himself and took it. Anyway, things have to die to make way for new things. Its coded in our DNA.

That is why I dislike the notion of Heaven, it would be boring to live forever, forever worshiping God. That would get old IMO. Even if in Heaven you could do whatever you wanted to, I'm sure after 100 Billion years you would just want it to end...

Here's an interesting question, if you could live forever, how old would you want to stay? Me? Probably about the age I am now, late 20's. Not a little child and not too old to have any major diseases. Speaking of that, wouldn't it be terrible if you lived forever with cancer... or burning in Hell??? I can't stand that either...

Yeah, I jump all over the place, .

I'll settle for a lifespan of 10 to 50,000 years, with an option to bail out earlier if I want to. Any way, I'd recommend anyone who wants to be immortal, invincible or invisible to read Fredric Brown's great short stories  "Great Lost Discoveries - I, II and III".