Ellmeister Posted May 21, 2011 Share Posted May 21, 2011 I would take immortality if I could have it with one of two bonus extras: 1. Make one or more other people immortal to spend eternity with me. 2. Have an off switch, so I can decide when I've lived long enough. That's cheating! I think if I had the chance of immortality or nothing else decent (like another superpower) I would take it, so many things could be acheived. Also, for everyone talking about losing the love of your life over and over? Stop falling in love then! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dannyboy-the-Dane Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Also, for everyone talking about losing the love of your life over and over? Stop falling in love then! It's not exactly a conscious choice, though, is it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellmeister Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Yeah it is. Become a player, don't become attached. I personally don't believe at love at first sight, instead it can only develop over sufficient amount of time. If you don't keep relationships that long knowing it'll only end in heartbreak then you'll be okay! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diageo Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Ok, or very lonely? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rummy Posted May 22, 2011 Author Share Posted May 22, 2011 Yeah it is. Become a player, don't become attached. I personally don't believe at love at first sight, instead it can only develop over sufficient amount of time. If you don't keep relationships that long knowing it'll only end in heartbreak then you'll be okay! You have plenty of time though :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fierce_LiNk Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Immortality defeats the whole point of living a human life, imo. You're born, you grow up, you accomplish things, and then you die. You leave behind a legacy of some sort, whether that's people you've affected through your work, or you leave behind a family that you've raised, or something else. Living forever would defeat the whole idea of that. Also, talk about repetitive. Plus, you wouldn't see any progression at all with your own life. You would effectively be stuck at one point in time, standing still whilst the rest of the world moves. Getting older isn't a bad thing, because that is your own progression through life. There's certain things that you need to experience, no matter how bad that they are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heroicjanitor Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Being immortal would suck... After the first 5 trillion years you have to think of stuff to do for the next 5 trillion, and the next, and the million billion after that... Boredom! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dannyboy-the-Dane Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Yeah it is. Become a player, don't become attached. I personally don't believe at love at first sight, instead it can only develop over sufficient amount of time. If you don't keep relationships that long knowing it'll only end in heartbreak then you'll be okay! I don't believe you just choose to become a player. I don't believe you consciously choose to develop feelings or attachment to another person. It all depends on how your personality has developed. What you're basically saying is you'd need to avoid personal interaction with any people so as to not develop friendships or relationships. Fine enough if you're able to, but I don't think a lot of people are able to exist without some form of social attachment. I know I'm not, at least. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rummy Posted May 22, 2011 Author Share Posted May 22, 2011 You can slowly make the decision to become detached, to some extent. It's interesting the sorts of things we can manage to convince ourselves when we try hard enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dannyboy-the-Dane Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 You can slowly make the decision to become detached, to some extent. It's interesting the sorts of things we can manage to convince ourselves when we try hard enough. But would you want to? That is the whole point of this mental exercise, is it not? I'm not sure I'd want to live a life without social attachment of any sort. I'm pretty sure it'd drive me nuts in the long run. Plus I agree with the other arguments against immortality presented. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rummy Posted May 22, 2011 Author Share Posted May 22, 2011 Oh, me? No. Well, I don't think so, I wouldn't mind being immortal in some cases but the idea of never having an end would destroy me, I get tired enough of my mortal life sometimes, let alone an eternal one. It would be easy to eventually become detached though, it's even easy to do now. I'm not saying being devoid of any human contact interaction etc, but to view it coldly in some respects. There are plenty of people who go through life not caring enough for others, and they probably manage to reason it out to themselves, it's not a hard thing to do. I think that's the point I was trying to get at. I'm not sure. Hmmm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dannyboy-the-Dane Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Oh, me? No. Well, I don't think so, I wouldn't mind being immortal in some cases but the idea of never having an end would destroy me, I get tired enough of my mortal life sometimes, let alone an eternal one. It would be easy to eventually become detached though, it's even easy to do now. I'm not saying being devoid of any human contact interaction etc, but to view it coldly in some respects. There are plenty of people who go through life not caring enough for others, and they probably manage to reason it out to themselves, it's not a hard thing to do. I think that's the point I was trying to get at. I'm not sure. Hmmm. Oh, no, it wasn't aimed at you specifically. I just disliked the way Ellmeister dismissed it as being an easy thing to do, cutting off any form of social attachment, and I really don't think you consciously choose to fall in love or not. Such things depend entirely on your personality, and I don't even know to what extent it would be possible to change your personality so profoundly yourself, much less do it consciously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellmeister Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Dismissed it as something easy to do? This is a completely hypothetical situation that is in all likelihood nigh impossible to come to fruition in the near future in our lifetime to take advantage of, perhaps ever. I just theorised exactly the same as you have and gave my view. I didn't dismiss anything nastily as though it was definitely wrong. I just think it would be the only way to have to live if people afraid of getting too hurt by being too attached, don't get attached. For me, I'd fall in love again and again, sure it would be sad but hey, you're immortal. That loss would only be a speck at the end and at least the happiness would be longer even though also a speck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddieColeslaw Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 What if you were immortal and got incurably (?) suicidal...worst existence ever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dannyboy-the-Dane Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Dismissed it as something easy to do? This is a completely hypothetical situation that is in all likelihood nigh impossible to come to fruition in the near future in our lifetime to take advantage of, perhaps ever. I just theorised exactly the same as you have and gave my view. I didn't dismiss anything nastily as though it was definitely wrong. I just think it would be the only way to have to live if people afraid of getting too hurt by being too attached, don't get attached. For me, I'd fall in love again and again, sure it would be sad but hey, you're immortal. That loss would only be a speck at the end and at least the happiness would be longer even though also a speck. Then I completely misunderstood what you were trying to convey. Actually I can't say I disagree with anything in this post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shorty Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 That's cheating! Whenever people discuss the concept of immortality there are always these unspoken rules... the most prominent being "you are immortal, and the single only immortal person". But really, if you were offered immortality, you would wonder why, there would have to be more to it. If it was scientific, it could be replicated, if it were magical, then so many new questions are opened up and there would obviously be other fantastical elements to discover in the world. Also living for millions of years? It's not like time would pass any faster. And who knows what might happen in 10,000 years? You could get to travel the stars, people could extend their lifespan to thousands of years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jayseven Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Would you be able to, though? You're still just one man, unremarkable except for the fact you just can't ever seem to die. How hard do you keep trying before you find out it just can't happen and you give up on it all? You should watch The Man From Earth - it's a thinky, one-set movie that essays through dialogues all sorts of fun stuff like this. Go look it up I think "you'd be bored after a really, really, reaaallly long time" is a silly way of being objective about it. With the environment around me changing, with people changing, it would take aeons to truly discover everything, see all different types of people, learn all. While I'm not denying that ultimately I'd probably get bored, I still think it'd be fascinating to experience. For as long as mankind continues, each year would produce several lifetimes worth of music, literature, art, movies, tv, video games and so on to indulge in. With life being so 'short' at 70-110 years on earth currently, extending that would remove any haste in 'achieving' anything. As for being only 'one man' -- I'd be 'the endless man'. If there was an invincible person who had lived through thousands of years, they would be treated as a prime source of information, as one who has truly been there before. I don't see how, after a few millennia studying philosophy and observing all different walks of life, I wouldn't be able to write several theses on more idyll and ideal ways of living that'd be attainable. By being immortal, one truly reduces the possibility of failure to next-to-none. As a pet hobby, no doubt I'd do lots of research into my own condition and try and produce some sort of fail-safe, endless unconsciousness - surely if I had my braincells and body cells scattered across the galaxy it'd somewhat affect my state of mind. of course, if there's some sort of 'invincible cell' from which my entire organism reconstructs itself from, then perhaps I could concoct an endless machine to trim it and maintain a status quo. With only 5 minutes of thought I've got some avenues for investigation already :P The main downside is that aside from immortality I would still physically be at the will of any oppressor or ruler who choses to use me as an example. I imagine I'd spend many a chunk of my experience being maimed, tortured, cut open and examined and with no great strength, what's stopping those who have me in a collar from doing that from eternity? Probably the hope and knowledge that eventually mankind would die, that eventually any concrete prison or underwater coffin I'd find myself in would erode away and I'd be 'free' again. In those circumstances the worry is, of course, attaining insanity first - which is likely - unless immortality and ultimate healing means my mind, too, could be repaired over time... But I'm not sure if delving that far into the postulated scenario really does anything for us. But yeah - this is why I mentioned immortality in my living hell thread - it's pretty much what kids do in a school playground; "times infinity" any problem and it's just vastly exponentially more dreadful. Immediate moral issues would be (and again, I refer to the movie The Man From Earth) - who do you tell? Do you make it known globally, and risk irrepairable alteration of the psyche of the collective consciousness? I'd probably spend a long, long time keeping it schtum. But perhaps the inevitable severing of connection with the rest of humanity would lead to my own hedonistic phase, full of all sorts of wonky S+M and power hungry world-domination type stuff. Then again i'm sure I'd have a mega-philosophical phase, where I decide to jump through the sun before landing back on earth six months later (hopefully not accidentally bringing with me some absurd zombie species of photon that destroys everything). I very much believe that the importance life is in the journey as much as it is in the inevitability of death. But if I were unique, and it weren't a universal epidemic that would just end up with nihilistic existence where all resources are used up and all that is left is babies that we then use to build everything with, then I don't see why it can't be seen as a fantastic voyage of truly epic and magnificent proportions. So yeah. Does anyone know which crossroads mephistopheles hangs out at? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rummy Posted May 22, 2011 Author Share Posted May 22, 2011 Oh, no, it wasn't aimed at you specifically. I just disliked the way Ellmeister dismissed it as being an easy thing to do, cutting off any form of social attachment, and I really don't think you consciously choose to fall in love or not. Such things depend entirely on your personality, and I don't even know to what extent it would be possible to change your personality so profoundly yourself, much less do it consciously. Yeah tbh I think he was just being a bit casually/flippant about it, I took his post with a pinch of salt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dannyboy-the-Dane Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Yeah tbh I think he was just being a bit casually/flippant about it, I took his post with a pinch of salt. Yeah, his subsequent post made me realise that. Just shows how hard it can be to judge the tone of written text. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr_Odwin Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 All I can think about is the scene from Highlander where his wife gets old and dies. There's a Queen song going on (lyrics are "Who wants to live for .... EVA!?!"). It is tear-inducing. Immortality surrounded by mortals would not be for me. Immortality with family - that's something I can get on with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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