Would you Live Forever?

[BreakABone]

I've actually had this discussion twice this weekend, and curious what folks' thoughts are.

If given the chance, would you choose to live forever (you can make up your own situation... immortality, robot host) or would you live a natural and healthy life and move on when your time comes?

[GameMaster]

Live forever. That would be so cool.

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[flamb]

theres too many grey areas
do i stay like the same age?
would i be able to choose to end it if i saw fit?
would i still get sick?

[Typhoid]

I'd live forever.

[The Germanator]

I think I would like to live forever....But then I would think of that goddamn Oasis song too much and I'd want to kill myself but then I couldn't.

[Typhoid]

I think I would like to live forever....But then I would think of that goddamn Oasis song too much and I'd want to kill myself but then I couldn't.


Ah, however - you could kill Oasis.

[The Germanator]

Ah, however - you could kill Oasis.

But what about life in prison. That would be a quite the drag if you were immortal...

[GameMaster]

I think I would like to live forever....But then I would think of that goddamn Oasis song too much and I'd want to kill myself but then I couldn't.

I think the song is by Queen unless you're referencing another song in which case I feel embarrassed now.

But seriously, sure, at first it would be heart-breaking losing all your family and friends and outliving your grandchildren. But after a few hundred years, I think you'd find a way to be okay with it and just find a new lover every 60 years or so.

[The Germanator]

Ah yeah, I was thinking about this one...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9GiLnZyUgM

And yeah, assuming there is no after life (which is my assumption) I'd probably live forever just so I could experience lots of things. You could live in every different state or country for years at a time. It would be kind of fun. I guess you would do everything eventually, but you'd get to see changes in technology/culture/art.world leaders, etc. It would be interesting

[Swan]

Except for one problem with the whole finding another lover thing.


You would eventually lose them, and then move on, and find someone else...and just continue

[Szymon]

What the hell? Why not just assume everybody else lives forever as well?

I will have about 5 hours of spare time to really elaborate on how I feel about living forever. Earl knows what I'm about though.

[TheSlyMoogle]

Except for one problem with the whole finding another lover thing.


You would eventually lose them, and then move on, and find someone else...and just continue


Hell I'm doing that now with the whole date someone for a year and then realize it isn't going to work. Lol

So I would live forever if:

1. I would stay the age of 28. I feel like that would be a good age.
2. I could end it if I ever felt like doing so.
3. I had infinite money with the life, even though I realize at some point money might become obsolete.
4. And also as long as I had some other power such as flight or telekinesis, because eventually it's gonna look weird if the same person keeps showing up in places over tons of years, and you may need to silence them.

One thing I will say is you wouldn't be able to live in the same place very long perhaps 5 years max, if you didn't age that is.

Wouldn't it be nice to have infinite time and money?

[Teuthida]

No. Reincarnation sure. But to live the same life forever? Count me out.

[Bube]

If one day, some announcement was made, announcing that everybody was immortal from then on, I'd probably get hit by a car the next day.

I say no. Come and go. There are already too many useless people on this planet.

[Angrist]

The bible actually teaches that Adam and Eve started out with eternal life in a paradise. They messed it up, but God's plan still is to let humans live forever in a perfect world.

So yeah, I hope to live forever. The conditions are that others also have eternal life. I guess I could end it when I wanted, by turning against God. But I don't expect ever to get bored enough for that. My body would stay healthy, and the world would be without sins or misery.

[Fyacin]

The bible actually teaches that Adam and Eve started out with eternal life in a paradise. They messed it up, but God's plan still is to let humans live forever in a perfect world.

So yeah, I hope to live forever. The conditions are that others also have eternal life. I guess I could end it when I wanted, by turning against God. But I don't expect ever to get bored enough for that. My body would stay healthy, and the world would be without sins or misery.

Same here. Although I can't ever imagine being bored. ;)

[Angrist]

I didn't say I'd get bored.

Religious Fyacin?

[KillerGremlin]

Reluctantly, no.

Forever = infinity.

I thought about this before, and just in terms of logic the notion of living for an infinite amount of time is both daunting and retarded.

[Szymon]

Have you ever heard of nanotechnology? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanotechnology It exists and nanobots exist too, but they're currently pretty useless. It's circuitry and robotics so tiny that you cannot see it. All we really need to do to give these nanobots a purpose is develope our technology and find better ways to make things smaller, cheaper and more functional. Technology developes like this all the time. Think about how super computers used to be the size of a house with a tiny fraction of the processing power capable today. Nanobots will shrink in size and increase in functionality eventually.

What sort of functionality will they have? Well you could stick some in your blood stream to destroy cancerous cells, repair DNA errors and stimulate growth of other important cells. Essentially, these medical miracles could reverse everything that makes your body age. Dying isn't some magical process where you just "get old" and your body decides to sleep forever. Your body isn't perfect and it does produce bad cells, cells that don't function properly but stick around anyway. Certain cells die off too, cells that you need to live. These are the things that cause you to get old and die. What if we could prevent or reverse all of these things? Could we not live forever?

Sure we could. Everyone could. The planet may not be able to sustain it, not yet anyway, but it could happen. Wars will still happen and people will still die, but we could live forever. Not too sure about how we would eat or what we would eat (if we even needed to eat) but we would figure something out. Then what? If we lived forever, would we restrict reproduction to the wealthy and powerful? How quickly would technology be developed if the worlds greatest minds never died? People could spend hundreds of years learning everything about what they want to persue and then go for it.

Likewise, you would probably see a lot of fucked up things.

http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v2080/123/10/129400599/n129400599_30423011_7729.jpg

People wouldn't know what to do with their lives. Personally, I would devote myself towards solving society's problems, whatever they would be in that sort of scenario, and towards advancing technology. We're only just beginning to learn about time and space and how to observe and manipulate these things. Right now though I need to get Robs computer to his office in working condition before he gets in this morning. This way, I don't have to deal with him trying to make conversation about things he doesn't understand. (He thinks he's a technology expert.)

EDIT:I realize that I have made no mention of the likely abuse of nanotechnology and the potential for a catastrophic apocalypse in the form of flesh-eating nanorobots killing all of mankind.