If it were possible to live forever...would you?

[amicus]

Okay, my 'nerd' night...History Channel, "That's Impossible" "Eternal Life Education, Episode 4, Originally aired 07/28/09...

Long story short: nanobots introduced into the bloodstream repair damaged cells on a continual basis, reversing the aging process and nobody has to die, immortality even better than good ole Dracula!

The process of exchanging the blood of a young mouse with an old one, rejuvenated the old mouse, so...sucking the blood of sweet young things giving eternal life ain't so far fetched after all!

Now...the big question...wait for it....would you?

Live forever...if you could?

Amicus

 

[AngeloMichael]

No way. That would be horrible in my opinion. I don't know what happens after death, heaven? hell? reincarnation? a new level of existence? or nothingness and oblivion?

Whatever it is it seems a lot more interesting in sticking around here forever, that would be just so incredibly tiring and depressing.

 

[oggbashan]

No.

Sometimes it feels as if I have already lived for ever. (Of course, as King Og, the last of the Reprahim, I was around long before Noah's Flood.)

My father lived to 96. In his last few months, when his memory was working, which it did intermittently, one of things making him unhappy was the knowledge that he had outlived his contemporary friends and relations and couldn't talk with people who had the same experiences as he had. He was the last surviving member of his (abolished) unit of the Navy, the last surviving member of a Post Office department based in a building that had been destroyed in the 1940 blitz; the last survivor of a group of people who had been made homeless by a bomb dropped by a Zeppelin in 1916...

You can live too long.

Og

 

[FallingToFly]

I wouldn't want to, not if it meant losing the people I love one by one.

Hell, I'm having trouble just being 4 hours away from my SO- I can't imagine how much I would miss and mourn him if he was gone, and I still had eternity to go on without him.

One of the enduring threads in immortality fiction is the toll that continual loss and heartbreak take on the mind and soul. Of how hard it is just to go on, forever, in a world that was meant to age, die and renew itself.

That would be a nightmare for me.

 

[penandpaper]

As tempting as the acquired knowledge would be, losing people would be too much. I imagine it would be like having little weights dropped on your chest over and over, until one day you find out you can't breathe.

 

[R. Richard]

So far, the problem most frequently cited is the loss of loved ones, the memories.

What happens when the human mind fills to capacity for memories? It would seem that at least some of the memories would then need to be jettisoned. Then it would seem that a human who lived forever would only remember a certain span of that forever life.

 

[xssve]

Only if the the laws depriving Struldbruggs of financial and economic influence are enforced.

 

[AngeloMichael]

So far, the problem most frequently cited is the loss of loved ones, the memories.

What happens when the human mind fills to capacity for memories? It would seem that at least some of the memories would then need to be jettisoned. Then it would seem that a human who lived forever would only remember a certain span of that forever life.

Sounds like you've read R. Scott Bakker or at least read the same philosophy book he did.

There's a race in his books called Nonmen that have immortality and they're a bunch of wretched creatures, their minds so filled up with memories that they have basically lost all capacity to retain new memories and the memories they are able to hold on to are the most torturous ones because they have the strongest staying power. Imagine walking around only being able to remember the worst things that have ever happened to you...*shudders*

I'd be praying for death,

 

[Verdad]

Ah, Ami, interesting. I had the same association when we had that teen-appeal thread. But something different came to my mind the moment I saw this thread.

There's a beautiful novella by Robert Silverberg titled "Sailing to Byzantium", after the Yeats' poem. It's set in a distant and perfectly utopian future where the entire population enjoys immortality through a technology so advanced and so unobtrusive as to be barely discernible from magic, and everyone is essentially an eternal tourist. Only very rarely is someone born with an irreparable genetic defect that makes them mortal, and the story follows a love affair between one such woman and a simulacrum of a twenty-century man. In the ending twist, the story revisits the transfiguration theme of the poem, but it's mainly contrasting the two mortal protagonists to the indifferent, entirely hedonistic world of immortals around them. It illustrates, in short, that mortality makes us human.

Another thing that came to my mind just as fast was the legend of the Wandering Jew—the character of the popular lore, cursed with immortality. There are many variations of this story and character, but they have in common the curse element, that is, to live forever is not treated like a privilege. He's weary of life and forever longing for rest.

And then there are, of course, plenty of other stories with immortal characters who handle it very well, only, they tend to be demigods with incredibly important roles to perform. When the world needs saving twice a week, it's hard to develop ennui! As for the rest of us, though...

So what do I think? Well, from my current perspective, as much as we've got seems woefully insufficient. It would be nice to have a century or two more. But forever? That's indeed a chilling word.

 

[gloriann]

No. The continual losses would be devastating.

 

[AngeloMichael]

So what do I think? Well, from my current perspective, as much as we've got seems woefully insufficient. It would be nice to have a century or two more. But forever? That's indeed a chilling word.

If everyone had that century or two more, ok, but I'm all ready feeling the loss of too many people I love, admire, and respect who have gone beyond the veil.

I don't want to stick around until I'm all alone here, I'll take oblivion over that.

 

[SeaCat]

I think it would depend on how many others were so cursed and how it was handled.

If it wasa just me being immortal or even having a super extended life then no.

If it were the entire population, and such things as Alzheimers had been cured then there would be a definite maybe. On the other hand how would the world handle such things as over population?

Cat

 

[Handley_Page]

I must say I'd be very tempted, if only to see what the next few generations of idiots actually do !

 

[Selena_Kitt]

Okay, my 'nerd' night...History Channel, "That's Impossible" "Eternal Life Education, Episode 4, Originally aired 07/28/09...

Long story short: nanobots introduced into the bloodstream repair damaged cells on a continual basis, reversing the aging process and nobody has to die, immortality even better than good ole Dracula!

The process of exchanging the blood of a young mouse with an old one, rejuvenated the old mouse, so...sucking the blood of sweet young things giving eternal life ain't so far fetched after all!

Now...the big question...wait for it....would you?

Live forever...if you could?

Amicus

I would have said yes four months ago. But not anymore. I want to know, if I can, what happens when it's all over. Some days, I'd like to know sooner than others.

 

[kendo1]

Yep. There is always scope for new relationships. I'm a bit of a loner anyway.

So many things to see and do. One lifetime seems hardly enough.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Yes. The future is always the most intriguing, the present is nice, the past a pleasure to remember. The future, the distant future, is really worth investigating. I'd like to stick around to see that future if I could.

 

[redpaint]

Really not sure. I can see it both ways. I have a feeling ther would still be some kiund of death, Accidents, murders people doing the same old dumb things we do everyday now. and then there will have to be those who will want to push the limits just to see how close they can come to death.

 

[Liar]

I'm sure I'd choose to stick around for at least a while longer, just because I'm a curious bastard, and the fact that I won't ever know what will happen in the 22:nd century annoys the crap outta me. Ask me again in a couple of thousand years, and I might be bored out of my shoes.

 

[R. Richard]

Sounds like you've read R. Scott Bakker or at least read the same philosophy book he did.

There's a race in his books called Nonmen that have immortality and they're a bunch of wretched creatures, their minds so filled up with memories that they have basically lost all capacity to retain new memories and the memories they are able to hold on to are the most torturous ones because they have the strongest staying power. Imagine walking around only being able to remember the worst things that have ever happened to you...*shudders*

I'd be praying for death,

No, I'm a systems analyst and I can see the impact of things.

I would disagree with the 'Nonmen' idea. I have talked with very aged people who still had all of their mental capabilities. The aged remember their younger days with great clarity, even as they forget their current situation. Most of what they remember of their younger days seems to be the good things, not so much the bad things.

 

[slyc_willie]

I think it would depend on how many others were so cursed and how it was handled.

If it wasa just me being immortal or even having a super extended life then no.

If it were the entire population, and such things as Alzheimers had been cured then there would be a definite maybe. On the other hand how would the world handle such things as over population?

Cat

That's more or less what I was thinking. It would be hell to live forever and not have any memories, or on a planet with thirty or forty billion people on it.

I wouldn't mind being able to hang around for a few centuries, but definitely not forever.

 

[heatseeking]

I wouldn't want to live forever, but I would like to live at least a few centuries.

 

[amicus]

A sincere and warm, 'thank you', to each and every one who offered a comment.

Seacat raised the over population issue, forgetting perhaps the colonization of the Moon and Mars and perhaps orbiting space cities far in the future.

The philosophical, psychological and sociological effects seem to concern most, but please consider this is technology not yet perfected but pronounced, 'possible', in the not too distant future.

There was much more to the program I cited than mentioned and some of the questions posed were answered, others, not.

I suggest several things, some original, some I may have heard on the program. As for leaving loved ones behind, I think the technology of creating that particular form of nanobot would be so extensive and inexpensive that anyone who desired the treatment would have access to it.

Secondly, although the technology remains speculative, I can visualize the injection of such nanobots at birth, even inutero if genetic defects were detectable.

The big Metaphysical consideration is death itself. Thus far, death is an inevitable result of life; the threat of death is that which empasizes and underlines the importance of life itself.

But what if death is not inevitable for the only known sentient species?

What if the dreamed of immortality, the much written of life forever, could become a reality for any and all?

The future of humanity is not yet writ; nor is 'Heaven' in any form confirmed, Selena, my dear...

I could, but I won't, reel off a hundred professions I would love to spend a lifetime learning and practicing. Unending life may be the only means of visiting the rest of our Galaxy, our Universe and perhaps is the inevitable, innate purpose of human life, partly, to populate a barren Universe. That implies the, 'what if' we are the only sentient species anywhere.

A week from now my children will celebrate my 70th birthday; not that many more are scheduled in the current state of affairs, but if I just smiled and felt as a child to my 700 year old parents, somewhere in the future, the entire concept of human life would expand....would it not?



Amicus

 

[TE999]

Hell, yeah! I'll stick around for a few centuries to see what's going on. I've seen so many changes in the world so far, I'm curious to keep turning the pages. I wonder if written and filmed porn will be necessary in the future? I'm guessin' they'll just stimulate the pleasure centers in your brain when you want your jollies.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I think the main reason I would want to stick around would be to explore that final frontier that Star Trek promised. Strange new world, strange new cultures. To go where no man has gone before!!!!

Or to just knock around the galaxy like Lazarus Long.

That's why I would hang around.

 

[slyc_willie]

A week from now my children will celebrate my 70th birthday; not that many more are scheduled in the current state of affairs, but if I just smiled and felt as a child to my 700 year old parents, somewhere in the future, the entire concept of human life would expand....would it not?



Amicus

An early happy birthday wish, Ami.

The scope and concept of human life would certainly expand. More than that, though, it would change dramatically. Death is one of those things that keeps humans working toward a goal. With less than a century to live, we feel the pressure to do certain things at certain times (career, family, etc.). Take that away, and there would be a markedly reduced sense of urgency in much of our day-to-day routine.

I'm not saying that's a bad thing. But human lifestyles would seriously change. All endeavors could be taken to incredible levels, including the bad ones. Laziness and gluttony would certainly become titanic for some people.

I think, among some parts of the population, violence would increase. Without natural death, entire cultures would devote themselves to ensuring a violent end to those whose existence they deem is a drain. There would be caps on birth rates, perhaps even government controls upon it in some cases.

Just a few thoughts.