If you could live forever, would you want to?

No. Definitely not, no.

My situation is actually like yours – my boyfriend is a yes, I’m a no. I just can’t imagine the toll that living that long would take. There are already days when I feel bone tired. And to some extent, isn’t the fact that life ends what motivates us to do.. anything? I wouldn’t want to live forever. No, sir, not me.

sure, i’d love too, i would be a…sage, watching over the people of earth..

Yes!

With my luck, a longer life would just mean that I would need to work for a million years instead of just 80. No, I would not want to live forever. Life is just too damn hard.

Have you ever tried to get someone who’s 95 to change their daily habits? I have. It didn’t go well. Imagine trying to get someone to change their ways who’s 500. It seems like the older we get, the more close minded we get. It’s a shame really.

Yaargh, if the eternal life be meanin’ being unbreakable, then aye. Tis unfortunate that me 26 year old body is more like an 80 year old’s with me medical history. If’n I could trade it in for the deluxe model that doesn’t have cheap import parts from those other ships, then Aye! I be all over it. Are we talkin’ eternal youth as well, or just t’ life? And can I grant ‘nother wif said eternal life?

Most definitely, but I’d prefer to do so without aging.

If I had my druthers, I’d like to wake up one morning, as I looked and felt when I was aged 20, and live forever, in that body, with invulnerability, of course.

Can you arrange that, please?

Arrgh, I’d like ta get it at age 17 but age until 21 that way me grievous injury wouldn’t have happened and I’d still be able ta grow a bit older looking before stunting.

Could I off myself when I grew tired of it?
Or would I continue to walk around—but with a hole in my head or something?

hhmmmmm. Very good question

If everyone else could, then yes. No if it’s only me. I couldn’t stand to watch everyone I love die. It would be too lonely.

Oh..and like Jack said, I don’t want to age. If I’m spending eternity old and wrinkly, no thanks.

If everyone lived forever then I definitely wouldn’t want to do it. Imagine living with the same racist close minded assholes forever. If that was the case then you could just off me right now.

@bodyhead Arrgh, do ye really think that things’ll change before we cannonball each other ta hell? There’ll always be t’ scalliwags that you just can’t stand and would rather stab with a bendy straw than share the same air with them.

Avast! Bendy straws at 20 paces!

Imagine what a crowded dirty world this would be if everyone lived forever. Another thing to think about is, will this planet live forever? I don’t want to live forever, just until it’s no longer fun!

No I wouldn’t.

No, I wouldn’t want to live forever… what if I did a crime, and I was sentenced to life in prison, then where would I be. Wrinkled or unwrinkled immortality wouldn’t do me any good at all.

You know, I’m really surprised that some devout Christian hasn’t quoted John 3:16, and said that, paraphrased, “Living forever IS POSSIBLE!”

Nah. I don’t really think of death as a malady to be eliminated. I’ve made my peace with it as the natural culmination of life. I don’t think I’d feel cheated even if my time were already up, so it’s all icing on the cake from here on in.

Technically, living forever is possible with quantum singularity. All you have to do is postpone cell death and mutation due to old age.

If you’re interested in actually stuying this, I can recommend a good book: The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology by Ray Kurzweil.

If the cells continue to regenerate perfectly, then you will be perpetually young.

(Though technically much of this book is about how people will turn into machines.)

@sarahpnsc Arrgh, a life sentence be only 25 years so commit any crime and it won’t matter. You’ve got infinity ta live!

@tWrex forgive me for asking, but I don’t understand your post above where you say: Arrgh, I’d like ta get it at age 17 but age until 21 that way me grievous injury wouldn’t have happened and I’d still be able ta grow a bit older looking before stunting.

Did you mean you wanted to go back in time?

@scamp I be sayin’ that if I would be livin’ forever I would want me 17 year old body first, but then be able to have it age until it was 21. See, I would settle for my 21 year old body, but me injuries to me back already happened, so I’d want me body at 17, fast forward to 21 and keep me look from that age. That way I’d have an unbroken body and the devilish good looks of me 21 year ol’ face. Do I be makin’ sense?

I’d live forever. I want to know what happens next.

Ok, lets throw some more variables into the pot. To get to immortality we would have to go through science, and not just magically be immortal. Anyone who chooses and pays for the treatment would then get a certain amount of years added to their life due to either getting a new body, or the cell regenerative thing or any scientific idea that you can think of. You would probably have to have the procedure done every so often until a new procedure came about that extended the life span indefinitely (which is definitely, scientifically possible). To go along with these variables, one would have to agree that the technology would exist to give you any body or appearance you desired (I would pick Arnold’s appearance). Also know that to get to this stage, society would also have to evolve to the point past the nuclear threshold (or turning point) which we are in right now. We would have to stop killing one another and truly become free men and not ruled by force (No country exists in the world right now that isn’t governed by force). Humans would live much happier lives enjoying the values created by one another. Also, religion would probably come to an end due to the overwhelming scientific discoveries that will be popping up all over the place in such a society. The government will still exist but only to protect its citizens from force or fraud or coersion. SO, everyone will get the choice to live forever, also get the body they so desire, everyone will be happy so no more assholes to live with. What else can you ask for? AND, this is all extremely possible and is already in the works. So, are you on board or not? I am. Talk to you in 1,000,000 years to reflect on this moment.

Sorry big, I can’t agree with that. If it’s cut and dry like you’ve put it there and it is a process that comes about through science, then only the extremely rich would be able to afford it.

Those people would probably meddle in the research program and try to end the process of making everyone immortal before it came to pass. They would live like god’s due to their immortality and would treat the mere mortals like peasants (or likely many of them did already – they’re super rich, remember?) I can’t afford to get skin cancer. I damn sure can’t afford to live forever.

Yes, perfect sense now. Thanks for explaining tWrex !

LoL… I’m not sure I get it.

@big3625 Sorry, I’m still not sold on the idea.

@bodyhead – Yaaar. Aye think such technology would at first be only available to the rich scallywags, but so is nearly all new tech. Eventually it would cost less dubloons so that every man jack could afford it, barring a conspiracy o’ the rich. On that subject, Aye think the possible benefits of immortality technology would be great enough to justify the possibility of some scurvy sea dogs plunderin’ it. Also, I think once people noticed they were being deprived of immortality by ever-young yellow-bellied sons o’ dutchmen, they would be angry enough to storm their ships the technology to be shared.

Die.

If some o’ ye could live forever… I’d want to keel-haul ye.
jk. it’s just jokes people

What’s better, the devil you know or the devil you don’t? I wouldn’t choose it, but if it happened I’d try to make the most out of it.

no. In the words of Queen…

Who wants to live forever?

YouTube Highlander Video

Love that song. The movie isn’t bad either.

Shame about the sequels

They were bad.

Yes. They were.

By the way, I watched the Highlander movie. It was shit!

You now what they say about opinions…

Talledega Nights was [not so great]. But that was a great quote/moment.

yes it would be great to live forever

no, not in a body that might be falling apart, not on an earth that might be too hot to live on, not with governments that might cause world war 3.

forever only with God of the Bible, as he promised that those who believe in him through his begotten Son Jesus Christ.

No way. The fact that I am going to a better place at the end of this life, is what makes life worth living.

@ kornered and seVen: what if you’re wrong? What if the promises of the Bible are not meant to be taken literally? I don’t mean to cause you any doubt. I’m just asking you to imagine if you had doubt, or if you knew the Bible was wrong. In that hypothetical situation, would you think differently?

The Bible isn’t wrong….of all the books I have read, this book gives me the most hope and comfort. Heaven does exist, and I am going there someday. :)

…i’d love to have so much faith in simple tails, in a way i envy you guys

Can we please, please, please not turn this into another religious debate?

I want to live for at least 500 years, then I could actually get a good deal of engineering done. I swear. That is what sucks. What can you really do in the 50 years you are actually out in the field (dont count the first 20, those are for schooling)?

I would if I could be healthy and pain free (not pain free now) and if my loved ones (inc. pets) could stay with me. otherwise, no.

Dead: Uh…did you also wish for your loved ones to be healthy and pain free?
If not, that would kind of suck for them, no?

dolly: that sounds like a perfect world.

@nimis….yes, they would have to be pain free and healthy.

@ jca…yes, it would be nice…deep sigh

There’s a big problem with eternal life from a species/environmental perspective: if we all start living forever, then we keep gobbling up resources, and there ends up not being enough for subsequent generations. There are already too many humans, from an environmental perspective. If we start not dying, we really clog up the system. Unless we stop having kids too… but doesn’t that just seem like a sad way to go about things?

there would have to be more planets to live on first

To live forever means you would have to work forever or eventually go broke and be homeless. We would run out of room and resources with more and more children born as well.