Forums » Smalltalk » Immortality (Opinions?)

The definition of immortality being used for this question:

One cannot die from any causes. They get hurt and feel pain, but are unable to have a fatal injury.

EDIT: You don't age physically.


Would you, if given the choice, want to be immortal?

My answer:

No.
I would be forced to watch everyone I love die. Over and over again. They would die from old age, natural causes or illness or just by chance. Even then, they would be constantly dying in front of me and beyond my control while I continue to live. That would be emotionally draining and destroying on my head. There's always the option of never forming another relationship, but that would lead to a live of isolation and loneliness which would be just as mentally daunting and draining as watching people die. It would most likely drive me insane.

Someone would notice. No matter who it is, rumours spread quickly. Eventually the government would probably find out, and from what I know about my countries government, they would probably want to experiment, extract DNA, and just a range of unpleasant experiences. I could also imagine tests happening which would cause a lot of pain for them to see if I can actually die or not.

There's always the option of changing names and getting new identities, but from what my parents have said, that is a lot of legal paperwork and commitment to go through, even 80 or so years apart from each other. Plus, I would most likely need to spice up my appearance each time as well.

I would have to live through so many traumatic experiences. Plagues, wars, destruction... the end of the world?

What would I do when the world implodes in billions of years? Because I cannot die, I would be floating through in an enternal void forever. Because there is no air in space, I would not be able to breathe but I also would not suffocate either. My lungs would be in constant, agonizing pain without being able to do anything about it.

I know there are so many good things I could do but... to me the negatives outweigh the positives.

Are we forever (physically, at least) 'young' in this hypothetical scenario?

Yeah. Let's say you don't age physically.

Would you, if given the choice, want to be immortal?

Yes.

Why?

Because I'm young and most people I know nowadays are older than me anyway, so I'd have to watch them die at some point before me anyway as long as I live a long life myself. I only really have one family member I see in person who I care about, my dad and he's already 57 so...

I would probably turn my best friend into an immortal/vampire if possible, since we've spoken about it and already have an agreement then if one of us was turned into a vampire the other would want to be turned as well.

If I was a vampire or immortal, yeah people would die around me but that already happens to me, my mom, my nanas, my uncles, my aunts, several friends - have died within the last 6 years alone. So, nothing new.

...however being immortal, having enhanced speed would enable me to write my books much faster, get things done faster, I wouldn't need sleep which would give me endless time to do the things I want. Once I start getting old enough that it's strange I'm not aging, which for me wouldn't be for another 20 years at least, I could just move somewhere else with my best friend, we're both smart, we could easily create fake identities, and if we had compulsion powers it would be even easier.

Perks:

No pregnancy. (HUGE HUGE perk.)

Fast typing/enhanced speed in general.

Potential compulsion.

Entire world of possibilities at my hands.

Live forever with my best friend.

Potentially no more chronic pain preventing me from living my life.

Plus biting people is something fun as a human so I'd just have even more fun if I had to drink blood to live LOL.


Cons:

People around me dying - already happening.

Government - the government in my country can barely keep it's citizens alive much less notice me being a immortal or fake identities. Vampires/Immortals likely already exist and yet here we are talking hypothetically so I think I'd be safe.

Oh and note, everything has to die, there's a way for everything to die even if it's difficult. In my immortal scenario it'd probably be decapitation or heart being ripped out, since almost nothing can live after one or the other. So if the world blew up, I'd either be blown to pieces and die because one can't live with their body in shards, or I'd figure it out myself.

To me, even 500 years of life, getting to do the things that make me happy, no more chronic pain, would be worth the trouble of fake identities and being blown up.

Would I become immortal if the opportunity presented itself to me?

...I do not know why, but I have this weird disconnect from any listed negatives. Life changes. The world changes. Everything changes, and I'd love to have the opportunity to change with it. Where I could be captured, years would pass before I find a way to be free. Where loved ones pass, I will always meet new people. Where the world ends, I get to float through space and see things science couldn't experience while on earth. And if humanity ends without me? Then I finally have peace! //shot I kid. But at least I'll have the opportunity to see what else Earth has in mind for itself before imploding without mass human interference.

I see the matter of immortality as neither inherently good or bad. It's a neutral thing; what matters is what you make of it. You also have to see it through the eyes of a person or even a race who may have been born with immortality (completely hypothetical). Is it a curse to them? A blessing maybe? Or is it just something that they were born with, and they don't let it affect who they are as people? The latter is how I would see it; it's a nice thing to have that will suck every so often, but ultimately wouldn't affect the core of who I am. Eternal life comes with its ups and downs, but so does life in general. What matters is what I would do with said eternal life if granted to me, and I would have plans for it.

So I'd take it. I think I would kick myself more for not taking it, to be perfectly honest with you. Besides, if the Fates were kind (or cruel) enough to give me immortality, then it's something I'm meant to have, I think. All I can do is run with it and make the most of it.

That sounds horrible, so heeeeeeeeck no. For this reason. And because of my belief in the existence of the spirit and an afterlife.

Although it would definitely be interesting to see how technology and society progresses, no matter how interesting it was, everything would probably get boring after a while. I'd probably get so bored I'd start to play games with people and abuse my powers just for entertainment because my brain would be dysfunctional due to it not being designed to do the same sorts of things over and over again forever.

You sure think a lot, kid. 😮


He he he he. Love it. You're cracking me up over here. That whole answer cracked me up and was so entertaining.

Gotta love our convos Stats

Taking "immortality" like that where you just don't die and literally nothing else changes just doesn't seem to work. Like. In what scenario does that make sense? If nothing else, wouldn't being immortal prevent basic thermodynamics from working since the heat death of the universe cant happen (as long as your alive, the universe cannot reach a thermodynamic equilibrium)? what if you went into a black hole, what even happens then, since you physically cant be compressed down that much? Like. I think you have to make some basic assumptions, either the basic physical laws of the universe change or your immortality still obeys the laws of physics.

Either way the whole "eternal void" aspect doesn't seem like it'd occur in any actual scenario that involves immortality or semi-immortality. Besides, biological immortality is defined as absence of death from aging. If you can still suffer injury then it just doesn't make sense that you cant die, I mean like, what physically happens if your brain was cut in half? like just saying you don't die doesn't explain what physically occurs in scenarios where you definitely would die. Do you just exist as a detached consciousness? For that matter what even constitutes death here, is it cessation of consciousness? what if you went into a permaneant coma but were not biologically dead? that's what would happen, realistically, if you were permaneantly deprived of oxygen but somehow couldn't biologically die, so the "floating in a void" thing wouldn't matter (you'd just be unconscious and dead for all practical purposes.)

So I really think that a practical discussion of immortality requires either a supernatural cause (which invalidates basic scientific principles and therefore implies that the universe has to follow along with laws according to said supernatural cause) or for it to be "biological immortality", in which death is non-inevitable but can occur from physical damage. If not one of those, then the permaneant coma and complete inability to actually have any sort of consciousness sorta invalidates the "eternal void" thing anyways.

Having said all that. Biological immortality is a practical and attainable goal in the modern day anyways. And this fear of government detection seems rather unfounded, if nothing else it would be easy to just move somewhere with a less competent government. If you got bored, just wipe your memory and do it again, that technology will be around within the next few centuries at absolute most. At some point you'd likely attain sufficient mastery of mind to consciously suppress previous memories.

But with the way the question is phrased, basically taking it as the absolute worst possible scenario for immortality, obviously nobody is going to accept it. Where the inability to receive damage is basically limited to the absolute minimal immunity that will still permit maximum suffering.

Its fine anyways cause biological immortality is attainable anyways, so no need to take the "maximal suffering" version of immortality.

I'll answer this with a quote:

"Since any child could tell you that death was meaningless, contingent, unjust, and abhorrent beyond words, it was a hallmark of sophistication to believe otherwise. Writers had consoled themselves for centuries with smug puritanical fables about immortals who’d long for death — who’d beg for death. It would have been too much to expect all those who were suddenly faced with the reality of its banishment to confess that they’d been whistling in the dark. ... We needed death and suffering, to put steel into our souls! Not horrible, horrible freedom and safety!"

Immortality is worth it. Yes. Absolutely yes. An eternity to learn, to love and to grow? Yes. Yes. A thousand times yes. There will be suffering, there will be pain. There always is. But that is what living is. I cannot speculate on the alternative. I do believe something of us goes on....but you know, I would rather go on as I am. I don't fear life. The sting of pain is keen and hard, but I have made it this far. I can make it further.

Immortality is simply more life-and I would never turn that down. Not while I could cling to it.

To wax poetic...

I consider myself a weed, really. As hard as things get, I won't permit myself to let go. To give up. If I had a chance at immortality-I would consider turning it down to be just that. Letting go. Giving up. Suicide by inaction. To become a delicate garden flower that will die with the winter. As if shortness and delicacy makes life more beautiful. As if being thorny and tough is something to be ashamed of.



Nuts to that. I'll stay a weed.

as long as I can stop time and end the Joestar bloodline I'm fine with it.

I choose mortality. Everything is of its season. Fall winter spring summer. So am I.

Yeah, I’d take it. I think I answered another thread asking this before and I said I’d become immortal because it takes me forever to do things...

But I wouldn’t mind outliving the planet and the stars. I assume the universe is the same and everything, but you’re immortal by some unknown, law of physics-breaking means? I guess that makes your body a region of space/a mass of matter that’s somehow immune to entropy and decay, which is mindbending, but then I’d have eternity to think my way around it. And who knows, maybe by being immortal I’d have the means to create more things where there should be nothing but void.
Before Heat Death happens though, if I were immortal I’d go through a black hole at least once just to know what it’s like. And I’m aware of where the nearest one is and how long it would feasibly take my human ass to get there but, again, immortality lets me plan events on extremely large scales of time.

I wonder about the effect of immortality on the things that live inside us though, like if we are immortal, what about our gut or skin flora for instance? If we never die then we’re basically an eternal place for them to live so... I’m saying get ready for new forms of life after I can’t shower several trillion years in the future where showers don’t exist anymore :p I’m thinking after the Earth ends I’d be floating around probably seeding new planets with my grimy human hands (I’m going to float onto one and poke the ground, okay), going into black holes and incinerating myself in stars ‘just because’. If I don’t have the means to move around planets easily I think I’d be stuck on each one - as an immortal, if I bided my time on Earth and we never achieve space travel I’m going to be stuck here until whatever destroys the Earth can jettison me off into space where I’d slowly propel myself towards the next planet.

Basically immortal-me would likely be wandering every world until the end of time and space, and by then I’d hope against everything that I’d have found a way to share my immortality with the universe itself because why should all things come to an end? I’m holding out for an answer to The Last Question.

I'm laughing so hard right now

Actually I would reject it just for sake of rejection. I like defying things that seem to be something 99,99999% would accept or people who think they have power over me. Sure the ability to live long, do things you don't have time and learn more about universe would be enough to make me hesitate for a while since I like learning but that won't change my mind.

You see what makes the treasure is worth what you think it's worth. Worth can be measured in many ways, worth is also synonymous to price, for me anything that's of real worth must be earned by your own hands or brains. So Immortality to me is reward which must be earned either through heroic deed or paying big price. like sacrificing souls or doing some difficult task to get immortality. The second option is obviously out of question. However first option might make me consider it, now what would be define as 'heroic deed' dunno myself however I know that reward would be received after my 'death' and coming back to life here.

I would refuse it because I can. Because no matter how much you learn you would still be ignorant. This world or everything surrounding us, everything that's observable and unseen, everything that's far and near us. It's just massive playground with toys which we don't know how to play. 'The truth' or absolute knowledge can't be obtained through ordinary means. Which makes me bored by, immortality is just playing the game of life on cheats.