Would you want to live forever if it were possible?

dd972

If you had the opportunity of immortality would you take it? Would it be the panacea to all your problems and the chance to learn unlimited languages, visit unseen destinations, have all sorts of experiences and meet amazing people.

Or conversely you could be stuck forever and a day in unsatisfactory jobs that pay little, limited in your choices, lumbered with annoying people and circumstances which would make you yearn for the big sleep/afterlife/purgatory ( delete as appropriate according to belief system )

Celly Smunt

It would be impossible not to get rich.

squod

Can remember thinking the same many years ago. Life gets harder as you get older. Therefore living forever is a pain in the ass for eternity.

crx===

I'd say you'd go mad Ted.

The Dagda

pmcmahon wrote: »

It would be impossible not to get rich.

How would one get rich?

monkeypants

Depends on the state of my body, does it remain youthful as well as alive? No point in living forever if you're old and sick and crap.

I think I'd get bored/pissed off.

Hippies!

What happens when the world ends and you're there floating around space bored witless for eternity unable to kill yourself.

MrStuffins

Only if i could travel the world seeking out all other immortals so we could battle with swords, hoping to behead my opponents and inherit their power through a series of cinematic lightning strikes!

StaticNoise

I wouldn't want to do it on my own. You need people in your life.

Remember the Green Mile, near the end

where his punishment for allowing John Coffey to be killed was that his life would last long. He said that all the people he lived died before his very eyes and he couldn't do anything about it.

It is this VERY reason: your loved ones would perish to old age, sickness and death while you live an unhappy, false existence in the meantime. No, I'm grand thanks, if it was just me. If you could bring people back, now that would be something.


On this heavy, morbid note: HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Celly Smunt

The Dagda wrote: »

Can you tell us of this guaranteed get rich scheme?

yes,it's called live forever.

Peregrine

I'd get pissed off. I've already had enough now as it is Seriously, seeing so many things change while you're alive won't make you feel good at all.

1ZRed

Fuk no. Out living your friends and family continuously forever is only one factor in it for me

The other would be the risk of not actually living everyday/week/year to the most because there's an infinite amount of them. I'd say it would also be so blindingly repeatetive and begin to seem fake as well.

The Dagda

pmcmahon wrote: »

yes,it's called live forever.

And money magics out of one's arse?

Celly Smunt

The Dagda wrote: »

And money magics out of one's arse?

you could spend 60 years in college getting various degrees and phd's.I'm pretty sure somebody with 6 or so phd's would be only a fairly good wage.

The Dagda

pmcmahon wrote: »

you could spend 60 years in college getting various degrees and phd's.I'm pretty sure somebody with 6 or so phd's would be only a fairly good wage.

So working? That's the plan? I can see holes...

Celly Smunt

The Dagda wrote: »

So working? That's the plan?

If you'd want to go for eternity doing nothing you'd live a fairly sad life.

The Dagda

pmcmahon wrote: »

If you'd want to go for eternity doing nothing you'd live a fairly sad life.

You seemed certain about the riches, i'm sensing some doubt now...

mikemac1

Sounds like a movie script OP

ca-ching!

aaronjumper

The Dagda wrote: »

So working? That's the plan? I can see holes...

Well you could work like a donkey and when you have enough money, go on holiday for a decade or two.

If it was just me then no. That would be incredibly lonely.

Where To

Best Queen song ever!!

TeddyTedson

I want to live forever
But they haven't got this technology anywhere near ready, and I doubt I'll be here in 50 years, so...

squod

TeddyTedson wrote: »

I want to live forever
But they haven't got this technology anywhere near ready, and I doubt I'll be here in 50 years, so...

Should watch that movie Chronos by that spanish lad who made hellboy. Guillermo del Toro. Interesting and simple technology even if it is Sci-fi

Where To

TeddyTedson wrote: »

I want to live forever
But they haven't got this technology anywhere near ready, and I doubt I'll be here in 50 years, so...

Teddy, no offence like, but I dont want you to live forever, idont want to live forever myself, I dont want my Dad who I loveto bits tolive forever, we are all part ofa natural cycle that must be respected.

Cossax

There's a great movie that covers this question, kinda. The Man From Earth, recommended watching for anyone and everyone.

TeddyTedson

Where To wrote: »

Teddy, no offence like, but I dont want you to live forever, idont want to live forever myself, I dont want my Dad who I loveto bits tolive forever, we are all part ofa natural cycle that must be respected.

They could do it like the euromillions.
One lucky person would get to live for anther few million years.

Vicar in a tutu

I reckon after a while you'd become desensitized to your loved ones dying, It may get a bit boring though.

M5

mikemac1 wrote: »

Sounds like a movie script OP

ca-ching!

A very long movie script...

seamus

If I could check out whenever I wanted to rather than being invincible, then cool, why not?

Invincibility would be great and all, but unless you're content to live without ever making any meaningful relationships, I'm sure life would begin to grate on you. Although you might be able to justify love like owning a pet and accept that the crushing pain when they die is worth the love you receive when they're alive.

the groutch

OP was obviously watchin Indy & The Last Crusade yesterday

BBDBB

The Dagda wrote: »

How would one get rich?

you could cancel your life insurance policy payments

Mr. teddywinkles

Every feeling and emotion you had and life in general would become meaningless I reckon and repeatative. So you would lose all motavation eventually anyway so who could live like that.
That nostalgic feeling you get as you age as the world changes missing what happened in your past or what you used to do is part of life. If you lived forever this would not matter to you at all. Who would want that?
And yes you would become rich through infinite oppurtunities but what would that matter without the rest.

downwithpeace

Only if I had an "End now" ability.

Edit: If I have a wife an odffspring then I would need to be able to pass it on to them, they would probably also want the abilty and so I would eventually have a family army...I'm over thinking this again.

leonidas83

I think the possibilities for becoming rich would be very real. For example, you could buy up land & property, live off the rental stream this would give you & continue to buy new property until you had so much money you didnt care anymore.

It would depend on whether or not you could kill yourself if it all became too much, if you couldnt I wouldnt, if you could I'd consider it. Id imagine after your fifth partner passing away you'd probably be quite psychologically disturbed.

HHobo

The Dagda wrote: »

You seemed certain about the riches, i'm sensing some doubt now...

Dagda, he's right. You would definately become rich. There is no doubt.
If you managed to save just a penny a year, you'd still become rich eventually. You don't seem to understand the time scale here.

Most regular folk even manage increase thier wealth substansially in a normal length life.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

No thank you.

sbsquarepants

Relationships/friendships with people would become meaningless. If you spend ten years of your life with someone that's a fairly long term thing now, 40 or 50 years is incredible given a roughly 70-80 year life span. But 50 years out of a million year life span or longer is like, someone you had a conversation with on a bus once. I wouldn't like it.
What i would like however is a few hundred years, or a thousand maybe, but immortality - no thanks.
Also you'd get left behind by evolution - you'd end up a different species to the rest of humanity!

Pawwed Rig

If you read Anne Rice's Vampire chronicles (ignoring the vampire bit) it shows her opinion on what living forever means. The tedium, depression, regrets that everyone you have ever known is dead.
And Yes they are all rich. It would be a logical result of immortality. Anyone can get rich given infinite time.

In Ireland for example you could rob banks. Even if you get caught you would only get 10 years or so:D

seamus

sbsquarepants wrote: »

Relationships/friendships with people would become meaningless. If you spend ten years of your life with someone that's a fairly long term thing now, 40 or 50 years is incredible given a roughly 70-80 year life span.

I can see where you're coming from, but I don't entirely agree. Many people form attachments with animals which only have a 2-3 year lifespan, and I don't think in any case these attachments are considered meaningless.
However, being immortal would require an adjustment of such things - while each relationship/friendship would have significant meaning, you would never consider any of them to be permanent and have to accept that they will all come to an end at some point.

Also you'd get left behind by evolution - you'd end up a different species to the rest of humanity!

Certainly if you're talking in terms of living for a million years. Which could mean that either you'd be considered a curio with the relative intellect of a cat, or you may be the only sentient (as we know it) form of life on earth as humans evolve to lose their intellectual capacity.

Splendour

Cossax wrote: »

There's a great movie that covers this question, kinda. The Man From Earth, recommended watching for anyone and everyone.

Could be an interesting watch...

Don't really want to get into a big debate about it but as a Christian I know I'm going to live forever.However, it won't be in this body or on this earth (as we know it).
Not sure how the time thing will work though as 'one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day...'
Anyway, I hope there's tons of it because I never seem to have enough!

HHobo

Splendour wrote: »

...as a Christian I know I'm going to live forever.

*cough* you believe youare going to live forever. *cough*

Splendour wrote: »

'one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day...'

The only sensible thing this statement can be saying is that time would become an irrelevant/unnoticed concept.

Still, eternity would get mighty boring. Especially in Christian heaven. God is generally anti-fun and big on the worship. Yuck. I'll take oblivion! (hopefully after a decent run, of course )

Splendour

HHobo wrote: »

*cough* you believe youare going to live forever. *cough*



The only sensible thing this statement can be saying is that time would become an irrelevant/unnoticed concept.

Still, eternity would get mighty boring. Especially in Christian heaven. God is generally anti-fun and big on the worship. Yuck. I'll take oblivion! (hopefully after a decent run, of course )

If He spends eternity (however way it works) turning water into wine I'll be a happy heavenly camper!

johnolocher

Yeah absolutely. It'd be easy to get rich, keep robbing banks, so what if you had to keep doing 20 years, that's like a few seconds in eternity.

Imagine all the advances you would see. I wouldn't like people to know I lived for ever though because then you'd be famous and have people forever coming to you asking about the past.

It'd take some adjustment seeing loved ones die but I suppose you just stay close to their descendents or get a new wife every 100 years or so. You'd get used to it.

HHobo

Splendour wrote: »

If He spends eternity (however way it works) turning water into wine I'll be a happy heavenly camper!

Ha! That might liven things up a bit, alright!

Snake Pliisken

Eternity is in a moment, living longer wont save you if you never live a true moment in your life. On the other hand, this transient but persistent experience is quite enjoyable so I'd like to keep it going for as long as it's enjoyable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iYpxRXlboQ

I posted this in the other live forever thread but I think it deserves a berth here as well...

sbsquarepants

HHobo wrote: »

Still, eternity would get mighty boring. Especially in Christian heaven. God is generally anti-fun and big on the worship. Yuck. I'll take oblivion! (hopefully after a decent run, of course )

I'm with you HHobo.
You know how annoying it is to be around the type of woman who is always fishing for compliments, wanting to be told how funny and sexy they are and so on. That's how i see the idea of christian heaven - yea "god" you're fúcking marvelous i get it, i told you so yesterday, congratulations on the univerese and stuff. But now could you kindly fúck off - i have plans to take my newly contructed army of jennifer lawrence clones sking down mount cocaine before going skinny dipping in vodka lake. Worship? Eh, i was going to skip it today, this is sorta more my idea of heaven!

ruthloss

I don't want to live forever., I shall be happy to outlive several miscreants I have encountered along my journey.

trxking

100% yes without a doubt...but would u age thats the only thing

bbam

Well I think I'd give it a go.
Plan would be to start doing the euromillions every time. With endless time my numbers would come up at some stage, then it's time to live forever;)
No point in living a mundane life eternally.

sbsquarepants

seamus wrote: »

I can see where you're coming from, but I don't entirely agree. Many people form attachments with animals which only have a 2-3 year lifespan, and I don't think in any case these attachments are considered meaningless.
However, being immortal would require an adjustment of such things - while each relationship/friendship would have significant meaning, you would never consider any of them to be permanent and have to accept that they will all come to an end at some point.
Certainly if you're talking in terms of living for a million years. Which could mean that either you'd be considered a curio with the relative intellect of a cat, or you may be the only sentient (as we know it) form of life on earth as humans evolve to lose their intellectual capacity.

True, but 3 years is a large percentage of an average persons life - say around 3% - 4%.
If you lived to be a million then to maintain that ratio you'd need to be spending 30 - 40 thousand years with someone for them to be as memorable as a hamster! A 50 or 60 year marriage - which is extraordinarily long by todays standards would have the equivalent impact of a butterfly that landed on you once. You may remember it, but it's far more likely that you won't.

maximoose

Did you start this thread after watching Indiana Jones yesterday?

FloatingVoter

Yes, on a nice warm island with bags of money and keeping my ugly little face as it is. Plenty of crap telly to watch until somebody invents proper space travel and I get off this rock.