NationStates Jolt Archive

If an omnipotent being and wanted to give you (only you, noone else) the ability to live forever, would you take it? And, yes, you still have to stay on Earth with the mortals... poll incoming.

Nope.

It depends on one thing, and one thing only:

Can I erase memories at will? If I can't, no and if I can, absolutely.

Define "the ability to live forever". I have the ability to do a lot of things, doesn't mean I have to if I don't feel like it.

So, no following humanity when we finally get off this mudball? That puts a damper on things. I'd require perfect health or at least the ability to heal from just about everything, diseases, injury, etc. Otherwise, what's the point?

If an omnipotent being and wanted to give you (only you, noone else) the ability to live forever, would you take it?

Well, the part I bolded seals it: no.
I imagine it would be too inconceivably sad to see people you love die, endlessly.

If everybody could live forever, though, I guess I would.

Absolutely

More abilities are always good. Nothing in the dal requires that I live forever - simply that I have the ability to do so.

So sure.

If it turns out I don't also get eternal youth, then I'll probably commit suicide somewhere before I'm 120.

No. I'd get bored. If by live forever, you mean "live until the end of time", I'll do everything possible within this universe twice over, and then I'll still have eternity to sit and twiddle my thumbs. Ideally I'd live for around 1000 years. Any more and I'd spend eternity trying to figure out how to end my life.

Oh yeah, you'd be in good health (aka invincible) for the eternity.

no way. The thought of not dying first (having to live through my husband's death, my children's deaths) scares the living daylights out of me. I wouldn't want to live through the death of everyone I ever loved.

If there were, say, a virtual reality type thing and I could be uploaded in to it, would I be allowed to? I mean, I could live out an infinity of different lives and different universes within such a thing and simply wipe or partially wipe my memory between them for effective reincarnation...problem solved.

Oh yeah, you'd be in good health (aka invincible) for the eternity.

So, can we kill ourselves or not? Invincible would imply no...

If I would be able to kill myself prior to our universe expanding so much that humanity died out and the overall temperatures reached 0 degrees Kelvin, then yes. Otherwise, no.

Yes!
I would become Teh Doctor!
Doctor Who!
Officially teh coolest series on British tele at the moment.Or in general.
But I would build a Tardis and travel the Universe with a sexy human companion.
As you can see,I get out far much more than any of you.

Eternal life? Overrated.

If an omnipotent being and wanted to give you (only you, noone else) the ability to live forever, would you take it? And, yes, you still have to stay on Earth with the mortals... poll incoming.It depends on the conditions. If I am to life forever, I don't want to feel any pain (or at least, I'd want some choice of when). If someone puts me in a blender, I don't want to keep feeling it for lack of dying. When the sun goes nova, I don't much care to get a sunburn. In fact, I'd rather not be here when everyone else is long dead, it'd get lonely.
And of course, perhaps the earliest known pitfall of eternal life. I'd like eternal youth to go along with it.
Oh, and a self-reconstitution, you know, in case someone puts me in a blender. I'd prefer not to remain chopped up, even if I don't feel pain. Invulnerability might also be good (but there's some conditions there to).

And, yes, you still have to stay on Earth with the mortals...

But Earth wouldn't last forever. That's another strike against immortality.

Maybe.
Although I don't believe it would help me at all to overcome my ability to procastrinate.

Death's what makes me appreciate living. I wouldn't enjoy life nearly as much knowing that my existence isn't temporary and unique.

Does forever mean an infinity of time in the sense that infinity is not really a number? If so, then probably no. If forever means until the end of the universe/humanity/all sentient life, then yes.

I could stand to go on for another couple billion (or trillion) years. In fact, I think it'd be really damned awesome.

Edit: With all the nifty extras that others've mentioned. Youth, invincibility, etc.

Death's what makes me appreciate living. I wouldn't enjoy life nearly as much knowing that my existence isn't temporary and unique.

Oh, it's definitely unique...more unique than anyone else who has ever existed.

Maybe.
Although I don't believe it would help me at all to overcome my ability to procastrinate.

:p

Although I don't believe it would help me at all to overcome my ability to procastrinate.

Hey, you'd be the only person to ever turn in a paper one billion years late.

Yes. Why? In 10,000 years, I'll be able to out whipper-snap all of the whipper snapperers.

I could stand to go on for another couple billion (or trillion) years. In fact, I think it'd be really damned awesome.I think the novelty would wear off after a couple of millenia.
Then all you can hope for is a time travel device and a record of everyone that ever lived. So you can go on and insult everyone in alphabetical order (like Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wowbagger#Wowbagger.2C_the_Infinitely_Prolonged)).

YES!!! Of course I would! :p

There is so much that I could do. I'd travel and learn how to speak a good many languages fluently. I could study all subjects at universities across the world. I'll master all the martial arts there are. I would learn how to play every instument I could get my hands on. There are so many things that I would do, and I'll have all the time in the world to do them.

:p
:fluffle:
Hey, you'd be the only person to ever turn in a paper one billion years late.
Even without immortality, I'm working on that...

There's this one paper I started and never finished. It's still sitting there.

But more urgent are the three term papers which were due 09/30/06. Still working on the first one, will maybe finish the 2nd one, and I don't even know what to do about the 3rd one.

Gah.

YES!!! Of course I would! :p

There is so much that I could do. I'd travel and learn how to speak a good many languages fluently. I could study all subjects at universities across the world. I'll master all the martial arts there are. I would learn how to play every instument I could get my hands on. There are so many things that I would do, and I'll have all the time in the world to do them.Which brings up the question of whether the limited human brain could even deal with a timespan that large. You might get to a point were you have to forget as much as you learn/remember.

So, aside from eternal life (untill we're fed up), eternal youth, invincibility, can we get an 'infinite' mind as well?

:fluffle:

Even without immortality, I'm working on that...

There's this one paper I started and never finished. It's still sitting there.

But more urgent are the three term papers which were due 09/30/06. Still working on the first one, will maybe finish the 2nd one, and I don't even know what to do about the 3rd one.

Gah.

Will you even be able to remember the topic after a few millenia? By then I'm sure your views will change so you'll just have to start all over again anyway...

What do you mean "would?"

:fluffle:

Even without immortality, I'm working on that...

There's this one paper I started and never finished. It's still sitting there.

Beautiful...just beautiful.

But more urgent are the three term papers which were due 09/30/06. Still working on the first one, will maybe finish the 2nd one, and I don't even know what to do about the 3rd one.

Gah.

Ouch...and I thought having three papers due a month from now was bad, let alone over a month late.

Which brings up the question of whether the limited human brain could even deal with a timespan that large. You might get to a point were you have to forget as much as you learn/remember.

So, aside from eternal life (untill we're fed up), eternal youth, invincibility, can we get an 'infinite' mind as well?

It doesn't matter about forgeting things, I can always go back to university to relearn my stuff. I love being a student and I suppose I'll need a decade away from work every now and then. Oh yeah, I'd make an excellent secret agent what with all my knowledge and being indestructible and all. :cool:

Will you even be able to remember the topic after a few millenia? By then I'm sure your views will change so you'll just have to start all over again anyway...
A short history of the world, eh? Yeah, I'd have to be careful about that...
Beautiful...just beautiful.

Ouch...and I thought having three papers due a month from now was bad, let alone over a month late.
Thanks. :D April 2003. (Holy crap!)

Yes, I'm bad with time management. (And I don't even spend as much time on NSG as I used to.) Right now, my life is 5% me, 10% desperation, and 85% chaos.

But I'm working on improving that, I need to go talk to the professors and explain my overall situation to them (depression and such).

Oh yeah, you'd be in good health (aka invincible) for the eternity.
That changes the question completely.

Though I'd probably still say yes and regret it later.

I think yes, just to see what happens.

I guess you'd have killer marks in History...

No, I think if I could live forever, then the joy of life would be gone. Ie would become totally bored & apathetic. I would probably also go insane.

Yes, I would.

Ok, so the people I love would come and go, die and get old while I remain ageless.

But the same thing happens to Drizzt Do'Urden, and he deals with it.

I'll just find more family, more friends.

I mean hell, I have eternity to find people to love.

Besides, immortality is cool.

Judge says "You have been sentenced to 42563 years in federal prison!".

I say "Pssh. That's nothin'."

I would be able to gain an unbelievable amount of wisdom, as well.

So many other reasons...

I would with a few stipulations:

I'd need to be indestructible. Whether that be invulnerability or the ability to regenerate from any injury doesn't matter. But being decapitated and spending eternity as a disembodied head kind of loses it's appeal.

Second, I would need to control my age. I should have the ability to regress or advance my age to any point I desire.

Finally, I want the ability to end my life when I sincerely and lucidly choose to. If the Earth explodes and I'm hurtling through the vacuum of space forever, or plummet into the heart of an active volcano, the last thing I'm going to want is to wait the tens of millions of years before something interesting happens.

If I get all that, we have a deal. :)

If an omnipotent being and wanted to give you (only you, noone else) the ability to live forever, would you take it? And, yes, you still have to stay on Earth with the mortals... poll incoming.

It's not that I'd hate to see people die. You'd grow used to it, eventually. Heck, I've already been through it, you just have to move on. Change is the only constant.

No, rather, it would be missing out on my own death that I'd be most depressed about. I want to live my life, nothing more, nothing less.

I'm quite certain I would regret whichever choice I made. On the other hand, let's assume that with this immortality, I also get invulnerability and never age. With invulnerability I could be a ridiculous super-soldier. I would probably go around and do an awful lot of stupid things because I wouldn't get hurt. I'm sure the novelty would wear off.

People like Julius Caesar did things to ensure their NAMES lived forever, like Caesar knew he was going to die and therefore dismissed his sercurity allowing himself to be in a position where his enemys could reach him...

But..

He did gain immortality in the sence his name will always be known...

....Julius who?

Who wants to live forever?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XU4wxypEkhU

....Julius who?


..............

Oh, only the man who transformed Rome from a republic into an EMPIRE!

.... you were just joking right?

:)

only if I can choose at some point to stop living forever..

..............

Oh, only the man who transformed Rome from a republic into an EMPIRE!

.... you were just joking right?

:)

Being that I'm a Rome fan...yes.

it depends, if i were to get old and senile, the hell no.
but if i could stay young, healthy, ect. then i'd concider it.

Well, the part I bolded seals it: no.
I imagine it would be too inconceivably sad to see people you love die, endlessly.

If everybody could live forever, though, I guess I would.

My feelings exactly.

I would, living is teh pwn.

Ms. Alabama, in the 1994 Ms America contest, answering the question: "If you could live forever, would you and why?"

"I would not live forever, bacause we should not live forever, because if we were supposed to live forever, then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever."


She's one of Alabama's best and brightest!

i dont get a chioce. i have to live forever.

Yeah, only if I could choose when to die. I don't find the prospect of floating around in space for billions of years particularly appealing.

Oh yeah, you'd be in good health (aka invincible) for the eternity.

If i could end my life when I chose, yes definitely

Hmmmmmmmmmm.

If I could live forever, I could devote my brainpower towards giving everyone else immortality.

Or I could play computer games for years on end.

Hmmm.

Well, the part I bolded seals it: no.
I imagine it would be too inconceivably sad to see people you love die, endlessly.

Or you could become some sort of immortal hermit-god with no outside contact.

Hmmm.

Ms. Alabama, in the 1994 Ms America contest, answering the question: "If you could live forever, would you and why?"

"I would not live forever, bacause we should not live forever, because if we were supposed to live forever, then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever."


She's one of Alabama's best and brightest!

No-one, male or female, should ever have to answer the question promptly, while on stage in front of a panel of judges. I could do a bit better than that, but not much!

I've been thinking about it on and off for an hour now. I still don't have a certain answer, and can't shake the idea that no amount of life experience or moral principles equips any of us to make a choice like that.
From my experience of aging, and a strong intuition that aging is inseperable from experience (as memory is inseperable from consciousness) ... no.
I'd take the option of being invulnerable. I'd take the option to live forever. The day would come when I wanted only to die, and if that wasn't an option I'd be one pissed-off worldly-wise invulnerable old badass.

The correct answer for Ms America though, would be "I want to try to live a good life in this world, and earn the Eternal Life promised by God. I would live forever because it says so in the Bible."

Yes, I would - if I also stopped aging. 20 forever? Yes please! Best bit is, they'd literally never be able to build a jail capable of holding you.

*commits crime*
*is sentenced to life*
*jail collapses into ruins, walks free*

Nope. I'll be perfectly happy with my three score years and ten. Though the retirement age will probably be 70 by then anyway. Yay for retirement.

I would with a few stipulations:

I'd need to be indestructible. Whether that be invulnerability or the ability to regenerate from any injury doesn't matter. But being decapitated and spending eternity as a disembodied head kind of loses it's appeal.

Second, I would need to control my age. I should have the ability to regress or advance my age to any point I desire.

Finally, I want the ability to end my life when I sincerely and lucidly choose to. If the Earth explodes and I'm hurtling through the vacuum of space forever, or plummet into the heart of an active volcano, the last thing I'm going to want is to wait the tens of millions of years before something interesting happens.

If I get all that, we have a deal. :)

I'll take one of them and a medium fries.

Immortality (with the caveat of infinite regeneration to heal any injury and never aging – which is really just degeneration of the body anyway) would be amazing.

There would always be something more to learn – one person cannot be everywhere and experience everything so it is simply not possible to see and do everything there is to do. Even if I get bored doing new things, I will be able to pass on some of my wisdom to the mortals.

My time would be spent learning everything I can, teaching what I have learned, and finding those I can love and sharing experiences with them – thus even if I run out of novel things to do, they can all be enjoyed in triplicate.

Now if you throw in the ability to travel through time and space (just call me the Doctor) and I would sell my soul.

When theres life, theres always death. We are born, we live, we die. Thats how it works.

If an omnipotent being and wanted to give you (only you, noone else) the ability to live forever, would you take it? And, yes, you still have to stay on Earth with the mortals... poll incoming.

no... Living forever doesn't necessarily mean eternal youth... can you imagine what shape your body will be in after your 150th birthday?


Besides... all those goodbyes... :(

Yes, I would like to live forever because I'm a big baby and don't want to die.

My conditions: No illness (including cancer, alzheimer's ect.)
Eternal Youth (because how fun would it really be to be old and live forever.)

Death by accident would be okay, because life still has to have some suspense (and it gives me a way out if need be.)

No! Not at all!

Who Wants to Live Forever?
by Queen

There's no time for us,
There's no place for us,
What is this thing that builds our dreams, yet slips away from us

Who wants to live forever,
Who wants to live forever?
There's no chance for us,
It's all decided for us,
This world has only one sweet moment set aside for us

Who wants to live forever,
Who dares to love forever,
Who dare who dare,
Who wants to live forever,
When love must die

So touch my tears with your lips,
Touch my world with your fingertips,
And we can have forever,
And we can have forever,
Forever is our today,
Who wants to live forever,
Who wants to live forever,
Forever is our today,
Who waits forever anyway?

Waffle!

No.

Unless, you're granted perfect health and eternal youth, along with physical invulnerability. It's no fun to live forever if you're hacked into bits.

Yes, but only if I stopped aging and could still off myself.

If i was like the Highlander, sure why not, or if i could 'pull an Arwen'.
it wouldn't be too bad.

that depends.
if I had more power, ie supernatural powers as well, but forexample becoming a vampire or some such. if that be the case, I would do it, if I am doomed to have this cripple body for all eternity without any other perks, screw it. I'm having a difficult time finding reasons to live my "short" life as it is, let alone an eternity.

I wouldn't live forever; just long enough for me to get tired of it.:p

Yeah baby definatly! Think of all the things you could do, learn, and all for that ultimate prize, King of the World!

I would probobly accept.
Im assuming immortality would make you infertile.
If not.

Harvest eggs from the female populace.
Freeze them.

Wait until humanity dies out.
Start over.
THE RIGHT WAY.
...
Cryogen someone i love so i can bring them out occasionally for talks.

If there is life after life, and if there is some sort of paradise of neverending joy, I would, perhaps.

But no. Definitely not in this world. Immortality would be one of the most horrific fates I could imagine. I would be ready to live thousands, if not tens of thousands of years, but NOT FOREVER. Imagine the world changing, you still living and watching everyone around you born, age and die. Imagine the (possible) dramatic technological advancements, or perhaps the eventual evolution of the human race, while you would still be living in your body.

And in a VERY VERY long term, the heat death of universe. You would be the only thing left in the endless, cold and lightless void, and you would never, NEVER die, but float there for all the eternity, with the burden of so much memories that you could not even think in the present form...

Immortality in this universe would be a terrible fate, more horrible than any nightmare.

Immortality in this universe would be terrific, more horrible than any nightmare.

Errr...Horrific?

Oops.. I meant to say "terrible"...

...Although, "terrific" actually is a synonym for "horrific". It's so easy to check from one of those lovely online dictionaries...

Yes, I would.

And I hope they make better and better computer games. And I will have all the time in the world.