Doctor Omega
Member: Rank 10
Immortality.....
If you could... would you?
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Fun Immortality... Would You?
- Thread starter Doctor Omega
- Start date
Immortality.....
If you could... would you?
Forever is an almost unimaginable concept. The Earth may blow up, the galaxies cool and expire, life may cease everywhere , would I like to see all that and be incapable of dying? No.
A greatly expanded lifespan would be fine, similar to the character Flint in Star Trek T.O.S. episode Requiem For Methuselah. Maybe also I'd like to have been born slightly later, say 1990, so I could see the first settlement of Man on the Moon and go there myself, which I think will happen in around 2050, just too late for me , though I'd be 90 so it's maybe just possible.
Most people are I believe happy with the era their living in. Watching the tv show Catweazle, among all the humour and mirth, it's shown that Catweazle longs for his own time. With all the amazing things he sees, he still wishes he was back in1066 in his cave .
" noise and smoke, this new world chokes with it...I'm a fish out of water"
A greatly expanded lifespan would be fine, similar to the character Flint in Star Trek T.O.S. episode Requiem For Methuselah. Maybe also I'd like to have been born slightly later, say 1990, so I could see the first settlement of Man on the Moon and go there myself, which I think will happen in around 2050, just too late for me , though I'd be 90 so it's maybe just possible.
Most people are I believe happy with the era their living in. Watching the tv show Catweazle, among all the humour and mirth, it's shown that Catweazle longs for his own time. With all the amazing things he sees, he still wishes he was back in1066 in his cave .
" noise and smoke, this new world chokes with it...I'm a fish out of water"
ant-mac
Member: Rank 9
Immortal, but with an internal "kill-switch" that you can activate should you ever wish to.
If you don't activate it, you don't die.
Doctor Omega
Member: Rank 10
Now that's a compromise I could happily live with!
But, to my mind, it raises the question of whether an immortal being would simply get used to the deaths of loved ones around them, throughout the forthcoming centuries?
Whether they would get used to being: always - ultimately - doomed to walk alone?
Would the compensation of seeing the wonders out there, hopefully beyond Earth and even this solar system - of watching humanity's achievements as they happened - make up for the endless dreadful losses?
Or would those accumulated losses all add up to a heap of despair and a burden simply too big to continue with?
Would all of us - no matter our mental strength, philosophies, beliefs or adaptability - end up reaching for that OFF switch? And the unfolding wonders of the universe around us be damned?
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ant-mac
Member: Rank 9
Who says you have to be immortal to get used to the deaths of loved ones around you?Now that's a compromise I could happily live with!
But, to my mind, it raises the question of whether an immortal being would simply get used to the deaths of loved ones around them, throughout the forthcoming centuries?
Whether they would get used to being: always - ultimately - doomed to walk alone?
Would the compensation of seeing the wonders out there, hopefully beyond Earth and even this solar system - of watching humanity's achievements as they happened - make up for the endless dreadful losses?
Or would those accumulated losses all add up to a heap of despair and a burden simply too big to continue with?
Would all of us - no matter our mental strength, philosophies, beliefs or adaptability - end up reaching for that OFF switch? And the unfolding wonders of the universe around us be damned?
My father died in 1980 when I was 12 and Freddy the Pomeranian died just over a month ago. In between, I've lost a steady supply of family members, family pets, friends and important social figures who had some sort of influence on my life. In fact another important social figure - at least to me - passed away just yesterday.
As for walking alone... I've always felt like that. Whether I was a small child with my parents, an adult with my ex, spending time with my friends or attending some sort of a family gathering. I'm currently 50 years-of-age and I haven't pursued an intimate relationship since I was in my 30s. There's an entire side to my family I haven't associated with since the 1980s, barring the odd telephone call when someone dies. I have a brother and a sister whom I've never met - although I did have a telephone conversation with my brother not long after I learned of his existence. I have only one child - that I know of - and I haven't had any sort of contact with him for over 3 years... So I'm used to walking alone.
As for whether or not all of those accumulated losses add up to a heap of despair and burden too big to deal with... I'll let you know.
However, I have no intention of giving up just yet.
Doctor Omega
Member: Rank 10
McQualude
Member: Rank 3
Yes, I would do it. I don't think boredom would be a problem because of something called a memory horizon which is the hypothesis you can only remember so many things. I'm over 50 and my memory is still really good but sometimes I see a name and it's familiar but I don't have any memories associated with it. It usually turns out to be someone from school. Now I went to a small school with the same 50 people for 12 years so forgetting one feels like a big deal but I certainly have forgotten some. I've looked through old Facebook message exchanges with people that I clearly knew well at the time but I couldn't tell you who they are now. And FB isn't that old compared to me. But still, my memory is better than most of my friends I think. There is a sci-fi short story, can't remember the name (ha-ha), about 2 people who meet in a cafe and get along. They start to feel like they might have met before. Eventually it is revealed they are immortals and were once married for decades but it was so long ago they have forgotten.
Memory and immortality is an interesting concept. Why when we wake in the morning do we accept we're the same person as yesterday. Memory of course. Memory equals identity. No memory no continuous identity.
So being immortal and forgetting what you did and who you met thousands of years ago would call continuous identity into question. Physically you may be immortal but without memory and therefore identity it would be a pointless and hollow concept.
Perhaps we all have immortal souls, perhaps my soul lived inside a body in 1672, but I have no memory of it, so it can't really be my soul except in a vague useless concept. See video below.
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McQualude
Member: Rank 3
Well, exactly. But we don't need to live a thousand years, are any of us really the same people we were 30-40-50 years ago? (if you are old enough) I'm not. I look back at the man I was in the 20's and I don't know that guy. The man in his 30's rings a bell. The man in his 40's, yeah, I remember him. The person I was as a teenager -- total alien. If a man commits a murder at 20, does it make sense to lock him up for life? I don't know. Is he the same man at 40, at 50? Murder is an extreme example but I think it depends on the circumstances. Did the person kill as a mistake, an error in judgement; or because of bad character. I've learned there is a difference.
And as a kid/teenager I feared sleep exactly for the reason you mention -- am I the same person when I wake up? Sleep is the first cousin of death. I still don't like sleeping, hate it.
Doctor Omega
Member: Rank 10
Doctor Omega
Member: Rank 10
This Creature Never Dies! (Immortality)
The Seeker
Member: Rank 6
That jellyfish is like Doctor Who!
With scientists saying we almost certainly will see an environmental catastrophe in ten years if we don’t stop climate change, and seeing world leaders not willing to do anything about it, I don’t want to live any longer than I have to.
With scientists saying we almost certainly will see an environmental catastrophe in ten years if we don’t stop climate change, and seeing world leaders not willing to do anything about it, I don’t want to live any longer than I have to.
Doctor Omega
Member: Rank 10
Thinking on it, I'd go for it. But you would have to harden your heart to the people around you regularly popping their clogs while you go on.
And on.
And on.
And on.
And on.
ant-mac
Member: Rank 9
Done and done.
