bleedblue22 Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 Frankly the idea of death scares me. If there is no afterlife, shouldn't we pool our resources into reversing the aging process or other things that could extend the lifespan of a human indefinitely? I could see this being extremely tricky with population problems, limited resources, and how to properly distribute such technology to the masses, but isn't it worth a try? The longer we live the more problems we would face, such as the heat death of our sun or environmental disasters, but maybe we could adapt and continue t live through these struggles. What do you guys think? Pro immortality or let nature take its course with us? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
violetbutterfly Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 No thank you. This life is enough for me. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mymistake Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 You know it will be something only billionaires can afford. And then they will never pass their wealth on to another generation. Imagine if somebody's billionaire building power over the economy could last forever. Because once you get enough wealth your knowledge of working the system lives with you. ugh! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarflungWanderer Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 If it becomes practical, I'd leave it up to those that'd choose to do it. However, I doubt "immortality" means "you stop aging", so I think living eternally while your body slowly destroys itself until you're some kind of thousand-year-old fetus isn't exactly my idea of a party. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwc Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 "Well I don't wanna live forever, But I don't want to die..." --Black Sabbath (13, Live Forever) mwc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonTheDruid Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 No. I think that could lead to all sorts of troubles. And like stated above--- only the rich would have access to it. Now.... some way to accelerate healing rate(from physical injuries) and continuing to advance medicine that could help increase human life span back to a certain 100+ years rather than the average 80 could be nice as long as one is still thriving, but I don't think that human bodies are just built to last much longer than that. I'm not scared of death, though I am afraid of what could cause death(like any normal person with health self-preservation...), and while I don't think there is any sort of afterlife, I do take comfort in the fact that energy cannot be destroyed, however it does change forms. So when your body can no longer sustain your life, the energy that makes you up will simply take on other forms...Like the lives of new animals or insects or plants or birds... Your body may no longer work and /you/ will cease to live one day, but your energy will live on. Sounds like a good 'afterlife' to me =) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdelsolray Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 Some effort to extend life, focusing on the quality of life, makes sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overcame Faith Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 Human immortality, if it were possible, would contribute to a stagnation of human evolution. It would lock those immortals into the human evolutionary development as of the time of their births while other humans who lived, procreated, and then died might just, over many thousands of years, give birth to superior humans. In other words, those who were not immortal, might eventually become vastly superior to the immortals. Quite a quandary. Immortality equals a stunted human evolutionary advancement, at least for the immortals. So, for the good of humanity, my vote is no. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RogueScholar Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 What is meant by "immortality?" At this point I'm having a difficult time defining what that may mean in a practical sense. We are so exceptionally ignorant about many of the underlying processes of life that I'm not confident we have a real, practical grasp on what "immortal" means for a biological system. Particularly in the setting of deep time. I wish I was more confident in making any assertions but we are so far from understanding many complex biological processes I have to hesitate when it comes to even defining certain concepts and questions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bleedblue22 Posted January 22, 2015 Author Share Posted January 22, 2015 The evolutionary objection I have never understood. We don't just let slackers and the unfortunate die prematurely today or forbid them to reproduce. The way society is today, evolution has pretty much stagnated already Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bleedblue22 Posted January 22, 2015 Author Share Posted January 22, 2015 I know scientists are researching ways to grow organs to replace old, worn out ones. While you could pretty much replace all your organs, you can't replace your brain, so it would continue to age. Even if we got rid of Alzheimer's and dementia, I don't know if a brain would continue to function properly after like 200 years Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thurisaz Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 Another thought to pursue: Are we mentally fit for immortality? How long before an immortal either became bored with life, or couldn't stand life any longer because everything has changed so much from when she grew up? Look at how quickly our world changes today. I've seen enough elderly people who can hardly find their way anymore (metaphorically, not literally) in a world with all the new stuff we keep inventing. Multiply by, say, 1,000. Won't immortals quite quickly seem insane to the mortal folks, and vice versa? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
midniterider Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 Frankly the idea of death scares me. If there is no afterlife, shouldn't we pool our resources into reversing the aging process or other things that could extend the lifespan of a human indefinitely? I could see this being extremely tricky with population problems, limited resources, and how to properly distribute such technology to the masses, but isn't it worth a try? The longer we live the more problems we would face, such as the heat death of our sun or environmental disasters, but maybe we could adapt and continue t live through these struggles. What do you guys think? Pro immortality or let nature take its course with us? Why not just adjust your idea about death? Why is death scary? I dont want to pay taxes for eternity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bleedblue22 Posted January 22, 2015 Author Share Posted January 22, 2015 There are many things scary about dying. I don't know how I'll go. The most likely causes: cancer seems drawn out and awful and heart attacks seem traumatic and painful. Plus the fear of the unknown is always there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gall Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 Frankly the idea of death scares me. If there is no afterlife, shouldn't we pool our resources into reversing the aging process or other things that could extend the lifespan of a human indefinitely? I could see this being extremely tricky with population problems, limited resources, and how to properly distribute such technology to the masses, but isn't it worth a try? The longer we live the more problems we would face, such as the heat death of our sun or environmental disasters, but maybe we could adapt and continue t live through these struggles. What do you guys think? Pro immortality or let nature take its course with us? can we maybe worry about stuff like ending war and poverty and hunger first? If those things still existed I would not want to live forever just to see it go on and on. It sounds like a grand plan for some distant future but right now our race has far more pressing things to worry about. We may not even make it to that point in history. I have confidence in our ability to solve our issues though and maybe one day we will live far longer than we do now. Nature and the universe has managed for a pretty long while without us bending it. I would say in the long run that self evolution is not a bad thing but only when done with control and for the right reasons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gall Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 There are many things scary about dying. I don't know how I'll go. The most likely causes: cancer seems drawn out and awful and heart attacks seem traumatic and painful. Plus the fear of the unknown is always there the unknown could just be the next great adventure. Maybe our lives are not what we think they are and you wake up at death and take off the goggles and go back to your real life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravenstar Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 immortality and evolution don't work well together. A longer life, in good health? Sure… but the universe is all about dynamic change, without change? It's actually kind of creepy. It's the young people who create real change in society… not the old farts. Each generation brings fresh ideas, some of those are progressive, it's the young who in their idealism usher in the new. Because they are not afraid, or stuck in their ways… or just stupid - but we need that courage. There may be exceptions but on the whole life makes one a bit timid after some time, and stubborn. No, I would not like that world. "Unless one says goodbye to what one loves, and unless one travels to completely new territories, one can expect merely a long wearing away of oneself and an eventual extinction." JEAN DEBUFFET Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExCBooster Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 Frankly the idea of immortality scares me. Think about how much you've grown and changed, over your life so far. You're not the same person you were when you were born. Nearly all of your cells, even (except neurons, kinda), aren't the originals. The "you" that was born has already died, many times over. Life is constant change. When cells run out of divisions they can safely make before they endanger their DNA, they die. Running up against the Hayflick limit is actual cellular ageing. There are few human cells that can bypass this rule, and the ones that can are cancer. Death is a part of life, and the end of change, of development. If you were to live forever somehow, you would have to change. Continuously. Over literal eternity. How much of what makes you you - knowledge, thought patterns, personality, ethics - would be left after a millennium? How many memories can your brain contain, before you have to upgrade to something else, or start losing them? Is that another kind of death? How much would be left after a billion years? A trillion? Long after the heat death of the universe? Even then, you wouldn't have even begun your journey through eternal time. Immortality is pretty much the most horrifying thing I can imagine. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
25YearsLater Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 70-80 years isn't enough for me. It pisses me off to know that I'm probably nearly two thirds of the way through - I feel like I'm just getting started. There's way too much cool stuff to learn and experience to call it a day after one lifetime. If I had the chance of living for as long as I wanted to, I'd take it - maybe I'd get bored in a few hundred years, maybe I wouldn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Moderator florduh Posted January 22, 2015 Super Moderator Share Posted January 22, 2015 Life cannot exist without death. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Furball Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 Man has been attempting to find immortality since forever, they will not find it. When your dead, your dead. If there really is life after death, what would be the point, what would you do? Unless i am going to be born as another creature on another planet to experience life there and evolve, i don't see the point in there being an after life at all. -CC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Furball Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 Life cannot exist without death. So your a yin/yang kinda guy huh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdelsolray Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 Kinda tough to fight entropy, at any level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thurisaz Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 Depends on the details. Litmus test - if any babblical cretinist is reading this you know what'll come next... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yrth Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 "Immortality" is a mythic idea, isn't it? Like Heaven. Hard to imagine eternity. But there's nothing inherently wrong with living for as long as you want. That sounds ideal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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