Is immortality a desirable thing?

Question

If you Could not die under any circumstances whatever. Insant tissue regeneration, never getting ill. Even if you were burned in a furnace the particles would gather together and make you whole again. You would live untill the the Universe itself came to an end, perhaps for 15 to 20 Billion more years. I think a few thousand years or even tens of thousands of years would be desirable, but 20 Billion?

You would not die under any circumstances whatever. Instant tissue regeneration, never getting ill. Even if you were burned in a furnace the particles would gather together again and make you whole. I think a few thousand years or even tens of thousands of years would be desirable. But immortality means you would live untill the Universe itself ended, perhaps for another 20 Billion years or more. Too long perhaps?

Answer 1

How am I to know until I get there?
When I was five, teen-agers seemed mature and unattainably brilliant and skilled.
When I was a teen, adults were aliens and I was sure I would never become like that.
As a twenty-something (a tweenager), I knew that life would never get better.
As a thirty-something, I was working so hard and so long that I never noticed.
As a forty-ish man, I like life, and my kids make me proud, and I love my wife - don't get any better than this, right?
And that's just in four or five DECADES.
I can't really remember what it was LIKE to be a kid. I WAS a kid, I am pretty sure. I can remember some incidents. But how it was, day-to-day, to be that skinny 7-year-old? Not a clue.
I certainly don't know what it will be like to be a decade older than I am now, if in fact, I am still burning calories and brain cells in another decade. Not a clue. Not a clue.
In fact, thinking about it, my life consists of the past few years and the next day or two. Oh, I have long-term plans, and I remember a lot about the long-ago-when-I-was, but as far as the active RAM, what is "me" as it were, we're talking about a "lifespan" of 20 months.
There is some continuity, of course. Each day, I do the same things. I wear different clothes, sometimes, depending on the weather. I eat different foods (yummy). I pat the cat. I talk to my wife. I work. I sleep. These things I have always done and always will do. So far as I know.
Probably.
So, a year or two, or a billion years or two, or until the Universe achieves the Monobloc. No matter to the rest of the universe (if there is a rest of the universe). No difference.
It's all a chain of 20-month creatures who kind of remember their predecessors, if that means that they ARE their predecessors, which I doubt.
We'll see you in a billion years or three. You'll know me. I look exactly like my "icon." Mention this conversation.
I think?
Cheers.

Answer 2

Generally I think this would be the worst form of torture one could face...

...imagine-you could not have a lasting relationship...you would not be as others, facing a certain, if indeterminate death. Many people (ask any teenager!) find life boring, and while I fill my life with interesting things to do I know that in another 20 or so years I'll be dead. My life will have run its course and I'll die either happy and fulfilled, or possibly not, but I know the end will come one day fairly soon.

I'm not in any hurry to go and would probably welcome a few years extra to live out my fantasies and desires, but thousands of years? Tens of thousands? Millions? I don't think so.

This week my lovely wife, Julie, who has had to go back to England for urgent treatment for cancer has been told that, although the cancer is treatable, her other complaints, only just diagnosed, mean that she has a maximum of ten years left...Ten years only, or less. Yesterday we both cried and I wish and hope she ends up with more. If she does not she will be only 59 years old when she dies, I would be 73. A few more years is all I would ask.

But if she is in pain then she will probably be very glad to go, and I'll not wish to be here either.

If the 'eternity' thing was possible would I want to spend it without her? No, I wouldn't.

Just live the years you get as though each day may be your last and you won't waste any of your time. When she is able to come home to Spain this is how we'll live...no more putting things off for another day, another year. What she wants to do we will do at the time and not regret a single day of it.

Good luck,

BobSpain

Answer 3

How can I answer this? It is a question born out of desire, and do desires ever get fulfilled all? My desires were born with me into this world, and one day they will die, but will I live on beyond all the time that I can wish for? This is the question … for, I might already be immortal … if so then my failing in this life would be my inability to see this, inability to live even when I am all alive.

To live forever then is to go forever, to journey forever, to take steps forever and ever move forward. If there is life then that means life; the concept of ultimate death is alien within the concept of ultimate life, two things at once place, impossible. And since there is life, as I have, then life it is in any case, and death is but a void between two steps of life along an unending journey forward.

We all travel in life, and life is not standing still either, and howsoever scenic the surroundings of our passage may be, we know that we have to go further, much further, with something for more enchanting, fascinating and fulfilling always in the view further along the path; behind those distant hills and under those silver clouds our dreams reside, a place where we ultimately belong. The path is treacherous, the terrain difficult and my feet weary, but my eyes are searching and searching.

If life then is an unending journey and death just a void between its two steps then a desire to hold on to a place would be naïve, and all attempts of staying standing still futile. Willingness to die would not be the deliverance from the tyranny of dying, but faith and hope to find something on the other side is, and courage to move along is. Sometimes, we wonder what could lie on the other side of the river; sometimes we hope but most often we doubt and fear, the fear of the unknown that is most painful to the mind.

Answer 4

I have thought about this one also.
So far I have gotten lots of reasons why it is not but emotionally I still cannot accept my own death fully. Here are a few ideas:
The knowledge of death gives meaning to the events in our lives.
Our minds are designed to go through stages for further meaning.
In a sense we die a few times in one life as we move on to new life stages.
There is perhaps a limit to how many life experiences/memories that can 'sum up' to give us our present, too many might make us insane.
Absolute immortality is probably a bad thing but 'enough time' to go when you are ready may be OK. What could be worse that wanting to die and not being able to?
Other people are very important and I am not sure I could take immortality without my friends.
Science fiction like 'Altered Carbon' addresses this issue to some extent.
Happy trails.

Answer 5

I would love to be immortal.

I know people may ask if I have thought it through and the answer is 'yes'.

I have already seen the deaths of grandparents greatgrandparents uncles aunts and best friends. I think that although death is painful to us all, you do build up a defence to the emotion.

As an immortal, I think yes I would hate to see loved ones come and go, but all the things that you would see, and the knowledge that you would gain would be incredible.

Remember, being immortal does not mean you cannot be killed. :)

Answer 6

in Greek tales, Eos asked Zeus for immortality for her lover Tithonous, but she did not ask also for perpetual youth, so he became ever older and more miserable. At last, Zeus changed him into an insect. I recall a story about a group of immortals. A man heard about them and said it would be wonderful if Shakespeare could have become immortal and continued writing ever better plays indefinitely. He was disappointed when he saw them. They did nothing but lie about like bums. They figured they could do anything if they tried, so why bother to make any effort.

Answer 7

No, although it's a fancy knowing what the world will become as life goes on. But you know, a person could only live for quite some time; it would be tiresome for him to see what goes on Earth forever. We ought to rest in peace at some point in our lives.

Answer 8

It would only be desirable if you had the mental ability and strength to endure that long. As we have always been mortal beings we have the mentality as such, and whilst it seems we would be happy to have immortal life, a mentality of a mortal man would not translate very well. You will inevitably become fed up and when you wish to die immortality will reveal itself to be a horrible curse.

Answer 9

it's desirable to live life, however long it may be. if we pay attention to every moment, every experience of the six senses, questions that cannot be answered cease to have any relevance. we do have immortality; the atoms that we consist of do not disappear when this body ceases. they continue in another collection; perhaps part in water, part in a tree, part in the soil.....

Answer 10

Well all I could say is that I would be either very bored or extremely inquisitive. I thought of Groundhog Day the movie when you mentioned this. I think I would get bored after a while and just be reckless.