Do you want immortality?

I say no opt-out. Immortal is immortal. But even immortal until the universe is cold and dead sounds pretty horrendous to me.

~~ Paul
 
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Paul C. Anagnostopoulos said:
If you're going to be immortal while everyone else is dropping dead, you better have a thick skin when it comes to the accumulation of memories of those you have lost.

(Did I just mix metaphors or something?)

~~ Paul
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You have lots of time to get used to it :)
 
Our memories can only hold so much information so it's possible that you'd only remember the past few hundred years or so of your life anyway. If that was the case, I could handle the idea of immortality, just about, but the idea of living a good and fulfilling life for 80ish years then going nicely to sleep is more appealing.

Most people waste their lives on trash anyway, imagine a billion years of watching reality TV...
 
Quick calculation. If you take $100 US and invest it in a very conservative account with a 5% annual return, in 471 years you will have about a trillion dollars. I can wait.:D
 
Seismosaurus said:
Just how immortal are we talking? True immortality would meant that you'd be the last thing to exist when the entire remainder of the universe had died out and turned to dust. A trillion years floating in a universe alone, nobody to talk to, nothing to do? No thanks.

Give me a million years or a billion years, that I'd like. But forever? No thanks.
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"For what could any entity, conscious of eternal existance, want, but an end?" Issac Asimov

From the outstanding short story "The Last Answer" in which he postulates that GOD created us in order to seek and find the manner of his own end.
 
I would choose immortality. I think it will happen eventually or we’ll come close if we don’t kill ourselves first. I can imagine a time when people will be given the option to live as long as they'd like. Ray Kurzweil talks about the singularity being near; within 20 years or so. We’re approaching the knee of that technological curve that will transform our lives in unseen ways. Artificial Intelligence will do amazing things for us in our lifetime. Maybe our destiny is to integrate with it. Our biological model evolves too slow. We're on the doorstep of taking over the reigns. At some point it will make sense to replace the chassis with something better and more efficient. Who knows, In a hundred years or so we might come to the conclusion that our carbon based bodies should be phased out for something more durable. Cosmetic surgery for the old (or all) might be an entirely new form of existence.

If we can continue to evolve unimpeded and avoid catastrophy for a few hundred years, we'll have a shot at becoming god-like. We also need to start colonizing other planets or building artificial space stations soon. Every day here, is one day closer to an Extinction Level Event , external or self imposed. You don’t want all your eggs in one basket when that day comes. One Dark Age was enough.
 
There was a story long ago called "friends come in boxes". I can't remember the author. But, in the story they would clone your body without a brain. They would wait until this body was a year old or so and then they would implant your brain into this body and you would have another life. The title came from the fact the brains would be kept alive in boxes until the new body was ready and people would be like a foster family. Keeping you company until it was time. Very good story. The thought of 1 year olds running around with the brains of people who have lived hundreds of years always facinated me.
 
I still maintain that I'm ok with pretty much anything as long as it's not immortality like that one Outer Limits episode. Where you're still conscious in your dead body and you just kinda...hang out.

So many options for immortality, which to choose?
 
Look, it's that simple: By the time you will have had sex with the last woman on earth, you will have forgotten how it was with the first one. Can you see the endless loop ?
 
At the risk of being repetitious, I would like to once again recommend Diaspora by Greg Egan. His earlier short stories about the Ndoli Jewel are also worth reading.

Below is a link to one of the Ndoli Jewel stories.

Border Guards
 
As a limited human, I think a few hundred would be about my lot. I'd eventually get tired of it all and wish to let go. Or if it had to be longer, I might arrange some centuries of rest, to skip ahead and see what's coming. Given extraordinary abilities to learn and explore the universe, and I could stay busy for aeons. But I think even so eventually I would be ready to stop.
 
I don't think we can give a meaningful answer from here.
Humans are what they have evolved into because of a finite and fairly short life.

Given infinite life we would be something different and have different ideas about it.
 
I think it's clear the Immies will be just fine on our own in their giant orbitting eternal space station above the planet. Enjoy your 80 years on Earth and war with Cyber-Apes, normies!

I wonder how your personality might develop if given hundreds if not thousands of years to mill about?
 
Kopji said:
I don't think we can give a meaningful answer from here.
Humans are what they have evolved into because of a finite and fairly short life.

Given infinite life we would be something different and have different ideas about it.
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Maybe you meant we couldn't give an accurate answer, not a meaningful one. I would agree with that.
I think pondering outside the box creates a meaningful start in addressing this topic. The first generation that grapples with this issue will have to consider the impact of immortality (or very long life) before it ever happens. Just because our answer today might not be accurate shouldn't stop us from beginning a dialogue. Considering these possibilities now gives us a headstart in debating its ramifications. We might be on the verge of extending the human lifespan significantly within our lifetime. We should already be preparing for these inevitable realities.
 
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