Who wants to live forever?

I have a few comments.

First, the whole "energy cannot be created or destroyed" uses the scientific definition of energy as the potential to do work; and is expressed in joules.

If such a spiritual energy exists, how come it has never been measured or quantified?

Second: I would like to live forever, assuming my body would not degrade. I would be like Kain and walk the Earth...
 
Coupla millennia would be cool. Forever? I think the heat-death of the universe might have somehting to say about that.
 
I do not wish to think about living for ever even as a joke. I cannot imagine living happily without my friends or the people I grew-up with. And living for ever as what? As a young person or as an older one without the physical strength I have now?

In any case, no thank you.
 
Okay, I submit. Uncle... Uncle, I said!

I no longer believe in spiritual energy, although I must admit, I didn't hold a whole hell of a lot of validity toward it in the first place. Anyway, I can see all your points about why you wouldn't want to live forever. Makes much more sense now. Forever is a pretty long time, even in a utopia fantasyland, but given the choice, I have to agree with Torment.

I'd still prefer to live forever though, even if I was the last human. The survival instinct in me is too strong to lay down and die, despite any boredom that may ensue without the rest of humanity
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That pretty much sums it up for me.
 
Live forever?

Sure. But just if I am able to continue young and in good shape. I would not even care about no longer being able to see the sunlight, drink blood, feed on someone else´s souls, sell my soul to the devil (bad deal for him, since I would never die).

Would see new things, learn new things, improve myself (even if artificially), spread my DNA and so on. Survival instinct working at its prime.

Yes, there´s the issue of missing the ones you love. I will be very pragmatic in this case- my survival instinct would help dealing with this. People do marry again after all, don´t them?

Just two points-
(1) What is forever or eternity? 1 million years? 1Gy?

(2) The best argument against "eternal life" spiritual or not is that most of our cosmological data point to a cold end to this ever-expanding universe. So, if the universe will fade in to oblivion, why would someone belive that can last forever? What brings you to point (1)...
 
agree with calladus, but I would add the extra proviso that when I wanted to die, there would be a 100 or a 500 year delay, that can be cancelled at any time, just in case I change my mind if something interesting happens. If something has lived for tens of thousands of years, what's 500?
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If you are in chronic pain (one reason for killing oneself) then 500 years is a long, long time.
 
Considering that you live forever, everyone would die that you ever loved, and in the end you would be left alone. with no conversation and nothing to do you would end up going insane.

Im trying to picture the result of a mental patient that has enough time to exercise there insanity fully without limits of medication or care. Im thinking you could become very unique.

The concept of living forever would be like a nightmare to me. As people have said once you have tried everything you would be bored.

The thing is that forever is so long that you have a good chance of forgetting lots of things, so when so see them again they are like new. This is the best I expect you could hope for. To end up deluded that you are having new unique experiences.
 
A_Feeble_Mind said:
The whole "wouldn't it be boring to live forever" argument sounds like sour grapes to me. We cannot live forever, so it is easier to convince yourself that you don't want that, anyways.

Although, I have wondered if the technology to keep people alive indefinately would have already been invented if the lies of "eternal life after death" hadn't made so many people complacent.
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Your argument doesn't hold. There are countless things I can't do that I might want to (or dream of) and just as many things I can do that I don't want to. Consider the hypothetical, "Would you want to fly?" I can't, but I would answer "yes" to the question.

Quite to the contrary, I think most people who want to live forever do so because they cannot. But as they say, be careful what you wish for...
 
I think the Judeo-Christian concept of eternal life is really just a HELL in disguise! Think about it, they believe that everyone that ever lived is “immortal” you, me, Randi, Hitler.
Immortal is very different from “living forever” living forever means to be able to end your life, immortal means you are not able to end it.
No just think about it, on Judgment day most people are thrown into hell, a small number are let into heaven (lets call that number S {for saved}).
According to the BIBLE one can be cast out of the presence of God for sin, Satan and his minions were after all, so there is every reason to believe that expulsion could happen after a “soul” makes it though the pearly gates.
Say one “soul” gets the boot every billion years or so; S-1; the next billion years; S-2; and so on and so on till there is no one left; everyone ends up in hell “bummer”.
So the answer is no, I’d just prefer to fade out
 
chulbert said:


Your argument doesn't hold. There are countless things I can't do that I might want to (or dream of) and just as many things I can do that I don't want to. Consider the hypothetical, "Would you want to fly?" I can't, but I would answer "yes" to the question.
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Perhaps it doesn't hold. But, I suspect that it is easier to sit back at a young age, thinking death is many years away, and say that you are just sure you would be bored and it is good that you won't live forever. However, is it common for the elderly to be ready to die? How many old people decide that they have done everything and are bored?

Actually, there are probably many elderly who would say they are ready to die and go off to heaven and hang with Jesus etc. etc. How many nonreligious get tired of life, then?


Quite to the contrary, I think most people who want to live forever do so because they cannot. But as they say, be careful what you wish for...
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I'm not claiming that you are doomed to live forever; there need not be something from preventing you from ending your life at any point. I just wonder, if you aren't ready to die now, why would you be ready to die later?
 
A_Feeble_Mind said:
Actually, there are probably many elderly who would say they are ready to die and go off to heaven and hang with Jesus etc. etc. How many nonreligious get tired of life, then?
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What would such an elderly person say if you offered him eternal youth? At the age or ages of his or her choosing?

People are people - everyone is different. What would drive one person right 'round the twist would be sheer joy to another.
 
The trouble with living forever is that most of us have already missed the first many billion years of forever. The best we could do now is to live for the remaining portion of forever, unless some sort of time travel were involved...
 
Upchurch said:
The trouble with living forever is that most of us have already missed the first many billion years of forever. The best we could do now is to live for the remaining portion of forever, unless some sort of time travel were involved...
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Why does that bother you? The "first many billion years" is not even a drop in the bucket of forever.
 
chulbert said:


Why does that bother you? The "first many billion years" is not even a drop in the bucket of forever.
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maybe not. Maybe it's like living one less than infinity? It's still infinity?


Hmm.... ponderous.
 
A_Feeble_Mind said:
I'm not claiming that you are doomed to live forever; there need not be something from preventing you from ending your life at any point. I just wonder, if you aren't ready to die now, why would you be ready to die later?
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Great, then we're on the same page. "Doomed to live forever" is exactly the correct phrase; It means you recognize there is a point, however far into the future, that you will no longer have the desire to live. I agree with that position.
 
chulbert said:


Great, then we're on the same page. "Doomed to live forever" is exactly the correct phrase; It means you recognize there is a point, however far into the future, that you will no longer have the desire to live. I agree with that position.
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That is not quite what I meant. My point is that, assuming that you could live indefinitely and only die when you choose to, you would be as likely to have the desire to live as you do now. A billion years from now you would still have the ability to end it all, just like now. Wouldn't you still have the same "maybe-in-a-billion-years" feeling?
 
I would love to live forever. Although there is no feasible way to attain perfection, Havng an infinite life would be asymptiotic (is that a word?) Eternal life is as close to perfection as one can possibly get. I for one would have a grand old time in my ~15 Billion year life.

My only catch would be I no longer want to breathe, just so I could stay in space and not implode on myself....

I see now that we have defined these words. I would prefer to be IMMORTAL, as in, I cannot die. I know, that even if all life in the universe were to cease to exist, and the Universe did whatever it's going to do in the future, I still have my brain. and I can stay up in my imagination for eons, especially with all my accumulated knowledge/wealth/power/athletic ability/etc.
 
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