Do you want immortality?

[roger]

Immortality for me. I don't know what bored means.

 

[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

A billion years? Half the time I can't remember what I did last week.

Perhaps, but I bet you can remember the emotions.

Immortality for me. I don't know what bored means.

You will after the heat death, dude.

~~ Paul

 

[Serenity]

Immortality for me. I don't know what bored means.

One might say it's when irresponsible climbers drive pitons into an Easter Head.

 

[PixyMisa]

Perhaps, but I bet you can remember the emotions.

Some of them, yeah.

But look, are we talking about immortality, infinite life, but with the same old finite human brain? Stuff will just fall out of it after a few centuries. It's just not built for that.

You will after the heat death, dude.

Doesn't work.

If you are the product of a material brain, you can't exist after the heat death of the universe. If you are an immaterial mind, the heat death of the universe is irrelevant.

Infinite life is only possible in an infinite universe where there are necessarily an infinite variety of experiences to, uh, experience, so you need never be bored.

 

[Beleth]

How would we ever know we were immortal? All we know is that we haven't died yet.

 

[merentha]

Only if it comes with the power to smite people who irritate me. Otherwise, thanks, but I'll pass.

 

[merentha]

How would we ever know we were immortal? All we know is that we haven't died yet.

How do you know that you're not already dead and this is the Afterlife?

 

[El Greco]

You may forget what the women were like, but you would not forget that you were just doing this over and over and over ...

I certainly hope I won't! Over and over and over... I never thought that the idea of immortality could turn me on...

 

[Soapy Sam]

Who was it "said some long for immortality who are bored on a wet Sunday afternoon...?"

Immortality behind the counter of a 7-11?

Immortality with arthritis?

Immortality with memory of all the stupid mistakes you made, all the "meaningful relationships" you've had?
(What relationship can be "meaningful" against a background of forever?)

Love does not last until the seas run dry and mountains melt with the sun.
It lasts a lifetime if we are lucky.

Suns take billions of years to run their course and from the point of view of an immortal they are like flashguns at a pop concert. Flickers of light.

The awful , spirit and mind crushing weight of the word "forever" is a horror which could only end in insanity by any human measure. Yet it does not end. Ever.

If god exists, and we are made in his image, he is probably insane.

Human worth, human achievement, human value, honour, bravery, love - anything we do is only of value measured against the baseline of death. Mortality is our gift, our reason for everything we do, our sole justification for spitting in the face of the universe. We curse and we laugh and we die.

I can imagine no greater horror, no more awful evil than immortality.

 

[Angus McPresley]

Do you want immortality?

Yep.

 

[El Greco]

Immortality behind the counter of a 7-11?

Yes, and orgies at night

Immortality with arthritis?

You can be pretty sure that when we reach immortality arthritis will be long gone.

Immortality with memory of all the stupid mistakes you made, all the "meaningful relationships" you've had?
(What relationship can be "meaningful" against a background of forever?)

1. You don't know how your brain would get rewired after 3 billion years.

2. Who said you have to be limited to one relationship ?

3. With enough time, there would be virtually no mistakes worth thinking about.

Love does not last until the seas run dry and mountains melt with the sun.
It lasts a lifetime if we are lucky.

Yep, that's about one love. But why limit yourself to one ?

The awful , spirit and mind crushing weight of the word "forever" is a horror which could only end in insanity by any human measure. Yet it does not end. Ever.

Perhaps, but this is only because human measures are currently tailored to a finite life. If immortality was real, human measures would be a lot different.

Besides, the brain has limited capacity, a la LIFO. After a certain point you'd be having memories only from the last 300 years or so.

 

[El Greco]

Imagine we finally make a computer program that can replicate a human brain, only that we know every single feature and function of that brain. We can delete negative feelings and keep just happiness and excitement. This is how I imagine immortality. When something is good, you don't want it to end. You don't get bored of it, simply because you can delete boredom as well.

 

[merentha]

Imagine we finally make a computer program that can replicate a human brain, only that we know every single feature and function of that brain. We can delete negative feelings and keep just happiness and excitement. This is how I imagine immortality. When something is good, you don't want it to end. You don't get bored of it, simply because you can delete boredom as well.

In other words, immortality on crack.

 

[El Greco]

In other words, immortality on crack.

Immortality is crack by definition.

Mind you, crack is a wonderful thing if you get rid of the side effects.

 

[Imaginative]

Sign me up for Immortality but watch out for the small print :

*The law of averages are against you. With an infinite life span, at some stage you will encounter a fatal accident. Just be careful out there.

 

[Soapy Sam]

El Greco- Paul's OP was asking about immortality for us. Humans.
He says nothing about it happening a million years from now when we have cured all illness and achieved harmony, sweetness and light throughout the universe. He's asking about us, here and now.

My point is that humans are in no way adapted to cope with the stresses of immortality and that any creature that was would in no way be human.

Offered a million year span of awareness I would unhesitatingly take it. Offered a billion, I would give it some thought- say a century or two.
Offered immortality, I would dismiss it out of hand.

 

[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

Doesn't work.

If you are the product of a material brain, you can't exist after the heat death of the universe. If you are an immaterial mind, the heat death of the universe is irrelevant.

It's immortality forever, like it or not. I can't define it, I don't know what it means, but there you are forever. Otherwise it's an opt-out situation, which just doesn't seem fair. Of course everyone would go for an opt-out situation.

(I'm not claiming this thread is coherent. )

~~ Paul

 

[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

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!

At a meeting of the Immie Steering Committee (ISC) last evening, it was decided that all Immies will wear uniforms with color chosen from the following: teal, mauve, strawberry, black, or silver. Special requests can be made and one was granted: pink. However, no chartreuse or taupe uniforms will be allowed.

It may be confusing to some that I was present at the ISC meeting when I am an avowed Normie. This confusion will be cleared up at a later date.

~~ Paul

 

[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

In other words, immortality on crack.

It seems clear to me that all the Immies imagine a crack-based utopia for their immortal realm. Otherwise they would admit that the prospect sounds horrendous.

~~ Paul

 

[roger]

So if there is heat death, but we continue to exist, that means that we are not of this universe. So, if we are pretending that, I'll pretend I can scoot off to some other universe and continue living there. I'll also pretend that I'll never develop a permanent mental disease while we're at it. Then Paul will repost and pretend that those are not options available to me.

IOW, in make believe it's easy enough to make up some conditions that would either make us want to continue to live, or not to. What's the point in that game?