General / Off-Topic Living "Forever" ?

[Morbad]

Anyway, with climate change and population growth, "curing" aging is no guarantee of forever.

No one's suggested it would be.

Remove all "natural causes" of death and the average life expectancy wouldn't be infinity, it would be on the order of 1-2k years. Sooner or later accidental trauma or violence will get you, at least without other advances.

Still, that's at least an order of a magnitude more time to get what enjoyment one can out of existence.

If anything, it'll make those problems worse.

Yes, it will, at least at first.

Still, I'd rather have to fight for existence every day of eternity than be forever doomed by some biological expiration date.

Could it be done with the advancement in medicine, genetic engineering and biochemistry? Most definitely.
SHOULD it be done? Hell no.

Well, no one should be forced to accept more life than they want, but I'll consider any attempt to thwart my potential immortality as an attempt at my murder and will react in kind.

I wonder if in the very long term, it would be more painful to be eternal in the life than eternal in the death.

That life is more painful than non-existence is a given.

Life is suffering, but if I couldn't handle that, I'd have ended it a long time ago.

Another thought: All this life-extension concept may be seen as humans messing with and flying in the face of Nature. As history has told us, Nature has a nasty habit of biting us back when we do stuff that messes with "the grand design".

There is no grand design, just a collection interesting accidents.

If we had life spans so long it would be important to have something to actually live for. Plus, if you think we have a problem with over crowding, resource consumption and pollution now, just imagine if we were gifted with dramatically increased lifespans.

Just living is enough for me.

And no matter how bad those challenges became, I cannot imagine ever willingly surrendering my existence as a solution. If someone wants to put me out of their misery, they can try...whoever survives will have that much more of what's left.

 

[Patrick_68000]

I've noticed that mathematicians working with infinities often get this strange, haunted and scared look on their face.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDogScg_pUI

The unknown must influence for a part.

 

[Patrick_68000]

That life is more painful than non-existence is a given.

Life is suffering, but if I couldn't handle that, I'd have ended it a long time ago.

You touch here a very important point, the time scale.

The term ,"Long time ago", in our human value scale is insignificant and even non-existent compared to the eternity.

 

[Morbad]

The term ,"Long time ago", in our human value scale is insignificant and even non-existent compared to the eternity.

And if eternity ever became unbearable, I could off myself.

I want to have that choice, or at least that opportunity.

 

[Patrick_68000]

Control eternity ?

An interesting point here.

A kind of oxymoron.

 

[Morbad]

Control eternity ?

No, control when my existence ends.

 

[Patrick_68000]

No, control when my existence ends.

I understand but in this case we can not talk about eternal life.

It's a kind of life unknown but not eternal, if you can control it, through your life.

But I understand what you mean but the word "eternal" has no its place here.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

I think it can, and will be done, but whether the brain can cope with centuries of knowledge and memories is another story.

There are seemingly immortal jellyfish though.

Another problem is the catastrophic population growth if it became widely available, you'd have to make people who want to be immortal, infertile.

 

[Old Duck]

I want to have that choice, or at least that opportunity.

The mythical fountain of youth is just that, mythical. Death is coming for us all, best just learn to accept that and find happiness in the moment. The closest thing to a fountain of youth is hitting the gym and eating healthy, and even then your days are numbered.

 

[Morbad]

The mythical fountain of youth is just that, mythical. Death is coming for us all, best just learn to accept that and find happiness in the moment. The closest thing to a fountain of youth is hitting the gym and eating healthy, and even then your days are numbered.

Some myths become reality and finding happiness in the moment only makes my desire to make sure those moments never end that much stronger. If something better than diet and exercise comes along, I will not hesitate to take advantage of it.

I intend to live forever, or die trying.

 

[Stigbob]

Such a revolution in medicine would be a massive flashpoint for a horrendous war.

If the super-rich can live forever - my mates and I will ensure this tech is shared. I'm guessing even with the fixes in the DNA they wouldn't survive bullets.

The super-rich can afford to pay armies to fight for them and all the other gubbins that really tips the balance of conflict.

 

[Slange Lands]

I am trying to rewire my brain into dismissing myself as a single entity and to rather think of myself as part of a huge organism, Earth, with whom I share a symbiotic relationship. In other words "me" is not confined to the particular Slange body/corpse. I am trying to view other people as myself and it's pretty fun. At first I was horrified, but then my attempts at trying to find the sameness made it less horrible.

Yes, I am nuts.

However, I am continuing with my rewiring because I am now becoming less attached to what happens to Slange Lands. If I kick the bucket I don't care. And if I were to live to 267 I wouldn't care either. More importantly, my day/life is slowly becoming more spontaneous and less fear ridden; and I have also pleasantly surprised myself. We'll see....