Simply Syndicated Forum

Got to agree with this, even at 42 my instinct is that my teenage years were very recent, but I have to try hard to remember any the crappy details that happened (and even harder for the much rarer good stuff).  

But this is normal human existence. People die, people betray us. That doesn't mean we have to harden our hearts or "slough it all off" in order to keep existing. Pain ends. New pain begins. This encapsulates human existence.

I think mass imortality would be bad for any kind of society. Political institutions would become stagnant without players dying off with up and comers to replace them. In the third Underworld film, it is pointed out that there are only so many seats on the Vampire ruling council, and they never change because no-one dies off. 

I really liked RoKaren's discussion of how behavior changed in the immortal vampires due to the nature of their immortality. 

I've thought of this.  If I was immortal, but could still die due to tragedy, I guess I wouldn't ever drive anywhere.  I guess I'd never fly, or do anything, because if you are immortal in that way eventually one of those rare statistics catches up with you.

Seems like things would stagnate pretty quickly if folks were immortal like that. 

I've thought of Data in this regard.  Should he really be out there on these risky missions?  Or, should he be locked in a very safe place doing endless research or other safe activities that would be of greater benefit to humanity?

Also, in regard to the religious aspect, they don't call it the opiate of the masses for nothing!  :)

Has anyone read the Robert J Sawyer Flash Forward novel? You probably know from the TV show that the world's population flashes forward into their own consciousness's in the future for a few seconds before returning to the present day.
***************POTENTIAL SPOILERS IF YOU PLAN TO READ IT***********************************

 There are a few flashes (I forget how many, it's been so long) each one going farther into the future. The last flash has nobody recalling anything and the assumption is that it was so far into the future that every living person is dead....Except for one of the characters in the novel. His flashes have his consciousness being stored inside a computer and then, later again, in a new mechanical body looking at another mechanical bodied being. The assumption being that the human race has advanced beyond the need for a biological body and beyond mortality.

**************************SPOILERS END*****************************************************************

RoKaren said:

JAKOB_Nerd_Hurdles said:

But this is normal human existence. People die, people betray us. That doesn't mean we have to harden our hearts or "slough it all off" in order to keep existing. Pain ends. New pain begins. This encapsulates human existence.

I think this feeds back into what I was saying about how our mortal brains (or, I suppose, my mortal brain in this instance) have a difficult time processing the concept of immortality, because, honestly? The thought of always losing people who cross my path and become important to me makes me bone-weary. I just keep thinking that I've lost enough already in just this one lifetime...how much worse would it be to have an unending lifetime of that kind of loss?

Random Star Trek TOS reference: "Requiem For Methuselah"
I have a a soft spot for that Season 3 episode because the actress who played Rayna looked exactly like a girl in my 5th grade class would look when she grew up.  I thought that in elementary school.  Thanks to Facebook, I now know that I wasn't wrong, either -- at least not by much. 
Oh, and of course, the plot of that show is right on point about the fatigue of living through the multiple lifetimes of your peers.  In his case, it meant faking death from time to time and starting over.

My perspective shouldn't be as unique as I fear it is.  It's orthodox, but you won't hear it spoken much outside of a theology class.
While we are "mortal" in the sense of "this mortal coil" or the current state of our physiology, I believe that the part of us that's truly "me" is immortal.  Our story precedes our conscious awareness of it, and it will extend beyond what we rightly call "death."

It shocks me sometimes how that basic Christian theology is so out of step with what you hear from the church -- which is itself just one group of many in a larger group with different non-religious beliefs. 
From a religion perspective, though, the basic concept cuts across most modern faiths.  Hinduism, Buddhism and their predecessors incorporated reincarnation as a form of immortality.  All of theism has a notion of after-life.  In Christianity and ancient Judaism, the concept was that God "knew you before you were born" and that "all would rise from death" whether believers or not.

If that isn't immortality, then we might need a clarification to distinguish superheroes from the rest of us. And in many ways, superheroes are modernizations (pretty directly, at times) of the older pantheistic concepts of gods.
(I'm avoiding references to a TOS episode that I don't like much at all ... mourning for Adonis, etc.)

That aside, I think the world would be a much better place if everyone acted as if they were immortal, specifically from the perspective that you will have to live with your mistakes and acts of insensitivity or foolish lack of foresight for all eternity.  We'd see a very different crop of candidates for U.S. political office if that were the case.
It's very telling that we don't.

I was quite moved by what you said about your new insight into mortality since becoming a father in your 40s Admiral. It's a fairly common state of affairs these days to have children at this stage of life so I daresay you're expressing something many people are experiencing.

I have sympathy with Karen's point of view too, about the cumulation of heartache. Losing a loved one before their time becomes easier to cope with but it never truly fades, and in a world where people are immortal those who die all die before their time. The longer you live the more loved ones you lose. I also share Karen's take that vampires are sexless and stink up the place.

Having said all about the heartache that I'd still love to be immortal. I'm just too damn curious not to want to know what happens next. And to know the answer to the question of Everything. Curiosity may kill the cat but it'll keep me alive forever.

FOREVER!!!! Muahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

On the Discovery Channel rehash show Curiosity, Adam Savage of Mythbusters takes a look at trying to live forever through possible advance science means that can be real.

It is on Youtube, whole episode or parts. I say give it a watch. Pretty interested how he goes on to extent his life and deals maybe living longer then his own children.

If yo can't see it here from outside the U.S. give it a search.
Discovery | Curiosity -- S01E09 - Can You Live Forever?

Another aspect of immortality for everyone, is that it would halt our societal/technological development. If you're gonna live forever, where is the drive to get anything done?

Unless, of course, the fear of overpopulation would compel us to pick up the pace...

That was one of my favourite aspects of True Blood was how the vampire Russell Edgington wanted to exterminate the humans (or take over control of the world) because since we have such short lifespans, we've never really cared about taking care of the planet. Being immortal would give you an impetus to look seriously at the big picture.

I think, generally, people already lack the drive to use those resources in any meaningful way. Being immortal wouldn't change it for the worse, I don't think.