If you could, would you live forever?

I'm curious what the general stance on this is.
Go ahead and post your reasoning, but please answer before you read what anyone else has said.
The lack of a "maybe" option is intentional. Be decisive. You can explain the qualifiers that might alter your answer in your post, but pick yes or no first.

Yes, though it would suck if I got stuck in a situation where I should really be dead but can't die, such as having the sun blow up a few billion years from now and getting stuck on a cold, dead planet until the end of the universe or something. I think I'd prefer it if it were the kind of immortality where you simply won't die unless you're killed.

If I wouldn't age, perhaps. But it would get boring reallllllly fast.

Nah, I feel like it'd get old faster than I would.

No, but only because I don't know enough about the stipulations.

I'd be totally up for living "forever" if I specifically knew I wouldn't grow older than 30 or so in mind or body, couldn't be permanently disabled or disfigured, and could "opt out" and kill myself at any point. Lacking any of those qualifiers would make it a no-go though, mostly for the reason Whim established.

Agen, you didn' vooote!

Anyway... boring. Hmm. Yeah, I think that's a pretty common answer. My response is, simply, why? Why couldn't you keep finding entertainment?

Aaaand, lonely + nothing you did would have meaning.
Lonely, I can sort of see, IF you assume you're the only immortal. What if you aren't?
But I really don't get how come nothing you did would have meaning? Why not? What meaning would dying bring to your actions?

EDIT:

I'd be totally up for living "forever" if I specifically knew I wouldn't grow older than 30 or so in mind or body, couldn't be permanently disabled or disfigured, and could "opt out" and kill myself at any point. Lacking any of those qualifiers would make it a no-go though, mostly for the reason Whim established.

Ahh, but Whimbrel voted yes!

I'd absolutely say yes. There is no shortage of wonder in the world for me. Some people never run out of things to live for, no matter their age or health: I'm unquestionably one of these. I would never lack a cause, and would finally be able to live without the regret of not having enough time to do everything I wish to do in the world. I have the resilience to deal with any pain or misfortune. Even the love I have for those who have already passed away gives me strength and smiles. I would be able to explore the world and get to know tons of people until its eventual disappearance, though I will have dedicated myself to trying my best to save it from that or at least delay it through ecological, humanitarian and science work. Even if it comes to drifting alone for an impossibly long stretch of time, I would find ways to occupy myself and find enjoyment in exploration, learning the stars, building myself some kind of home to travel with all the while having my good memories for company and also enjoying the ability to engage in intellectual and/or creative thought (and activity if I can get my hands on physical stuff though it may be a little hard), though admittedly without social interaction any human can be expected to go crazy after long enough. Regardless, that's one hell of a better and more satisfying run than I could have had without immortality.

If I could see humanity and the Earth through to their ends, helping them as much as I could throughout, I would. I -friggin love existing-. 8'D

If we're allowed to add qualifiers, then the choice is obvious for me. Perfect health, no negative effects of aging, ability to hibernate at will, and ability to self-terminate under one's own will. Honestly, even just the last one seems to remove any negative outcomes, as long as one doesn't have moral issues with euthanasia.

Only if I could share the living foreverness with someone else.
Could be anyone to be honest, you'd probably start liking anyone when you have eternity to get to know 'em.

EDIT:

I'd be totally up for living "forever" if I specifically knew I wouldn't grow older than 30 or so in mind or body, couldn't be permanently disabled or disfigured, and could "opt out" and kill myself at any point. Lacking any of those qualifiers would make it a no-go though, mostly for the reason Whim established.

Ahh, but Whimbrel voted yes!

Just because I cited things she mentioned doesn't mean I have to come to the same conclusion

I'd probably be imprisoned after they realize I've looked the same for 50 years and that's it: I'd be labeled an alien and would be stuck in prison forever. Good deal? No. I don't like immortality.

UNLESS... I had other powers as well. Who wouldn't love blowing shit up and not suffering consequences?

Whoa what?! I think the blowing things up is the only thing that would actually get you in prison yo. xD;;

You could always just plastic surgery to look like you're aging, and stage your own hiking accident death and then go live as a hermit for awhile before returning to society in a different location. Alternate hermitdom and nonhermitdom? Buy new identities if necessary? xD

You, know, a lot of people in this world carry a firm conviction that they will continue to exist in some fashion even after they die!

Along these lines, I will vote "no", but I do so with the assumption that "living forever" implies an unbroken chain of physical living and breathing from this point on wards. Even for those who believe in an afterlife, death is a necessary step in the process. To forever cling to existence as we know it denies us the opportunity to step out into whatever lies beyond. Many would contend that this "beyond" is simply nothing, yet many would also contend that it is not. Whatever it is, there is a mystery to it.

It's funny that this question is posed at this particular time, as this is the start of one of the larger events of the christian calendar: Holy Week (or Easter Week). The whole "celebration" of sorts about this week is based around a particular death, and then what came after. Death, dying and the like are such prominent themes in Christian (and many other religions') thought that a casual observer could easily describe the whole thing as a very morbid affair.

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I think a much more difficult question would be: If I had the means to offer you immortality right now, would you accept it? Even with all my speech about the necessity of death, I really don't know what choice I would make.

I dunno, I mean
there's lots of speculative fiction on what it's like to live forever
you know, you lose all your friends and stuff and it's mad sad
Or you get tragic moral endings like Dorian Gray
But we won't ever really know exactly what it would be like.

I feel like I'd find reasonable purposes in life. If it's an invincibility sorta thing, like you must live forever and ever, I'm pretty sure I'd do at least a few years of crime fighting. Maybe on-and-off. I dunno what my schtick would be. Maybe just, like, one-punch man? Except with tasers. I dunno if I can one-punch everything. I'll let you know when I get invincible.

I think I could do a lot with the knowledge of a lot of lifetimes. I'm assuming immortality isn't a Tithonus deal where I turn into a mega-old cricket. I could probably solve some tough questions in science. Or champion humanitarian causes. Solve societal issues. There's gotta be something an immortal guy can bring to the table. Humans make enough problems that I can always find something productive to do. And cheap entertainment will always be around for those decades when you're really just not feeling it.

Would you really be so lonely being immortal? I'm shit at keeping in touch with my friends. As I've been moving through the education system, I've been leaving behind friends I'm not in regular contact with, but I find new comrades just the same. I think, as I move around, I'll find myself meeting new people and colleagues and friends that things will be okay in that regard.

But Jesus respawned REVIVED.

We have to discuss the different types of "living forever".

Here's one:

You die at a certain age, but then you respaw-I MEAN REVIVE back where you were born after like, a few seconds? Also, getting physically killed/hurt is painless and, rather than being brought back to where you were born, you revive back in the spot where you were killed.

EDIT:

Solve societal issues. There's gotta be something an immortal guy can bring to the table. Humans make enough problems that I can always find something productive to do. And cheap entertainment will always be around for those decades when you're really just not feeling it.

Oh... oh my god, so many societal issues would be solved, so many. And then no one can argue anymore about sensationalism when a guy shows a video of how chicken nuggets are made because you'll just be that one guy who takes down food conglomerates. For fun


So many societal issues.

You can't solve all of them though! It's you versus 7billion+ people. 1% of which are really fuckin' powerful. They'll detain you or some shit like that.

Hey, you're not just one person. You can create a World Problem solving network of connections and even spawn organizations. You can use your long lifespan to build an empire of environmentalist humanitarians. BD

If you're not careful you'll have a Captain Jack In The Concrete Box done at you.

Hey, you're not just one person. You can create a World Problem solving network of connections and even spawn organizations. You can use your long lifespan to build an empire of environmentalist humanitarians. BD

You can only trust other immortals then. SeaWyrm has to exposit more on what kind of choice we're actually making.

Lynch: SeaWyrm

What makes other immortals more trustworthy? o-o We've got a whole world of non-immortals with plenty of mega fine humans and nice operations/organizations that have survived for generations! So I'd seek those guys out! Form an entire panel of experts from various fields to make actual intelligent decisions while minimizing the risk of missing important aspects of any given issue. Unlike our existing governments. Besides, a system that solely depends on immortals to run it doesn't seem self-sustaining or representative of the masses, and it's a tad bit too self-centered to really align with the considerably more big-picture goals here. Better to guide the world into proper self-governance, a shadow makeover as opposed to a shadow takeover. Haw.

Just because I cited things she mentioned doesn't mean I have to come to the same conclusion

No, I know, that's the point! You cite the same issues, but vote differently.
I think that's interesting!

SeaWyrm has to exposit more on what kind of choice we're actually making.

I very deliberately didn't. I want also to capture the assumptions people make about what "live forever" means.

It's funny that this question is posed at this particular time, as this is the start of one of the larger events of the christian calendar: Holy Week (or Easter Week). The whole "celebration" of sorts about this week is based around a particular death, and then what came after.

Woah, huh. I didn't even think of that! Good timing, then.
Personally, I'm pretty convinced there isn't an afterlife. Even if I wasn't, I wouldn't be all that interested in passing up certain immortality in favor of the possibility that I'm wrong and will get to experience some fantastic existence beyond death. I mean, there's already a pretty fantastic existence right here, y'know?

What makes other immortals more trustworthy? o-o We've got a whole world of non-immortals with plenty of mega fine humans and nice operations/organizations that have survived for generations! So I'd seek those guys out! Form an entire panel of experts from various fields to make actual intelligent decisions while minimizing the risk of missing important aspects of any given issue. Unlike our existing governments. Besides, a system that solely depends on immortals to run it doesn't seem self-sustaining or representative of the masses, and it's a tad bit too self-centered to really align with the considerably more big-picture goals here. Better to guide the world into proper self-governance, a shadow makeover as opposed to a shadow takeover. Haw.

Yeah but you can't always trust people. >.>

Everyone wants to be unique. What makes it so special to give everyone equal EVERYTHING. Some guy in the organization is still going to start thinkin' "Hey fuck this, I want more BACON!" and suddenly, the financial manager starts embezzling from the organization I'm the CEO of to buy himself more bacon. He'll think his position is so damn great, he should have a higher pay. And thus, more delicious foodstuff which include delicious, ethical meat from Canada.

Everything is thrown out the goddamn window. There is no such thing as a perfect system. If we solve the issue of world hunger, for example, people who previously would have lived on only a dollar a day now have a healthy diet and everything they need. They will then begin to want things.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The year is 178 A.S (After Spaghetti) and all 7 billion people have what they want. No need for hunger and no need for covert sexual relations between presidential candidates.

One day a 5 year old looks in a history book and finds that this one guy had a face made out of nachos.

"Daddy, can you make my face made out of nachos?"

"No, honey! Can't you see the neighbour kids don't have nacho faces?"

"But the neighbour kids would play with me more if I had a nacho face."

"No! You don't need one anyway!"

"BUT I WANT ONE DADDY I WANT ONE I WANT ONE! WAAAAAAAHHHH"

"Fine fine fine, I'll go ask my friend Saskamanka if I can borrow money from him, but how am I going to pay him off if we can only afford what we need?"

"Daddy, you can just take some! He don't have to know..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And then the economy collapses weeeeeeeeeeeeeee

I would love invulnerability, but not immortality. I'd get sick of everything.

Credit, who said anything about giving everyone equal everything? We're discussing immortality, not communism. :P

If we solve the issue of world hunger, for example, people who previously would have lived on only a dollar a day now have a healthy diet and everything they need. They will then begin to want things.

Sounds pretty good to me. Moving up a rung on Maslow's hierarchy of needs! Sweet!

Novelty is inherently ephemeral; no-one remains surprised and engaged forever. It is merely a matter of degrees and duration. People need to be able to die.

I would resist my own immortality; I would fight and die to prevent immortality on the large scale.

I know I certainly wouldn't be happy having to listen to a bunch of 2000 year old jerks sitting around, telling us how great things were back when we could own people, or how about how the internet was invented by Satan to steal children's souls or some shit.

I mean, even if only humanity's best of the best gets selected to have immortality, and even if they're only on board in advisory positions, they're still probably less qualified to make decisions on issues happening 500 years from now than many of the mortals born during that time are.

Best case scenario is that they just end up as permanent, useless fixtures of the new world and somehow don't end up actively fighting against all changes every step of the way. The immortals should just mind their own damn business if you ask me.

(Or an even more horrifying idea: Bands of invincible warlords/serial killers sticking around forever and ever.)

On a personal note, I'd say that getting to live for another few thousand years or so would be pretty cool, but no way in hell would I want to outlive the rest of human civilization by very long. Not even with a bunch of immortal buddies to keep me company. I vote no.