who wants to live forever?

I don't want to live forever. That sounds boring.

I can't imagine getting bored, unless there is some trick (as there always is when the devil is granting you wishes) like being alone on the planet for billions of years or being trapped in a coffin six feet under or something. As long as I can live with intelligent beings, I figure there will be enough books, music, TV, films, art, comics and sport to keep me entertained.

I may have to rethink my pension provision, though.

Besides, if you've got a good health guarantee you can splurge on the world's biggest heroin and/or cocaine habit.

No, I would not want to live forever. I think it would be lovely if I end up immortalized forever by being in the history books (who in here hasn't heard of Alexander the Great or Catherine de Medici?), but immortality does not sound lovely at all.

But if you were living for all eternity you would be Catherine de Medici sooner or later. Just like the King James bible and the Beijing phone book can be found in pi if you search long enough. Infinity, 'tis a wicked thing.

Time is irrelevant to immortals. That is what Dungeons & Dragons taught me. Fantasy!

Whenever I die, I think I'll always wish I had one more good hot shower.

On "immortality does not sound lovely at all", wellll it saddens me to hear that... but hey if U want to, reading hard science-fiction might stimulate your imagination in novel ways that might make you change this opinion.
ex: Greg Egan's _permutation city_

I wrote this wiki page this morning to share my latest thoughts on longevity.

that's quite a disturbing statement and one i do not really agree with. the world is a fascinating place and only partly because of the PEOPLE that inhabit it. in fact its the extraordinary cycles and processes of the ecosystem irrespective of human meddling and/or achievement that remain truly wondrous. you don't need to live a long time to be able to appreciate that but at the same time it does make me wish i could remain as fit, healthy and sharp as possible for the durations of my life so i could experience that at optimum level. of course, decay is part of that same lifecycle and already i probably can't hear as well at 25 as i could at 15 or even 5, but that's how the system appears to work.

and if you were living 'forever' you'd have enough time to get rich and be able to live outside of society's constricting parameters, should you choose. you probably would get bored eventually...an automated response to the unnatural occurrence of prolonged life perhaps. but simply being 'bored with existing' conflicts with humankind's desire to survive and prosper, as with all lifeforms.

But, to be sensible, I know it doesn't bear thinking about!

 B-but if a thread about hats can live forever, so can we!

But we're not threads about hats. We are not even hats.

Everybody look at...oh.

Never being born is classic only if you're certain no one will be born in your place, and I'm not.

What, if you could get squashed by a steamroller, blow your brains out and eat cynanide for breakfast without ill effect, you'd still sort out a pension plan?

There's only one thing that I am sure of.
And that's all that lives is gonna die.

The topic of this thread is something that is still a fantasy from today's tech point of view so really, anything goes. Taken as true, why must you confine yourself on earth forever?

On the "limited amout of experience": when I'll get bored with self-modification I'll explore space for a while and in due time I'll get out in another dimension to escape entropy alltogether.

On "being decrepit" I suggest Radical body design "PRIMO posthuman"

decay is part of that same lifecycle (...) that's how the system appears to work.

lol
"objects in mirrors are closer than they appppeeeaeaaarrrr!!!!!!"
lol
If you want to play by the rules, you shoud drop dead like your paleolitic ancestors whose life expectancy was, like, 25.

when i think about what the world could be like in 100, 200, 500 years time, i feel a little sad i will not be around to see it.

If you can live with a little sadness I guess you'll be ok but if you really want to do something about it then you should consider getting a cryo contract and following a caloric restriction diet. On cryo/vitrification, it's like the lotto: if you don't play then it is 100% sure you won't get the jackpot. Anyway keep up with the optimal health lifestyle and you might hang in there long enough to catch the waves of existential tech like nanomedicine and real a.i., I guess that could be at best like in 2040 or 2050 or something, with any luck and lot of hard work.

I get bored of a society
If you get tired of the outside world, you could try to be solipsist nation for a while.
Know thyself, speed yourself up, slow yourself down. Live a milion years each seconds, fake an immortality before attempting the real thing. Copy yourself and experiment with them, if it's allright with you.
"As Daniel Lebesgue, founder of Solipsist Nation, had written :'my goal is to take everything which might be revered as quintessentially human... and grind it into dust'".
"Daniel Lebesgue's interactive philosophical plays: The Beholder, The sane Man (his adaptation of Pirandello's Enrico IV), and, of course, Solipsist Nation. Hawthorne had taken the role of John Beckett, a reluctant Copy obsessed with keeping track of the outside world -who ends up literally becoming an entire society and culture himself. The play's software hadn't enacted that fate upon Hawthorne - intended for visitors and Copies alike, it worked on the level of perception and metaphors, not neural reconstruction. Lebesgue's ideas were mesmerizing, but imprecise, and even he had never tried to carry them through -so far as anyone knew. He'd vanished from sight in 2036; becoming a recluse, baling out, or suspending himself, nobody could say. His disciples wrote manifestos, and prescriptions for virtual utopias; in the wider vernacular, though, to be 'solipsist Nation' simply meant to have cesased deferring to the outside world."
Sow how about it?
Ok, how about turning the entire universe into computronium?
Ok, I'll settle for anything optimist you can come-up with (if you can), deal?
ex: "I'm not immortalist material but I won't pull the plug on them nor vote to revoke their citizenship just because they are now different from me".

Wait, that's not necessarily true!

Probably, and my efforts wouldn't be as bad as some of the clones walking around now.

I don't know this and am sorry for writing it.

HAha. Exactly. I think living 2-3 lifetimes might be appropiate enough for what the average human being aims to accomplish. Theoretically, such a situation would grant me the necessary time in order to be everything I wish to be, or at least try; and feel like I've led a totally fulfilling, fruitful existence as opposed to the nagging constraint of only being allowed a much shorter life span acting like a chip on my shoulder. GAHHH... I also seem weirdly obsessed with the theme, be it due to age or underlying circumstances. That never pleasant feeling that time is running out; being swept from under you...Most of the poetry/songs I end up writing seem closely related to this. Maybe,... I dunno...I should seek help! I just wish we had more time is all. (DON'T STEAL THAT LAST LINE! I LIKES!)

"We are on the verge of a revolution in medicine: understanding, treating and ultimately preventing the degenerative conditions of aging. But medical revolutions only happen if we all stand up in support of funding and research. We did it for cancer. We're doing it for Alzheimer's. We can do it for aging and longer, healthier lives!"

http://www.nickbostrom.com/fable/dragon.html

are we talking bout indestructible, or immortal? it seems a little unclear on that.

The problem with immortality is really a problem with people, and it extends to any discussion of the topic. As soon as you mention immortality outside of a religious context you are in danger of being lumped in with the vocal wingnut and oddball fringe. Sadly, these are the people who tend to make the most noise outside of theological circles - vendors of magnetic rings, self-proclaimed mystics and the like.

From where I stand, the problem is the same as that suffered by anti-aging science and medicine - a confusion of alternate meanings, many of which are colloquial or specific to certain groups or professions.

...

In scientific, rational circles - such as the cryonics community or Immortality Institute forums - the term "physical immortality" is often used to denote "vulnerable agelessness," or freedom from the degenerative effects of aging. For many people, this accurately describes the ultimate goal of medical science: prevent or cure all disease, disability and degeneration, thus allowing people to live in perfect health for as long as they desire.

...

So what can we do - what should we do - when the wingnuts, frauds and a collision of definitions have rendered it hard to discuss a sensible topic in public?

What do you think about immortality, the varied meanings of the word and its use in rational conversation?"

Wow. Just -- wow. That's it from me ca. 2004.

"To think one would be alone on ver infinite journey or would never be able to die = arbitrary assumptions.
If physical immortality gets technically possible for you then how hard can it be to think it will also be available for other people too?
And why would anyone want to take away your right to die? This is silly. Not everyone is cut to be immortalist material and this is ok, I myself will need at least a couple of thousand of years of meditation on this subject before starting to clear that up."

what says you?