Do you want to live forever?

No I am not talking about a scientific breakthrough. I am asking a philosophical question - do you want to live forever? If someoneo offered me a Ferarri, I'd (probably) take it, although I don't actually actively want a Ferrari. I don't wake up in the night crying because I don't have a red Italiam Sports car. Similarly I might (possibly) accept imortality as a gift, but I don't actually WANT to live forever. At 55 I am probably nearer the end than the beginning , but I think I am probably less keen on the idea of living forever now than I was 20 or 30 years ago.

So - if it's not too a delicate or sensitive a subject, Do you want to live forever?

Well, it would kind of depend on the situation.
Do I want to live forever as someone who will have to work her ass off as basically slave labor all her life while she ages and gets more infirmed- not really. Would I love to stay on as someone who needs no further care because immortality equals never growing old or getting sick, sure. But you wouldn't like me much as an immortal. I'd be a very dangerous person because all of a sudden the gangs that run the dogfights wouldn't scare me. I could strike with impunity. Immortality would put me beyond laws and governments which I will see change many times over so I would never be beholden to one system. That would make me dangerous in the eyes of authorities, potentially, once on the defensive I'd feel free to act however towards them too. All in all I think it's safer for everyone if I have some fear. I don't have enough fear of death to keep me from living but I do have enough to keep the gangsters safe from me.

I could possibly think up the conditions of a world in which immorality would be desirable, but in this world? Hell, no!

_Howard wrote:

I could possibly think up the conditions of a world in which immorality would be desirable, but in this world? Hell, no!

Pretty much my reaction too.

Getting old sucks, if immortality came with perpetual youth it would be a lot more attractive.

But even then the world is so fucked up that I don't think I'd want it. Maybe if everyone was immortal they'd take better care of the planet, but somehow I doubt it. It would just make the selfish bastards even more selfish. And if I knew I'd have to endure their asshattiness forever I'd join with Jenni and go all postal.

Not to be maudlin or anything but I'm ready to cash out anytime. I've done everything I ever wanted to do, I feel like my life has been at a peak for the past 5-10 years, I've got nothing to look forward to but a long slow painful decline. If I wasn't such a chicken I'd take myself out of the game.

NoCoPilot wrote:

And if I knew I'd have to endure their asshattiness forever I'd join with Jenni and go all postal.

We'd make an excellent team, what with your brains and my brawn.