As long as I have a choice of ending it, easy YES.
People who say NO just deprive themselves of the choice.
Also, there is a strange duality: mortal people assume finite life to be meaningful and important while infinite - empty and devoid of any purpose but life itself.
But there are so much more possibilities with longer life, so many passion projects spanning centuries, grand builds for millenia, the multitude of experiences to see, places to be, people to meet and things to do!
But sure, dying after a couple decades is good because it is "natural", as if all our other aspects of life are soo natural. Hell, I wonder if the cavemen would choose their brief life full of struggle and survival to a life of a modern human, perhaps not so exciting, but infinitely more interesting
But sure, dying after a couple decades is good because it is "natural", as if all our other aspects of life are soo natural. Hell, I wonder if the cavemen would choose their brief life full of struggle and survival to a life of a modern human, perhaps not so exciting, but infinitely more interesting
interesting perspective! Perhaps the "mortal mind" can't see beyond its own paradigm, which is understandable, and infinite life is actually a blessing I cant even comprehend right now.
At the same time, I do think it's perfectly healthy for us mortal minds to want finite life, despite what the infinite may promise.
Yeah, every biological organism has a programming to survive long enough to create some offspring, hopefully giving them genes undamaged by the inevitable oxidization, and then promptly die to leave more space and resources for the next generation. I don't think biological humans should live forever, btw, too much resources needed. Now the energy-based species, on the other hand... ;)
People saying "no" who also take measures to prolong their longevity are like people who say they don't mind paying taxes but always pay as little as possible.
lol most measures to prolong longevity are the same measures to live healthy and well, I don't want to live forever but I also don't want preventable suffering
I'm interpreting the prompt as meaning there is no preventable suffering from aging. People seem to be uncomfortable with the idea of "forever", but we're really talking about getting to live indefinitely.
What if something really cool were going to happen in like 150 years? Why prefer having no opportunity to see it?
He must be enjoying it quite a bit to make that kind of investment. All that shows is that he prefers longevity to dating.
Also, a question isn't an argument. People reveal through their actions that they prefer living longer. All this pro-mortality talk is just some sort of coping mechanism or romanticization, as with the people who clearly don't like paying taxes despite claiming otherwise.
Isn't wanting to live indefinitely the same as living forever?
Maybe I should rephrase "wanting to live longer":
Imo, it's about living a healthy life to live a fulfilling life as long as possible. While accepting that all good things must come to an end.
You wouldn't appreciate life without death.
Maybe we need to define what we mean with "immortal" though. I interpreted as not being able to die, not from natural causes nor from a plane crashing on you
I think there is a difference between wanting to live healthily and naturally "extend" your happy life, staying grounded in our biological reality, versus wanting to "transcend" and live forever. "Naturally healthy" sounds more "healthy" to me than "perfectly healthy" if that makes sense lol.
I am very "pro-mortal" I guess, but I do appreciate that we all have our different perspectives
There are different versions of immortality. If the version where you could "live healthily and naturally" indefinitely were on the table, would you still not want it?
I can certainly understand why someone wouldn't want to be old and sick forever, or if it was an all consuming effort to maintain your longevity.
I would maybe consider "healthy infinite life" if I also had the option to end it when I wanted, but my thinking in general is that life's finality makes it worth living. A healthy mind/body with infinite time to do what it wants may not actually be so healthy.
Donยดt see a reason to live forever. More valuable is to build something that will stay here longer than me, at least some kind of legacy, good memories of family and friends. My body is not so valuable or precious so would be a waste of an "immortality spell".
Life would be boring. The fact that you know one day you will die, makes us to do things now because we won't be able to do them later.
But I'm sure it will be possible in the future and people will see death as any other illness that can be cured if you want. They are even advancing in experiments that not only they stop aging, but reverse it.
Dying from an accident, that always can happen but then you will only have to restore your brain backup into another body and keep going. ๐
Depends how immortal. If immortal as "nothing can kill you" then no, but if immortal as "you can live as long as nothing kills you" (no aging and all the problems/diseases that come with it) then of course.
Hell NO. I like the idea of growing , maturing and entering the fall of your life. Kinda like 4 seasons :-)
I can't imagine the pain of going through 300-500 years of seeing people do the same shit and failing. That would be like watching something hopeless... Naa, I will take the graceful way out, complete the mission and be done with it. And then who know maybe you won't even be dead. Chances are we are not really dying (consciousness that is), just transitioning into something else, different being. Some of us remember previous role (Deja vu?) but I think that's a "bug in the code" lol. Who da heck knows..
Can someone defend not wanting to be immortal? Seems like a very silly position. Are you worried about the case of "i'm in great agony but unable to die"? Because that's like, what life is
I wouldn't mind living indefinitely long, but not literally forever. The universe will be a very boring place when all that exists is evaporating black holes.
Like Bitcoin making money scarce, thereby creating a proper measure of value in the world, scarcity of time is what makes life valuable and meaningful. If we have infinite time on our hands, all action seem infinitely pointless too.
Need more details about the rules of your wager. Trapped on a dead planet while somehow continuing to be alive, like a sybil? Or continuing indefinitely in a state of good health -- aging processes halted -- but you could kill yourself if you wanted?