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If you could live forever...
- Thread starter Nashy19
- Start date
Ah, I've heard this question so often already. We'd have to settle what "living forever" means. If I can get killed in an accident or by an illness, chances are I wouldn't survive my 150th Birthday. So I'm taking it that it's a life without illness and no way of an accident and that you can commit suicide when you press an inner button.
Well I'd first learn everything I could (including instruments and poetry) which would take me a few centuries at least. I'd then spend a few more making amazing music, followed by a few centuries of indulgence. That'd probably be the end of me, after probably X000 years or so.
Well I'd first learn everything I could (including instruments and poetry) which would take me a few centuries at least. I'd then spend a few more making amazing music, followed by a few centuries of indulgence. That'd probably be the end of me, after probably X000 years or so.
Lallapalalable
New Member
Inferno seems to have the right idea. Although, Id be careful not to get myself a life sentance in prison while Im at it.
Anachronous Rex
New Member
Certainly before the heat death of the Universe. Having my molecules torn apart from one another sounds unpleasant.
Prolescum said:
Mmm, yes. Understandable.
Wait, WHAT? :lol:
I'd probably live normally for a hundred or so years, then maybe try and become influential as I outstrip everyone else on the planet in age and experience. I'd want to stay around and possibly nudge things in the right direction until humanity's future becomes stable, so I guess a ten to twenty thousand year lifespan might be necessary before I call it quits.
I would make and keep records during this time to ensure that history does not get forgotten. I doubt many interstellar empires or whatever would care much for the Crusades, the holocaust or Stalin's massacres if they becomes forgotten as minor squabbles on the old home world. That can't happen. We can't expect people of the far future to feel as sensitive about them as we do, because they won't, but they must still be remembered as examples of how not to do things. People should view them with at least the same horror that we feel for the brutal genocides of the classical era.
Sort of like a record-making R. Daneel Olivaw, I suppose. Only more public.
...In fact, I'd be better than R. Daneel Olivaw in some ways, because I would be able to get around the first law more easily and so shorten the time it takes for plans to come to fruition and so maximise their impact for more people.
We need to advance in cybernetics/gene therapy soon so I can do this... :twisted:
We need to advance in cybernetics/gene therapy soon so I can do this... :twisted:
FatStupidAmerican
New Member
If i could live for ever.....
I would: Try to have a good time.
I would kill myself when: I started acting like a character from a Meyers or Rice book.
I would: Try to have a good time.
I would kill myself when: I started acting like a character from a Meyers or Rice book.
ShootMyMonkey
New Member
If I could live forever, I'd probably go about trying to invent things and bury myself in research. I think I might find more ways to game the system and amass ridiculous wealth through unscrupulous ways, but only really in the interest of having more free time without responsibilities to worry about, or to be able to afford enough in continuing education to get a few doctorates (that alone would demand me to be a millionaire). In addition, being a student of music as I am, I'd really also get back into composing, and who knows... maybe even performing... once again. It's been over 1 year since I've composed anything, and almost 17 since I've last performed. The latter is actually more distressing because the level of knowledge I have now puts my knowledge of 17 years ago utterly to shame. Having a finite lifespan in reality actually puts me in the frame of mind to consider that a lost cause and instead dedicate my time to more practical concerns and more effort on my first love (i.e. math). Having an infinite lifespan might at least put me in the frame of mind to no longer consider the endeavor to be futile.
I imagine I'd probably become a lot more disconnected from people because forming any sort of bond with someone means having to mourn their deaths as you go on living forever, which would ultimately amount to an infinite degree of pain. Personally, I have less problem with being an anti-social curmudgeon who forms, at best, shallow bonds of friendship than I do with forming fragile fleeting bonds that are actually seriously deep in some way. The flipside of that may also include a whole lot of random acts of casual sex, as well... but a guy's gotta enjoy life.
I imagine I'd probably become a lot more disconnected from people because forming any sort of bond with someone means having to mourn their deaths as you go on living forever, which would ultimately amount to an infinite degree of pain. Personally, I have less problem with being an anti-social curmudgeon who forms, at best, shallow bonds of friendship than I do with forming fragile fleeting bonds that are actually seriously deep in some way. The flipside of that may also include a whole lot of random acts of casual sex, as well... but a guy's gotta enjoy life.
DepricatedZero
New Member
Incidentally it seems the theme of what Rice characters do. Couldn't say about the other, haven't read any.FatStupidAmerican said:
Hm, if I could live forever...
I would start by laying down investments in raw materials, stepping away from currency to something more stable that I'd be able to rely on with the collapse and rise of countries and economies. I would then spend a couple hundred years observing, and garner influence. Once I had enough sway that I could, hopefully, work unseen, I would rip the carpet from under religion and any other anti-science, to pave way for a united and successful world. The reason I would do this from behind the curtain is that I don't want people to suddenly stop and worship me as their new god. Once the way was paved for unhindered scientific advancement I would put my influence in to stabilizing a well balanced world, industrializing Africa, and generally uniting humanity as a single nation and be rid of borders.
I thought earlier of how America, right now, is a microcosm of what Earth could become in a galactic empire involving humanity. The people on Chiron Beta Prime would be apologizing profusely for how horribly the people from Earth were badmouthing the Dalek ambassador from Skaro, the Earth-people holding up signs "GOD HATES PLUNGERS" outside of Davros' funeral.
I would work to avoid that.
I'd terminate my life once I finally understood the workings of the universe with a well developed theory of everything, and had seen humanity to a great destiny.
I'd do all kinds of things until full-immersion virtual reality arrives. Then I'd invent some badass MMO, where you yourself fight people, rather than hitting buttons to watch your character do it for you. I'd pretty much get sucked right into virtual reality whenever it came. I'd design castles and fortresses and all sorts of fantastic things in that MMO, and then either "live" there, or just use it as some kind of battlefield. Oh, I'd have some good fun.
Now after a few thousand years, when you've kind of done it all, and things are getting less interesting, I'd probably experiment with modifying my own brain to make life more engaging, such that I didn't even have to keep looking for "a new thing". Perhaps modify my nervous system to be twice as receptive to dopamine so when I have fun doing something, it's twice as intense. Or the interesting things transcranial magnetic stimulation will likely bring us. Or maybe there really would be too many neat things to do, such that I could cycle between things every few hundred years.
There would be a lot to do. At least, for the foreseeable future. By the way, I really hope Aubrey De Grey is correct in his view that aging treatments may not be as unlikely or far away as people think. I'd love to not age.
Now after a few thousand years, when you've kind of done it all, and things are getting less interesting, I'd probably experiment with modifying my own brain to make life more engaging, such that I didn't even have to keep looking for "a new thing". Perhaps modify my nervous system to be twice as receptive to dopamine so when I have fun doing something, it's twice as intense. Or the interesting things transcranial magnetic stimulation will likely bring us. Or maybe there really would be too many neat things to do, such that I could cycle between things every few hundred years.
There would be a lot to do. At least, for the foreseeable future. By the way, I really hope Aubrey De Grey is correct in his view that aging treatments may not be as unlikely or far away as people think. I'd love to not age.