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Oh yes, the moon is blue, pigs are flying, Katie Price is keeping her big fat mouth shut for once and Nin has a topic worthy of creating a thread.
I've been feeling my age a bit recently, well to be honest I've been feeling way more than my age. I'll be 28 in just over 6 weeks, illness and injury have left me feeling kind of battered and as I look around at my friends and family, I see my parents getting older, my friends having babies and getting married and in some cases I'm looking at teenagers I know now and remembering when they were born or what I was doing at that time. The happiness I get from seeing people grow up is tempered by the sadness of realising you're getting older but time moves on and so must we.
But, will that always be the case?
We are, we're told, increasingly moving towards a place in time when living beyond a 100 years old will soon be the norm. Beyond that, there are also studies into slowing down genetic ageing or stopping it fully. This raises so many questions that it's near impossible to address them all in 1 thread, so instead I'll focus on the one that can actually be answered to some degree.
Do You Want To Live Forever?
Or more specifically given the direction I'm going with this, If someone offers you this "gift" of never ageing, do you accept?
I was going to delve into the finer points of both options but I think it's more interesting to actually have a discussion on it instead.
EDIT
For the purposes of this question, once you take the option it can't be taken back. There would be no death from natural causes, if you wanted to die you'd have to kill yourself.
I've been feeling my age a bit recently, well to be honest I've been feeling way more than my age. I'll be 28 in just over 6 weeks, illness and injury have left me feeling kind of battered and as I look around at my friends and family, I see my parents getting older, my friends having babies and getting married and in some cases I'm looking at teenagers I know now and remembering when they were born or what I was doing at that time. The happiness I get from seeing people grow up is tempered by the sadness of realising you're getting older but time moves on and so must we.
But, will that always be the case?
We are, we're told, increasingly moving towards a place in time when living beyond a 100 years old will soon be the norm. Beyond that, there are also studies into slowing down genetic ageing or stopping it fully. This raises so many questions that it's near impossible to address them all in 1 thread, so instead I'll focus on the one that can actually be answered to some degree.
Do You Want To Live Forever?
Or more specifically given the direction I'm going with this, If someone offers you this "gift" of never ageing, do you accept?
I was going to delve into the finer points of both options but I think it's more interesting to actually have a discussion on it instead.
EDIT
For the purposes of this question, once you take the option it can't be taken back. There would be no death from natural causes, if you wanted to die you'd have to kill yourself.
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I'd choose no. The more time goes on, the more populated the world, more chances to starve etc. I think you'd get bored - maybe not so much for the first 100 or so years, but for the time after that.
Perhaps slowing down genetic aging is an idea is some cases (perhaps if there is a scientist, important person or what have you that would have his or her life prolonged would benefit mankind as a whole). but even then, life can be tiresome - there must be a reason to age, so taking away natural death just seems cheating. (I know the whole area of modern medicine and life support probably fall into this category too...)
But for me, a definite no. I don't actually fancy reaching 100 right now.
Perhaps slowing down genetic aging is an idea is some cases (perhaps if there is a scientist, important person or what have you that would have his or her life prolonged would benefit mankind as a whole). but even then, life can be tiresome - there must be a reason to age, so taking away natural death just seems cheating. (I know the whole area of modern medicine and life support probably fall into this category too...)
But for me, a definite no. I don't actually fancy reaching 100 right now.
Butch wrote:
If you were to choose the option of eternal life, at what stage of your life would you be 'frozen'? Or would you continue to age becoming frailer and frailer and have all of your organs slowly shrivel up and, essentially disappear?
Personal choice but I'd imagine most people would opt 18-30. Nope no ageing, no degeneration.
While the former is more tempting and having eternal life under those conditions could allow you to accomplish everything you wanted in life, travelling the World, learning a language, play an instrument, complete every computer game known to man, seeing the future of humanity etc. I think that seeing all your loved ones come and go would be too hard. Like Chris says, we don't have a 'Grey Havens' we can sail off to.
Well your loved ones would also have the same option, but you couldn't assume they'd all take it. This is what I mean by being frozen in time. Your children would reach a certain age and then they'd never get older and you would be trapped for all time in something resembling groundhog day.
Also, what would happen if there was a global natural disaster killing all life on Earth? You would be left on this massive lump of rock, on your own, with no way to repopulate for all time unless you took the decision to kill yourself. Sounds fun...
This isn't making you invulnerable. If a meteorite lands on your head or you get hit by a car, you're still going to die but death from natural causes is gone.
If you were to choose the option of eternal life, at what stage of your life would you be 'frozen'? Or would you continue to age becoming frailer and frailer and have all of your organs slowly shrivel up and, essentially disappear?
Personal choice but I'd imagine most people would opt 18-30. Nope no ageing, no degeneration.
While the former is more tempting and having eternal life under those conditions could allow you to accomplish everything you wanted in life, travelling the World, learning a language, play an instrument, complete every computer game known to man, seeing the future of humanity etc. I think that seeing all your loved ones come and go would be too hard. Like Chris says, we don't have a 'Grey Havens' we can sail off to.
Well your loved ones would also have the same option, but you couldn't assume they'd all take it. This is what I mean by being frozen in time. Your children would reach a certain age and then they'd never get older and you would be trapped for all time in something resembling groundhog day.
Also, what would happen if there was a global natural disaster killing all life on Earth? You would be left on this massive lump of rock, on your own, with no way to repopulate for all time unless you took the decision to kill yourself. Sounds fun...
This isn't making you invulnerable. If a meteorite lands on your head or you get hit by a car, you're still going to die but death from natural causes is gone.
In fantasy land being given eternal life would allow you to achieve everything you want in life. However, living for eternity means you would constantly need to find other things to achieve.
The flip side of that would be to take a snapshot of your day, a week then a month. Would you want to live eternally in the mundality of a working life? You would have to work still to enable you to afford to do everything you'd like to do. You would also need to work to stave off boredom.
Science is working towards slowing genetic aging? Without knowing the ins and outs of that study I would consider it a waste of money and suspect, even if I found out more, I would still consider it a waste of money.
I once joked that I was going to stop saving for a pension and start saving for Switzerland. As I get older the joke seems less funny and more of a serious consideration. I believe being able to die with dignity a worthier cause then extending life.
So my answer would be no. I would turn down eternal life in a heartbeat, while I still had one :)
The flip side of that would be to take a snapshot of your day, a week then a month. Would you want to live eternally in the mundality of a working life? You would have to work still to enable you to afford to do everything you'd like to do. You would also need to work to stave off boredom.
Science is working towards slowing genetic aging? Without knowing the ins and outs of that study I would consider it a waste of money and suspect, even if I found out more, I would still consider it a waste of money.
I once joked that I was going to stop saving for a pension and start saving for Switzerland. As I get older the joke seems less funny and more of a serious consideration. I believe being able to die with dignity a worthier cause then extending life.
So my answer would be no. I would turn down eternal life in a heartbeat, while I still had one :)
No.
because it's the whole point to life that you'll die sometime so you want to make the most of the life you have.
because it's the whole point to life that you'll die sometime so you want to make the most of the life you have.
By the time I've finished weighing up the pros and cons I'll be dead anyway.
I would definitely choose eternal life. I'm not afraid of death, but I dislike ageing, and want to die on my own terms.
If you were to choose the option of eternal life, at what stage of your life would you be 'frozen'? Or would you continue to age becoming frailer and frailer and have all of your organs slowly shrivel up and, essentially disappear?
While the former is more tempting and having eternal life under those conditions could allow you to accomplish everything you wanted in life, travelling the World, learning a language, play an instrument, complete every computer game known to man, seeing the future of humanity etc. I think that seeing all your loved ones come and go would be too hard. Like Chris says, we don't have a 'Grey Havens' we can sail off to.
Also, what would happen if there was a global natural disaster killing all life on Earth? You would be left on this massive lump of rock, on your own, with no way to repopulate for all time unless you took the decision to kill yourself. Sounds fun...
While the former is more tempting and having eternal life under those conditions could allow you to accomplish everything you wanted in life, travelling the World, learning a language, play an instrument, complete every computer game known to man, seeing the future of humanity etc. I think that seeing all your loved ones come and go would be too hard. Like Chris says, we don't have a 'Grey Havens' we can sail off to.
Also, what would happen if there was a global natural disaster killing all life on Earth? You would be left on this massive lump of rock, on your own, with no way to repopulate for all time unless you took the decision to kill yourself. Sounds fun...
Dragonlance wrote:
No.....to be honest I would like to be able to live long enough to see both my sons with children, so that me and Mrs DL can be doting grandparents :¬) I'm 57.
Yeah my answer is no too. I've always had a major fear of death and if I'd been asked this question up to maybe a year ago I would have definitely said yes. I'm not sure what caused it but spending time with my friend of 20+ years and her daughter has broken me :D
The idea of being stuck in a world that never changes, having to live through the deaths of the people around me or not being able to move forward with anything horrifies me. A journey without progression or an end is nothing more than a cage.
I mean a little extra time would be nice so maybe I could relax regarding certain things but that's not part of the rules here.
For the purposes of this question, once you take the option it can't be taken back. There would be no death from natural causes, if you wanted to die you'd have to kill yourself.
No.....to be honest I would like to be able to live long enough to see both my sons with children, so that me and Mrs DL can be doting grandparents :¬) I'm 57.
Yeah my answer is no too. I've always had a major fear of death and if I'd been asked this question up to maybe a year ago I would have definitely said yes. I'm not sure what caused it but spending time with my friend of 20+ years and her daughter has broken me :D
The idea of being stuck in a world that never changes, having to live through the deaths of the people around me or not being able to move forward with anything horrifies me. A journey without progression or an end is nothing more than a cage.
I mean a little extra time would be nice so maybe I could relax regarding certain things but that's not part of the rules here.
For the purposes of this question, once you take the option it can't be taken back. There would be no death from natural causes, if you wanted to die you'd have to kill yourself.
Death is the only guaranteed thing in life. Morbid, but true :P You don't want to turn into the elves off Lord of the Rings anyway....
Nin wrote:
Do You Want To Live Forever?
No.....to be honest I would like to be able to live long enough to see both my sons with children, so that me and Mrs DL can be doting grandparents :¬) I'm 57.
Do You Want To Live Forever?
No.....to be honest I would like to be able to live long enough to see both my sons with children, so that me and Mrs DL can be doting grandparents :¬) I'm 57.
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