Opinion What's your opinion on real life immortality?

[Windsock]

Let's say that earlier today there was a scientist who figured out a treatment that, if taken every decade or something, lets people live for another century. It totally eliminates oxidants, wear-and-tear, whatever makes us 'old', and keeps us spry. Lets us keep making babies and we don't go senile. And no icky side-effects. It's so simple that most anyone can do it right at home, and whip up the formula in their kitchen or whatever for a couple bucks of material. However, people can still die if they shoot themselves in the head or get shot in the heart. It's not a magical invincibility cure; if you get stabbed in the neck, you're probably fucked. If you get sucked up into an air turbine you're just as many pieces of salami as you would've been otherwise.


People around the world tried it out and people go fucking nuts for a little bit at the fact it totally works, but nothing super bad happens and shit goes back to mostly normal aside from the fact people don't die from raw age anymore.


What are your thoughts on this? Do you have any plans?

 

[Cavil]

@Windsock


So if you wanted to die, all you had to do is stop taking it? Or suicide?

 

[Scripted Away]

Ohh damn no!


Really, what's the matter if there's no 'now or never'? I'd probably spend decades just laying around on my couch being bored X'D oh good and imagine that... Working would never stop! Or you'd go on pension when you're 562 or whatever e_O


(But that salami-part really made my day XD)

 

[Dredgen]

I would never want to be immortal. One lifetime is enough for me. Sure, being around awhile longer to see what advancements we make would be nice and all, but I don't want to be around long enough to see this world come to an end. I don't want to see what gruesome s*** might happen in the future. Personally, I'd rather die and remember the world for how it was in my PoV, rather than have to think about how much it might change.

 

[Windsock]

@Windsock


So if you wanted to die, all you had to do is stop taking it? Or suicide?

Yes, you could still end it all and not get back up. Or stop taking it.

Ohh damn no!


Really, what's the matter if there's no 'now or never'? I'd probably spend decades just laying around on my couch being bored X'D oh good and imagine that... Working would never stop! Or you'd go on pension when you're 562 or whatever e_O


(But that salami-part really made my day XD)

Yeah, you'd never get entirely retired, but you also have entire lifetimes, multiple, to master multiple skills, not to mention we'd probably see space travel next.


Who cares about the fact we need a decade to get to mars for cheap when we can live as long as we want? Also, it's not like technology across the board isn't going to improve. With so many people living so long, we could see a new period of technical growth. Today, young people take up sports as a hobby, now, they could take up theoretical physics classes and tweak fusion reactors until they actually work as a hobby.

I would never want to be immortal. One lifetime is enough for me. Sure, being around awhile longer to see what advancements we make would be nice and all, but I don't want to be around long enough to see this world come to an end. I don't want to see what gruesome s*** might happen in the future. Personally, I'd rather die and remember the world for how it was in my PoV, rather than have to think about how much it might change.

That's your right, but who else is going to want to keep it the same way as you? You could ensure it yourself  by getting into a position of power. It's not like you don't have the time.

 

[Windsock]

That's pretty cynical @Damafaud


Also, as I said, the hypothetical immortality cure also keeps us spry and keeps us from turning senile. Youth of body and mind forever. Also, how does being immortal necessarily greatly increase resource depletion? Since people are living longer (essentially infinitely), they should actually start caring about what happens after they would've been 'gone'. I think it's reasonable global warming and resource depletion should actually reverse, even with the fact that people don't die as often in mind.


Additionally, as I mentioned earlier in the thread, now space travel and all sorts of other cool stuff would be made 'easier' by virtue of us not having to care as much about really long travel times, since now we're immortal. You could get to the asteroid belt with the piddly ion thrusters we have now after half a century for really, really cheap, and bring back entire continents worth of phosphorus, carbon, water, and all sorts of other precious resources to effectively mitigate resource depletion. Or use it in space to colonize the entire solar system! And it's not like people can't do stuff while on their trip; people who want to do that sort of thing, by necessity, are going to have to be pretty smart, and pretty smart people can work on pretty cool stuff when they're bored as hell.

 

[Windsock]

What's cynical?


And I don't want anyone to be able to live forever. The wage gap is enough as it is . I don't want anymore monopoly. I want the old men on the top of the world to die and replaced by new fresh young men. I don't want overpopulation. I don't want the rest of the world to be denser than China. And space travel? I'm laughing. Terraform that take hundreds of years to complete project? Laughing harder!


There is almost no benefit to it. Who would want to do a project like that if not a government? And what government is stable and rich enough to start one? What can guaranteed that the heir to seat of power will not stop the project as he doesn't see the benefit?

You sure are being a dick about it.

 

[Windsock]

Sorry...


But I really think immortality is bad for the world...

I'll respect that, but if an immortality serum comes out I'm injecting it into my eyeballs.

 

[Scripted Away]

I'm agreeing with Damafaud here. 


Overpopulation already becomes a problem in some parts of the world, and if nobody would die anymore, it would become an even bigger problem.


Houses would become bigger, higher, more. That would also mean that more areas where we still have a bit of nature now, would quickly be used to build more houses, too. And who's our main oxygen source? The forests!


When they're gone we can inject that immortality stuff into our posterior or wherever we want- we'll die anyway, or we'll live with masks plastered on our faces 24/7. 


And when that happens, we'll have more species becoming extinct than we could ever save. They need their space and places to, you know?


We'll need more food- factory farming will be unavoidable, and i don't want to see that happen. 


What about crimes? Who cares about prison when it's like 0.1%of your lifetime? Crime rates will increase like crazy, and we'll need new punishments. What should that be? Torture for xy years? Yuck.


Fact is, we're not the only beings on this planet, and we're not all that counts. I could continue this list endlessly, and these are just a few points why immortality would be the biggest catastrophe that could ever happen to this world.

 

[Windsock]

I totally disagree with the notion that we aren't the only ones that count, and if we're immortal I don't see how torture would be yucky in that case. Aside, it's a given crime rates would go up, but its not like the majority of people are criminals. I think it'll stay proportionate.


Additionally, why do we assume we have to build up? It's not like we can't build down. Also, it's not like we can't record DNA samples. It doesn't even need to be an original DNA strand, DNA is really just a format for information. Some institute in south Korea is dicking around with bringing back wooly mammoths, and they're already letting rich people clone their pets. It isn't cheap, but we're getting to the point that if we fuck up the environment we can actually start to fix it. Hell, another institute In China is screwing with honest to god genetic engineering!


We could design a bacterium that sucks up our pollution and turns it into organic material that can be reintroduced to the environment, or some other useful byproduct. If you were immortal, shit like that would be the next logical thing to work on, right?


Of course, none of this crazy sci-fi shot was mentioned in the op lmao

 

[Scripted Away]

I totally disagree with the notion that we aren't the only ones that count, and if we're immortal I don't see how torture would be yucky in that case.  

So you're saying that our species is all that counts on this planet, and dogs, cats, basically everything is just there to please us, but doesn't count anything at all?


Wow...


That's honestly shocking me.


You do know that we share enough of our DNA with pigs to get a pig-heart transplanted successfully?


That we share 98% of our DNA with orang utans? 


We ARE animals. And not even very smart ones, if you ask me.


And i shouldn't even have to explain why torture is yucky!


Apart from murder, torture is one of the most inhuman and horrible things to do! 


It undignifies the victim, it marks you for life. I know what I'm talking about, I've been through something very similar. It breaks parts of you forever, and no one should have go through something like that, no matter what they did.


Where are we?! Mid age?! 

 

[_Line 213]

Maybe after another 200 years of drawing, I could get my art to the level I want to get it to, and finally get a job in the art field.


Sounds good to me.

 

[Windsock]

I'm still going to disagree with the idea that we aren't the only important species in existence, and my next comment doesn't have much to do with the actual subject matter, but mad props to you for illustrating your thoughts on such heavy subjects without an ad hominem and actually trying to explain your point. Way past legit, hoss. @System Seriously.


I still think torture would be a-okay for punishing criminal acts in this highly fanciful scenario though. As you said, there's not much else we could keep people in line with.

 

[kibou]

honestly id take it to keep my kawaii youthful appearance and if i felt like dying id always have the option. why would you want to get old, lose your memory, not be able to walk without pain? 


the idea of how large of advances in technology when scientists have centuries more to learn and understand and keep improving is really exciting- overpopulation wouldnt be a problem if we could colonize other planets by developing better space travel, terraforming, some kinda technology to keep us alive.


it bothers me that ill never be able to know how much shit will change in the next few centuries. ): i really want to know how the future generations will perceive mine and how culture changes and etc


as for the environment, im pretty sure labs are trying to rapidly grow meat made specifically for eating and are always looking for better ways to grow crops. im sure the principles of lab grown meat could somehow apply to plant products too. 


i dont think the average person would turn to a life of crime


and frankly jail still sucks even if youre in there for like a year, which to us is still only like 1/80ish of our lifespans


even if i could live centuries, personally id want to avoid being in jail a lot


plus most people still have other thing preventing them from breaking laws, such as empathy and a sense of morality


we'd still need jobs and food to live, and there's having stuff on your record too


the idea of having more time to read, play videogames, and do all my other hobbies and learn new skills is really appealing too.


you could learn a lot of shit!

 

[Kittenkitten]

A shit ton of overpopulation would occur, actually a good set up to lead to a dystopia.

 

[Axel The Englishman]

Meh, I wouldn't mind. Everyone's entitled to a choice, amiright?

 

[MattieLee]

If a way for the sort of immortality you describe existed the main problems would be overpopulation and yes crime rates. If people could essentially live forever I would hope that there would be some sort of limit to reproduction though, whether this be through making it where people physically cannot reproduce whatever the case may be if you keep the population the same and everyone has the freedom to live as long as they choose I see no real harm. 


You can still choose death and stop taking the serum or whatever the case may be if you really wish to - nobody is forcing immortality onto you and thus if someone comes to the point that they have everything they would want to in life or they hate what the world has become, whatever the case may be they have the right to choose death in the end. This would also pose the question of religion though if you believe in some sort of afterlife then you essentially already believe that a kind of immortality already exists out there and more likely than not you are striving towards that whether it be heaven or just reincarnation, whatever you believe. Now for an atheist this would be much different, this creates the new opportunity for a never-ending life that never existed before.


So assuming that you are either an atheist or you just believe in something that wouldn't involve any sort of pre-conceived notion that there is something after death. You wouldn't necessarily want to die then but many atheists and other faiths still accept death as part of the cycle, many would choose to end this life and death cycle and live peacefully forever, much like a religious person would want to live peacefully forever in the afterlife. Really this is the same concept, just phrased differently and in a different context. 


As for crime in this case scenario when someone commits a violent crime than they would likely face a death sentence, or an actual eternity in prison. Regardless most people who commit these crimes have some sort of mental illness or religious motivation (example terrorism). Religious groups such as this would want to go to the afterlife and thus in this scenario after awhile would no longer be a threat and most mental illness are treatable. A very small amount of the population may have to face life in prison or death but that would be very few to the overall population. Eventually as technology gets more advanced people may not even have to do much work for themselves, but that's an entire conversation in of itself.

 

[MattieLee]

If a way for the sort of immortality you describe existed the main problems would be overpopulation and yes crime rates. If people could essentially live forever I would hope that there would be some sort of limit to reproduction though, whether this be through making it where people physically cannot reproduce whatever the case may be if you keep the population the same and everyone has the freedom to live as long as they choose I see no real harm. 


You can still choose death and stop taking the serum or whatever the case may be if you really wish to - nobody is forcing immortality onto you and thus if someone comes to the point that they have everything they would want to in life or they hate what the world has become, whatever the case may be they have the right to choose death in the end. This would also pose the question of religion though if you believe in some sort of afterlife then you essentially already believe that a kind of immortality already exists out there and more likely than not you are striving towards that whether it be heaven or just reincarnation, whatever you believe. Now for an atheist this would be much different, this creates the new opportunity for a never-ending life that never existed before.


So assuming that you are either an atheist or you just believe in something that wouldn't involve any sort of pre-conceived notion that there is something after death. You wouldn't necessarily want to die then but many atheists and other faiths still accept death as part of the cycle, many would choose to end this life and death cycle and live peacefully forever, much like a religious person would want to live peacefully forever in the afterlife. Really this is the same concept, just phrased differently and in a different context. 


As for crime in this case scenario when someone commits a violent crime than they would likely face a death sentence, or an actual eternity in prison. Regardless most people who commit these crimes have some sort of mental illness or religious motivation (example terrorism). Religious groups such as this would want to go to the afterlife and thus in this scenario after awhile would no longer be a threat and most mental illness are treatable. A very small amount of the population may have to face life in prison or death but that would be very few to the overall population. Eventually as technology gets more advanced people may not even have to do much work for themselves, but that's an entire conversation in of itself.


Also, as far as global warming and pollution does that would just depend on who decides to keep living and what they wish to do, even if this happens it is likely that we will have the technology to hopefully take root on another planet like Mars or something, or we may just combat global warming by eliminating the excess greenhouse gases directly if we have the capabilities at that point. I guess my main argument for this is that human beings have many different ways of thinking and you cant really say definitively what the majority will do in this situation, conservatives who also happen to be the type of people who disapprove of the new green technology also tend to be more religious and I already explained what would happen to most of the more religious people and why so this could definitely make a difference. And then you shouldn't doubt the power of technological advancement either.

 

[MattS]

imo life would get boring real quick(that is if you count 100-200 years quick) and one of the worst things a human can feel is bored. hell, we'd rather experience pain than be bored(see the experiment here). Eventually boredom would become to much for us to handle to the point we either a) go insane, or b) kill ourselves