[QUOTE=ironman17;24326208]All things have their time, that's a certain. But whether or not there is such a thing as an afterlife, that's not so certain. We have yet to discover if there truly is an "other side", to learn whether or not our bodies are animated by more than just electrical signals and chemical reactions. They said space was the final frontier, but there are other frontiers as well, most of which we have yet to truly venture into and catalogue.
Also, here's a big question: once we find the answer to that "great question", on the subject of whether or not we are alone in the universe, what question will we have to answer next?[/QUOTE]
That question has technically been answered, and it's a yes. At least, from a theoretical standpoint. We'll never truly answer most other "great questions" seeing as you either need to die or have tea time with baby Jesus to get those answers. Philosophical debates until the end of time, my friend.
[url=http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=118771]Unless this happens. Any self respecting Sci-Fi/Military Fiction fan needs to read this story all the way through.[/url]
[QUOTE=Gordy H.;24325866]We might even gain the technology to sustain human life indefinitely within the next 20-30 years.[/QUOTE]
Well, that's actually a bit of a problem. If humans are able to become immortal within the next couple of decades, we'd end up with loads more people alive, requiring more resources to sustain our populations. The way I see it is like this: instead of researching immortality, we should be researching afterlife, as in finding a way to sustain a consciousness without the requirements of resource consumption, effectively "inventing the soul" if it doesn't already exist.
If and when the afterlife is invented or discovered, people would be less afraid of death, and thus would be less likely to cling on to the world when their time nears, as they would know that dying would not be the end, but instead a "transformation" (not in the kind that turns you into an undead, mind). This would depend, however, on the nature of the afterlife. If it's invented, whether by suspension of the human consciousness in a self-sustaining cloud of charged plasma, by preserving a brain in a rejuvenating fluid, or even by uploading the mind to a computer system, it'd probably be more tailored towards human preferences.
But if it already exists, it'd be a bit less controlled. A pre-existing afterlife could be anything, like a cycle of souls being released from the body and adhering to a new one (similar to reincarnation), or an eternal conflict between multiple otherworldly factions that claim souls depending on their "flavour" in life (a multiple afterlifes scenario similar to the Heaven and Hell of "Abrahamic" religions), or maybe simply a ghostly limbo where souls just wander around in a near-identical simulacrum of our universe.
The latter, "natural" afterlife is theoretical anyway, whereas an "artificial" afterlife made by man is slightly more plausible, as we are a rather inventive and constructive species. We've made many things that were once thought to be impossible, such as space travel, electronic information processors, machines that can split atoms to release energy, and many others I likely haven't mentioned. If we can imagine it, we can build it to an extent. We haven't reached the pinnacle of innovation, not by a long shot. The slope reaches up beyond our perceptions, and what seems impossible now may be viable in later days. With enough time and innovation, humans could invent many more impossible things, like the ability to manipulate matter and energy through conscious efforts of will via a hypertransducive energy form (in other words magic), devices capable of altering the fabric of time and space to a significant degree (wormholes, time travel, etc), and even a way to continue the existence of the conscious mind beyond the termination of the physical body (afterlife).
In other words, immortality is a bad thing, humans might invent/discover the afterlife in the future, and we might one day invent other impossible things.
A brain is really the only thing you need to sustain to sustain your consciousness, and it doesn't need much. A steady supply of oxygen and nutrients.
I have a hilarious image of a shuttle filled with brains jostling around in their nutrient pods, bound for a new galaxy in my mind.
Worry is the work of an idle mind.
[QUOTE=Sonicfan574;24325920]That's because we have dumbfucks running the world. We need someone intelligent for once :c[/QUOTE]
It's not really a matter of finding an intelligent person. It's just how this our world is wired (mostly the US). Intelligent people are trying to fix these things but it's going to take quite awhile for things to be fixed. Hopefully they will before we end up killing ourselves completely.
Maybe we should go into the 4th level of dreaming and create a universe for ourselves there. Then years later realize it is not our reality and kill ourselves to come back. Realizing that spending the rest of our lives in a dream is only about 8 hours.
[QUOTE=DeandreT;24328528]Maybe we should go into the 4th level of dreaming and create a universe for ourselves there. Then year later realize it is not our reality and kill ourselves to come back. Realizing that spending the rest of our lives in a dream is only about 8 hours.[/QUOTE]
:frog:
Best not to think about it. Nothing you can do really. But you can always go for one of those life changing people you learn about in history :smug:
[QUOTE=Asphyxia;24328550]:frog:[/QUOTE]
You are indeed correct, I forgot the s after years.
[QUOTE=subsonicdust;24316228]This blows my mind every time I see it:
[img]http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i151/jamz_bucket/universe.gif[/img][/QUOTE]
0_0
[QUOTE=ironman17;24327281]Well, that's actually a bit of a problem. If humans are able to become immortal within the next couple of decades, we'd end up with loads more people alive, requiring more resources to sustain our populations. The way I see it is like this: instead of researching immortality, we should be researching afterlife, as in finding a way to sustain a consciousness without the requirements of resource consumption, effectively "inventing the soul" if it doesn't already exist.
If and when the afterlife is invented or discovered, people would be less afraid of death, and thus would be less likely to cling on to the world when their time nears, as they would know that dying would not be the end, but instead a "transformation" (not in the kind that turns you into an undead, mind). This would depend, however, on the nature of the afterlife. If it's invented, whether by suspension of the human consciousness in a self-sustaining cloud of charged plasma, by preserving a brain in a rejuvenating fluid, or even by uploading the mind to a computer system, it'd probably be more tailored towards human preferences.
But if it already exists, it'd be a bit less controlled. A pre-existing afterlife could be anything, like a cycle of souls being released from the body and adhering to a new one (similar to reincarnation), or an eternal conflict between multiple otherworldly factions that claim souls depending on their "flavour" in life (a multiple afterlifes scenario similar to the Heaven and Hell of "Abrahamic" religions), or maybe simply a ghostly limbo where souls just wander around in a near-identical simulacrum of our universe.
The latter, "natural" afterlife is theoretical anyway, whereas an "artificial" afterlife made by man is slightly more plausible, as we are a rather inventive and constructive species. We've made many things that were once thought to be impossible, such as space travel, electronic information processors, machines that can split atoms to release energy, and many others I likely haven't mentioned. If we can imagine it, we can build it to an extent. We haven't reached the pinnacle of innovation, not by a long shot. The slope reaches up beyond our perceptions, and what seems impossible now may be viable in later days. With enough time and innovation, humans could invent many more impossible things, like the ability to manipulate matter and energy through conscious efforts of will via a hypertransducive energy form (in other words magic), devices capable of altering the fabric of time and space to a significant degree (wormholes, time travel, etc), and even a way to continue the existence of the conscious mind beyond the termination of the physical body (afterlife).
In other words, immortality is a bad thing, humans might invent/discover the afterlife in the future, and we might one day invent other impossible things.[/QUOTE]
Well, of course, if we managed to increase the length of Human life by a hundred years-indefinitely, we would have to make new laws regarding having children(though we should already have laws regarding that).
I doubt we'll ever try to make an "afterlife" unless you mean some sort of network of people hooked up to a Virtual Reality-type program with just enough nutrients and water to keep them alive.
Unless you do something like that, the idea of an Afterlife is going to be incredibly boring compared to the choice of Indefinite Life. I can't imagine anyone wanting to leave their family behind just to have some "Afterlife" without them.
When i die i imagine that Jesus will walk up to me at heavens gates and bitchslap me with his hand into hell.
In all seriousness until we find a way to colonize other plants or sustain ourselves indefinitely, we should have a birth limit on families one or 2 per family.
A: Human beings are terrible people so i don't blame you for wanting to leave.
B: You probably won't get into space.
C: There's nothing for you up there
and D: Atleast you care about stuff like this. God knows the amount of times i've wanted to punch someone because they want to be a fucking [I]/model/[/i]
[editline]08:09AM[/editline]
[QUOTE=Gordy H.;24330221]Well, of course, if we managed to increase the length of Human life by a hundred years-indefinitely, we would have to make new laws regarding having children(though we should already have laws regarding that).
I doubt we'll ever try to make an "afterlife" unless you mean some sort of network of people hooked up to a Virtual Reality-type program with just enough nutrients and water to keep them alive.
Unless you do something like that, the idea of an Afterlife is going to be incredibly boring compared to the choice of Indefinite Life. I can't imagine anyone wanting to leave their family behind just to have some "Afterlife" without them.[/QUOTE]
Do you realize how colossally boring and terrifying infinite life will be? Your friends who can't afford it would wither and fade away, While you live forever, Never stopping, Never aging.
Might as well enjoy it while it lasts.
[QUOTE=Arachnidus;24326951][URL="http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=118771"]Unless this happens. Any self respecting Sci-Fi/Military Fiction fan needs to read this story all the way through.[/URL][/QUOTE]
Holy crap. I just finished reading that, and I can tell you now it was one of the longest and most awesome stories i've ever read. Whoever wrote that should have it published if they haven't already.
If you're afraid of dying, kill yourself now so that the suspense doesn't scare the crap outta you :smug:
*Phrase involving complicated words and a philosophical meaning*
[QUOTE=Destitide;24302629]God, I hope I never become like this. Not the job part, but, rather, the... Static part.[/QUOTE]
You will.
Everyone does.
[editline]10:52PM[/editline]
[QUOTE=FinalHunter;24302742]God damn life is too long.
Thank god for mortality.[/QUOTE]
Wow, really?
I can't understand people who think like that.
Everything is so interesting and awesome. I don't think I'll ever be "done" with all the things I'd like to do.
I don't understand people who think it would be awful to live forever. It sounds amazing to me.
[editline]10:54PM[/editline]
[QUOTE=Comrade General;24333182]Do you realize how colossally boring and terrifying infinite life will be? Your friends who can't afford it would wither and fade away, While you live forever, Never stopping, Never aging.[/QUOTE]
Sounds awesome to me.
Think of all the cool shit you could learn and skills you could master if you had infinite time.
i wonder if any other organisms are afraid of death, if they have the capacity to think of it.
i say become a scientist you could help cure aging
I wonder what the latest generation will experience with all the technological advancements made recently. I heard that the first people to live 5000 years most likely already been born thanks to foreseeable medical advances.
[QUOTE=Cpn Crunch21;24349102]i wonder if any other organisms are afraid of death, if they have the capacity to think of it.[/QUOTE]
Possibly.
[QUOTE=CrumbleShake;24350246]I wonder what the latest generation will experience with all the technological advancements made recently. I heard that the first people to live 5000 years most likely already been born thanks to foreseeable medical advances.[/QUOTE]
Couple hundred years maybe, couple thousand I highly doubt.
Boot up Just Cause 2.
Steal a helicopter.
Fly up as high as you can go.
Jump out.
Open your parachute right as you're about to hit the ground.
It helps me whenever I start to become afraid of dying.
There isn't a hard ceiling limit in Just Cause 2, FYI
[QUOTE=subsonicdust;24316228]This blows my mind every time I see it:
[img]http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i151/jamz_bucket/universe.gif[/img][/QUOTE]
And yet 26 miles is knackering. Anyway, this seems to be a better time to use this picture: [img]http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/9898/pbdwords.jpg[/img]
I like Carl Sagan.
[QUOTE=ZekeTwo;24303411]I was born too late.
Villages and city-states dotting the landscape, heading out to sea and having falling off the edge as a real concern, looking up at the sky and seeing the gods and goddesses looking back, smiling.
Pristine forests, clean air, water, food.
Sigh
[i]Yes, I realize the irony of saying this on the internet. And I'm also aware that life a thousand years ago was much harder than it is now. But I wouldn't have known the difference in the same way as I do now; having been born in an era where the world's history is available to me in minutes.[/i][/QUOTE]
I wish I lived the ages of Vikings and stuff (if not as a Viking then as a person who does NOT get raided by the Vikings cos that would kinda suck). Life was so much simpler back then. So much better. No worries about school and studying to pass your exams to get a job so you don't end up living on the cold, hard, streets every night, etc etc etc. I know you'd have to learn how to survive, how to catch your own food and all that. But I would far prefer to do that rather than live in this world today. If anyone's ever read the book Eragon, I'd love to live in a world like that. Not necesarilly with the fantasy elements (Dragons, elves, all that other cliché stuff :v:) but just that lifestyle. It's perfect for me.
This'll sound really quite ironic, but I hope that a time machine is invented during my lifetime, so that I can go back to then and live like that.
[QUOTE=Sparkwire;24302576]I was born too soon.[/QUOTE]
I was born too late.
[QUOTE=BaconDioxide;24302547]I was the same. Trust me, you need to get out and enjoy life more.
Simple as that.
[editline]01:52AM[/editline]
I totally do want to travel the lugubrious void of space at some point though.[/QUOTE]
It's possible to travel to the closest planet orbiting a star other than the Sun using nuclear energy, and it would take only 11 years or so.
[editline]10:24PM[/editline]
[QUOTE=analrapist;24302611]You grow out of it.
I know it sounds like an asshole thing to say, but you do.
Everybody feels like that at a certain point where they totally freak out about their mortality and how big the universe is, and then they have to get a job and they're busy in the office from 9am-6pm and then they get married and have kids and just don't have time to think about that kind of stuff any more.
It's kind of sad actually.[/QUOTE]
If we freaked out more we could go to the stars in our lifetime.
[QUOTE=ZekeTwo;24307049]Now I feel horrible[/QUOTE]
[img]http://www.facepunch.com/image.php?u=315993&dateline=1281048730[/img]
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