Is Immortality a Curse or a Blessing? - General

It would be a curse for those who do not wish to undertake the responsibilities of preserving mankind or doing anything for the greater good of man.

I see it as a blessing, depending on circumstance though. If i existed long enough to see the end of existence it's self, then what would i do floating in that void of literal nothingness forever? It would be similar to dying, you get cast into a void of nothingness, the primary difference being that you experienced it. I'd rather die than be in a situation like that. But if i could find a way to jump between multiverses, if there are such things, i'd gladly live on for all eternity if i could just jump between the infinite amount of multiverses, and experience everything. But for all i know, after dying you could do the exact same thing. There's a hypothesis floating around that our consciousness is a quantum entity, which upon death separates from our body and can do as it pleases throughout the universe. It's probably bullshit, but there's no way to know without dying.

I will say that one point in favor of immortality is the nature of death itself. Obviously it's the complete cessation of consciousness and experience. But that means that, naturally, there is literally no way to know what it's like; it will always be a completely foreign and petrifying experience. So no matter what, it will always catch you off your guard because it is physically impossible to prepare for - you can train with Shaolin monks, master your mind and body, or be the smartest man in the universe, but everyone, when they die, would still be terrified far more than they thought possible if they were still capable of expressing it in any way, shape, or form. So, you know, if you just don't like the idea of that, immortality is probably a pretty good idea.

It would be a blessing until our Sun started dying

[QUOTE=Beelzebub;41813971]i want to live forever so in my opinion it would be a blessing[/QUOTE] Immortality doesn't mean invincibility, you know. And forever is quite a big word if you think. To keep record of time for eternity, or forever, it would actually go beyond the lifetime of any (immortal or not) human being. You would probably need a really, really super computer for that job. I don't see any other way.

Consciousness is just a symmetry. The only thing weird about it is that you can't actually see what it is because doing that just extends it. That said, the mental issues mentioned here come from attachment and an immortal being would have no need for attachment.

Immortality is a double edged sword; however, in my opinion I would rather accept it. I'll just bring my gameboy color to the ending of the universe.

[QUOTE=Xane;41813429]Everyone in this thread should watch a man from earth. It's about an immortal man who's been alive for 10,000 years. The entire movie takes place in a room(Almost the entire movie) with him just talking to his friends for two hours. Anyway, a point they bring up in the movie is that, he can study a topic for 100 years, but what good would 100 years of research from the 1800s do for curing cancer? It wouldn't make you any smarter, only more knowledgeable. You only could stay up and be useful at one topic at any given time.[/QUOTE] Awesome movie! One of those little gem's I like to tell people about. The movies immortal character is in my same train of thought.

[QUOTE=Bat-shit;41815362]Immortality doesn't mean invincibility, you know. And forever is quite a big word if you think. To keep record of time for eternity, or forever, it would actually go beyond the lifetime of any (immortal or not) human being. You would probably need a really, really super computer for that job. I don't see any other way.[/QUOTE] well the immortality the op mentioned was the indestructable kind but im not picky, i'll take either, invincible or not.

As you age, time goes by faster by your perspective because a year becomes a more minute percentage of your life, so imagine how fast things would go after a thousand years or more.

Mortality is a bit of a cruel joke. The only reason people interpret [I]immortality[/I] as a curse is due to the fact that we are forced to live in a certain self-oriented way because of our finite time to live, and immortality is not a concept that fits into that style of life. In a way human beings have outgrown the purpose that mortality is here for. The purpose of mortality in genetics is to ensure that an organism is forced to contribute to the genetic structure and then die in order to make way for newer and more adaptive specimens. But we're not microorganisms. We can think, feel and observe on an almost profound scale, and we can [I]manually[/I] adapt to our surroundings; so mortality and death has served it's purpose in our particular strain of evolution. If possible at some point in medical science, aging and death should be gotten rid of; because they aren't something that is needed anymore and it's not something that will go away by itself. There's no physical reason anymore that we shouldn't be capable of cyclical regeneration of dead/dying cells in our body and brain. It may be that things like Cancer purposefully evolved into our genetic structure to ensure that we don't live for too long, but it's not required anymore.

I think immortality would have many downsides, the primary ones being: -All friends/lovers you make will die eventually -If anyone figures out you're immortal you'll be captured and studied -Eventually you will see it all and life will become pretty dull But despite that, I'd say I'd much rather be immortal than not. It's not really a curse or a blessing imo, it's just a change and it has positives and negatives. Although if everyone was immortal it'd be awesome (though population would become an issue.)

[QUOTE=zombini;41814624]I see it as a blessing, depending on circumstance though. If i existed long enough to see the end of existence it's self, then what would i do floating in that void of literal nothingness forever? It would be similar to dying, you get cast into a void of nothingness, the primary difference being that you experienced it. I'd rather die than be in a situation like that. But if i could find a way to jump between multiverses, if there are such things, i'd gladly live on for all eternity if i could just jump between the infinite amount of multiverses, and experience everything. But for all i know, after dying you could do the exact same thing. There's a hypothesis floating around that our consciousness is a quantum entity, which upon death separates from our body and can do as it pleases throughout the universe. It's probably bullshit, but there's no way to know without dying.[/QUOTE] you mena like a ghost.?

[QUOTE=Empty_Shadow;41817154]I think immortality would have many downsides, the primary ones being: -All friends/lovers you make will die eventually -If anyone figures out you're immortal you'll be captured and studied -Eventually you will see it all and life will become pretty dull But despite that, I'd say I'd much rather be immortal than not. It's not really a curse or a blessing imo, it's just a change and it has positives and negatives.[/QUOTE] Well that depends on the question though. Yeah you/I being the only immortal person would suck dick. But if everybody alive also lived for ever then it would be awesome. Albeit tragic if you lost somebody you had known for like 500 years to an accident. But the point remains that if immortality was just how people lived, then that would be pretty great.

i would see immortality as a curse, having to live by and see your loved ones die while you stay alive would make me hate myself

[QUOTE=hypno-toad;41817105]Mortality is a bit of a cruel joke. The only reason people interpret [I]immortality[/I] as a curse is due to the fact that we are forced to live in a certain self-oriented way because of our finite time to live, and immortality is not a concept that fits into that style of life. In a way human beings have outgrown the purpose that mortality is here for. The purpose of mortality in genetics is to ensure that an organism is forced to contribute to the genetic structure and then die in order to make way for newer and more adaptive specimens. But we're not microorganisms. We can think, feel and observe on an almost profound scale, and we can [I]manually[/I] adapt to our surroundings; so mortality and death has served it's purpose in our particular strain of evolution. If possible at some point in medical science, aging and death should be gotten rid of; because they aren't something that is needed anymore and it's not something that will go away by itself. There's no physical reason anymore that we shouldn't be capable of cyclical regeneration of dead/dying cells in our body and brain. It may be that things like Cancer purposefully evolved into our genetic structure to ensure that we don't live for too long, but it's not required anymore.[/QUOTE] Very true, though the only means at this moment to preserve ourselves is through cryogenics. There's a company that can translate your DNA and with some complex procedure can actually store your memories into a computer. Though Russia has claimed that within 5-10 years that they can successfully transplant a humans memories into a robotic avatar. From there it will move on to a computer without the need of our brains, yet still retain our memories. And hopefully by 2045, we can be transported into holograms. This is all funded by a multi-millionaire.

The best bet is probably going to be curing cancer and altering human genetic structure. The physical process of aging is a purposefully evolved gene that can be manipulated and modulated, not to say that it would be an easy thing to do though.

There's so much good you could do for your fellow man if you were immortal with permanent youth. I'd love to have it. You could be a constant keeper of all that humanity has done since your birth, for instance. Sure we could read books or watch videos, but it's not the same. Imagine if some ancient philosophers, kings, monks, and the like were around to teach us of their times. It would be amazing.

If you're tortured all the time with things that would be fatal, fucking curse as hell. But if you're Keanu Reeves it's fine.

I feel like it could either bring out the very best or the very worst of someone. You'd either be incredibly loving and caring because you'd appreciate and cherish the time you spent with anyone you cared about, or you'd be genuinely evil and do something like become humanity's god-king. It all depends on what you'd do with it. I personally would see it as a curse because I don't think I'm strong enough to make the most of it.

I feel you couldn't possibly go through immortality without losing your sanity. Losing everything and everyone you care about over and over again would completely break the very best of us.

Well It is more of a curse because you will live forever Never seeing What True destination afterlife really is. Seeing all Your loved ones die. Floating as an Empty pile of living matter In an endless void Years after earths destruction

It's not a curse if someone is strong (emotionally); to feel no sadness when a loved one died. I never cry or get depressed when I lost any of my relatives. Does that make me a bad person? No, I still love them no matter what but I'm strong enough to push passed their death and look to the future.

[QUOTE=cis.joshb;41813200]preserving your persona on a computer would not preserve your consciosness[/QUOTE] Actually we can't say for sure. And technically we could do elaborate brain surgery to to turn your brain in to a machine first.

I say it would easily become a curse billions and billions of years from now. I mean, once all the stars die out, no more gasses in space, etc., there would be nothing left. Nothing to look at. Nothing to do. You would most likely get used to seeing friends/family pass away. I would almost go as far as to say you would HAVE to get used to it. You would probably just end up "losing" yourself after so many years of seeing things happen to the world. I wouldn't want to live forever. But I would definitely jump on the chance to live for a billion years.

[QUOTE=elowin;41811993]someone puts you in a cage good game you lost and you are now stuck for the next couple hundred thousand years, have fun.[/QUOTE] Eventually the bars will rust and become fragile. Even 1 million years is just a setback when you live forever and never decay.

As our universe dies out, we hope to produce synthetic stars that will act as our new sun. Though the probability that this happens is very slim. We have managed to create synthetic plants that mimic photosynthesis, so god forbid that if something were to go wrong with our atmosphere, we could use those. The only other options would be to move from one star to another or bring our planet/small community into another universe through a black hole.

It's not a curse as long as you have the option to end your life whenever you want, otherwise it's a curse.

I say Both. It would suck constantly seeing everyone you know and love over the years die while you keep cruising along. If you had anti-aging as well you'd probably be branded a monster or something as well. On the good, you'd get to see how humanity advances and if you are good with record keeping/memory you could end up knowing something that would otherwise be long forgotten that helps humanity and the world keep going.

It's a blessing for me. Even if I got stuck somewhere I'd rather be alive than dead.