Who Wants to Live Forever?

Welcome to the ranks of the immortals! Now, if you could just develop a taste for prunes.

As a total non-sequitur, I believe that the oldest person with unquestionable credentials as to date of birth, at least recently, was a woman named Jeanne Calment in Arles, France, who died at the age of 122 in 1997.

You know, that's actually a little bit spooky. I too have currants (not raisins, but currants -- SunMaid zante currants, to be precise) on my oatmeal each morning, and just this morning I ran out.



I'd like to grow old in Arles. Nice town. Excellent produce.

Re currants--too bad you're not still in town, patiodog. I'd been a SunMaid zante currant man myself until I discovered the currants at PFI--they're fresher and half the price! PFI, as you may know is just past the ID, across from the football stadium...

Here's to dried fruit and eternal life,
D

I wish I could live longer so that I'd be able to read more and more books. I don't know what others there are gonna do with over 100 years of live span. Personally I just find it kinda sad that people are always busy with their work most of the time and thus can't afford the time to read books they like. By the way, I'm a physics major in 1st year of college.

We've been searching for eternity forever.

The Americas were discovered in search of the fountain of youth. And nothing is going to stop us from pursuing the drug of youth.

There won't really be that many problems. As I know it, the ends of genes that tell them how many times to duplicate itself also control cancer. So the whole eternal life idea would also be the one to get rid of cancer.
Then we would have too many babies, right? Nope, the longer an animal lives in nature the less offspring it has. Rabbits only live a few years and have dozens of children. We live up to 100 years now and have 3.5. But the real question is: What are we going to do about pedophiles whose victims are millions of years younger than they are? At what age does statutory rape come in to play? What are the driving, drinking, smoking, gambling, and independence ages?

Someone brought up the point that governments will fall and rise so many times. Throughout history, the things that cause different governments have been war. Would any government really start a war if they had eternity in front of them?

And finally, what do we do with prisoners who get a life sentence?

"I wana live forever!"

Eat your antioxidants and take ALT-711 when it hits the market. See my initial post in this thread.

If I have my druthers, I will shed this mortal coil having been shot to death by an irate grandfather for having seduced his granddaughter.

I think the scienst's are playing God

Who's playing?

Scientists have been "playing God" for thousands of years. Each generation seems to have its folks who use this type of fear to resist change. I would argue that the exploration, discovery and advancement of science is a very good thing.

10,000 years ago (give or take) a scientist took a phenominon that occured from time to time in nature. He learned to start this phenomina, harness it, control it. He used it to cook with and to get heat.

They were "playing God" since before this time, fire was caused and controled only by God. The story of Prometheus (who was punished by the gods for 'stealing' fire) illustrates this nicely.

They said the same thing when scientists started planting crops and cultivating land. Up to this point people foraged the food that God gave them. Planting crops and tilling land means that you, not God, control what plants grow and where they grow. And yes, there were those who resisted this form of playing God.

Electricity allows us to turn night into day.

Medicines cure diseases that used to leave people at the mercy of God. We now can keep people alive that, under the providence of God, used to die.

I think this fear of "playing God" is overrated. If there is a God then She gave us a mind and the desire to advance. Humans have been using science to improve their lives for millenia.

I don't see why we should stop now.

I don't want to live forever - I'm bored already!

Who wants to live forever?
Thats true but think about it, everything the human created has some side-affect's if that is what you want them to be called. Cars have pollution which could cause lung cancer, same with power plants and so on. I have a theory that if we would of all lived the the Native Americans we wouldnt have cancer AIDS or half the sickness's we have in this day and age. After all AIDS supposably came from Africa. Back when the first Britians came to America, or the indians land at that time, they gave the Native Americans the the plague. So maybe the technology is a bit harmful?

The discussion has ignored the possibility of "forever" until so far.
Living forever is impossible. To say that you live/lived/will live forever requires you to make that analyse. To make that analyse, you obviously are talking about something. That something will beyond a doubt be made up of a certain amount of time. When you have this amount of time, you have xxxxxxxx years, which isnt forever. No matter how you twist or turn it, saying that you'll live forever is not possible. You can live 1 million years, 1 billion, 1 trillion, but not forever.

Think about it as trying to grasp/stating the age/size of the universe. (no, not the "big-bang one" )

Re: Who wants to live forever?


I don't buy it.

Our health is better than that of the Native Americans in any measurable ways. Our life expectancy is higher. Our infant mortality is lower. When Native Americans or anyone else who lived before anti-biotics were invented, got a serious infection -- they died. The wholesome life of the noble savages is mostly myth.

Science, and specifically modern medicine, has without a doubt made us live longer and healthier lives.

Sure, some parts of modern life are harmful.

But the important numbers, including life expectancy and infant mortality, show that on the whole, modern science is a huge benefit to human health.

truth
Wouldn't it be great if the only way one could die is by suicide? The ideal, for me, is to die when I don't want to live any longer. And as I said on another thread, I wouldn't want to be absolutely immortal, to have to witness and survive the end of the universe. (Given an ego-centered and dualistic perspective) how lonely would that be? And I would not want to stay as I am if the rest of my species continued to "evolve." How primitive would I become? Has anyone read Aldous Huxley's novel, After Many a Summer Dies the Swan? It satirizes the goal of extreme longevity.

Although many people avoid thinking about it, the whole human race is doomed to die. From the moment you are born, you slowly begin dying. I personally think that it is terrible that I can only live 80 or so years. (I actually have a long way to go though). I hate thinking that all I am will eventually die. I hope that science will one day increase our life spans drastically. But, I think it is impossible to live forever. Even if we don't age at all, something will eventually happen and destroy our race. There is no hope for eternity unless there is a God. No God=No eternity for us. But that is another issue.

About really old people being cranky, I would be cranky too if I knew that most of my life was over, and only death was waiting, but if there was no death, what would they be cranky about?

What about sickness like Alzheimers or other disieases that doesn't kill you bur tuins your life? If you live up to say 150 years...Even if you use genetics and such to make you grow old slower, you'll get a much longer period of sickness...

Omega6, if you consume more omega3 oils you'll live longer.
Seriously, you ask:
"About really old people being cranky, I would be cranky too if I knew that most of my life was over, and only death was waiting, but if there was no death, what would they be cranky about?"

You'd be very cranky about your immortality. Are you familiar with the fantasy, The Flying Dutchment, not to mention Dracula stories?
I think our philosophy, the thoughts we have about the self, mortality, death, oblivion, etc. are what cause the crankiness, not the reality of our mortality.
My problem is that I've got a lot of things to do and see and not enough time. A second after I've died...no problem at all. The sense of problem is all on this side of death, as I'm sure you realize. But do remember that once you've stopped living there will be no "you" to be dead. You actually live YOUR eternity, and you will take (your) everything with you. But that's another matter.

We may be susceptible to some of these diseases in old age, simply because the aging process itself has done damage to protective systems, e.g. the immune system. In those cases, slowing aging, would also slow the onset of the secondary aging symptoms.

The other diseases which are not enabled by aging, but perhaps by the cumulative result of a process over a long period of time, such as clogging of the arteries, would be a problem for people with a longer life span until they were solved as well.