How long do you want to live?

[LoneMateria]

So I've been thinking lately. How long would anyone want to live before they thought they would be so bored that they would want to die?

Theists always claim that they want to live forever, but I know we humans have a difficult time grasping the very large and the very small. I think living forever would be torture regardless of what you are doing. What do you guys think?

Btw I think I'd like to live maybe 500 years before i'd get bored as fuck and want to off myself. How about you guys?

[Dust]

I'd like to live forever with the option of suicide.

[Mythman]

I agree with Dust, but 5000 seems long enough that I'd off myself before it was up. Maybe not, though.

[fastthumbs]

Why do you guys think that 5000 is too long? Why do you guys think you'd get bored? I'd figure if one can live to 300 with a fully functioning youthful body, why would another several centuries be boring? Now I am assuming there be a technological free society that has the resources to support the lifestyle I’ve come to enjoy at age 46 now...

Keep in mind that the advances in medical technology, computers, biology\gentics and miniturizations wouldn't make it that far fetched that in the next 30-150 years the mechanism that causes cellular aging which leads to the failure of the body/mind could and WILL be treatable, biomechanical systems will be available that only THOUGHT would be enough to move literally mountains and build habitats, and the internet would be in the mind (true brain/machine interfaces) - if nothing else, human mind simulations based on a person's neuro makeup that run on blood cell sized super computers (assuming trends in miniturization continue) would be technically immortal without the consumption of resources it takes a sustain a biological human... OK, certainly fiction today, but seeing what is coming out of medical lobs now, it doesn't take a genious to see where it's all going, just a well informed individual grounded in reality with the internet at one's fingertips....

Now I agree, I'd like the option of when >>>I<<< could chose to end it all, since living years (never mind decades or centuries) with severe chronic pain without any definitive pain management/control, or kept chained on a mountain with a eagle always eating my liver for dinner, or living a subsistence harsh life style would probably be torturous...

[LoneMateria]

I'm surprised to see people who want to live forever. I mean seriously what are you going to do in 100,000 years? Explore the galaxy? That would get old after a few hundred years. What is left to do when everything to be learned has been learned? What type of social interaction are you expecting, eventually every relationship you have will grow old and turn to ash. I don't think I could spend a year alone much less an eternity.

For those of you star trek fans eternity would seem (to me at least) like in voyager when Q took Janeway to see the Q continuum. Everything that could be said was said. All they did was sit next to each other silent.

Also (what originally got me thinking about this) on the last True Blood the vampire Godrik lived for more then 2000 years and was going to commit suicide by watching the sun rise. His "child" Erik told him he would stop him. And Godrik said, "Even if you could stop me, why would you do something that cruel?" It is torture to live forever.

[Mythman]

Well I wouldn't want to live for ever, period, no exceptions. But immortality with the option of suicide would be ideal. You live until you're done, then you stop. So living forever is, for me, contingent upon the option of suicide. Without that, I want a finite lifespan.

[fastthumbs]

Why are you surprised? 1,000 let alone 100,000 years is a long time to our finite, short lived (relative to the universe) life, but that's because no real cases of anyone living past 130 has been recorded (that's verifiable). I will admit that there is an assumption by us "let's live forever" crowd that health issues associated with aging\genetics will be solved and available.

Now, what baffles me, is that you are also making an assumption that permenent boredom sets in. Yes, boredom does set in now everyonce in a while, but I haven't experienced it going on for months or years... something always (usually pleasently) interesting occures, so why do you think this won't keep on repeating as long as human societies are around? Now, if your life is generally stressful, mostly miserable, then I can see from that POV that living forever (young) would be unwanted and I agree that anyone recieving longevity treatments should also have the right to stop them and let normal aging resume (and probably give that person about 50-60 years to change their mind again - with the assumption that longevity\youth treatments keep you around 25-35 years of age biologically)

And please, quoting Star Trek (or Star Wars) as an authority on anything based in reality is so "woo"

[Cephus]

I want to live as long as I live and then die. I have no interest in living forever, I think it's foolish and I'm not afraid of death.

[Dust]

I just think to myself...

I would be SO bad ass on guitar if I could practice for a few hundred years.

[Mythman]

And please, quoting Star Trek (or Star Wars) as an authority on anything based in reality is so "woo"

Especially Voyager. Come on, even the Trekkies hate on that one.

[anthonyvh]

I forgot who said it, but I really like this quote:

"...what makes death so hard — unsatisfied curiosity."

I just want to find out what happens! If I lived long enough to witness the extinction of our species, I'd probably off myself, but I'd have to weigh that against the possibilities that might emerge from hanging around for the next 40 million years. Maybe intelligence will emerge again and I walked out of the theater too early. Hope springs eternal.

[mvester]

No interest in living forever but it might be nice to go on a bit longer. There would be conditions to prolonged existence..

Reasonably good health
Minimal amount of pain
Current level of mental functioning

There has to be an opt out clause. When existence becomes too uncomfortable, a quick and easy method of stopping it must be available.

I have lots of ideas to spend the extra time. Learn to play a few musical instruments, learn a few languages and expand my science knowledge. It depends if I have to earn a living during my extended existance. And do I have to keep my extended existance a secret?

I have no interest in the eternal afterlife described by various religions. The worshipping a blood thirsty monster would get pretty tedious after the first few seconds.

The Mormons have put the most thought into an afterlife. Running your own universe if you are worthy enough. Not bad but it still could get tedious. The only example we have of a being that has eternally existed is the god. Obviously, there is a big problem with eternal existance. The god is seriously mentally ill. The Chrisitian god's heaven is not the paradise we are led to believe. Look at Satan and the other fallen angels. Why did Satan decide that heaven wasn't so great?

The 72 regenerating virgins promised by Islam doesn't sound very appealing. It seems like a lot of work, having to break in a sexual partner everytime you want sex.

I have imagined that a potential heaven might be something like living in Sunnyvale Trailer Park http://www.trailerparkboys.com/ Drinking, smoking dope, commiting petty crimes and banging Lucy with no serious consequences. Except the time in a Canadian jail where you can still get drunk and smoke dope.

I never thought the believers put much thought into eternal existance. They can't imagine the downside. It is a good question to ask them, "Is there an opt out option to heaven?" I never get an answer.

[Steve]

Now that I finally do exist, I would like that existence to continue for as long as possible. It seems to me that the only reason anyone would want their life to end would be because they think they're going to experience rest in some state of being that exists after it ends. All evidence points to the fact that they won't be experiencing rest or anything else. They'll simply cease to be. I find nothing appealing about returning to a state of perpetual nonexistence voluntarily, after any amount of time.

So, my answer would be forever.

[clippo]

I think this poll would be more interesting if you also asked the age of the responders. I'm 71, led a rich happy life. I don't want to live any longer than I have to. If you don't understand that answer, wait awhile. If you're lucky, you will get to be old too, and you will probably understand what I mean.

Life is good; death gives life meaning.

[clippo]

I think this poll would be more interesting if you also asked the age of the responders. I'm 71, led a rich happy life. I don't want to live any longer than I have to. If you don't understand that answer, wait awhile. If you're lucky, you will get to be old too, and you will probably understand what I mean.

Life is good; death gives life meaning.