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I was thinking the other day if i were imortal would i get bored? I guess one of the things that make's life exciting is the fact that we live it at lightning pace. We try to acheive so much knowing we have only a limited unknown quantity of time in which to acheive our limitless goals.

I guess it also comes down to how you define satisfaction as well. whilst i've never tried to list all my goals i'd like to assume that that is a task that in it's self would take an near infinite period of time to acheive.

So i guess if we say that the things we would like to acheive in life will take forever (or an infinite period of time) then in fact being imortal would bring us no closer to satisfaction than if we had only 70 or 80 years in which to acheive our goals?

And what about things that do not become boring? things like love, spending time with a partner. perhaps part of the reson we love so deeply is because we know that that person may not always be here. If we knew that the person/people we loved were going to be here forever would we feel the same way about them? would we devote the time we do to them or would we say "the'll always be there" and not spend time with them?

Just sharing a day dream with you guys, interesting to see where it goes.

Would fish profiles members Galadriel and LeStat please answer this one.


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~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~

why those 2?

I've always viewed immortality as one of the worst experiences ever (or the prospect of it, at the very least). Must suck for plastic man.

isnt it fairly boring already?

Galadriel was an immortal elf queen from LOTR, and Lestat is the vampire from Anne Rice novels..

I think it would be more depressing than it would be boring. To see everyone you have ever known pass on before your eyes and to still be here with no hope of ever seeing them again . . .

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"it's the neck, it creaks under the weight of too much heavy thinking."

I've considered that I can't do everything I want to do because it will take too long - until I retire from whatever career I choose. Take my grandma for instance - last winter she crocheted three afghans, knitted a blanket, and read the entire Bible. That's being productive!

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In time, I think it would be quite boring. At first, there would be a great thrill...you would purhapse live even faster then you would as a mortal, because you can attempt things that you once passed by saying "yes, Im crazy, but not THAT crazy!". So you would buy that morercycle, take those cliff diving lessons...everything you were too frightened to do in real life...

And then..

The adrenalin wears off. Everyone you loved from this life has passed on. New loves, while possible, can last only very short times, because they will grow old, as you remain the same. Even if you did hang onto them, there would be the loss when they died.
You would watch your very nation rise to its peak, and topple (as all nations do eventualy).

Things would get exciting again for breif periods of time. You would be among the first to colonize new planets, because, after all, there is little left for you on Terra. Purhapse after a few generations have passed since reaching beyond our Sol, you could become an ambasadore between planets.

Then, even that would get old.
Yes, I think you would get bored after a while. Have any of you read Time Enough For Love? or any of Heinlein's other books dealing with Lazarus Long?

random tangent but I see that mortality/immortality beliefs seem to go hand in hand with religious beliefs....

Anyway, I think being immortal would depend on how you view life. I think those who enjoy life are probably more in favor of immortality than those who do not enjoy life (of course ignoring those who are so lost in life that they feel they must end it, their view on immortality is obvious).

To explain what I mean, imagine youself as someone who is well off financially. Not super rich where you can own your own country, but well off enough that you don't have to worry about money too much. You can take time off from work fairly often and do what you like when you like. Your happily married (or single if thats your fancy) and everything in life is going well. Wouldn't really want to end that now would you.

Now imagine the opposite. You don't have time to do anything you want, you always worry about money, your family is breaking down, so on and so forth. Also, only, to further my point, there is nothing you can do about it. Most people would not want to have that for eternity.

Also, something I just thought of, Christianity promises eternal life in Heven (I'm sure other religions have the same thing, but I just use Christianity because I am). Could Heven get boring?

The discussions get deep on here don't they? DEEP!

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

The discussions get deep on here don't they? DEEP!

*ponders the irony of "deep" disscussions on a fish forum....*

Sorry for the horendous pun, I couldn't resist!

Im sure racso does have a point, immortality for some is about fear of what happens after death, be it literally nothing , or some percieved afterworld, perhaps even the religious premise of judgement. Sometimes it is the fear of pain or debilitation immediately prior to death that some people fear. I often think the wish for immortality is about pain aviodance, but for many the pain of living is greater than that of dying, and that will always decided by personal circumstance. Exploring all that is wonderful on this planet alone could take several thousand years, and there will be moments in history when things are interesting enough to be worth the wait required to observe them. I think many people would wish to embark on a lifelong mission of descovery and self enlightenment , or at least a sensuous cruise through life to experience all that can be experienced, the question is, does immortality enable you to do that, or would your hands be tied as much as for an ordinary man.If they are, a life of 20 years can seem an age.If however you are truly free to do as you wish, our planet alone should offer several thousand years of discovery.Theres a limit to human memory, and you could at least revisit some things after the grand tour is done. You could spend the next thousand years pondering upon what you discover.

Personally I want nothing to do with immortality, a heaven or any hell. I quite like things that quite simply come to an end when their time is done.Id like life to continue, but as an evolutionary thing. Whats the point of having a world full of austere people that never change and never develop? Besides there are times a spirit becomes tired, and simply needs to sleep.

Superlion, your grandmothers productivity is to be admired, i'm 22 and have still not gotten around to reading the bible in its entirety. I've always wanted to do it firstly because it seems like something a good catholic boy should do. and second how cool would it be engaging in religious discussion with folk and being able to quote pasages from the bible pulp fiction style!

Nyteflame i have not read those books, you would recomend them?

i can see your point rasco however i asked this question of a friend who was particuarly religious. he claimed that in heaven there are no such things as negative feelings, only good ones, he likened it to the feeling one might get when they first fall in love or that first kiss but feeling it perpetualy and it never fading. i like that analogy and carry it with me.

long haired i think your veiw that "ordinary man" has his hands tied is rather pesimistic, i tend to believe that any man is capable of extrodinary things. there are those who have come from very dark and poor places where ordinary man may perish, and risen above it bringing hope to others.

i would like to think that one day my spirit may become tired and be allowed to sleep. i just hope that time is a long long way away.

the nice thing about imortality is having a couple of thousand years to think of what you have seen.

also id like to point out that what my question actualy was was what if all humans were imortal?

In that case I think that all men would still not be equal, and it would enable political regimes of unrivalled power to dominate at a level of permanence that we havent experienced yet. Sounds like a complete nightmare, as life is now, but suffering permanent dominion. We sell our souls for little enough that we dont really need anyway. I dont think immortality would change life for that many people. I think the wars would be staggering too.

Nyteflame i have not read those books, you would recomend them?

Oh, I would recomned anything by Heinlein, but I would caution you to keep a very open mind when you read his stuff, and be prepared for a lot of political commentary, despite it being fiction. He is...a little far out. Thats what you get from a scifi writer that grew up in the 20s, and started writing in the 30s.
Let me think. Start with...Oh, Moon is a Harsh Mistress is a realy good one to start with.

See, the thing is, a lot of his books are linked...but there is no specific order. Many of the characters are next to immortal, and can travel in time, and between universes besides.

His best work is, arguably, Stranger in a Strange Land. I would NOT start with that book, but after you have finished one or two of his other books, read Stranger. Find the uncut version if you can, as it is much better then the origional publication.


That said, if anyone has a sci-fi or fantasy recomendation for me, give me a shout. I love the stuff.

Idon't know about boring, i doubt it'd get boring, but it would be very sad to live on while your loved ones do not.

A few things to clarify

1) are you 'forever young' or is it like "Death becomes her"?

2) is everyone immortal?

3) Does not dying equal not being ill or damaged?

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

lets say forever young (in your 20's)

everyone is imortal

no one can be injured/damaged but lets say can still feel pain

to decrece complication lets say there are no births either (so no one says what about population control)

actually I like that people age, it gives them character, and sometimes authority too, and its not always undeserved. Id never go back to being 20, I look better now than I did then. Youll see what I mean when you get there.When you get older you see 20 year olds kissing and stuff and it can be a bit icky , almost like theyre not old enough to know what theyre doing.Yeah , I know its a really fuddy duddy thing to say, but 20 year olds just look like kids to me sometimes. I think its ok to be 30 or 40, maybe even fifty, but after that people tend not to look so good. You dont have the endurance maybe but it is nice to be casually much stronger, and feel that little bit more lived in. I think its better to be an age and better to appear to be an age than be forever young. Its a rite of passage thing I guess. I look back on my teens and 20s with the hindsight of a terrible naivete, and looking that way again could only serve do remind me again. Up to 20 is such a small if not tiny part of the human experience, but it just feels like life stops there when youre young. When you look beyond it , its not so bad. Besides who wants to date just girls? Wheres da wimmin at?

As always git i like your outlook on life. I'm not saying looking or being older is at all a bad thing. quite the opposite, but for the sake of this conversation being forever young over being a living decaying corpse (i.e. death becomes her) would be better. personaly i have no problem with age or aging. as a 22 year old civil engineer i find youth to be a disadvantage. as a result i've grown a beard, dress older and have a solid build. these things have the effect of making me look closer to 30-35. as a result labourers and senior engineers take me more seriously rather than dismis my point of veiw as that of a 22yo 10 minuites out of uni, as is the case with many young people in my feild. appearing older means more money and more respect for me. i'm not in any way ageist! quite the opposite, if you ask my mum i was born in my mid 40's! though i still prefer a younger woman! (admitedly my experience is limited to my high school sweet heart! we've been togther 4 and half years.) luckily she still looks 22.

u wamnt to dig into this subject a little bit? then rent "no such thing" it addresses this exact topic