Who Wants To Live Forever?

[white avenger]

It seems to be a fairly common theme nowadays that, along with the gift of immortality comes the curse of having to say goodbye to everyone who you ever love. There's even a song about it. (Pardon the Spuffy theme if it bothers you. Just listen to the lyrics if you've never heard the song)

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvGicAp5RJI[/ame]

So my question is, if given the choice of growing old and dying with the people who you love or living forever, with the possibility of meeting and loving new people, forming new friendships, seeing and experiencing literally everything that the future holds in store, what would your choice be?

 

[PrincessBuffy16]

You know, living forever doesn't seem that attractive for me.

If you're a vampire, you don't care if people around you die. You have a gang, maybe a girl.. and they rarely die because you take care of each other, and let's face it, there's only one person who can kill them.

But, if you're a human, and just immortal, not evil, that's a hard thing. Seeing everyone around you die, loosing everything you got used to, and then starting all over again with the knowledge they're going to die, and you're going to live and have to start all over again.

Have you seen The Green Mile with Tom Hanks?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120689/

If not, watch it!

 

[Tsquared]

You know, living forever doesn't seem that attractive for me.

If you're a vampire, you don't care if people around you die. You have a gang, maybe a girl.. and they rarely die because you take care of each other, and let's face it, there's only one person who can kill them.

But, if you're a human, and just immortal, not evil, that's a hard thing. Seeing everyone around you die, loosing everything you got used to, and then starting all over again with the knowledge they're going to die, and you're going to live and have to start all over again.

Have you seen The Green Mile with Tom Hanks?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120689/

If not, watch it!

Yeah that pretty much sums up my opinion about it too, and I really like that movie! 😀

It sounds great in theory, but I wonder how the human mind could even handle/change after so many decades without changing and seeing everybody you love die. And know that they would eventually die. I wonder if your mind would just numb up and you'd live like a living zombie.

This thread reminds me of that Tim McGraw song 🙂p yeah country!) "Live Like You Were Dying".

🙂

 

[msfantastico87]

Although I would like to see all the new stuff coming around, I'd have to say I would not want to live forever.

Living forever might have it's advantages. Like, never having to go to hell or some crap like that. But then you'd never experience heaven, if you were a good person. But then all of your loved ones would die around you. That would make me extremely sad and it would make it harder for me to make new friends because then i'd know to expect them to die.

I say nay.

 

[Tueuse de Vampires]

I would not want to live forever. First there's the thing people have been saying, with seeing the people you love die around you (although I guess things would be different if you weren't the only to get immortality here), but there's an even more important point imo.

Do you know that feeling you get during summer break? First, you really look forward to summer break and enjoy it, but as it goes on and on and on you just wish school could start again so you have SOMETHING to do? Now just imagine your whole life was like that.
Death it what makes life so precious, you know it's gonna end at some point.

 

[zobothehobo]

I can't watch the video right now but the idea of living forever has always seemed really sad and depressing to me. Watching everyone and everything you love die and leave. That sounds awful. It sounds like a really empty existence to me. And that's what it would be. An existence, not a life. If you ask me, I'd rather live than exist any day. Our mortality is what makes life worth living... You don't get one shot and s limited amount of time and you should use it wisely. Without that... No. I wouldn't want to live forever.

 

[GrrArghx]

I would, lol.

Just because I'm scared of dying. The thought of just not being here anymore and not know what happens afterwards wigs me out so much.

I mean, I know it would suck to watch the people you love die off, but then again, I think it would be fun to see how much the world changes too.

 

[Zeppo]

Yeah, I'm scared of dying, too, especially before I get to do everything I want. I think I want to live forever and everything I do is kind of in respect of that as a bottom line: eating well, exersizing, laughing, vitamins ... I tell my parents I want to live forever and even though watching them and others leave the Earth would be hard I'd deal. Maybe it's better in theory than practise, haha. But yes, I want to do a lot of things and experience the world so living forever would help me accomplish that.

 

[DarlingVioletta]

If I had the choice I would choose to live forever. I'm a very solitary person and so having to watch people leave wouldn't be that bad. Also, it would quickly become a standard thing and you probably wouldn't notice it much.

I don't think I'd choose it so much because I'm afraid to die as I really want to know what course humanity will take into the future. I'm just curious like that.

 

[PrincessBuffy16]

I would, lol.

Just because I'm scared of dying. The thought of just not being here anymore and not know what happens afterwards wigs me out so much.

I mean, I know it would suck to watch the people you love die off, but then again, I think it would be fun to see how much the world changes too.

I'm scared of dying too, but I'm more scared of living alone.

And we don't know where we'll end up after we die, maybe we'll see after all how the world changes.

 

[Kean]

(Pardon the Spuffy theme if it bothers you

My eyes! MY EYES!!

As for the original question: the words Hell quickly followed by a resounding NO! spring to mind.

Living forever is probably the very last thing I would want. I'm not particularly happy with the fact that I'll (more than likely) live till I'm 80-100, never mind eternity.

I'm very much Team Mortality.

 

[Flannen]

While I would really like to live to see humanity at it's finest considering I have a lot faith in humanity as a whole and think that one day we will get 'there', and live in the world as I envision it capable being, I don't think living forever is for me. I want to make my mark on the world, change people and perceptions and when I have, I'll leave it to those who follow me to make their world right. I'll be happy to look down at what follows me knowing I was a part of it, but I would have had my time, used it well and accept I no longer have a place in it.

 

[InsaneMystic]

I'm very much Team Mortality.

We're on different teams in that other debate 🙂p), but I'm 110% with you on this one. Taken quite some time for me to even make peace with me being here at all, to be honest. And even though my life quality definitely has skyrocketed from the deathwishyness like 5 years ago, so I'm no longer in any hurry of leaving this world ASAP - but I still do not wanna keep walking around in this "meaty prison" forever, either. As a temporary inconvenience, I can deal with it fine, but not as a permanent state - that's a horrible thought for me.

 

[Ms.Trick]

I don't want to live forever but I want my soul to witness the world.
It's a bit weird, I know.

I love life. I love living. But I'm not afraid of dying. I guess this was inspired a lot by Buffy, but the day I die, I know I will be at peace. Because as much as I love life, it can be so painful and harsh, dying is like the rest you get, the peace, the non-suffering. I don't have a deathwish (anymore) but I don't have a death fear either.
Dumbledore says something like "At your age, death seems to be the most horrible thing in the world. But to some, death is juste the rest at the end of a long journey". I think that's about it!

On the other hand, I'm so curious. Since the begin of times, men-kind has change so much! Fights for our rights were won, science progressed...We also changed the whole ecologic situation. It just fascinates me. I don't want to physically live forever, in this world. But I want to know what will happen next. How far will the progress go. How bad will the ecologic situation become. Will men exist forever? Will catastrophes erase the human kind like for the Dinosaur? What would be the next thing on earth if we don't exist anymore? Will we return to a Lord of The Rings kind of age? (I love that time, when nature was everywhere, people were ridding on horses...Even tough, I think things like women's conditions is more utopic in LOTR than it ever was at a horse time).
I want to "witness" all of that. I want to be omniscient. I want my soul to become one with the Earth.

I think it all sounds very weird, but that's just the way I feel. I want my essence to last forever, but not my life by itself.

 

[Tsquared]

This thread reminds me of that Angel episode, the one about the Shanshu prophecy where Cordy and Wes were having a conversation about Angel not being a "part" of the world.. 🙂

 

[Kean]

We're on different teams in that other debate 🙂p), but I'm 110% with you on this one. Taken quite some time for me to even make peace with me being here at all, to be honest. And even though my life quality definitely has skyrocketed from the deathwishyness like 5 years ago, so I'm no longer in any hurry of leaving this world ASAP - but I still do not wanna keep walking around in this "meaty prison" forever, either. As a temporary inconvenience, I can deal with it fine, but not as a permanent state - that's a horrible thought for me.

I believe this is possibly the second thing we have agreed on. We must throw a parade! 😉

I wholeheartedly relate to what you have said here though. I have no interest in forever.

 

[kristin1105]

I have this crazy irrational fear of dieing so I'd probably choose to live forever. Although I'd probably regret it in the future.

 

[sisterofmercy]

I'd choose eternal life in a second. Obviously losing everyone you care about wouldn't be great, but there will always be people around to meet and talk to, so it's not like you would ever be alone.

 

[zobothehobo]

Maybe I'm in the minority here... but I don't fear death. We've all crossed the street and thought "a car could come barreling around that corner and kill me instantly," me included, but most people think that and get scared. When I think about death, I don't get scared... When I ask myself "is this the day I die" I'm not asking myself out of fear... I'm just wondering. The thought that I could die today or tomorrow or the day after that doesn't strike fear in my heart. I don't want to say it's exciting to think about because that makes me sound like I want to be dead and I don't... but it's interesting. The thought that it could all be over.... If I died right now, it would suck. There's so much that I want to do that I haven't. I have so much unused potential that would never be used and that would be a shame. But it is kind of a cool thought that it could all end now. This would be it. My mortality doesn't scare me... it excites me. It's cool and interesting and shrouded in mystery... which makes it cooler and more interesting and exciting.

 

[Thursday]

Would this eternal life happen to come with eternal youth? Would I not age a day over 20 or 40 or 80 would I just eternally deteriorate?

Well, if I had a choice to become an immortal I probably wouldn't take it. If only just because I've spent my entire life being mortal, and I don't think immortality would be a change I could handle easily. It'd change my life and my entire way of thinking. I may live forever, but I don't want to spend most of it figuring how to adapt to, well, living forever or angsting about it.