Again, the reason I would NOT choose immortality is that in the long run, its eternal damnation.
When the universe as we know it ends, and it will end, your alone.
Now unless you are autistic and literally have no ability to connect with other human beings, the loneliness will be unbearable.
Spend a few days alone in your house, no internet connection, no phone, no interaction with other sentient beings.
At best the experience will be boring and uncomfortable, at worst it will drive you up the wall as you try to substitute human interaction with something else.
Magnify that a hundred fold and you have the experience a immortal being would have after our sun super-novas and you are left alone in a airless void.
In short: Not worth it.
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"May god have mercy on my enemies, because I will not." - George S. Patton
Again, the reason I would NOT choose immortality is that in the long run, its eternal damnation.
When the universe as we know it ends, and it will end, your alone.
Now unless you are autistic and literally have no ability to connect with other human beings, the loneliness will be unbearable.
Spend a few days alone in your house, no internet connection, no phone, no interaction with other sentient beings.
At best the experience will be boring and uncomfortable, at worst it will drive you up the wall as you try to substitute human interaction with something else.
Magnify that a hundred fold and you have the experience a immortal being would have after our sun super-novas and you are left alone in a airless void.
When the universe as we know it ends, and it will end, your alone.
This assumes that when the universe "ends", the immortal being does not - despite that fact that the immortal being is a part of that same universe, and was presumably granted that immortality by some element of that universe. In fact, most anti-immortality arguments rigidly maintain that the immortal being will somehow remain in a static mental and emotional state, and retain their physical immortality even when the universal laws that somehow granted said immortality are changed or destroyed. This is an inherent flaw in these arguments.
On a side note, why are all immortals manic-depressives that lack the same coping skills as mortals? I know vampires are sexier when they weep, but c'mon...
Quote from The_Questioner »
Spend a few days alone in your house, no internet connection, no phone, no interaction with other sentient beings.
At best the experience will be boring and uncomfortable, at worst it will drive you up the wall as you try to substitute human interaction with something else.
If I'm substituting human interaction with something else, then I am changing and evolving. Immortality means more time to change and evolve. Again, I do not subscribe to the idea that immortality would make a person mentally immutable, at least not without an explanation as to why.
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Quote from DarkMother »
May your posts be eternally considered on topic in an off topic world.
WARNING: Before "correcting" this poster, please re-read his post and make sure he wasn't JOKING.
When the universe as we know it ends, and it will end, your alone.
This assumes that when the universe "ends", the immortal being does not - despite that fact that the immortal being is a part of that same universe, and was presumably granted that immortality by some element of that universe. In fact, most anti-immortality arguments rigidly maintain that the immortal being will somehow remain in a static mental and emotional state, and retain their physical immortality even when the universal laws that somehow granted said immortality are changed or destroyed. This is an inherent flaw in these arguments.
On a side note, why are all immortals manic-depressives that lack the same coping skills as mortals? I know vampires are sexier when they weep, but c'mon...
Quote from The_Questioner »
Spend a few days alone in your house, no internet connection, no phone, no interaction with other sentient beings.
At best the experience will be boring and uncomfortable, at worst it will drive you up the wall as you try to substitute human interaction with something else.
If I'm substituting human interaction with something else, then I am changing and evolving. Immortality means more time to change and evolve. Again, I do not subscribe to the idea that immortality would make a person mentally immutable, at least not without an explanation as to why.
As far as the universe ending, I don't mean that you are floating in some dimension of nothingness, I mean that when the sun super-novas you are going to have little to nothing left around you. So no; the universe is not going to be destroyed but the objects in it (planets, asteroids, other small particles) will be wiped clean by the super- nova. Well, at the very least ones that are closest to you, that is to say several millions of miles.
Secondly the word try is pivotal in that sentence. you can try to substitute human interaction, you can try to forgo it, but doing so is impossible. There is nothing in space, aside from the light of the stars and the occasional speck of matter that escaped cosmic destruction when our sun exploded. Unless you can substitute the most complex mind on our planet with stars and dust, I seriously doubt you would find the experience enjoyable. Floating in space; alone, cold, and without companionship, is the closest thing to the concept of hell as I can imagine.
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"May god have mercy on my enemies, because I will not." - George S. Patton
you can try to substitute human interaction, you can try to forgo it, but doing so is impossible.
Earlier, you implied that some people could exist in this fashion, due to autism or an inability to connect with others. I believe that an immortal could evolve a form of autism that replaces human companionship with a vivid fantasy world. Heck, give a (formerly) human mind a couple dozen years of solitude, and see if it doesn't just start hallucinating on its own. Again, I argue that the ability to evolve based on the given situation is missing from these arguments.
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Quote from DarkMother »
May your posts be eternally considered on topic in an off topic world.
WARNING: Before "correcting" this poster, please re-read his post and make sure he wasn't JOKING.
you can try to substitute human interaction, you can try to forgo it, but doing so is impossible.
Earlier, you implied that some people could exist in this fashion, due to autism or an inability to connect with others. I believe that an immortal could evolve a form of autism that replaces human companionship with a vivid fantasy world. Heck, give a (formerly) human mind a couple dozen years of solitude, and see if it doesn't just start hallucinating on its own. Again, I argue that the ability to evolve based on the given situation is missing from these arguments.
Yes, a person with genuine autism cannot even interact with humans, so maybe immortality would be perfect for them.
And your argument states that you would replace reality with one of your own. So in the end you would be a undying soul floating through the cold of space like I said, but now you are insane as well.
It is still far from a preferred existence.
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"May god have mercy on my enemies, because I will not." - George S. Patton
your argument states that you would replace reality with one of your own. So in the end you would be a undying soul floating through the cold of space like I said, but now you are insane as well.
It is still far from a preferred existence.
Are you saying that insane people don't enjoy their insanity? Then why all the laughing?
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Quote from DarkMother »
May your posts be eternally considered on topic in an off topic world.
WARNING: Before "correcting" this poster, please re-read his post and make sure he wasn't JOKING.
your argument states that you would replace reality with one of your own. So in the end you would be a undying soul floating through the cold of space like I said, but now you are insane as well.
It is still far from a preferred existence.
Are you saying that insane people don't enjoy their insanity? Then why all the laughing?
Because they have enough medication coursing through their systems to put a young elephant to sleep.
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"May god have mercy on my enemies, because I will not." - George S. Patton
your argument states that you would replace reality with one of your own. So in the end you would be a undying soul floating through the cold of space like I said, but now you are insane as well.
It is still far from a preferred existence.
Are you saying that insane people don't enjoy their insanity? Then why all the laughing?
Because they have enough medication coursing through their systems to put a young elephant to sleep.
Sleeping elephants don't laugh, and neither do heavily sedated lunatics. I sincerely hope we can keep this discussion about indestructible humans floating through the cosmos going without resorting to absurdities...
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Quote from DarkMother »
May your posts be eternally considered on topic in an off topic world.
WARNING: Before "correcting" this poster, please re-read his post and make sure he wasn't JOKING.
Sleeping elephants don't laugh, and neither do heavily sedated lunatics. I sincerely hope we can keep this discussion about indestructible humans floating through the cosmos going without resorting to absurdities...
Perhaps we should change the subject to how happy sleeping elephants are then.
Listen the fact of the matter is that when you get down to it, this is a matter of opinion. Personally, I wouldn't forgo my sanity, and right to some eternal rest after a long life of hard work, just to fulfill a long list of desires that mortality would keep me from accomplishing.
In the grand scheme of things I am more than content to die in peace knowing my work is done.
Of course if you prefer going insane and simply existing for eons upon eons then that is your choice.
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"May god have mercy on my enemies, because I will not." - George S. Patton
In regards to sanity, one could argue that sanity itself is subjective. One rarely perceives oneself as insane. Therefore, a lone nut drifting through space is not likely to be disturbed by their insanity, as there will be no other people to point out their craziness.
In regards to solitude, I'm a bit curious as to why I am the only immortal. I'm a tech support rep from Seattle with bad teeth and a beer gut, I'm not missing my Delta Brain Wave, and thanks to my youthful multi-classing I can only cast Magic Missile once a day. If the forces of the universe made ME immortal, they certainly bestowed this gift onto others. And since we're impervious to supernovas, then no force on Earth could harm us, so there'd be no point in hiding my immortality from humanity - meaning that we immortals would most certainly find one another. And if the universe went kablooey, leaving us adrift in endless space, well, I have the rules to several RPGs memorized, and two of them don't even need dice.
In regards to sleeping elephants, I imagine they're every bit as happy as anyone can be when they are asleep. Personally, I'm very happy when I'm asleep. That's when I have the really cool superpowers that don't make me mopey and depressing.
Finally, in regards to opinions, I find that philosophical discussions are more challenging if I instead choose to argue the opinions of Ed Rotterdam, a frycook from Rochester NY that I've never met.
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Quote from DarkMother »
May your posts be eternally considered on topic in an off topic world.
WARNING: Before "correcting" this poster, please re-read his post and make sure he wasn't JOKING.
Fake answer: Yes! I would wake up on a beach, in a pristine land, with pigs, sheep, cows and chickens! And if I died I would wake up on the same spot on that beach! I would mutate myself into a 6 foot tall stone carrying beast of awesome! And I would punch zombies in the face!
(Technically this has NOTHING to do with minecraft.)
Technically you're 1.7 meters tall... which is about 5 feet 4 inches...I think...
But yes, My real answer's no, but my fake answer is the Minecraft immortality.
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[12:41] Coffeeeeeee!
---
[16:29] "And lo, the tacos were delicious"
Why do all the cynics here assume you'll be floating through space/humanity will end itself/et cetera? >_>
While I suppose it's possible for humanity to nuke itself, there is no reason, short of planetary collision or accident travelling after space travel is invented and made secure, to be floating around in space unless you, for some likely unfounded reason, believe in the handful of theories that say there's going to be a big crunch. A comet collision that destabilizes the Earth isn't going to send you into space, either.
My reasons for immortality are already covered, so I won't bother repeating the rest other than what I think should be corrected for.
When the universe as we know it ends, and it will end, your alone.
Now unless you are autistic and literally have no ability to connect with other human beings, the loneliness will be unbearable.
Spend a few days alone in your house, no internet connection, no phone, no interaction with other sentient beings.
At best the experience will be boring and uncomfortable, at worst it will drive you up the wall as you try to substitute human interaction with something else.
Magnify that a hundred fold and you have the experience a immortal being would have after our sun super-novas and you are left alone in a airless void.
In short: Not worth it.
Exactly.
My Pathfinder Campaign for the denizens of MCF: http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1939035-where-are-we-sandbox-pathfinder-campaign-ooc/
This assumes that when the universe "ends", the immortal being does not - despite that fact that the immortal being is a part of that same universe, and was presumably granted that immortality by some element of that universe. In fact, most anti-immortality arguments rigidly maintain that the immortal being will somehow remain in a static mental and emotional state, and retain their physical immortality even when the universal laws that somehow granted said immortality are changed or destroyed. This is an inherent flaw in these arguments.
On a side note, why are all immortals manic-depressives that lack the same coping skills as mortals? I know vampires are sexier when they weep, but c'mon...
If I'm substituting human interaction with something else, then I am changing and evolving. Immortality means more time to change and evolve. Again, I do not subscribe to the idea that immortality would make a person mentally immutable, at least not without an explanation as to why.
As far as the universe ending, I don't mean that you are floating in some dimension of nothingness, I mean that when the sun super-novas you are going to have little to nothing left around you. So no; the universe is not going to be destroyed but the objects in it (planets, asteroids, other small particles) will be wiped clean by the super- nova. Well, at the very least ones that are closest to you, that is to say several millions of miles.
Secondly the word try is pivotal in that sentence. you can try to substitute human interaction, you can try to forgo it, but doing so is impossible. There is nothing in space, aside from the light of the stars and the occasional speck of matter that escaped cosmic destruction when our sun exploded. Unless you can substitute the most complex mind on our planet with stars and dust, I seriously doubt you would find the experience enjoyable. Floating in space; alone, cold, and without companionship, is the closest thing to the concept of hell as I can imagine.
But if there is heaven or hell, i'll take death.
As long as I don't end up in hell.
Yes, a person with genuine autism cannot even interact with humans, so maybe immortality would be perfect for them.
And your argument states that you would replace reality with one of your own. So in the end you would be a undying soul floating through the cold of space like I said, but now you are insane as well.
It is still far from a preferred existence.
Because they have enough medication coursing through their systems to put a young elephant to sleep.
My Pathfinder Campaign for the denizens of MCF: http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1939035-where-are-we-sandbox-pathfinder-campaign-ooc/
It must be terrifying for you to go to sleep every night.
Perhaps we should change the subject to how happy sleeping elephants are then.
Listen the fact of the matter is that when you get down to it, this is a matter of opinion. Personally, I wouldn't forgo my sanity, and right to some eternal rest after a long life of hard work, just to fulfill a long list of desires that mortality would keep me from accomplishing.
In the grand scheme of things I am more than content to die in peace knowing my work is done.
Of course if you prefer going insane and simply existing for eons upon eons then that is your choice.
In regards to solitude, I'm a bit curious as to why I am the only immortal. I'm a tech support rep from Seattle with bad teeth and a beer gut, I'm not missing my Delta Brain Wave, and thanks to my youthful multi-classing I can only cast Magic Missile once a day. If the forces of the universe made ME immortal, they certainly bestowed this gift onto others. And since we're impervious to supernovas, then no force on Earth could harm us, so there'd be no point in hiding my immortality from humanity - meaning that we immortals would most certainly find one another. And if the universe went kablooey, leaving us adrift in endless space, well, I have the rules to several RPGs memorized, and two of them don't even need dice.
In regards to sleeping elephants, I imagine they're every bit as happy as anyone can be when they are asleep. Personally, I'm very happy when I'm asleep. That's when I have the really cool superpowers that don't make me mopey and depressing.
Finally, in regards to opinions, I find that philosophical discussions are more challenging if I instead choose to argue the opinions of Ed Rotterdam, a frycook from Rochester NY that I've never met.
Technically you're 1.7 meters tall... which is about 5 feet 4 inches...I think...
But yes, My real answer's no, but my fake answer is the Minecraft immortality.
[12:41] Coffeeeeeee!
---
[16:29] "And lo, the tacos were delicious"
While I suppose it's possible for humanity to nuke itself, there is no reason, short of planetary collision or accident travelling after space travel is invented and made secure, to be floating around in space unless you, for some likely unfounded reason, believe in the handful of theories that say there's going to be a big crunch. A comet collision that destabilizes the Earth isn't going to send you into space, either.
My reasons for immortality are already covered, so I won't bother repeating the rest other than what I think should be corrected for.