Religion and Ethics Forum

Religion and Ethics Discussion => Philosophy, in all its guises. => Topic started by: Nearly Sane on September 01, 2018, 10:45:16 AM

Title: Who wants to live forever?
Post by: Nearly Sane on September 01, 2018, 10:45:16 AM
Certainly not me.



http://theconversation.com/want-to-live-longer-consider-the-ethics-101301
Title: Re: Who wants to live forever?
Post by: ippy on September 01, 2018, 11:10:46 AM
Assuming it was possible I'd like to pop back every ten years or so as an observer just to see what's new, until I could no longer understand what's new.

Regards ippy
Title: Re: Who wants to live forever?
Post by: Shaker on September 01, 2018, 02:44:04 PM
It has always struck me that people who prattle on about 'for ever' still somehow think it means 'a very very long span of time but not endless' instead of endless which is what it actually means.
Title: Re: Who wants to live forever?
Post by: wigginhall on September 01, 2018, 02:49:41 PM
You also get the sense of without time, but this seems hard to understand, unless you've experienced it.
Title: Re: Who wants to live forever?
Post by: Roses on September 01, 2018, 05:09:37 PM
I have no wish to live forever.
Title: Re: Who wants to live forever?
Post by: torridon on September 07, 2018, 05:57:27 PM
I think living forever is a naive fantasy.  If we succeeded in becoming immortal we would sooner or later choose to end it anyway.  A nice essay on it here :

https://aeon.co/essays/theres-a-big-problem-with-immortality-it-goes-on-and-on?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=81069e50b7-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_09_05_02_24&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_411a82e59d-81069e50b7-69413141 (https://aeon.co/essays/theres-a-big-problem-with-immortality-it-goes-on-and-on?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=81069e50b7-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_09_05_02_24&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_411a82e59d-81069e50b7-69413141)
Title: Re: Who wants to live forever?
Post by: Udayana on September 07, 2018, 06:34:15 PM
Hopefully, well before enabling everyone to live forever, we will allow people to choose to die when they want to.
Title: Re: Who wants to live forever?
Post by: Shaker on September 07, 2018, 06:41:16 PM
Amen to that.
Title: Re: Who wants to live forever?
Post by: jeremyp on September 08, 2018, 12:50:13 PM
I'd love to live forever - well a very very long time - but only if my body stops aging (or ideally returns to its state when I was in my early twenties) and most importantly, only if all my friends and family get the same deal.

It's much harder for me to see all my friends and family getting old and dying than it is to accept it for myself.
Title: Re: Who wants to live forever?
Post by: Rhiannon on September 08, 2018, 12:52:52 PM
Yes, I get that, Jeremy.
Title: Re: Who wants to live forever?
Post by: Shaker on September 09, 2018, 08:42:37 PM
I'd love to live forever - well a very very long time - but only if my body stops aging (or ideally returns to its state when I was in my early twenties) and most importantly, only if all my friends and family get the same deal.

It's much harder for me to see all my friends and family getting old and dying than it is to accept it for myself.
Does anyone else remember a low-budget British horror film from the 70s (think Hammer and Amicus - I grew up on those. Love them still) called The Asphyx? A Victorian scientist found a way to remove a person's soul from the body and transfer it to a stout box; as long as the box remained intact the person was immortal - he did it to himself and, IIRC, a guinea pig and both were still alive in the 1970s aged 180-odd, but in his case hideously ugly because he had aged so much.
Title: Re: Who wants to live forever?
Post by: jeremyp on September 10, 2018, 08:43:42 PM
Does anyone else remember a low-budget British horror film from the 70s (think Hammer and Amicus - I grew up on those. Love them still) called The Asphyx? A Victorian scientist found a way to remove a person's soul from the body and transfer it to a stout box; as long as the box remained intact the person was immortal - he did it to himself and, IIRC, a guinea pig and both were still alive in the 1970s aged 180-odd, but in his case hideously ugly because he had aged so much.
Yes, in fact I had that film very much in mind when I first formulated my conditions for becoming immortal.
Title: Re: Who wants to live forever?
Post by: Shaker on September 10, 2018, 10:19:15 PM
Somebody!