If you ask someone what superpower they want, I would bet you a lot of money that a lot of people would say immortality. And, don’t get me wrong, it sounds like a great power. But when you take a deeper look into it, you realize it’s not all that it's cracked up to be.
The most prominent thing I discovered when researching was the fact that you wouldn’t be able to lead a happy life with anyone else. You would always outlive them. If you fell in love, you would be forced to watch them through immortal eyes while they grew old and died. Your closest family would die, and over and over again you would be forced to grieve over the family that you have lost. You would have to shut yourself away, in the hopes of never connecting with anyone again because you knew you would lose them. That doesn’t really sound like the life you were thinking of now was it? And, even if you said you would be fine not talking to anyone, humans are naturally social creatures. We need human interaction to survive. Not hearing another person’s voice forever would drive anyone insane. You would be forced to interact with people, knowing that you could never again get attracted to anyone. (Unless you’re some sort of sick psychopath that loves grieving)
The next example will be focusing on the type of immortality where you can’t die at all.
Another horrible downside to immortality would be what would happen to you if you got stuck somewhere. Let’s say you are at the Grand Canyon because why not? You live forever, you might as well do what you want. You are having a great time with no other people around. Suddenly, you fall into a deep hole. You fall so deep down that when you finally reach the bottom you look up at the sky, you can’t see any light. You would be stuck here forever. No way of getting out, no one even would know you were there. You would be stuck for all eternity. It would be incredibly boring. Nothing to entertain you, you couldn’t even die. You would live forever, slowly but surely becoming more and more deranged by the year. And that is how you would live. Forever.
You might be thinking, that won’t ever even happen to me. The odds of that happening are close to zero. But then I would tell you, those odds are only calculated for a normal human life. The youtube channel, “Because Science”, does a good job of explaining this. At exactly 5:19 minutes in, he starts to talk about the odds of everything. As he says, “All the untimely deaths will become timely”(5:24) This means that everything that probably won’t happen to a normal human person, will definitely happen to you somewhere during your infinite lifetime. The odds of a shark attack are 1 in 11.5 million. But every one of those possibilities you are going to play out if you live forever. Infinite time means infinite time for those possibilities to occur. Struck by lightning? Going to happen. Injury from a sneeze? Going to happen.
I for one would want immortality. I think that it would be useful in so many ways. I could do all the things I wanted, I could work at any place I wanted, I could become anything I wanted, and I could watch whatever I wanted. But, I would probably want the type of immortality where you can’t die from old age, but you can die from other things. I wouldn’t want to not be able to die, period.
Questions
Would you like immortality?
If so, why?
What would you do if you were immortal?
Sources
Replies
Very interesting topic which I was a bit nervouse about but you did bring in the science part whcih is great. Good summary as well! Be sure to comment on three differentr days.
I would not like to have immortality, because eventually I would get bored of life. I would also not want to go through the pain of losing everyone I know. Of course I would want to die but I feel like that would be better than living forever. Although if I had no choice, I would go everywhere in the world.
I wouldn't want immortality because eventally fun things would become boring and all the people that you know is mortal so then they will also eventally die. What would I do if immortal is to see how far into the unknown I could go.
I would like immortality because who wants to die. I want to live forever so I can help the world and others, if there were other immortal people I wouldn't be alone. Now that I have been alone for most of my life because I had no one to talk to or hang out with. I could be that person for some else who is alone I don't want others to feel the way I have because its not the right way to live life. Thats what I would do if I was immortal I want to save the people in this world before we lose them.
No, because seeing everything die does not sound fun to me. If I were immortal I would not like it because I would get bored and run would run out of things to do on this planet.
Personally I would nto like to live forver becaue I would live after everyone ive known and id have to watch them die, howver i think it woudl be cool if we could live a little after the average life expectancy currently but the expectancy goes up the longer we live anyway.
I think that there will come a point in medical history were we will not be able to make our lives any longer. I estimate that age will be about 120 years. But I never thing that we will be able to achive immortality. But it would be very interesting to see what medical advances we will make in the future.
I wouldn't want immortality unless the people I love are immortal too. It just sounds like it sucks and life and death is just life. One day we'll all pass and thats just how it is, though it breaks my heart that I'll never see the universe(as in traveling space, like acually).
I would and would not like immortality. I would because it would be fun to do whatever you want whenever you want, but I feel that after the world ends floating around constantly alive would suck. I would do anything and everyrthing that I want if I was immortal.
Immortality is a very mysterious concept, as no one has ever experienced it, but everyone has experienced the possibility of death. I would want it for this very reason. The possibility of life has always been a thing, so to live forever would be a very unique scenario. You talked about how the possibility of something bad happening to you becomes 100% when you are immortal. You didn't mention how that also means that everything good would also happen to you, so you would win the lottery, gain superpowers, and cure cancer. I think immortality is a once-in-existence opportunity, as you no longer would be confined to the ideals of basic humanity. You would become more of a force of nature, inevitable, and you could see the universe start, develop, live, and die again and again.
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