Can you withstand immortality?

[So_Indecisive]

So for some reason people. When I say people I mean many people believe that immortality is a curse and say stupid stuff like "watching everyone you love die while you're the only one left behind is terrifying".

While that would be a sad occurrence and make me feel bad for a certain amount of time I'm pretty sure I would get over it surprisingly quick.

No the main problem is 'obsession'. I can't remember who but in the novel 'I am god' they broached the subject quite deeply. Well in summary to live forever you need to have a goal so deep rooted, so impossible to achieve that only infinity can provide that possibility.

The blood Goddess is basically the last proof that her race existed she chose eternity to preserve her culture and knowledge her people created. One of the other guys is insane enough to want to watch all the stars die out. Vandal savage in DC wants to unify the earth. Cultivators can almost never reach true immortalility so they are always chasing after the possibility of becoming immortal.

Frankly I do not possess such deep obsession. I may enjoy a couple hundred years a thousand tops before I contemplate suicide, or maybe in that time I will find my own obsession.

So the question is as you are now so you have a goal that you feel only immortalility would allow you achieve.
And if you don't how many years do you believe you'll last before offing yourself.

 

[AnonUnlimited]

Immortality?
Well, the main difficulty in immortality is if you have to do it by yourself.
Vandal Savage wanting to unify the Earth and take over is a means by which he can become some sort of god king and not have to be alone.
Immortality itself is lonliness when everyone you know is constantly dying.

I guess it'd be a curse unless you have an obsession of some sort.

 

[Deleted member 84247]

Ah, I'd be chilling. We have the internet after all, and I'd be able to finish so many books. Imagine creating a library from books you wrote.

 

[So_Indecisive]

Immortality?
Well, the main difficulty in immortality is if you have to do it by yourself.
Vandal Savage wanting to unify the Earth and take over is a means by which he can become some sort of god king and not have to be alone.
Immortality itself is lonliness when everyone you know is constantly dying.

I guess it'd be a curse unless you have an obsession of some sort.

Immortalility is a curse. An eternal lifespan is more manageable at least when you've had enough you can end yourself.

 

[AnonUnlimited]

Immortalility is a curse. An eternal lifespan is more manageable at least when you've had enough you can end yourself.

Immortality isn't a curse if you are smart.
Anything can be a curse to dumb people.

 

[So_Indecisive]

Ah, I'd be chilling. We have the internet after all, and I'd be able to finish so many books. Imagine creating a library from books you wrote.

I think at some point I'd document the lives of people I'd find interesting. After a thousand years you'd already have a veritable library of books and these stories won't be beautified as the historians would address them. It'd be a retelling of their life with the good and bad clearly displayed. Hmm isn't there a book about this?

 

[Deleted member 84247]

I think at some point I'd document the lives of people I'd find interesting. After a thousand years you'd already have a veritable library of books and these stories won't be beautified as the historians would address them. It'd be a retelling of their life with the good and bad clearly displayed. Hmm isn't there a book about this?

Sounds like a cool premise. Anyway, being immortal is cool because I can learn so much. Also if everyone forgot about me and marked me dead in the government it would be funny. I could come out hundreds of years later and just start randomly showing up with a new name if I wanted

 

[Zagaroth]

In casual conversation, 'immortality' usually means the eternal youth variant, not the unkillable variant. Having eternal youth makes you not-mortal from the viewpoint of mortals.

From the viewpoint of an actual god, they would consider most versions of immortality to still leave the person a 'mortal', even if they are unkillable, as that does not give the person the power to otherwise reach beyond the constraints of being a mortal.

Anyway, presuming the eternal-youth/health variant, knowing me and starting in this modern age, yes, I believe I could handle immortality. There is too much of life to enjoy and too much to do. My own writing would be one of my obsessions, as the ideas in my head are ever-expanding. I will never be able to write faster than I have ideas to write about, plus the consumption of media to provide new stimulus and ideas.

Sorrow and gried would way me down occasionally, but I also know myself and my reactions well enough to know that there are limits to how much it will do so.

 

[RedMuffin]

[The Earth Version Does Not Support "Immortality" Please Transit To The Afterlife Expansion.]

 

[AnonUnlimited]

[The Earth Version Does Not Support "Immortality" Please Transit To The Afterlife Expansion.]

You need to go to church.

 

[RedMuffin]

You need to go to church.

Me? Why?

 

[SsemouyOnan]

My procrastination would get even worse knowing I don't really have an expiry date. I'd probably remain a passive observer until something forces me to finally do something(like say, WW3 or space expansion), then it's really anyone's guess, I already flip from fixation to fixation as is, would be a lot worse if I was literally immortal.

Oh, and I'd have to keep the fact I'm immortal a secret, cause a lot of people will want to find out how tf someone attained eternal youth/indestructability. I don't think most people will exactly be able to withstand being locked up and experimented on.

 

[AnonUnlimited]

Me? Why?
View attachment 34283

Because.

 

[AngryCat]

A thousand years is nothing. You have no idea about what you are talking about. Have you ever been very happy? Like that happy that you wish the moment lasted forever? How about miserable, and in pain? Immortality is a blessing or a curse, depending on what your state is. If you are very happy then it is a blessing, and if you are in pain, it is a curse. Just imagine both the situation.

Plus, every human is immortal, death being only a crossover. But if your immortality is a 'happy' or a 'sad' one, it depends on what you do in this life. 'Ending yourself' will bring you only endless despair and regret. (and not isekai'ed or other scenarios some morons on this site, and in other places, wrote)

In the end, everyone has the duty to find out how this world works, from where do we come, what is our purpose here, where do we go? Today, it seems like having these questions is something laughable or uncool. But, is it?

 

[Daydreamers]

we need to understand this immortality first before judging

 

[istryj]

Yes, I also believe that the question of immortality comes down to having goals. Immortality becomes a burden if you don’t know how to set goals for yourself or if you simply don’t have any. Eating, sleeping, and leaving descendants can all be done within a normal lifespan—nature doesn’t care about the rest. Going beyond basic needs may be a new stage in the evolution of the universe, and perhaps those who surpass them will never know boredom, for instance. For people with no particular goals, contemplating immortality is like African bushmen pondering the uselessness of credit cards.
To answer this question, I have to know what this form of immortality would actually entail. There are too many nuances. But overall—I’ll find something to occupy myself with.
P.S: Boredom and the desire to die may be an innate biological mechanism intended to clear space for the next generation.

 

[LilRora]

I think you're appraoching the problem from a sligthly wrong perspective, some may call it semantics but this distinction is important for me (oh how pissed I sometimes get at people's takes on immortality, yours isn't even bad in comparison). What you're doing, you are specifically asking what would happen if a human became immortal.

True immortal beings, however, especially those that are inherently immortal and fundamentally cannot die, think in completely different terms - the most important in this case being there is no such thing as being the only one left. The coming and going becomes a completely natural thing, and only if someone stubbornly clings to some arbitrary human feelings and norms they will contemplate suicide or anything of the sort because of loss, or grief, or something else.

That is basically a mortal mind in an immortal body, and that relationship is unsustainable. Those are just incompatible. Either of those has to change for any kind of fulfilling life, or whatever one should be for an immortal being.

The only way to counteract this lack of harmony is something to distract from the issues - obsession is one of them, but it is ultimately only a remedy to the inevitable. Like Murphy's law states, everything that can happen, will happen, and so the obsession will end one way or another, and the issues will become too much to push away and ignore.

Whether that causes death or not - it likely will if that option is on the table - this is not sustainable and I would not call that true immortality by any means.

To answer your question... if I took my definition of immortality, there's no way to off myself even if I wanted go. My current goal is watching humanity and any kind of life that will appear. So if we took what I believe you're calling immortality, I'd be around for a long time, I hope.

 

[Jerynboe]

I’m pretty sure that if I became immortal I’d end up with a progressively more alien mindset, instead of being overcome with desire to end it. Grief sucks big ol donkey balls, but everyone goes through it regardless.

Probably the best use of my time would be to accumulate money and work towards the kind of tech that would lead to other immortals being around. Full brain scans, technology that might reverse or counter aging, that kind of thing. Creating or contributing to a society where I could plausibly have friends that live for centuries or millennia seems like a good idea. After tens of thousands of years? Hell if I know. By that point humans will have either all died out or become as gods. Or both. My currently mortal brain can not fathom time on that scale and tbh I feel like my ability to not feel excessive anxiety about the future would be a real asset.

uh… seek out and meddle with the development of alien species or something? Try to avoid being sucked into space? Figure out and practice some kind of meditation technique to help me endure if/when I ever do end up under a collapsed mountain? Or the surface of a star?

Honestly if I end up immortal I’m going to try to accumulate money so I can hire a think tank to help me come up with better ideas.

 

[cabbag3]

Ah yes brothers and sisters (and everything in between and beyond it). Let us all embrace the strength and certainty of steel.

But for real, even before I face these kinds of problems, I'd first have to worry about supporting myself, and finding ways to fake my identity on the long run.
So I guess I still don't have anything going for me that would make the "curse" of immortality worth it, unless of course there are other perks to go with it. So yeah, I can't withstand it.
Although the idea that there would always be a chance to turn your life around if you're a broke and homeless immortal is interesting, but I wouldn't try it.

 

[Prince_Azmiran_Myrian]

All christians can enjoy immortality because the one we spend it with (God) is infinite.