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Immortality
July 13, 2015 at 6:50 pm
(This post was last modified: July 13, 2015 at 7:27 pm by Excited Penguin.)
The topic is death and/or immortality.
What do you think about death? Is it really inevitable? Do you think we'll ever surpass it? Do you think, maybe, it will happen during your lifetime[no pun intended]?
Would you choose to live forever, provided you stay (or get) young and carefree and everyone you know does too? Would you like to live throughout the millenia? What would you do with your eternity?
If you don't think that we'll ever surpass death[either by scientific means or in a religious mumbo jumbo way like reincarnation and heaven/hell], then how do you cope with the thought of it? How does it all make sense to you when[and if] you know that not even transmision of genes and memes is liable to withstand time[meaning that those same genes and memes will die one at a time, at least altogether with the minds that receive them]?
Or do you merely think of yourself as part of the universe and so pretend not to care all that much for your own conscience?
These are just suggestions. Sorry if they're tinted by my own subjectivity. Feel free to address this issue however you like.
I'll include a poll for good measure.
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RE: Is immortality something you would wish for?
July 13, 2015 at 6:57 pm
(July 13, 2015 at 6:50 pm)excitedpenguin Wrote: What do you think about death?
On worse days, I desperately want it. On better ones, I don't care.
Quote: Is it really inevitable?
Everything that's ever lived is going to die. Pretty inevitable, yes.
Quote: Do you think we'll ever surpass it? Do you think, maybe, it will happen during your lifetime[there's no pun here]?
No and no. We may postpone it for quite some time with enough effort, but I don't believe we'll ever get rid of it.
Quote:Would you choose to live forever, provided you stay (or get) young and carefree and everyone you know does too? Would you like to live throughout the millenia? What would you do with your eternity?
No. No. Kill myself eventually. Living forever would be torture, even if I wasn't already suicidal.
Quote:If you don't think that we'll ever surpass death[either by scientific means or religious mumbo jumbo like reincarnation and heaven/hell] than how do you cope with the thought of death? How does it all make sense to you when and if you know that not even transmision of genes and memes is liable to withstand time[meaning that those same genes and memes will die one at a time, at least altogether with the minds that receive them]?
Or do you merely think of yourself as part of the universe and so pretend not to care all that much for your own conscience?
I just really don't care.
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RE: Is immortality something you would wish for?
July 13, 2015 at 7:00 pm
Is it just me, or has the number of polls here gone complete bat-shite crazy?
Boru
Oh, and for the record, I don't need to wish for immortality. I've already got it.
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
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RE: Is immortality something you would wish for?
July 13, 2015 at 7:08 pm
My take on death is not new with me. Here are the words of Epicurus:
Quote:Accustom yourself to believing that death is nothing to us, for good and evil imply the capacity for sensation, and death is the privation of all sentience; therefore a correct understanding that death is nothing to us makes the mortality of life enjoyable, not by adding to life a limitless time, but by taking away the yearning after immortality. For life has no terrors for him who has thoroughly understood that there are no terrors for him in ceasing to live. Foolish, therefore, is the man who says that he fears death, not because it will pain when it comes, but because it pains in the prospect. Whatever causes no annoyance when it is present, causes only a groundless pain in the expectation. Death, therefore, the most awful of evils, is nothing to us, seeing that, when we are, death is not come, and, when death is come, we are not. It is nothing, then, either to the living or to the dead, for with the living it is not and the dead exist no longer.
http://www.epicurus.net/en/menoeceus.html
Basically, the year 1800 was not a problem for you at all. Nothing bad happened to you then. That is what the year 2200 will be like for you.
So, I am not afraid of death at all. It is only what can happen in life that may be a source of fear.
As for technology, I am not convinced that it will ever make people immortal. The 'best' it could deliver would be keeping people 'young' and fit, but there would still be accidents and murder. If I could have an indefinitely young body, with no bad side effects, I would take it. But I do not expect science to ever provide that.
Anyway, it is not a big deal to be dead. That is just like not having been conceived. In both cases, you do not exist.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
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RE: Immortality
July 14, 2015 at 6:03 pm
Quote:What do you think about death? Is it really inevitable? Do you think we'll ever surpass it? Do you think, maybe, it will happen during your lifetime[no pun intended]?
It is appointed to every man once to die. :  I don't think we will surpass it but if we did I think there would be some serious implications.
Quote:Would you choose to live forever, provided you stay (or get) young and carefree and everyone you know does too? Would you like to live throughout the millenia? What would you do with your eternity?
I don't' think I would want to live forever. I wouldn't mind having a couple different lives. Like reincarnation, well as long as I could pick the life. Ha!
Quote:If you don't think that we'll ever surpass death[either by scientific means or in a religious mumbo jumbo way like reincarnation and heaven/hell], then how do you cope with the thought of it? How does it all make sense to you when[and if] you know that not even transmision of genes and memes is liable to withstand time[meaning that those same genes and memes will die one at a time, at least altogether with the minds that receive them]?
A modern concept of ‘soul’ equates it with the conscious mind but this is equally flawed, for when the body dies the conscious mind, being dependent on the brain, also ceases to exist. This mind/soul concept has the problem of the mind development, for death can occur in every stage from initial fertilization to full physical and mental maturity; so ‘souls’ must be conceived as forever developing or forever remaining in an immature state.
Anyone weighing the evidence has no trouble in discarding the notion of the everlasting soul and accepting that death is the natural end to every human life.
By accepting that life is only for a finite period, short or long, I am confronted by the matter of how best to spend the available time and therefore, if suitably informed, will most likely spend the time worthy of a human person.
It would be difficult to imagine a more useless waste of time than that spent in the worship of an imaginary god or preparing for a non-existent everlasting life in some mythical supernatural realm of eternal bliss.
I deal with death by accepting it will happen. But it's also only a concept of the living. Death is not a concept to the dead because once you're gone, that's it. Since my deconversion I have found Mark Twain's quote to be very enticing: "I do not fear death, for I had been dead for billions of years before I was born and not suffered the slightest inconvenience of it." 
**Crickets** -- God
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RE: Immortality
July 14, 2015 at 6:23 pm
I think we will eventually prevent death. This will leave the Christians with a massive dilemna:
Suicide, or never go to heaven.
We will see whether their faith is really as strong as they say.
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RE: Immortality
July 14, 2015 at 6:35 pm
Science will defeat death for sure. I just won't live to see it happening. 500 years ago people used to die by almost every disease they caught. With science progressing now we can cure leprosa, common cold, flesh injuries, chickenpox, measles and many other diseases. Recently different scientists made some progress on curing cancer, so, yeah, I'm sure science will take care of immortality as well.
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RE: Immortality
July 14, 2015 at 7:41 pm
Later generations will defeat death in that inevitable biological degeneration will be overcome. That will not be true immortality as death by accident or violence will still be a possibility.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
Albert Einstein
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RE: Immortality
July 14, 2015 at 7:46 pm
(This post was last modified: July 14, 2015 at 7:46 pm by IATIA.)
Immortality. Hmmm... Let us say, just for sake of argument, that money is not an issue, what would you do forever? What would you do for 10,000 years? What would you do for 1000 years? 
You make people miserable and there's nothing they can do about it, just like god.
-- Homer Simpson
God has no place within these walls, just as facts have no place within organized religion.
-- Superintendent Chalmers
Science is like a blabbermouth who ruins a movie by telling you how it ends. There are some things we don't want to know. Important things.
-- Ned Flanders
Once something's been approved by the government, it's no longer immoral.
-- The Rev Lovejoy
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RE: Immortality
July 14, 2015 at 8:30 pm
(July 14, 2015 at 7:46 pm)IATIA Wrote: Immortality. Hmmm... Let us say, just for sake of argument, that money is not an issue, what would you do forever? What would you do for 10,000 years? What would you do for 1000 years?
I would read, take vacations, research, discover, learn, invent, write, etc.
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