Is living forever a fate worse than death?

[Trailblazer]

Now THAT is really scary

That will only happen to Christians... They have their own special place in heaven...

 

[Trailblazer]

Extending one's lifespan would be desirable...

Not in my opinion... I am ready to blow this joint as soon as I can... The only thing I really like about it is nature and the animals and some people, but there will be plenty of people in the spiritual world, just not all the stress we have to deal with in the material world.

 

[George-ananda]

I think that you and I are on the same page regarding the afterlife and what it will be like... It still frightens me though because it will be a big change, and it is forever. The thing is that we won't be thinking in terms of time after we die and go to a spiritual world, we only think that way in this life... So after we die we won't be thinking "how long is this going to last?" or "when is this going to be over?" That might just be my saving grace...

I am a believer that after death we spend considerable time on the spiritual lanes and then in most cases reincarnate. Way down the road we realize all consciousness is connected as One and the sense of separation was all an illusion.

 

[Trailblazer]

I am a believer that after death we spend considerable time on the spiritual lanes and then in most cases reincarnate. Way down the road we realize all consciousness is connected as One and the sense of separation was all an illusion.

I did not know you believe in reincarnation. I do not believe anyone ever comes back to this earth. I believe that we will continue to progress in the spiritual world for eternity and when we get to the higher spheres we will experience Oneness, although we will always retain our individuality.
As I recall, that state is described in the book entitled The Afterlife Revealed, in one of the last chapters.

 

[Unguru]

Living forever in this body, on this planet? sure yes

 

[Twilight Hue]

In the short term it would be sad outliving all my friends and loved ones. In the long term. Hundreds and thousands of years in the future, what kind of being would I become?

I can just imagine the Day of Reckoning.

The Sun going red giant and everybody's sweatin with flesh burning while watching the star get bigger and bigger....

You know it sounds like a pretty good description of the biblical hell come to think of it.

 

[Altfish]

With NO physical body, you won’t have to worry about ANY of that... That is the beauty of the Baha’i version of the afterlife; we get spiritual bodies, not physical bodies like Christians get...

That would be hell if we had to take our physical bodies with us and live in them forever...

Us atheists don't have to worry about what form/body/soul we live on in. We just know we will become stardust after our 3 score and 10. No false hopes, just reality.

 

[Skwim]

 

[Polymath257]

No, you will still be you. The only thing that you will leave behind is your physical body, but that is not who you are or where your thoughts and emotions come from. They come from your soul, which works through your body while you are alive in a body. But after your physical body dies, your soul leaves the body and goes to the spiritual world where it takes on a new form, a spiritual body.

“Physical death is nothing. There really is no cause for fear.....
You see, I was so little 'dead' that I imagined I was still physically) alive. Think of it a moment before we pass on. I had been struck by a shell splinter. There was no pain. The life was knocked out of my body; again, I say, there was no pain. Then I found that the whole of myself--all, that is, that thinks and sees and feels and knows--was still alive and conscious! I had begun a new chapter of life. I will tell you what I felt like. It was as if I had been running hard until, hot and breathless, I had thrown my overcoat away. The coat was my body, and if I had not thrown it away I should have suffocated. I cannot describe the experience in a better way; there is nothing else to describe.” Private Dowding, p. 14, 16

And if that soul cannot feel boredom, then it isn't me. And if it can, then eternity will make me insane.

Even being in 'heaven' would, after a period of tie, become hell. Forever is a really long time.

 

[Polymath257]

Us atheists don't have to worry about what form/body/soul we live on in. We just know we will become stardust after our 3 score and 10. No false hopes, just reality.

I wouldn't mind a lifespan of around 10,000 years. But longer than that would get to be mind-numbing.

 

[ChristineM]

Weither religious or not, what would be the repercussions be if immortality was possible?

Would it be great, or a waking nightmare?

Is Silicon Valley's quest for immortality a fate worse than death?

Immortality... There are currently more than 7.5 billon people on earth. Its pretty crowded in some countries, food production is having problems coping. It is thought it will need to double in the next 50 years or so to feed the rapidly increasing population.

Thats with around 0.07% mortality rate and a 1% birth rate.

Get rid of the mortality rate and we will impose a nightmare on ourselves

 

[Erebus]

There's a Stephen King sci-fi horror story about teleportation. In it, people discover that you have to be unconscious in order to teleport unscathed. Anything conscious will have its perception of time altered in such a way that the instant it takes to teleport feels like the passage of thousands, millions or perhaps even billions of years. All that time alone and conscious inevitably drives people insane.

Considering the effectiveness of White Room torture in breaking people, it's easy to see how.

Now imagine that somebody manages to create a self-sustaining cybernetic body that will keep you alive without any need for sustenance. Now imagine that something happens to trap you, perhaps you're buried under a rockfall or suffer a similar accident. You're now stuck in that same horror story scenario. Furthermore, given an indefinite lifespan, something of that nature is almost guaranteed to eventually happen.

All of this is the stuff of nightmares, but it also assumes an absence of physical suffering. The Hell concepts of many religions make this scenario far worse. In either case, I'd choose non-existence in a heartbeat.

That's not to say that eternal existence is guaranteed to be hellish though, just that many forms of it definitely would be. A heavenly existence could work if there are infinite new things to explore and experience. Aside from a literal heaven, certain interpretations of reincarnation could also qualify since despite eternal existence, the experiences of each incarnation appear new and finite.

 

[Trailblazer]

Us atheists don't have to worry about what form/body/soul we live on in. We just know we will become stardust after our 3 score and 10. No false hopes, just reality.

That belief certainly has some advantages, no worries about what the "future" holds and no worries about "living forever" and no worries about having to please God either...

 

[Trailblazer]

And if that soul cannot feel boredom, then it isn't me. And if it can, then eternity will make me insane.

Whether we are bored in the afterlife or not depends upon our interests and what is on the itinerary.
The afterlife is simply a continuation of our life in this world, without the physical body... I am never bored in this life, so I will probably never be bored in the afterlife.

Even being in 'heaven' would, after a period of time, become hell. Forever is a really long time.

It could be if there is nothing interesting to do, but we don't know that yet, there is a lot we do not know.

 

[chinu]

Weither religious or not, what would be the repercussions be if immortality was possible?

Would it be great, or a waking nightmare?

Neither great, nor a waking nightmare.

By the time it will turn into a Boredom,

Thereafter, Boredom will slowly turn into Frustration,

Thereafter, Frustration will slowly turn into a Disease.

Thereafter, Disease will slowly turn into Punishment.

At the end, Immortality = Punishment.

 

[chinu]

I'd say it would depend on how one ages...

If I was to be immortal and always have the body of say a 30 year-old then great

But if I'd have a frail and elderly body then maybe not so great

But I think medical science can only deliver us the latter option!

But, what if suddenly all men turn to 80+ age.
No one left of your age group on earth ?

 

[Altfish]

That belief certainly has some advantages, no worries about what the "future" holds and no worries about "living forever" and no worries about having to please God either...

Indeed, just accept that we are unbelievably lucky to be alive and make the most of our very short time on earth. Embrace friends and family, enjoy nature and generally be good to others and help those in need.

 

[Etritonakin]

Weither religious or not, what would be the repercussions be if immortality was possible?

Would it be great, or a waking nightmare?

Is Silicon Valley's quest for immortality a fate worse than death?

Man attempting to self-evolve into immortality would likely be a horrific nightmare along the way -and would not benefit any who have already passed away.

Living forever would be awesome. It is the fact that we live in a world full of buttheads and are presently subject to all sorts of unfortunate things which makes the prospect seem otherwise.

From a biblical perspective, we are to be given very powerful "glorious" bodies which are not subject to such things (things will be subject to us), buttheads will be separated from chill people until they chill (paraphrasing), all life forms will no longer be at odds (even the nature of animals will be changed, etc) and there will be no more war.
We will then move out into "the heavens" which "were created not in vain", but "formed to be inhabited" as scripture states (made possible by said "glorious" bodies)

 

[Polymath257]

Whether we are bored in the afterlife or not depends upon our interests and what is on the itinerary.
The afterlife is simply a continuation of our life in this world, without the physical body... I am never bored in this life, so I will probably never be bored in the afterlife.

It could be if there is nothing interesting to do, but we don't know that yet, there is a lot we do not know.

But, the point is that unless there is an *infinite* amount to know and an *infinite* capacity to know, eventually you will know all you can and have reviewed it a billion times in excruciating detail. Similarly, unless there is an *infinite* amount to do and an *infinite* capacity to do it, eventually you will have done everything you can a billion times over.

I see no alternative to insanity in this.

 

[dingdao]

Infinite Life
Assuming that we create a clone, with new telomeres, and transplant the brain, the memories and personality should remain intact. Then all we need to worry about is the deterioration of the brain. Dementia becomes the life limiting factor. Maybe 100 years out.
We create the clone with a new brain. Transferring the memories and the personality to the new body becomes a major problem. On second thought, maybe you want to tweak them. Let's say you were never beaten and now are an MD so that you could redesign yourself the next time your body wears out. This is probably a SF theme by someone.
In the meantime, we're chasing physical immortality while ignoring the fact that there is no way of keeping up with our waste stream.