Would you die to live forever?

[Bawb]

Yes - would do it, am currently doing it

This body is like the highschool junker car - the one that you are learning to drive with, learning how to maintain etc. You don't want to give an expensive car to a reckless teenager who does not know what they are doing right? This body is the junker one, we learn how to treat it, how to take care of it, eat right, exercise, etc. etc... then when we figure things out, we will get the nicer version

Ye, i agree with him, i mean, if you were granted a immortal body lyke that, but then u did sumthing bad because u didn't understand wut to do, i'd want to get a bad oen to understand more abut it.Lyke, meth users that regret using meth, they wud no nto to sue meth in the better body, wryte?

 

[Riverwolf]

If you were cloned you would just have an identical twin. What I am talking about is a copy of your mind as well as a perfection of your body. Basically the question is aimed at what you consider to be the definition of yourself. If you had a completely new body but with the same mind is that still you? How about if you had a different mind in your old body? Would that be you or a different person?

I dunno.

 

[Abracadabra]

To answer your original question about accepting a potentially immortal body:

In my present position in life I would most likely turn it down. I'm simply not interested in living forever right now.

And that brings up a really interesting question. What if I would had accepted the offer at a point in my life when I was interested in living forever? Now I'd be stuck with that choice.

Of course, you say that the body is only potentially immortal and could be terminated if one chooses. I would actually demand that option before I accepted the body. I would demand it in two ways. One is that the new body comes equipped with a self-destruct mechanism that can be trigged by the person who is in the body at anytime from within the body (potentially via thought). This is to make sure that this option cannot be taken away from the person. The other stipulation would be that euthanasia also be an option. In other words, should I become mangled in such as way as to not be able to self descruct I would want to be deactivated. After all, the idea of being on life support potentially for eternity is not very appealing.

Bonus question: Would a perfect copy of you - all your memories, your DNA, etc - still be YOU?

Yes. But that's irrelavent. Everyone is me whether they are a perfect copy of me or not.

 

[The Great Architect]

If I chose to live forever, my body would be re-constituted, re-defined... dispersed into the ether... right?

I'd have no cerebral palsy, no chronic pain, no autonomic dysfunction.:sarcastic Intriguing!

But I don't know who I'd be, then. I'd rather live in God's presence. He knows who I'm meant to be.:yes:

I don't fancy growing old; let alone living forever! Even if I were pure spirit.

Transhumanism is interesting.

 

[Caladan]

Nothing about us becoming the dominant species on this planet has anything to do with our "natural" skills. It is the combined knowledge and learning abilities of the human race which govern our lives today.

You must be joking. everything about us becoming a dominate species is BECAUSE of our natural skills.

 

[TerranIV]

You must be joking. everything about us becoming a dominate species is BECAUSE of our natural skills.

Only if by natural skills you mean our mental skills. What I mean is there is nothing about our BODIES' natural skills (on their own) which would ever have allowed us to take over the planet. (I.e. we aren't the fastest, biggest, or strongest animal.) The only way we have become the dominant species is because of the tools, weapons, armor, shelters, etc we have been able to create with our minds and THEN fashion with our hands.

Being human is about using tools as extensions of ourselves. Whether that is a rock or a power drill it is the same thing. The step from using a wheelchair to get around to robotic legs to a robotic or bio-engineered body is not as big a difference as it seems. It is just not a familiar idea yet. It's still something in science fiction, but it will not be so for very long. I hope we can make it through with patience and an open mind.

 

[blackout]

I might be up for the challange I think.
(if I lived in under conditions where I thought I could REALize a future of greatness for mySelf)
I'm a slow brewer. I could use some extra time to ACTUALIZE my gifts to the world...
OUT IN the world. I fear at this point the greatest things I have to offer will die with me.
There's lots of stuff I'd still like to do with my abilities as well.
It took me so many years to get this far.
Sure. I'd like to be "me" ... here... just a bit longer.
why not? and I look really young for 40. Good enough.
I'd have lots of time for the gym anyway.

But I DEFINATELY would not have any more children ever.

Rip my tubes right out.

And I would never again marry.
(I'm not cut out for "marriage" anyway)


If at some point I wanted "out"...
I would have a whole death ritual planned.
I would leave the earth from a point of personal power and will,
leaving no one behind who depended on me.
(like children or parents)

 

[rageoftyrael]

I would do it! Of course, only if my soul was put into the new body, which is the only thing that could assure it was truly me.

If you made me, copied everything about me, and then made a clone, but i still existed, obviously the clone isn't me, no matter how similar we are. Not only that, but the longer he continued to exist, while we may be similar, we will have different thoughts, and will slowly become different people.

 

[3.14]

we are already able to become immortal but te price is to high currently (you would become a quadriplegic )
Head transplant - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

so i already added some rule's and desires to immortality to prevent me from accepting something just because the concept sounds good