Would immortality be a good thing, or bad?

[Netherspark]

Let's say that in 20 years time scientists discover a way to halt the aging process, enabling people to potentially live forever. Sounds good right? But what about the problems it would cause?

The global population would very quickly rise to unsustainable levels, we could see food riots. And if things get really bad do you think the world would resort to culling? And what about the distribution of the anti-aging technology - do you think it would be handed out for free, to everyone? Would it be only for the rich or important. Would companies capitalize on it?

What about procreation - how do you imagine it might be handled. Surely there'd have to be some strict regulation and possibly sterilizations. Could you live with being sterilized, or having to go through a lengthy process to obtain a "breeding license"? What if you were denied the anti-aging technology because you weren't rich or important? We could get riots of people demanding it.

How do you think the human race will be affected by it, both culturally and evolutionary.


Do you believe eternal life is worth the price?

[obdigore]

Let's say that in 20 years time scientists discover a way to halt the aging process, enabling people to potentially live forever. Sounds good right? But what about the problems it would cause?

The global population would very quickly rise to unsustainable levels, we could see food riots. And if things get really bad do you think the world would resort to culling? And what about the distribution of the anti-aging technology - do you think it would be handed out for free, to everyone? Would it be only for the rich or important. Would companies capitalize on it?

What about procreation - how do you imagine it might be handled. Surely there'd have to be some strict regulation and possibly sterilizations. Could you live with being sterilized, or having to go through a lengthy process to obtain a "breeding license"? What if you were denied the anti-aging technology because you weren't rich or important? We could get riots of people demanding it.

How do you think the human race will be affected by it, both culturally and evolutionary.


Do you believe eternal life is worth the price?

'the price' is all stuff you just made up.

I would suggest that any immortality we get will be technological, as in our consciousness will be able to be stored in computers when our bodies start to be ruined. Friends/relatives could put on VR equipment and engage with us, and in the environments in the computers things would seem real and we would do whatever we wanted.

Of course that would also lend itself to Androids and fully functional Robots controlled by humans.

The future will be absolutely awesome or absolutely dystopian.

[MiLLeR]

It would probably suck to be alive when the sun explodes

[Deleted]

If we did get immortality then we would have to change our opinion on children. It would have to be decided by a council to stop overpopulation.

On the upside the idea of a colony on the moon/mars would become alot more important.

[Proudefender]

I think it can be good, but it depends WHO becomes immortal, we don't want a dictator to rule forever. And it depends on how culture changes. When future medical tech allows us to remain biologically young forever, you still won't be safe from getting say hit by a vehical or other ways of death, but it will increase the average life expectancy substancially. When this happens, it is important that the culture shifts to a world with less procreation, and persuit of ways to reduce our individual environmental footprint such as advancing sustainable energy sources, bio-grow meat using animal stemcells as a few examples.

Immortality can be very good but it can be very bad.
this goes to pretty much everything that exists today.

---------- Post added 2013-04-21 at 08:59 PM ----------

It would probably suck to be alive when the sun explodes

Suns not going to explode, once it exits the red giant phase it will bloat away into a planetary nebula.

[Dedweight]

If we did get immortality then we would have to change our opinion on children. It would have to be decided by a council to stop overpopulation.

And because of the whole Overpopulation risk I'm not sure much of any evolution with in the Human genome would happen considering evolution is pretty much based around passing on mutations to the younger generation. No children, no mutations passed on, no evolution.

[Proudefender]

And because of the whole Overpopulation risk I'm not sure much of any evolution with in the Human genome would happen considering evolution is pretty much based around passing on mutations to the younger generation. No children, no mutations passed on, no evolution.

Genetic engeneering will continue evolution.

[obdigore]

And because of the whole Overpopulation risk I'm not sure much of any evolution with in the Human genome would happen considering evolution is pretty much based around passing on mutations to the younger generation. No children, no mutations passed on, no evolution.

Those that wish to have children would most likely need to emigrate to other colonies or other worlds, and those who stay on earth would have to compete for spots opened up.

[Deleted]

And because of the whole Overpopulation risk I'm not sure much of any evolution with in the Human genome would happen considering evolution is pretty much based around passing on mutations to the younger generation. No children, no mutations passed on, no evolution.

Not just that but the evolution of ideas and mindsets.

I do wonder however if religious people would want to be immortal in this life? if they chose not to be then that would be a large amount of the population and would probably save the population issue.

I wonder how long religion would last in the scenario?

[MiLLeR]

I think it can be good, but it depends WHO becomes immortal, we don't want a dictator to rule forever. And it depends on how culture changes. When future medical tech allows us to remain biologically young forever, you still won't be safe from getting say hit by a vehical or other ways of death, but it will increase the average life expectancy substancially. When this happens, it is important that the culture shifts to a world with less procreation, and persuit of ways to reduce our individual environmental footprint such as advancing sustainable energy sources, bio-grow meat using animal stemcells as a few examples.

Immortality can be very good but it can be very bad.
this goes to pretty much everything that exists today.

---------- Post added 2013-04-21 at 08:59 PM ----------




Suns not going to explode, once it exits the red giant phase it will bloat away into a planetary nebula.

It would suck to be alive when the sun goes into its red giant phase and basically swallows our solar system. Better?

[Erolian]

I don't think it would only be for the rich or important simply because, well, as someone who isn't rich or important on a global scale I'm not putting up with that shit. Are you? Exactly. It would be taken by force if nothing else seeing as the vast majority of people would fall outside of that designation.

[Proudefender]

Let's say that in 20 years time scientists discover a way to halt the aging process, enabling people to potentially live forever. Sounds good right? But what about the problems it would cause?

The global population would very quickly rise to unsustainable levels, we could see food riots. And if things get really bad do you think the world would resort to culling? And what about the distribution of the anti-aging technology - do you think it would be handed out for free, to everyone? Would it be only for the rich or important. Would companies capitalize on it?

What about procreation - how do you imagine it might be handled. Surely there'd have to be some strict regulation and possibly sterilizations. Could you live with being sterilized, or having to go through a lengthy process to obtain a "breeding license"? What if you were denied the anti-aging technology because you weren't rich or important? We could get riots of people demanding it.

How do you think the human race will be affected by it, both culturally and evolutionary.


Do you believe eternal life is worth the price?

If a defeat of aging NOT IMMORTALITY just a defeat of aging were obtained, I believe strongly that if we can conquor aging, we can change the culture in favor for fewer children and at later ages (a 80 year old will look 27 and have the biological abilities as one) we can definately seek technologies to greatly increase the carrying capacity.

But hornestly a defeat of aging wont happen any time soon. green tech, and other tech related are likely to become very dominent before that, since more reseach is going into green tech than into reversing aging.

---------- Post added 2013-04-21 at 09:08 PM ----------

It would suck to be alive when the sun goes into its red giant phase and basically swallows our solar system. Better?

in 4 billing years time you will have the tech to leave this universe

[Lemongrab]

Their are a lot of theories as to why Immortality would be terrible. A few of them are pretty extreme.

#1 Time - Remember all those summers as a kid, it felt like they lasted forever, every day was endless. As you got older and older your perception of time changed and everything seemed to pass you by faster and faster. Now take this to the extreme, your mind compensating for the immeasurable lengths of time, what felt like a second passing to you would actually be hundreds or thousands of years, you would live in what felt like another dimension.

#2 Evolution - You would stay stagnant as adaptation and mutation through reproduction wouldn't matter for you. You would never evolve, after a couple hundreds years passed it wouldn't be so big. Depending on the technology of the time, you could be enhanced but as tens, hundreds or even millions of years passed you would be left in the dust if the human race survives that span of time.

#3 The End - You would not die until the Universe itself is snuffed out. Which could be a few Billion years away to a Googleplex years or more. Googolplex = 10^Googol Years and a Googol = 10^100.

But this all depends on what kind of Immortality you possess. Do you possess Immortality or Immortality and Invulnerability. Because if you are not Invulnerable to everything imaginable you could be damaged beyond limits and your body would never stop. You could be trapped in a useless body until the end came at the destruction of ever single atom of your being.

Personally immortality would be terrible, but radical life extension would be beautiful allowing people to enjoy more their is to life and see the fantastic things the universe has to offer.

[Flaks]

The future will be absolutely awesome or absolutely dystopian.

I'd go with the latter. Our minds would never be able to handle being confined like that.

[MiLLeR]

in 4 billing years time you will have the tech to leave this universe

Lol tech to leave the universe >_< fuck that, im gonna leave this dimension, gonna hang out with my mates anti-matter and dark energy, they seem like cool guys.

[Deleted]

I think all the important stuff we humans do are ment to last forever, through books, art, data, inventions etc etc. All the unimportant fluff will die away with individuals.

[Deleted]

Immortality literally means: the quality or state of being immortal

Immortal means: Living forever; never dying or decaying.


If one were to be immortal, one would not need food as food is only really useful to sustain life. If you never decayed, your muscle/fat/blood/everything would never need to be replenished. You would need no food or water. Murder would be impossible, due to the fact that you could live forever.

Honestly, the worst that could happen would be rape rising, animals going extinct, and an increase in the divorce rate by another 50%.

---------- Post added 2013-04-21 at 08:36 PM ----------

I'll leave my first post, but I didn't really read the whole post completely. If there was anti-aging medicine then I think that would be bad. You'd obviously still need food and water and the population would shoot up. Very bad indeed.

[apepi]

Bad, everyone has their own time, we all die. I think having a limited time makes things even more real, if we all just lived forever nothing would be meaningful. With our 'little' time we decide how and who we want to spend out life with.

Some people live more in twenty year than others do in eighty. It's not the time that matters, it's the person.

[jahasafrat]

I wouldn't mind having a few hundred extra years to satisfy my curiosity about the future, but I wouldn't want myself or anybody else to be immortal.

[Deleted]

To quote Kosh: You are not ready for immortality. (at least something along those lines, several years passed since I've seen it)

So while I personally would like to have some more years, immortality just brings too many problems. Although 70+, as it is in the western world on average afaik, should already be enough.