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Heroes Community > Other Side of the Monitor > Thread: A Question of Immortality
Thread: A Question of Immortality This thread is 2 pages long: 1 2 · NEXT»
artu
artu


Promising
Undefeatable Hero
My BS sensor is tingling again
posted January 03, 2018 11:28 AM
Edited by artu at 11:34, 03 Jan 2018.

A Question of Immortality

We have this magical fairy and she has the power to grant your consciousness infinite existence. If you take upon her offer though, there is no going back. With a touch from her magic wand, you will still live your remaining days like you normally would, after your biological life is over though, instead of death, your mind will keep on existing. You will not be a physical entity, you won't need to and won't be able to sleep, you won't feel any neurological pain or pleasure of any sort.You won't taste, you won't smell. You will still be able to see and hear though. And you will also be able to travel to any location you desire. You will be this observer who can witness anything but who can not interfere or communicate in any way. Now, keep in mind that there is no going back and when I say infinite, I mean infinite. That is, billions of years from now, when the solar system ends, you will still be around, and then billions and billions years later, when this universe ends, you will again, still be around. If a new universe rises, lucky for you, if not, you will still be around just existing metaphyisically in this dark void, in the middle of absolutely nothing. You won't be able to turn yourself off, you won't be able to take some time off, you will forever be. Just take a little time to contemplate what infinity actually is before answering, as Carl Sagan puts it, "the number Googolplex is precisely as far from infinity as is the number 1."

Do you take upon her offer?


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OhforfSake
OhforfSake


Promising
Legendary Hero
Initiate
posted January 03, 2018 11:46 AM
Edited by OhforfSake at 11:54, 03 Jan 2018.

Still beats not existing in my opinion, so yes.

Edit: Came to think about it, I think the way the question is made, it advocates one answer over another.

Here is an alternative way of thinking, in stead of considering you'll exist forever, imagine you've already existed an infinite amount of time. Before the universe you existed, and you existed before all the universes before that. Always, there was you.

Now ask yourself this, you have already existed forever, and today is Wednesday, do you want to live to see today?

My point is I don't understand why should your answer be different than someone who was born e.g. 20 years ago?
This day, Wednesday, will be the same for both of you.

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Salamandre
Salamandre


Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
posted January 03, 2018 11:52 AM

My lack of sleep already turned me into the zombie you describe, blind, deaf and without taste (except for chocolate, bad habits are immortals), then I already am able to instantly travel to Africa just by going down in the street, that's like half of the world next to me, without any effort. But life without the constant tic-tac telling you're going to die thus every second is precious so you should quickly go an post more nonsense in HC, has no meaning.

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JollyJoker
JollyJoker


Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
posted January 03, 2018 12:06 PM

The main thing is missing here.

Will I be able to communicate with OTHERS LIKE MYSELF (just COMMUNICATE)?

If yes, I'll take it.

If no, I think I'd pass. I'd end insane before long for sure, since it would be like a dream you can never wake up from, alone for eternity, nothing to do, no one to communicate with, just myself alone with my own thoughts. This is basically the description of "hell". Why enter it willingly?

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Baronus
Baronus


Legendary Hero
posted January 03, 2018 12:08 PM

Eternal life is a spirit reality beyound physical world. So you cant explain it using science. We have spritual world with no end. You can read it in Bible.

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Maurice
Maurice

Hero of Order
Part of the furniture
posted January 03, 2018 12:08 PM

Life is about passing on what you are, what you have learned and have future generations build upon that. If you can't do that anymore, despite your vast knowledge and experience, what would the point be?

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Elvin
Elvin


Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Endless Revival
posted January 03, 2018 12:23 PM

I know I will be sad to die knowing there is so much more of this world that I never got to see. But no interaction, no sensory experience and no failsafe to prevent a continued existence after I have had more than enough - that is too high a price.
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artu
artu


Promising
Undefeatable Hero
My BS sensor is tingling again
posted January 03, 2018 12:31 PM
Edited by artu at 12:31, 03 Jan 2018.

JollyJoker said:
The main thing is missing here.

Will I be able to communicate with OTHERS LIKE MYSELF (just COMMUNICATE?)

artu said:
You will be this observer who can witness anything but who can not interfere or communicate in any way.

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Are you pretty? This is my occasion. - Ghost

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JollyJoker
JollyJoker


Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
posted January 03, 2018 12:42 PM

You know, you just HAVE TO make sure, you understand such a far reaching offer to the last dot.

Well, then. Pointless. And, frankly, an absolutely terrifying prospect.

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Geny
Geny


Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
What if Elvin was female?
posted January 03, 2018 12:42 PM

For me the answer is pretty easy. I don't want to be immortal in any shape or form, so I definitely don't want to be immortal with all those limitations. In a way, death is what gives life meaning, without it, it's just existence.
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artu
artu


Promising
Undefeatable Hero
My BS sensor is tingling again
posted January 03, 2018 12:53 PM
Edited by artu at 18:03, 03 Jan 2018.

Well, my main sentiment is quite like Elvin's. I am so curious about future and life is so damn short. If human life span was at least a few thousand years, I would say no without a blink. I would probably still say no, since infinity is beyond vast and you'd probably get bored to insanity long before a few million years. When it's this short, I hesitate before my "no, thanks" though, despite the hellish price. But then again, maybe your mind would evolve into something else completely, like some ultimate Zen master and we're like 5 year olds trying to empathize with a 50 year old man, only in a much more drastic way.
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Are you pretty? This is my occasion. - Ghost

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Zenofex
Zenofex


Responsible
Legendary Hero
Kreegan-atheist
posted January 03, 2018 01:40 PM

I'd turn down any immortality offer and this particular one sucks much more than most I can imagine. It would be like watching a movie for all eternity, all on your own, and not being able to stop it if you don't like it. Frankly, one can build a version of hell around this.

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friendofgunnar
friendofgunnar


Honorable
Legendary Hero
able to speed up time
posted January 03, 2018 02:09 PM
Edited by friendofgunnar at 14:12, 03 Jan 2018.

Both boredom and the sense of being stimulated are derived from biochemical interactions, and in fact any desire or drive or motivation you can think of also come from biochemical interactions.  So if you strip out all those material interactions you're left with nothing at all.  I think this is a classic case of 'begging the question', which is to say that you're assuming 'we'd' still be 'us' if you separated us from our meat.


I've actually thought about this a bit recently because I was watching Chappie and also the latest season of Black Mirror.  Both of them play fast and loose with the concept of transferring consciousness, which makes for a fun, but ultimately meaningless fictional conceit.

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artu
artu


Promising
Undefeatable Hero
My BS sensor is tingling again
posted January 03, 2018 02:12 PM

Well, it's a magical fairy, so you get to keep your abstract thoughts. With that (realistic) logic, the mind is the brain.
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Are you pretty? This is my occasion. - Ghost

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antipaladin
antipaladin


Promising
Legendary Hero
of Ooohs and Aaahs
posted January 03, 2018 02:58 PM

Not being able to grow old with your loved ones?
Id pass.
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types in obscure english

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Stevie
Stevie


Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
posted January 03, 2018 03:35 PM

I would refuse.
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Neraus
Neraus


Promising
Legendary Hero
Pain relief cream seller
posted January 03, 2018 03:50 PM

It would depend on the whim of the moment, yes, I would trade one route for the other because of a whim.

However I'm concerned I'll end up immortal either way, the question is how it will end, we could even make a small diagram about it, and that's basically how I would reason with it.

I'll be starting from the position that my faith is true, if I refused the offer, and continued a virtuous life, my eternal soul would hopefully go to heaven and it's a happy end, if I accepted I would have lost paradise forever but I'm not going to hell.

If my faith is false, refusing the offer would mean stopping my existence, accepting would mean being eternal.

Whether I would accept the offer of not would be dependent if in that moment I would have this sliver of doubt that either there is no eternal life or that I couldn't possibly get to heaven, or more simply my curiosity for the unknown would get the best of me.

Now, the reason I would give it a shot is because as I understand it you get to keep your emotions and thoughts but won't feel any physical pain or pleasure, while an eternity may seem boring the potential of being a rational being detached from the physical realm is pretty impressive. In the immediate it would be a rush from one place to the other, discovering all the things that are kept hidden in our lifespan, then after watching Earth for some decades I'd start a trip through the universe, probably start with Mars, I always wanted to see Mt.Olympus, and I would really want to see the surface of a star, since there are no more barriers.

After seeing everything that was interesting (or maybe before that) I would essentially float in the void closed within my imagination and basically start my own universe in my mind, since I'm not restrained anymore by the human body I could dedicate all my thinking towards that and make up something that would keep me entertained.

Yeah, there's the caveat, am I allowed to retain my imagination? Because if not then it's a definitive no in all cases.
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Noli offendere Patriam Agathae quia ultrix iniuriarum est.

ANTUDO

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artu
artu


Promising
Undefeatable Hero
My BS sensor is tingling again
posted January 03, 2018 06:01 PM

Technically, your imagination would be considered a function of your abstract thoughts, so, you get to keep it. However, on such a scale, the actual question would be "will you still be able to impress yourself with your own imagination?" By time, will everything turn into a predictable outcome, a cliche, an algorithm to calculate or will it still feel adventurous? I mean, picture yourself as a little kid, so many things that you imagine are like a walk in wonderland. I used to pickup  a stick as a kid and it could be a sword, a rifle, a telescope, a paddle for my boat, a shovel for my excavation... depending on the scenario I came up with that day in my role playing. Then you stop doing that and become a teenager. You look at the cartoons or children songs that used to blow your mind away years later and they naturally seem so unimpressive as an adult, their value is nostalgic now. So what if, given enough time, even the most sophisticated forms of creativity turn into those children songs even if you are the one coming up with them? Imagine yourself just sitting on a chair, does that entertain you? What if anything you can imagine starts to feel like that?
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Are you pretty? This is my occasion. - Ghost

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Neraus
Neraus


Promising
Legendary Hero
Pain relief cream seller
posted January 03, 2018 07:25 PM

I think I would go full-on lovecraftian horror before that happens, the human mind cannot be bored for too much, if it doesn't have any stimuli it will re-create them. Yeah sure, eventually creating a universe will get stale, especially if you get that habit of micro-managing everything and basically being the writer of that story. But once you stop that's where your mind will not allow yourself to be bored.

I could imagine myself sitting in a chair for hours doing nothing, but then my mind will drift to another thought. If by pure chance I get to be sitting doing nothing the trouble is that either I'm waiting for something or there's nothing to do or I'm actually bored. In the first case it's hard to immerse in your thoughts since you have the anxiety of distracting yourself too much, in the second case it's much easier, and I'll admit, I do monologue a lot in those cases (one time out of boredom I basically made up an entire invocation just to send it as a text to someone, just because.)

I think it will take much longer than we think before the human mind runs out of things to imagine, and when it does I think it will result either in full on insanity a-la Azatoth, or in an even deeper level of understanding of yourself that you basically get even more time to think.

Anyway, becoming insane seems more appealing than ceasing to exist for some odd reason.
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Noli offendere Patriam Agathae quia ultrix iniuriarum est.

ANTUDO

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Geny
Geny


Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
What if Elvin was female?
posted January 03, 2018 08:07 PM

I don't think I ever fully understood the fear of ceasing to exist.
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DON'T BE A NOOB, JOIN A.D.V.E.N.T.U.R.E.

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