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Imagine you were immortal.

Imagine you, you specifically, happened to, by some unknown means - maybe you're a vampire or have some unique condition that allows you to live many years beyond the average lifespan of regular human, hundreds, thousands, however many more years - How do you think it would affect you? What would you be like? How would it change you? Your emotions? Your perspectives? Try not to think of any of the movies you have seen that answered this, how would you react to this? What would your life be like?

Feel free to discuss your ideas here, write as much as you would like.
DanielChristensen · 46-50, M Best Comment
Great question. The site could use a lot more substance like this.

Well, the present moment is all that is real. The past immediately becomes illusory. The future is unknowable. So, I think even after centuries, life for the immortal person would be much the same. Eat, sleep, look for something to do with yourself.

Watching everyone you love die, over and over, would likely lead the immortal into a hermetic existence, which would cycle continually back into involvement with others as circumstances arise, boredom and the need to define one's self in relation to others returns. This is a cyclical existence.

Many have said in various idioms that our lives are not defined by their length, but their substance.
Winterwanderer · 26-30, M
Wonderful perspective on time, & thanks for the compliment.

Yeah, I think that humans have a very abstract understanding of time, things affect us in our short lifespan because oftentimes we've never experienced them - death, sickness, adversity, emotional, mental, & physical struggles, possibly simultaneously, biological strangeties, but we deal with them, some people better than others, but the fact of the matter is that we are capable, & I don't think time or experience would strip us of our resilience, I don't think time would remove our ability to have hope in a better future.

Sometimes when people answer this question they result to pessimism, the idea that we would only become pessimistic/isolationist/indifferent as time goes on because we feel we've experienced everything, we (incorrectly) feel that we know what we will feel if we put ourselves in certain situations again, and sometimes we speak as though because everything else ends, we would become depressed because even after things that we enjoy have ended we remain, but I think these perspectives are wrong because I think these experiences we have can be different for us every time, and there are an infinite amount of experiences that will only be revealed with time, and as we change, how circumstances affect us will change too, so no experience is ever the same, humans, similar to what you said, cannot conceive time & thus time wouldn't be the sole determinate of whether we can live a good life, in fact, I think we would have more options in an infinite life in addition to all the ones we currently have.

I think an extended life could give us such an amazing perspective, we'd be exposed to so many different perspectives & we'd be able to gain a different & more comprehensive view of society & everything.

I think the concept can be explored to great depths, sorry if I explored it to far on one post.
DanielChristensen · 46-50, M
@Winterwanderer That's an awesome perspective on the matter.
Winterwanderer · 26-30, M
It's just such an intricate topic, it's really talking about human nature, if death were indefinite, could we still enjoy life?

And I think the answer is yes, because we practically live as though death doesn't exist (until we're forced to confront it).

I think it also addresses the question of, does the world suck more than it doesn't? Is love worth the pain of loss? (Will it continue to be if loss continues to happen (Yes, because the greatness of love (if that's valuable to you in the first place) is still present & powerful)?) Do we like ourselves? Do we like other people? Who are we? What brings us real contentment?

And I don't think time alone is important enough to get in the way of what would motivate us regardless of the length of our lives.

StevenIzzi · M
Would I enjoy a longer life...sure, but with that comes lot's of heartache as while you are not aging your friends and family are and having to deal with death of those loved ones would cause immortality to be a curse.
UndeadPrivateer · 31-35, M
I would think that by the century mark I'd have become pretty inhuman in mindset, and by the two century mark would probably have become completely or near completely inhuman. At a millenia I'd probably be psychologically unrecognizable as human, with the rate of technological improvement continuing the way it is I might also be physically unrecognizable as human. In any case, how exactly it would affect my mindset, emotions and perspectives as well as what I would do with my life are more than a little outside my realm. I'm quite distinctly human at the moment.
UndeadPrivateer · 31-35, M
@Winterwanderer I'm a transhumanist myself, so I don't believe in limiting ourselves based on human limits. But I do think those limits are a key part of what we think of as human.
Winterwanderer · 26-30, M
I do think it's heavily integrated into our thought processes, but so many of these limitations humans set on themselves are arbitrary & even harmful at times, preventing people from being more than what their current thought processes & perception of self allows them to be.

These limitations have often defined humanity, differently throughout the eras, & I think that, though norms & social expectations & all things similar help guide humans & shape culture, if they're adhered to, anything outside these laws are excluded, and many, many of the influential ideas arise from uninhibited individuals.

If we were to traverse into thoughts & ideas far from the norm, we would learn so much! As if discovering an entirely new, better world, an immortal would be forced into such a perspective, isolated by his great & numerous differences from the people of every era.
UndeadPrivateer · 31-35, M
@Winterwanderer Indeed, a man out of time and of all time.
metalicblack · 46-50, M
I would find away to kill myself one life of hell on earth is enough for me I want to get down stairs to the party
SW-User
I would be fucking miserable and bitter for all eternity.
Winterwanderer · 26-30, M
Everyone says that, but why? You can do whatever you want, develop any skill, travel practically anywhere in the world, do anything, be anyone.
SW-User
@Winterwanderer That would get boring after a hundred years or so and I would get sick of watching the earth and everyone around me die.
Winterwanderer · 26-30, M
But you'd also see life, you'd see Leonardo Da Vinci, Nikola Tesla, Brahms, you yourself could become a versatile artist, in music & in visual arts, you could change the world with the smallest of actions & watch it echo through time.

You likely enjoy such things now on a smaller scale, who's to say there'd be no interest in a larger rendition of the things you love now yeah?
JupiterDreams · 31-35
I would get bored after a while and become unhappy. It would be interesting to see how things progress over the centuries, like music and novels and actors, etc. To travel the world and take your time doing everything in life -- from learning new languages to reading every book, in every language...
But after a few hundred years I'd get bored. I would also hate to get close to anyone because I'd be fearing for their deaths.
Winterwanderer · 26-30, M
How are you so certain though? I feel like the world is so interesting, it's so complex, always changing, me included.

Why, in your small scale version of life, don't you just get 'bored' of things? Why would it be different for an older person to deal with death & relationships than you? Why would they suddenly be afraid of losing people? Who's to say they won't think love isn't more valuable than the pain it took to get us there?
JRVanguard · 26-30, M
Wait rules check: can I still kill myself?
Winterwanderer · 26-30, M
Maybe, you haven't killed yourself in real life, who's to say you would kill yourself then?

I would say your suicide attempts would be unsuccessful.
JRVanguard · 26-30, M
@Winterwanderer But I feel like there would be a point where I'd just get bored with everything and would kill myself then
Winterwanderer · 26-30, M
But there's as always more, there's philosophy, there's space exploration, there's all these long-term things that can give you fulfillment, if you seek only instant gratification for all of your life, even now, you'll die from the inside out, but there are things that take time & give you true fulfillment.
Loretta78 · 46-50, F
I don't want to be immortal. Not at all costs!
As sooner life is over as better.
Nyanperona · 26-30, T
I'd kill myself
muffinman · 61-69, M
@Nyanperona amen … with you on that.
Irina · 26-30, F
worth thinking about
manly · 46-50, M
@Irina indeed... have you thought about the positives and negatives?
laotzu92 · 70-79, M
I won't endeavor to address this. But most of us are fortunate today in having longer life spans. So while we are living longer, so are our friends and loved ones.
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