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 [i]you[/i]? 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 [i]you[/i] react to this? What would your life be like?

Feel free to discuss your ideas here, write as much as you would like.

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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.