would you rather live forever or die right now.

[Taistelu]

This question is interesting because it directly relates to the fear of death - do I want to remove death and face the extinction of the human race and/or the sun engulfing Earth?

I am scared of death, most of us are. I don't want to die, and this would lend itself to "live forever, regret later", but is eternal life really worth all the things I'd see? I would always be haunted by the deaths of loved ones and those around me, being forced to carry that grief with me for the rest of time (but if I live forever, said loved ones wouldn't have to go through the grief of my death). What about eventual insanity? Would I be able to keep my mental state intact as my age becomes triple digits, quadruple digits and beyond? Surely I'd get weighed down by those thoughts, and be unable to live a large majority of my infinite life with any sort of peace of mind. I would always be haunted. Sure, I might be all good for 70 years, but is that guaranteed 70 years worth it for what will be centuries on centuries of hell? It is easy for us to pick "live forever" based off our current perspective, but that could all easily change. Still, I'd probably live forever anyway, the fear of death is everything. We have one shot at life, and we're reminded on a daily basis just how easy it is to die. One accident, one mistake. Being at the wrong place in the wrong time. Death is something that, even if it comes before our time, is always unavoidable. One day, we will die. If I choose to live forever, then I won't have to worry about that, but as is obvious, the issues of eternal life are probably far greater than we can imagine. "Live forever" is a very vague term, while we know it is "eternal youth" in the context of this thread, just how far does that go?

Scenario 1: The commonly discussed point both in this thread as a whole and the current part of my post. Living forever means the inability to die - you cannot end it. Even if you're crushed, burnt, etc you'll still live that agony, and eventually you'll be nothing more than atoms floating in an empty nothingness (probably).

Scenario 2: Eternal youth means an immunity to disease, any life changing injuries, etc. I feel this would make the choice a lot easier for some people, and for me too. I wouldn't have to worry so much about my eventual "end" (if you can call it that), and it would not only allow me to live forever but perhaps be a much better and more positive contribution to society, as I would be able to use this to my advantage - then again, one could easily give into the temptation of evil. This would open up a whole new set of problems

Scenario 3: You have the capacity to live forever, and eternal youth, but this does not make you immune to death. This would be interesting as it'd allow a lot of people to choose to go out when they want, if living the immortal life became too much. Not going to dwell on this too much though, since I assume it falls outside the scope of the thread.

I sort of approached this question with more of a mentality of "live forever or live normally" rather than the specific "die right now" wording both because I thought it allowed me to explain my thoughts better and the general scope of immortality is usually approached. I assume this isn't a problem but if it is I'm happy to edit my post.

Very interesting question and thread, I do like people's responses.

 

[Contact Light]

As a machine learning engineer I'd definitely prefer living forever if my mental faculties are intact . The world is advancing at a great pace and the scope of my field will extend well into the next century before algorithms are fully self sufficient so I'd rather live forever , learning more and more and applying my knowledge to uncover more questions and rinse repeat

 

[Wally The Bully]

I'd die right now that being said ~80 years as a lifetime would be perfect.

 

[Soul Fly]

Y'all enthusiastic motherfuckers need to watch Ajin and The Man from Earth.

 

[Blazade]

Y'all enthusiastic motherfuckers need to watch Ajin and The Man from Earth.

How is the man from earth not optimistic? I think that guy's clearly better off.

 

[Soul Fly]

are you sure?

spoilers

he literally has had to relocate every ten years or so for the past 14,000 years to avoid attention and persecution, he cannot have any long term social/romantic interaction. revealing his immortality to his peers (not just random bystanders, but highly educated free-thinking academics) got him threatened.... not to mention he literally had to watch his child die of old age in front of his eyes in the end of the movie.

doesn't exactly sound "better off" to me, but whatevs

 

[Fluke]

i'd rather die right now

 

[Blazade]

are you sure?

spoilers

he literally has had to relocate every ten years or so for the past 14,000 years to avoid attention and persecution, he cannot have any long term social/romantic interaction. revealing his immortality to his peers (not just random bystanders, but highly educated free-thinking academics) got him threatened.... not to mention he literally had to watch his child die of old age in front of his eyes in the end of the movie.

doesn't exactly sound "better off" to me, but whatevs

spoilers

yeah but I mean the alternative is dying in the fucking stone age. Dude's lived such a rich and diverse life meeting Van Gogh and studying under the Buddha and getting his PhD in everything. As time goes on he forgets about the bad things or the uncomfortable things and remembers the highlights. He really seems like he's taken his experience and made the most of it.

Take the end, where that girl wants to get closer to him, and he knows what it will mean for him, for his kids, when he loses them and likewise. But he still makes that call, because he's ok with it, he's accepted it and embraces who he is. He values the time he can spend with the people he cares about.

Plus his case seems like unnaturally long life and not like he couldn't kill himself if he wanted. But he never went there, there's a reason for that.

 

[Rick Blaine]

I'd like to live forever

'Death is so terribly final, while life is full of possibilities' - Tyrion Lannister

 

[Snap]

I wouldn't want to live forever. The thought of my body getting old, weak, and frail and giving up just for me to be forced to suffer through it is horrid. Even if we go with the movie "living forever" where you stay young forever and healthy I'd probably still choose to die right now. Watching everyone I once liked die around me and everyone I ever liked would likely break my spirit. I get upset when people in a room I frequent on PS! start to move on from the site and do real life things so.
(Also on a not as serious note, I likely imagine scientists would kidnap me and try to figure out how this is happening)

 

[Ashaebi]

If living forever means you can't die of old age than I'd probs choose living forever and getting killed by some form of trauma.

I have some really ambitious dreams I wish I can achieve before I die which includes creating and flying efficient and powerful solar powered airplanes so one day I can tell humanity 'welcome to the future of aviation!' and then subsequently the future of energy to also solve the energy crisis.

But until both happens I do not want to be meeting my maker any time soon.

 

[Shame That]

it's kind of surprising to me that so many people have chosen immortality (assuming, as this thread has talked about, that you are eternally young and unable to die). there's certainly a scary finality and uncertainty to death, but to me there also seems to be some degree of rest. it's natural to get a pit in your stomach when you directly contemplate not living/thinking/existing, self preservation is a very base human instinct. but to me, that fear feels irrational; the much scarier concept is an eternity without rest. forget family and friends, that is an invisible speck on your lifespan. years turn into decades, turn into centuries, turn into millennia, and eons would pass and you would still only have begun an infinitesimally small step of your life. it's actually deeply disturbing to me; you could think every thought, every possible combination of thoughts in every order, do every possible action in every order, and you could repeat this in every possible order and you would still have infinity ahead of you.

death is a scary final frontier, but immortality sounds like a horrific torture

 

[Cerberax]

As unappealing as dying right now sounds, the idea of living forever scares me and has for a long time. It doesn't even have anything to do with living as an old person, watching your friends die around you, getting bored, or anything like that, it's just that the thought of going on and on forever, with absolutely no end, literally just existing for all eternity, is genuinely frightening. Immortality has never been an appealing concept to me.

 

[AM]

Live forever, assuming I get to appear 30 forever or something close to that.

 

[Jeffv]

I think that I would totally choose to die right now: the idea of living forever is extremely unappealing to me, because of the consequences it includes, such as the possibility to stay alone for the majority of my life which, for a guy that always lived with a lot of related around, is really one of the worst things that could realistically happen, to the point that the advantages of an eternal life are clearly overshadowed by this single possibility.

Also, I feel like a huge thing you have when you know that there is going to be a certain finality to your life is that you are going to enjoy every moment of you existence much more than if you are immortal, as you know that it may be the last time you experience this type of moment.