If you could live forever, would you?

[Destiny]

So I was reading this speculative timeline of the future, and saw that at some point around 2060 (I can't remember quite when, this was a while ago) nanobots placed in the bloodstream will repair cell degredation as it occurs, thus preventing aging. My personal reaction was 'Horray! If i make it to 70, I'll live forever! (assuming this comes true). But when i told my girlfriend about this, she said that she wouldn't want to live forever, stating that immortality would remove some overarching reason for her existance.

This made me pretty sad, but also curious. What would you guys do, given the choice? Would you live forever, and know no age (this does not make you invincible, you can still die of other causes) or, like my girlfriend, retain the ability to die of old age at some point?

[Vyacheslav]

PBG: "Finn, what the cabbage? I was learning about zanoids!" 
Finn: "Oh yeah! I'm into zanoids!"
PBG: "Zanoids kill thousands of plantoids a year."
Finn: "Oh no! Not the plantoids!"
PBG: "Plantoids produce malotoxins!"
Finn: *blink* 
PBG:"Malotoxins kill zanoids!"

I wouldn't want to live forever unless your body never ages.

[unoriginal name]

I would like to choose when and how I die. And I would like to put that death off until some time in the distant future, if ever.

This.

[Heartattack]

I would want to live forever, if possible. Immortality poses some problems for the planet as a whole, though. We're already nearing over-population. What will happen when death no longer helps to curb our growing numbers? Also, if these nanobots repaired our cells and prevented aging, how would we know how old anyone was? Some rich 9 year old could have had the nanobots injected 40 years ago in order to plot world domination free from suspicion and junk. I don't know, it seems like death/aging is a good thing for humanity as a race. But I would still want immortality for myself, though :D

[Kablizzy]

I would love to live forever. When asked what I wanted to be when I grow up, I always said "Immortal."

[Tanner]

I'm more interested in how death by old age reflects an overarching reason for existence to your girlfriend.

[SlappyMcGee]

I would live forever as long as I do not age. Because aging sucks, at some point after eighteen.

[Vyacheslav]

I would live forever as long as I do not age. Because aging sucks, at some point after eighteen.

I'd say 25 is the perfect age.

EDIT: In terms of physical and mental development.

[blackson]

Nah, I would want to die and make sure I was right.

[Destiny]

I'm more interested in how death by old age reflects an overarching reason for existence to your girlfriend.

If I had to take a random guess, I'd probably go with "abrahamic religion."

Wrong, actually. She says that her life would be meaningless if she were never to die. I guess in a way, she sees it as a story with no ending. And a story with no ending would be pretty lame after a while. Even if it was an exciting one, i'd eventually get bored.

I would personally love to live forever. I'd have enough time to do everything that i've always wanted to do. Such as learn a whole bunch of instruments, become a pro at bodyflying, be part of a famous rock band, travel the world, live in a whole bunch of places. That last one has always been something that has appealed to me a lot, actually. I don't think one lifetime is enough to see all this world has to offer, or to utilize all that I have to offer back to it. And of course as time goes on, the world will present new opportunities, and that constant rate of change will keep my life interesting.

By the time we aren't doing anything new as a race virtual reality will be far more incredible than real life anyway, so I could just live out different fantasy style lives in false worlds, but just as real to the mind.

Dieing, on the other hand... Erm... No I can't think of anything it offers me.

[otters~1]

I would like to choose when and how I die. And I would like to put that death off until some time in the distant future, if ever.

This.

And I would like to be able to jump around time and space in a phone booth. But we can't all get what we want.

I voted no.

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

I would like to choose when and how I die. And I would like to put that death off until some time in the distant future, if ever.

This.

This.

Also, this Cracked.com article is largely invalidated by the fact that society will be fundamentally altered by the singularity, or at the very least our approach toward it.

[999_Springs]

I would personally love to live forever. I'd have enough time to do everything that i've always wanted to do. Such as ..................

That would only be true if you aged at a much slower rate as you got older. At some point, say, when you reach 150 you wouldn't be physically capable of doing very much unassisted unless your body aged slower than it should. Life as a 150-year-old would quickly get boring if you couldn't do anything. Even if what the article says is true - that you can slow down this process of aging by 2065 - then we'd all be around 70 by that time, which is not quite as bad, but the article says that we won't be able to actually reverse the aging process until the mid 22nd century - another 100 years or so away. So you'd be sort of stuck in the body of a 70-year-old for 100 years.

[Heartattack]

100 years of yelling at kids and shitting my pants is well worth living /forever/ in a young body.

[Destiny]

I would personally love to live forever. I'd have enough time to do everything that i've always wanted to do. Such as ..................

That would only be true if you aged at a much slower rate as you got older. At some point, say, when you reach 150 you wouldn't be physically capable of doing very much unassisted unless your body aged slower than it should. Life as a 150-year-old would quickly get boring if you couldn't do anything. Even if what the article says is true - that you can slow down this process of aging by 2065 - then we'd all be around 70 by that time, which is not quite as bad, but the article says that we won't be able to actually reverse the aging process until the mid 22nd century - another 100 years or so away. So you'd be sort of stuck in the body of a 70-year-old for 100 years.

The article says age-reversing comes 'some decades later'. And that's worth it a hundred times over to be 70 for a few decades before being able to return to your youth. An old man can still be a young man in a world where recreation is largely dominated by virtual reality in any case.

[Pheidippides]

Who wants to live forever? Not me.

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

Who wants to live forever? Not me.

Besides nine out of twelve people polled thus far?

Why wouldn't you want to live forever?

[Pheidippides]

It seems I agree with Destiny's ladyfriend about the whole "story with no ending" thing.

I'll concede that you could do some cool stuff with an unlimited lifespan. I just feel like the point of doing that cool stuff is to reach some sort of culmination where you can say, "I've done all the cool stuff I wanted to do," where you can look back on the good times and the bad, on all the places and faces, and call it a life. With any luck, you can call it a good life. Then you die. Were I immortal, I can't be sure I'd be comfortable without that idea of some ultimate closure. I mean, when you don't die, what is your legacy? When you remember everyone, who remembers you?

[Mute Monk]

So, the article (I haven't read it, just the comments here about it) states that only the aging process is stopped, and you are otherwise normal?

Then, we're all gonna die after awhile anyways. Just think of the thousands of deadly diseases that can kill a human. War will also be a problem, as over-population sends everyone into a frenzy about oil or food or even just fresh water.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I'd love to see how the future pans out, but eventually the Earth would be come so socially/politically/economically degraded that I'd just want out. Something relatively painless, like lethal injection (provided it's done properly).

So overall, I'd like to live longer (maybe around 500 years), but not forever.

[SlappyMcGee]

It seems I agree with Destiny's ladyfriend about the whole "story with no ending" thing.

I'll concede that you could do some cool stuff with an unlimited lifespan. I just feel like the point of doing that cool stuff is to reach some sort of culmination where you can say, "I've done all the cool stuff I wanted to do," where you can look back on the good times and the bad, on all the places and faces, and call it a life. With any luck, you can call it a good life. Then you die. Were I immortal, I can't be sure I'd be comfortable without that idea of some ultimate closure. I mean, when you don't die, what is your legacy? When you remember everyone, who remembers you?

Stories with no endings are great! Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown!

[scythe]

Well, I'd live until the heat death of the universe.

I kind of wonder what happens to memory in a nonaging brain over a ludicrous period of time. I mean, it has a finite storage space, so...

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

It seems I agree with Destiny's ladyfriend about the whole "story with no ending" thing.

I'll concede that you could do some cool stuff with an unlimited lifespan. I just feel like the point of doing that cool stuff is to reach some sort of culmination where you can say, "I've done all the cool stuff I wanted to do," where you can look back on the good times and the bad, on all the places and faces, and call it a life. With any luck, you can call it a good life. Then you die. Were I immortal, I can't be sure I'd be comfortable without that idea of some ultimate closure. I mean, when you don't die, what is your legacy? When you remember everyone, who remembers you?

If this is really what you think a lifetime is like, you're in for some major disappointment. I can't imagine that any meaningful percentage of people die contented. Life isn't so much a story as a disorganized, schizophrenic mess, which often enough ends abruptly and with dozens of unresolved questions. And precious few are ever remembered beyond a few generations anyway.
But as an immortal, your legacy would be everlasting.

I kind of wonder what happens to memory in a nonaging brain over a ludicrous period of time. I mean, it has a finite storage space, so...

Your organic brain, maybe.

[capt_weasle]

B-b-but what about the possibilities after death! Despite my growing separation from religion, I refuse to believe that we just cease to exist after death. That's so dull! I want to be a ghost that has full control of time, being able to visit the past, the future, and explore different universes where, say, the dinosaurs didn't become extinct or where I chose to talk to that girl over the other. I would be extremely disappointed if I just disappeared. Though I suppose I wouldn't be disappointed because I would be busy being non-existent.

It would be fun to live forever, though, given that I don't age past my mid-twenties and chose when I wanted to die. Forced immortality would be a bitch. You'd eventually be floating in nothingness.

[Universezero]

B-b-but what about the possibilities after death! Despite my growing separation from religion, I refuse to believe that we just cease to exist after death. That's so dull! I want to be a ghost that has full control of time, being able to visit the past, the future, and explore different universes where, say, the dinosaurs didn't become extinct or where I chose to talk to that girl over the other. I would be extremely disappointed if I just disappeared. Though I suppose I wouldn't be disappointed because I would be busy being non-existent.

Just because you want something doesn't mean it's going to happen. I find it funny people believe this; to them, the person has stopped existing. What makes you think that the person that's died is still existing through their eyes?
But yeah, I agree with what you said after that. Forced immortality would be terrible. Also, if I'm to be immortal, someone else must be immortal with me. Otherwise absolutely everyone I know would die in my lifetime.

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

I want

You lose.