27 replies to this topic

[Anonymous]

Well.. I'm not scared to die. I just have so many hungry for knowledge and I want to see how the life in the future will be! And of course there are so many things I haven't did!


So why you want immortalism?

[Solve]

I want to upload my mind to a computer, in a virtual reality (VR) environment with access to reality so I know what's going on.
I just want to exist.

Solve

Edited by Solve, 22 August 2009 - 07:25 PM.

[forever freedom]

I'm not scared to die either, but i'm fascinated by existence and want to learn and experience as much as i can.

[niner]

You left out "don't want to be tortured to death by aging..."  Immortality is just a byproduct of not aging, imho, assuming you don't get hit by a bus.

[valkyrie_ice]

why am I interested in immortalism?

How about never having to see a loved one die. How about never having to see another graveyard freshly prepared for a new resident. How about never having to see a life wasted, dragged down into the mud never to be allowed to rise again, food only for the worms.

I was aware of cryogenics when my grandmother died, but I was just the weird teenager who couldn't separate reality from science fiction. So I had to become a pallbearer and put the only relative who ever understood me into the ground, knowing that I would never get to see her smile again.

yeah, it's completely selfish, but  only when EVERYONE is immortal will I never have to see any die ever again.

And yeah, that goal is a lot more than just simply physical immortality. When it will take the complete existence failure of the universe to kill you, I'll be happy. At least until I figure out a way to make that survivable too.

[castrensis]

I abstained from voting because I think that the philosophy of immortalism extends beyond my personal gratification.

Deathists, particularly those of a theist orientation, believe that this mode of existence is far less important than a hypothetical mode of existence independent of the physical organism that lasts for eternity. This orientation permits all manner of suffering to continue, the majority going so far as to insist that rather than dedicating time & resources to eradication of starvation, disease & establishment of a sustainable ecological business & living strategies would rather have those same resources diverted to "saving" a fantastical notion of an incorporeal mirror-self because, of course, life is short & brutish but ultimately leads to a non-material eternity. These same people are apologists for death, suffering & an external locus of control because "god moves in mysterious ways".

If you postulate an eternal corporeal existence your priorities differ significantly. Sustainable ecological strategies become essential to your continued material existence, the corporeal concerns of humans are of utmost importance - as an eternal corporeal existence is as important to the immortalist as the hypothetical eternal incorporeal existence is to the deathist - resulting in utilization of time & resources to engineering solutions to problems that plague humans. Immortalists don't apologize for the myriad problems that cause humans suffering, rather than relying on faith in mythical paternal tyrant & his beneficent though "mysterious" (read: irrational) ways the immortalist takes responsibility for these problems & knows that human ingenuity will engineer strategies to eradicate the problems of the physical organism & its environment.

[brokenportal]

I want indefinite life extension for the big requisite 8.

To know:
- the nature of infinity
- if there is a god, gods, no god, or something else
- how we got here
- how the universe got here
- what all else is out there like hover ability, light speed, aliens, populated galaxies, dimensions or whatever there may be.
- to know the all forms and extents of all pleasures current and undiscovered.
- to fulfill all goals that time brings you to want, resteraunt owner, pro football, climbing mountains etc..
- universal elimination of fallacy (which causes a bunch of things, philosophy to work its self out, the best good for all etc..)

[JLL]

Ain't nothing wrong with being scared to die. Hell, anyone who is not afraid to die is not right in the head.

[Luna]

Do you need a reason?
What about just living?

[rephore]

I want to own a hotel orbiting the earth.  And may be a hotel on the moon too.

[russianBEAR]

You missed "Personal vanity and egoism" as one of the poll options.

[Vgamer1]

Voted all

[mpe]

Although I voted scared to die, I'm not really but I really dont wont to slowly rot to death (age).

[Cyberbrain]

Am I the only one who thinks it's in our evolutionary psychological nature to 'want' to live indefinitely and better one's self.

[Luna]

Cyberbrain, on Sep 9 2009, 03:08 PM, said:

Am I the only one who thinks it's in our evolutionary psychological nature to 'want' to live indefinitely and better one's self.

Possible ^^
We might be some unique modern evolution then! seeing everyone else.

Edited by Luna, 09 September 2009 - 05:14 PM.

[VictorBjoerk]

well that's something to think about, and I will respond in a not-so-overly-philosophical manner.....

Well or it may be a bit philosophical...


simply because I don't want to be a wheel-chair-bound deaf-blind care object in a few decades. I've worked in a nursing home and know what aging does to people. This evil cycle doesn't need to repeat itself again for us.

That's the primary reason why I urgently want life extension. Because my life is good as it is, and there is nothing good for either society or for myself that I become senescent and sit and rot in a wheelchair.

People seriously seem to lack understanding of how horrible aging actually is, otherwise they would not just go around and accept the holocaust of "old" people.

Then of course I would eventually want to explore the universe,but I'm happy just doing average uninteresting things with a healthy body. I can't predict what I will want and what will happen in the future, therefore I don't want myself or other people to be denied the future because our civilization neglect curing aging and instead waste our resources on eg pavements and culture projects etc bla bla blah...

some things I get to hear when talking about immortalism with people....

1......But aging is beautiful and natural!

=Yeah exactly, there is nothing beautiful about aging, why would otherwise so many elderly men continue to like young girls?

2....... the world is overpopulated, old people need to die to make room for young people

= This is a real problem, but to let people get brutally tortured by death through aging will never be an option, so if anti-aging treatments arrives people may not be allowed to reproduce, and so what?I couldn't care less to give up that right in favor of continuing to stay alive. there may be some hassle with people who want to continue having children on behalf of other people's existence, but they are likely going to lose eventually. If we manage to get ourselves into space overpopulation won't be an issue.

3.what is so horrible about death?

= if death is good and not bad, then one may consider aids and starvation as good things.. IMHO people who thinks death is a good thing are dangerous for society and should be locked up. death is only bad, there is nothing good to come out of it or anything learn from it. Death is not a part of life, it is the opposite of life and elimination of existence. This doesn't need to be questioned.

4. What if there is an afterlife?

= The belief of an afterlife is not an excuse for letting people die, to put it simply..

we must hurry up with life extension! There are endless possibilities in the universe and we are trapped on a immensely small planet, and if we don't get through life extension in a few decades we will be eliminated from endless possibilities forever just because of "cancer" or "dementia" or "heart failure"...

don't you agree?

Edited by VictorBjoerk, 10 September 2009 - 01:42 PM.

[gregandbeaker]

I didn't choose one because I'm not afraid to die, but it doesn't seem like a very compelling option if there is a choice.  Perhaps I'm less interested in being "immortal" and more interested in not suffering through age related degeneration and frailty.

[Dmitri]

Want to see future technologies
Do things I haven't have enough time to do in this short life

I would also like it to be biological immortality, I have no interest in becoming a machine or some program on a computer.

[brokenportal]

Luna, on Aug 24 2009, 07:54 AM, said:

Do you need a reason?
What about just living?

I could be wrong, but I really think that those things are the reason. These here:

Quote

To know:
- the nature of infinity
- if there is a god, gods, no god, or something else
- how we got here
- how the universe got here
- what all else is out there like hover ability, light speed, aliens, populated galaxies, dimensions or whatever there may be.
- to know the all forms and extents of all pleasures current and undiscovered.
- to fulfill all goals that time brings you to want, resteraunt owner, pro football, climbing mountains etc..
- universal elimination of fallacy (which causes a bunch of things, philosophy to work its self out, the best good for all etc..)

Its open to rebutal of course, it might be completely wrong, but I mean think about it, what if you were born in a black void, there was nothing, just you, by the nature of it you could tell you were in a void, like a blank holodeck on the starship enterprise or something, and you were to make the choice to live or die. What reason would you have to want to keep living once youve done everything you can? You might sit around for a couple of years thinking, and then look for a way to die.

The reason, it seems, to want life, is that list of 8 things there listed above. With out a reason to live, it doesnt really matter if you die does it? It seems like its not so much that death is really all that bad, as it is that that list of 8 things is really really good.

[Philosophicus]

why I want to be an immortal

I am not hesitant to admit that I am afraid of death. As death = oblivion. No existence. Which sucks.

However on the positive side we have so much to look forward in the future.

We can experience the reality in myriad no. of varieties and explore our interests

1. Intellectual curiosity  (Understand the immediate world around us: aka improved scientific understanding and reasoning)
2. To find the answers to biggest questions in philosophy, where did we come from, why are we here and so on.(Known as Brahmna Gignasa)
   I  would translate this trait as Cosmological Curiosity.  
3. Explore all the possibilities, fun and pleasures the reality has to offer.
4. Meet new people and if possible new intelligences.
5. My favorite: To spread life in Universe (alteast to parts where it is not there yet).

[churchill]

I think the question is why would you not want to be immortal.

[Rational Madman]

I have long harbored a megalomaniacal desire to rule the world as a tyrannical despot, so I view immortalism as a means to this end.  In all honesty, though, I'm more concerned about hedonism and life extension, and am highly skeptical about the notion of conquering mortality---mostly due to the unintended consequences that may arise, and the significant obstacles that prevent a mass mobilization of resources and popular resonance.  I mean, has there been any serious effort to objectively measure the tangible effects of this public advocacy campaign?  To be sure, it's a laudable goal, but perhaps we should finally acknowledge that the obstacles may be insurmountable, and that our great minds may be of better use for more attainable goals that precede the exceedingly lofty goal of immortalism.  Indeed, this whole enterprise strikes me as being analogous to planning a manned mission to Pluto.

Edited by Rol82, 19 October 2010 - 01:31 PM.

[Elus]

valkyrie_ice, on 22 August 2009 - 10:46 PM, said:

why am I interested in immortalism?

How about never having to see a loved one die. How about never having to see another graveyard freshly prepared for a new resident. How about never having to see a life wasted, dragged down into the mud never to be allowed to rise again, food only for the worms.

I was aware of cryogenics when my grandmother died, but I was just the weird teenager who couldn't separate reality from science fiction. So I had to become a pallbearer and put the only relative who ever understood me into the ground, knowing that I would never get to see her smile again.

yeah, it's completely selfish, but  only when EVERYONE is immortal will I never have to see any die ever again.

And yeah, that goal is a lot more than just simply physical immortality. When it will take the complete existence failure of the universe to kill you, I'll be happy. At least until I figure out a way to make that survivable too.

Completely, absolutely, fantastically, 10000% agree, especially with that bolded part. To be unable to be destroyed by any means... that's the goal.

[Willou]

Life has the capacity to be a magnificent experience from what I am able to perceive, contemplate, and feel.  Thanks to the advancements in technology, eventual self-modification would be capable of making life an unimaginably more wondrous experience than it is currently.

I'm hungry for novel knowledge and experiences.

[dimasok]

I want to see the life as it was meant to be and not as horrible as it is now. I would like to see designer babies that can no longer suffer on a genetic level, I would like eternal bliss, no suffering, would like to see my desires/needs met (in a VR or better environment), would like to merge into a different medium (biology is too damn limiting so even a digital would be awesome), would like to experience life from different perspectives, try different looks and genders, remove money altogether from the equation (looking forward to a Venus Project type scenario), explore space and see if there is any other intelligent life out there...

There are far too many possibilities. Unfortunately, the life we live keeps me depressed and makes me an antinatalist sometimes...

The possibilities of the future on the other hand are seemingly endless..

[Droplet]

A similar thread with the potential for your words to be used in a booklet exists here:

http://www.longecity...me/page__st__60

[Mignon Morgan]

Death is not natural. It is a by product of living in an unnatural and costic environment. We are not able to learn much in our short lives and we aren't emotionally mature enough to deal with what we must encounter. Loss of those we love is even more devastating to our psyche when we realize that death is not necessary. I am of the mind that a 500 yr old woman would have more insight on how to deal with that kind of loss than a 25 yr old woman.

I believe that death should only come when we feel that we have completed all we wanted to in this world. It should be a choice. There are too many things to discover to have everything you are working on just taken from you.

[Droplet]

Mignon Morgan, on 08 November 2012 - 04:38 AM, said:

Death is not natural. It is a by product of living in an unnatural and costic environment. We are not able to learn much in our short lives and we aren't emotionally mature enough to deal with what we must encounter. Loss of those we love is even more devastating to our psyche when we realize that death is not necessary. I am of the mind that a 500 yr old woman would have more insight on how to deal with that kind of loss than a 25 yr old woman.

I believe that death should only come when we feel that we have completed all we wanted to in this world. It should be a choice. There are too many things to discover to have everything you are working on just taken from you.

That is beautiful so true. Could I please use this in my aforementioned project?