This question has always bothered me, because personally I could never fathom how anyone could ever think (opposite of what I think)... I just wanted to hear everyone's thoughts on this forum: Would you rather die RIGHT now or live forever? Parameters: if you were to live forever, you would have the option to appear as any physical form that you would naturally assume in the normal course of your life (i.e. Forever middle aged, or always an adolescent, change daily, etc) and suicide is not an option.
die right now easily, why would anyone want to live for an infinite amount of time? the earth itself is 4.5 billion years old, but even that is nothing compared to infinity. eventually earth will explode or w/e and you would be floating around in space for infinite time
If there are only two choices, it would have to be"live forever", simply because "die right now" would mean throwing away all the effort I've put in over the last couple of months.
You say suicide is not an option, but can other things still kill you? Does 'living forever' just mean you never die of natural causes, but something like a car crash could still get you killed?
This is really messing with my mind lol. My initial thought - die right now. I like to look at where I am in life every once in awhile and see if I'd be happy to die there and then, it makes me think of what I'd done with my life so far and what I will be leaving behind, since I've thought that before I've done a good amount of things in my life that I am happy with. I could die right now and it would be okay, assuming when I die, I fade away and all that's left is what I've done thus far. I don't think I would opt to live forever ever, I am absolutely terrified of having to outlive all the people I love, I'd be happy to die asap and to never experience that pain of someone I love dying on me. However, (since I do not know what will happen when I will die) if everything I still want to accomplish comes into play it makes me feel a little stuck, like there are all these things I have plans to do that I can't. So I end up wondering - maybe after 100 years or so it won't be so painful and I end up having all the time in the world to do everything, as I like learning everything, I could literally learn everything, I could do everything, I could master everything I want. But I still think it might not be worth it because after you've done everything you'll be doomed to carry on living like a zombie having done everything, having learnt everything, having experienced everything, having loved and lost and then every day is a bit of a lonely hell. Sorry I rambled on a little, but I think I'd die. I'm generally not a fan of signing myself up for permanent things that I am not 100% what they consist of. EDIT: Nice question tho, I like thinking about things like this.
Your body would be able to adapt to any conditions; that isn't to say you would develop super powers or anything, so if the earth were to explode you'd survive and work out a way to continue living. By 'suicide is not an option' I meant you are not allowed to force death upon yourself (not that it would be possible), self-inflicted or otherwise. Now, personally, I never even saw two sides to this question. I would die right now without a second thought. However, as is also shown above, there seem to be a lot of people who would argue the opposite. Quite a compelling discussion
I would like to live forever, as an eternal celestial being watching over the world. It has always been a dream of mine to be a ghost and just watch how the world developes. The final moment would be the moment where everything is erased (the universe is destroyed). As i cant die, my dead would be a mental death as a result of the scarcity of external stimulus
I would choose to die right now. I believe in the idea that when you die, there's just nothingness. Like sleeping, but without the dreams or waking up and I think this is better than having to go through the pain of watching everyone you love pass away while you continue on living forever, only to get attached to more people and having to see those people die too. I would imagine living forever to be some kind of eternal boredom, where you've experienced and seen everything there is but you have no choice to continue on.
I'd choose to live forever. I'd take it upfront any day. And yes, I understand the pain (unimaginable pain) one would have to endure. Obviously no one has lived past 200 years so the psychological consequences would be unpredictable and maybe catastrophic. But in the case I would remain somewhat sane and conscient, let's say human, with a few exceptions, the reward of living would be immense. A human life is ridiculously short, and the universe is unimaginably large. I have no idea what one could do for all that time (an eternity), but I don't think you'd get bored very quickly. And the universe is nothing if there's no one alive to see it. And frankly, eternal nothingness frightens me a lot, it's a very overwhelming fate for a conscient human. This is obviously completely idealistic, but I think this world would be worth at least another few thousands years of existing. After that, if you're still sane, you'd get struck by amnesia after amnesia since a brain is finite, you would be able to repeat the things you've already done. Since we're already talking impossible; hypothetically you could probably adapt and pass out for the billions of years you'll float around in space after earth is gone or after your failed space mission. Just defending my choice here. I'm optimistic about life basically, and I wish it would be longer. And here I am, wasting the little I have, hehe <3
If you were to live forever.... what would you do when the earth disappears after a couple million years?
Either way time would not be an issue anymore. Living forever would give me more than I could ever have dreamed of. It would give me what I wish for - capacity to do something great. The infinite time would give me all the time in the world to read up on all of the sciences, social and natural, in my own pace. Eventually I would be highly esteemed in the academic world and probably end up in some kind of world committee, UN or equivalent of the time. When I have eventually played my part and helped lead the world to a great state, then maybe they could arrange just one thing for me... Being immortal and living forever allows you to do one thing that would never have been possible. When I've played my part I would like to travel into a black hole and see the whole of time pass by as I pass the event horizon. Then that would be the end of me and the universe. If things do not go the way I had hoped and I get called out for witchcraft and sent out in interstellar space or if humanity kills itself, then I would still be OK with losing my mind and living in a deranged state until the end of time. Eventually, after thousands of years with no external stimuli, I would probably have entered a state where I no longer realize I'm alive. My personality would fade out and so would I. I really wish to know if humanity is ever destined to leave earth and find their luck somewhere else. I wish to live forever.
Obviously, there are many things that one has to take into account when considering the question, but I just wonder: after such a long time of being a sentient being, I think the question is whether or not, or to what extent, time becomes relative. If, like many people say, all of it is just a blink in the eye of an eternal being, then yes, living forever would offer immense possibilities.
