Discussion Would life be good without death?

[Mr2005]

Think about it

 

[Soulless_Angel]

No... just longer suffering, longer times for memories to torture,
More resources pulled on the world...

Unless we can be vampires, that would be cool, can I be a vampire, long as I can still have rum?


then again, without death, is it possible to think about non birth, if you are talking about breaking the life cycle of humans, surely that means breaking the cycle of birth?

 

[Shinbu]

It would be for me. Though some people hate immortality. No diseases, and being able to survive without food, water, and no aging would be nice. Though I'm not sure if I truly would want that. Society is fucked, and humans can do fucked up things to each other, I'll probably get tired of seeing the same shit show. Maybe I'll get bored with living too much as well. I guess that could be hell. Being able to live indefinitely, and being able to terminate yourself would be better.

 

[IveHadEnough]

Think about it

It would be for certain people.
I think living is generally rather pleasant for neurotypical, smart and physically attractive individuals. But not all of us are like this

 

[PrettyMoose]

Without involuntary death it would be better for those who want to continue living, but I would want to hold on to the right to voluntarily die. Being stranded forever in an existence you want no part of would be a never ending hell.

 

[KiraLittleOwl]

It would be horror

 

[Mr2005]

It would be horror

The irony

 

[Giraffey]

It would be for certain people.
I think living is generally rather pleasant for neurotypical, smart and physically attractive individuals. But not all of us are like this

Imagine that only a small selection of people were immortal and continued to live indefinitely. You would have an infinite amount of time to outlive your problems and you could outlast cultural shifts that may at some point prioritise some other attribute instead of physical beauty. The wealth of experience, skills and knowledge that you'd attain would surely elevate your attractiveness, if not your social standing too. Just as in an infinite universe, in an infinite existence everything physically possible is bound to be attainable at some point in time.

On the flip side, if there is pain that time cannot heal and memories that haunt you, they will do so indefinitely without the prospect of escape. Loved ones who may be mortal will be resigned to ancient history. Your brain at a certain point will no longer be able to retain new information, make new connections - either it must somehow grow or upgrade, or you begin to forget old information (could be good, could be bad).

I'd prefer to have my cake and eat it - "optional immortality". I'll live until I'm sick of it and then I'll snuff it, I'll opt-in to death.

 

[voyager]

No, an absolute disaster tbh. And I'm one of the life lovers here on the forum. I've had times when I've wanted to live forever, but also times when I just wanted to end it all. If I had the choose, I'd take the latter, because we never have a guarantee of being happy. Sometimes have heard people on here saying how existence is suffering, and maybe it was for them, but I never felt that way about my life. Had really great times, followed by really terrible times, and for a long time meaningless times, because I couldn't switch to a good state of mind anymore. And yet, I see my life in perspective and am at peace with all of it. But if life were to drag on for all eternity in this state where one can't switch to good anymore, then yes, that to me would be indeed eternal suffering for no purpose at all.

SlowMo, I get what you are saying, have even fantasised about sleeping for thousands of years until we can cure our problems, but tbh with you, I've waited 26 years, can't imagine waiting a lifetime, let alone infinity or something. Am not completely convinced it all ends after death anyhow, or we wouldn't be here now.

It's all good when our time comes.

 

[terry_a_davis]

If you have a happy life then yes, if not then no.

 

[Oyoy]

It would be.a cartoon.

 

[Inferdan]

Without the restraints of mortality, certain things could be alleviated and better, but imagine how much more things we could be capable of doing. And for those who suffer, they can't die and did peace, so either they continue to burn for eternity, or become emotionless husks, or rampant people who will hurt, vandalize, and rape to gain pleasure and distraction from the agonizing reality of existence.

 

[Giraffey]

SlowMo, I get what you are saying, have even fantasised about sleeping for thousands of years until we can cure our problems, but tbh with you, I've waited 26 years, can't imagine waiting a lifetime, let alone infinity or something. Am not completely convinced it all ends after death anyhow, or we wouldn't be here now.

To be honest Voyager, I must begrudgingly agree. The price of ultimately being able to attain anything and everything we want is a potentially infinite lifetime of continued pain and suffering before that point - I say potentially because there is no guarantee it won't get good again, but immortality is a big risk when there is the possibility of an unending lifetime of pain.

 

[Deleted member 1465]

It would be impossible. Life and death are not even flip-sides of the same coin. They are the same thing. As soon as you are born, you are dying, constantly. You have to put fuel in and do everything you can to halt the march of time. The very thing that makes life worth living is the fact that you are dying slowly.

It's the same question as: what is the purpose of life? Life arises because of death and vice versa. Entropy is at the heart of all things and everything tends towards it eventually. For biological matter, this means decay and death. Without that decay and death there would be no growth, no change, no genetic mutation across generations, no evolution, nothing.

Life is change and motion and this happens because of death.

However... some chose to see this as a wonderful thing, often interpreting this via religions or philosophies. Some can't face the enormity of the reality. Some turn from it and run and spend their whole lives running.

Immortality? Reworking the nature of things to have nothing but positive things? Nice idea but impossible, even conceptually. Without the movement between positive and negative there would be no life, no matter, no energy, nothing. Oblivion.

 

[the box is empty]

"Death gives meaning to our lives. It gives importance and value to time. Time would become meaningless if there were too much of it." -Ray Kurzweil

 

[Deleted member 1465]

Don't know why, may be off topic, but I felt the urge to post this...

 

[Taran]

Think about it

Life would be good without death if problems are not included in it.
Both are inevitable....

 

[TimeToBiteTheDust]

No. Because there would be overpopulation. Thinking about death is the only thing that makes me feel relaxed.

 

[Yomyom]

Well that depend in what day you ask me, usually no.

I'm Just going to leave this here

 

[Deleted member 1465]

Is it wrong that Alan Watts sounds like Stewy to me? (maybe it's just suggestion from your avatar)

 

[R_N]

Depends on what kind of life would I have. Eternal happiness would be fine. Eternal torment? No thanks. Both? Still not worth it for me.

 

[Yomyom]

Is it wrong that Alan Watts sounds like Stewy to me? (maybe it's just suggestion from your avatar)

could be, everyone needs both of them in their life

 

[Epsilon0]

Immortality would make us all gods. Gods would literally be a dime a dozen. Imagine that!



To @Sensei who loves Blake:

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.

 

[voyager]

Most things in this world have a counter balance, death applies this to things that don't supposedly have one, like time for instance.

Excelling is beautiful, I agree. It would be an absolute dream to better oneself, become truely wise. Unless one runs out of material. I've always wanted to wingsuit for instance, but if there was no threat of death, would it really be as exciting? If I could do it a billion times, would it still be fun? If I couldn't do it all, wouldn't it just be torment dangling in front of my face? I think a lot of life is like that, teasing us, but unobtainable, it's almost cruel. Would love to learn so many things, but can't in this state of mind, it's pointless. Maybe in a million years I could regain that ability, but is that a price worth paying? Sounds like a fucking long time.

Have no faith in cryogenics, or living forever might just be an option. Every time one wakes, one could reevaluate, and if one isn't happy with the results sleep another thousand years or so.

 

[Deleted member 1465]

Immortality would make us all gods. Gods would literally be a dime a dozen. Imagine that!



To @Sensei who loves Blake:

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.

And... I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

 

[BabyYoda]

Nope, actually it would make it worse. My mind can't take this concept of eternity...........

 

[Deleted member 1465]

Nope, actually it would make it worse. My mind can't take this concept of eternity...........

We'd all go nuts with ennui and be on some eternal SS website forever. Oh...wait...er...

 

[voyager]

 

[Epsilon0]

Shivers down my spine

 

[PrettyMoose]

One problem with immortality is- what happens after the heat death of the universe? Are you just going to float around in cold dead space forever? Try to "swim" about hoping to find another universe?