REVISED death poll

Discussion in 'General Philosophy' started by relleumsirhc, Jul 21, 2002.

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How long would you live for??

  1. 100 years

    2 vote(s)
    6.7%
  2. 1000 years

    5 vote(s)
    16.7%
  3. Forever

    9 vote(s)
    30.0%
  4. Dont give me a limit

    6 vote(s)
    20.0%
  5. None of the above

    8 vote(s)
    26.7%
  1. relleumsirhc Banned Banned

    Messages:
    39
    Here I re-did this poll because alot of people were coming up with new answers....
     
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  3. Cris In search of Immortality Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    9,199
    That's better.

    I see anything less than forever as being unacceptable.

    Cris
     
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  5. Zero Banned Banned

    Messages:
    2,355
    I'd live out the standard bit of 50-70 years. Longer life means more stress and more bother and more pain.
     
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  7. Thor "Pfft, Rebel scum!" Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    7,326
    I'm gonna say forever. It'll be cool for a while then it would be cooler. But I would have to stay out of the laws way as I wouldn't want to do life.
     
  8. Zero Banned Banned

    Messages:
    2,355
    Besides, death is only the great sleep after a long day of life.

    Why would you skip sleep?
     
  9. andy1033 Truth Seeker Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    1,060
    there are to many reasons why man should not extend life expectancy beyond 100 years old. i myself would only want to live till about 25 at most if i had a choice. but now i am two years past that age. remember that people should eventually die, like every other life form.
     
  10. Zero Banned Banned

    Messages:
    2,355
    Yes. Either kill off humans or stop reproducing or else the planet will become overpopulated and there will be shortages of resources in a short time.
     
  11. Cris In search of Immortality Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    9,199
    Hi andy,

    Ok so list a couple at least. I can’t think of any.

    Is that because you think 25 years is enough or is it that you don’t want to suffer from the aging process? Remember that if we can live forever in a biological form then the disease of aging will have been cured. The probable result will be that our physical forms will likely be that of 21 year olds. Would that suit you?

    Why? Bacteria have no aging process, and neither do certain trees and cacti. More complex lifeforms tend to age because of their complexity, a result of a largely random evolutionary process that had no regard for long life-spans.

    Cris
     
  12. Cris In search of Immortality Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    9,199
    Zero,

    Ok so what’s wrong with colonizing the other planets, space itself, or venturing beyond the solar system?

    Or how about floating cities (prototypes have already been designed), remember the sea covers over two thirds of the planet. Or how about under the ocean? With appropriate population control we could last on this planet for a limitless period or until we are destroyed by the next asteroid, in which case at least some of us should leave sometime.

    Cris
     
  13. Cronin Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    30
    How about educating ourselves to extend our current life expectancy? How about feeding our bodies and minds a balanced blend of palatable nutrients and emotional/spiritual food? How about keeping our bodies moving to prevent "rust" from developing? How about reaching out to others to make this world a better place live?
     
  14. Azrael Angel of Light Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    134
    agreed, Im trying self imposed immortality. I figure if I keep telling my body & mind that death doesnt exist then I will never die
     
  15. Cris In search of Immortality Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    9,199
    Azreal,

    LOL. But of course that is just as bad as religionists who really do believe they will live together, albeit in an afterlife.

    No, I think there are two stages to this, at least for us at this time.

    1. A cure for the disease of biological aging.
    2. Disaster recovery.

    Research into anti-aging is well under way and I fully expect some realistic treatments with the next 50 years, if not much sooner. Dr West (from recent stem cell fame) stated back in the late 1990s that he expected anti-aging breakthroughs in about 15 years. We can already significantly extend the life span of a number of insects and small mammals. And there seems every reason that human aging can at least be slowed. So even if life spans can safely be extended to say a conservative 150 then that means more time for researchers to solve the problems completely, and especially for us who are alive today.

    But stopping ourselves aging only means we have the potential for immortality if we are really really careful. We’d still be open to being murdered, or having accidents, etc.

    So to avoid such fatal events we need a way to recover from such things. Computer data is effectively immortal with minimum care. It is simply backed up frequently. If computers die, explode or whatever, it really doesn’t matter since the data remains intact somewhere safe. The concern for humans is the brain patterns, which are essentially patterns of electrical signals that represent who we are. If we could somehow store these and have the ability to reload them if anything happens to us then, we have achieved effective immortality.

    But of course if your entire body is burnt to ashes in some terrible fire then how are your backups going to be restored? Here of course I’m still talking about biological bodies.

    Looking into the near future, say 15 years we should expect to see the emergence of intelligent machines. The computing power should be available by then and there are many groups around the world hard at work on artificial intelligence software. After 15 years the pace of development should become far more rapid leading to machines that have equal if not better intelligence than humans.

    The obvious conclusion then is how to scan a human brain, convert the information to digital data and transfer it to a machine and still retain all the aspects that make a human human, but now in a resilient machine body.

    Frequent backups become simple and restoration after a bad disaster to a new body also becomes very simple.

    This I suggest will become the quickest, and most likely route to effective immortality.

    Unless of course you have any better ideas.

    Cris
     
  16. %BlueSoulRobot% Copyright! Copyright!! Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    2,294
    I don't think I'd want to get old...seeing yourself and everyone around you becoming decrepit and crotchety, blaugh! I don't ever want to become one of those cynical seniors, who rag about everything (fashion, loud music, how it was in the "good old days"). I want to keep in touch with my Inner Child, while still retaining my outer child appearance! They say the older you get, the better you was.

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  17. %BlueSoulRobot% Copyright! Copyright!! Registered Senior Member

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    I meant "the better you were"....

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  18. Ender Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    294
    I don't think i would want to live forever, but i would like to extend my lifespan for a long time. If i lived forever, then i would eventually get bored, and decide to die.
     
  19. *stRgrL* Kicks ass Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    2,495
    I agree with zero. I say 75 is my limit.
     
  20. Distortion melted down Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    141
    IMO, life is most enjoyable when you are gleaming meaning from your experiences, can enjoy your body, have goals to accomplish, and things to learn. I can't stand the thought of losing my intelligence, memory, or any physical prowess that I have - so I'd say that I'd probably only vote for living the normal span, because past that point - you become non-productive, dependant, lose any physical or mental prowess and sharpness you might have ever had - and basically become a vegetable. Is there anyone who would like to live as a vegetable? I can't imagine why.

    If it was possible to live forever with my body and mind in it's prime, and with my neurons and memory constantly growing as I aquire more and more experiences, then I'd want to live forever - otherwise, it's fine the way it is.

    Is there anyone who wouldn't want to live forever if you could stay in your prime for eternity, and why?
     
  21. goofy headed punk Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    170
    I'd like to live forever. I see no problem with it at this moment, so long as I don't have to age. Of course, if I were able to live forever and decided I didn't like my life I could always commit suicide.
     

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