What would life be like if you were immortal?

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Imagine if you became physically immortal, in the sense that you are at your physical prime of life, and, your body cells are changed in such a way, that they have "super regeneration". You are completely impervious to all forms of damage, whether it is kinetic mechanical damage (crushes, smashes, punches, etc), cutting/stabbing, chemical, fire, or anything else. Basically, short of a direct mega ton nuclear blast exposure or black hole (and let's say even that could not harm you), and you would never age at all. Your core body cells (not hair follicles and things) were impervious in this way; body and brain, so your brain would never face dementia or slowing down either. How would this change you, what would you do with your immortal years, and that sort of thing?

And let's say one catch is you could never breed again, the cost of this physical immortality was to not be able to produce children, but you would remain young forever.

Think of some of the implications:

You could study every skill and field of knowledge you desire.
Think of the economic, hobby, and travel implications.

[Extra330SC]

SEF....throw in a sword and you just described "The Highlander " Duncan and Connor MacLeod .... :D
https://youtu.be/4Rbm_xfPFbk

[remnar]

There can be only one!

[MichaelScott]

What would life be like if you were dead?
It would continue on as before but without you.

[Doc Dan]

If you could be immortal, without being immortal in heaven, but rather physically as you are now, on this earth, you would go insane. You would end up doing things that at present would appall you. You would begin to think very, very differently from the way you do at present and combined with the sheer boredom of living so long, you would eventually suffer mentally and emotionally.

[ZrowsN1s]

Well I'd have a bigger knife collection.

[The Deacon]

Would be fun, up until a few people got jealous, tied you up, dumped you in a metal box and welded the lid on. "In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man gets a poke in the eye with a sharp stick".

[MacLaren]

Not me they wouldnt :D :D
Well, they might get 1 eye :eek:

[Evil D]

Well, there are a lot of things to consider. Obviously you wouldn't have the stresses of illness and aging health to deal with, which would be nice. But, you would also find a loneliness like none of us can really imagine because literally every person you know and love, and every person you ever meet and get to know and love, you would watch die over and over. I see a lot of potential for a real deep sadness in a life like this.

I think a person like this would ultimately be cursed. Maybe the biggest gain could be the opportunity to gain limitless knowledge, for example you could take on every college course that exists and take as much time as you need to learn literally everything that your mind is capable of learning up to the point where you just simply don't have the IQ to progress any further.

On the other hand you'll also be witness to every war, every death, up to and including any major catastrophic war that could take away all of those opportunities. You could end up living an endless life in an apocalyptic world devoid of knowledge and technology, surrounded by disease and death while you alone live through all of it. That doesn't sound like a good time to me.

Death is really the ultimate motivator. Why do we get up everyday and go to work? Why is family and spending time with people you care about so important? Because ultimately we all know life is temporary. Knowing that tomorrow isn't guaranteed is what makes life special. If you knew you couldn't die, eventually you would probably lose value in every material object, and the only thing valuable to you would be the time you get with everyone else, until they pass on and leave you.

I mean, I could see wanting to live maybe even 200 years or so as long as you had good health, but immortality sounds like **** to me.

[Evil D]

[James Y]

Pretty much what doc dan and Evil D have said.

It would be miserable and boring beyond a certain point (which wouldn't be long in coming, BTW). You also wouldn't be able to relate to anybody, because you'd have no contemporaries. No matter how young or old someone was, nobody would be able to relate to you on an equal level, or understand you and your experience.

As doc dan said, your personality would change dramatically. It would undergo countless changes, just like most people's personalities undergo changes throughout a lifetime. You would become insanely jealous of normal people who get to live their lives and pass on. Such an immortal person would undoubtedly attempt suicide countless times to try to get out of the cycle of constant life. Even all the earthly knowledge in the world wouldn't make up for it.

OTOH, the temptation to abuse your power would become overwhelming. Remember the saying: "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." With virtually no consequences (certainly no lasting ones), your boredom and jealousy would likely drive you to take advantage of and commit evil acts on 'normals'. Most likely you would literally become a 'monster'.

Jim

[bearfacedkiller]

Sex, drugs and rock and roll. That is what life would be like if I was immortal.

[Naperville]

I agree! IF, I was immortal and it happened to my mind and body at a certain age. If I was stuck in an early 20's body/mind that would be great, but not so much fun if I was stuck in an 80 year old body/mind. There would be restrictions on what one could do if you were too old.

I could study every skill and field of knowledge and dabble in so many different kinds of things.

Think of the economic, hobby, and travel implications....would be excellent!

Would have one heck of a knife collection over the centuries.

[michaelm466]

One thing I always find interesting is Vampires/Wolverine/whatever long living superhero isn't nearly unbeatable to others their physical equal- If I was going to live a minimum of a couple hundred years, and know that I had an increased chance of combat, I would definitely spend my first 100 years mastering as many and as diverse martial arts/combat systems as I could, not to mention competing in underground fights to get the real life experience.

Another aspect would be the evolution of those around you- If somebody that was born in the 1500's was around today they would likely be much shorter/smaller- with a slightly different bone structure. I've read that a lot of language pronunciation has changed within the same language because people used to chew on harder/tougher food items so they would have a stronger jaw than most do now, they also would be missing more teeth than an average person now by their late 20's or 30's. It also seems that at least for the time that we have recorded physical feats of strength speed, etc. we are steadily beating them, their aren't many sports or Olympic records around the from the early 1900's.

Lastly, you definitely wouldn't want to be imprisoned for life for committing or allegedly committing a crime.

[ChrisinHove]

Immortal or indestructible? I’ve known people who have tired of life within our “three score and ten”. There must come a point when we all would tire, I guess.

[knivesandbooks]

I prefer the Anglo-Saxon and Viking notions of immortality. That is, you're immoral so long as your memory/deeds/legend is being told and remembered.

You're being invoked whenever your name comes up in a story. And, if you're being invoked, you exist.

[JonLeBlanc]

Yeah I'm not too sure it would be all that great for some of the reasons mentioned, although I have thought that it might be nice to live for maybe 500 years...

[cabfrank]

Long.

[demoncase]

Wait, I thought I was immortal?

[ChrisinHove]

Wait, I thought I was immortal?

You may have misread when it said immoral...