How long would you be able to withstand immortality?
 

Let's say you became immortal, and couldn't die without a forced death by your own will.
How long would you be able to stand living without wanting to die? Would you be able to handle eternal monotony? Death of the environment? A world of idiocy? Losing everyone you know? Etc...

I tried goggling this, but couldn't really find any discussions or studies regarding opinions on this, so decided to ask here.

Please keep all responses friendly and try not to go too off topic.

As for myself, I can't put any real estimate since I feel at this point, I can't get tired of life. I know eventually if I were immortal I would get sick of it, though. Even though I'm really tough when it comes to social stuff, I'd probably go through mental breakdowns and eventually have myself killed forcibly once I've experienced all that I wanted and got exceedingly bored.

Hmm, I couldn't say how long it would take before I tired of it, but after a few generations or so, I imagine it'd grow quite depressing, as immortality is a nice way of saying 'watching everyone you come to care about (friends, family, lovers, what have you) die.' I often find myself feeling rather lonely (even in the midst of a crowded room) without any need or desire to add eternal life to the equation.

However, I am also a terrible coward with an incredible fear of pain, which stems from living in a good deal of it more often than not. You see, my back and neck tend to lock up when I'm under stress (or when I haven't gotten nearly enough sleep), which leads to migraines, and the thought of intentionally causing myself additional pain just...nope, not gonna happen, and there are very few painless ways to off oneself. So, were I immortal, I might survive a good long while after the appeal of eternal life had faded simply for that reason. Though, who knows, maybe having an eternity of that to "look forward to" would eventually do me in.

/shurgs

Question: the immortality you're proposing, would it save a person from common bodily ills (pains, non-lethal sicknesses, what have you)?

Pain would be felt, but unless you wished for it, you wouldn't die from it. Minor illness could happen, but again only fatal if you wished it.

I probably would be put off from the monotony, once it sets in and I've got nothing else to do. That or when/if the environment ended and I'm left with nothing but desert wasteland or outer space and lose my sanity.

What is this about eternal monotony? I think life is great! And I've got high hopes for the future too. Progress brings some negative effects with it, but overall, it's a good thing. I think the intelligence and awareness of people will only increase as we make scientific and technological progress. Society is interconnected now more than ever, and we are becoming more tolerant of each other and working towards equality for all people. I would love to be around to see how the future unfolds. As far as I'm concerned, there is always a reason to keep living because there is always something else to learn about and reflect on. If I wish to stay alive until I've read every book in existence, I would never die because more books are easily written in a day than I could read in a month. By the time I've read all the books that were written today, there would be enough to last me at least two years! Humanity will fall eventually though, since everything ends, and that is when I would most likely tire of my immortality. The world would be extremely lonely if I were the only person in it. But that won't be for a long, long, long, long time.

The best part about all this is that it might actually be possible within our lifetime to use stem cells to periodically regenerate all of our dying cells, allowing us to live for an extraordinarily long time. However it might not be readily available to the general public within our generation.

Yanno. I've been meaning to reply, but I can't think of a good response without making a Dr. Who reference.

I fail at life.

I...may have had the same problem at first (even if only briefly). o.o;

If you could get past the actual physical aspect* of immortality, than I think I could live with living forever.

(* there was an episode of the show Curiosity with Adam Savage that dealt with this; it was mentioned that eventually, your brain would run out of storage space or something like that. Get past that, and living forever probably wouldn't be much of a problem. Much.)

I couldn't. The pains and pleasures of life are meant for a period. Living with some of the pains life would bring would be draining and not worth going on over and over for eternity.

Watching everyone I care about growing old and dying? What's the point? I'd rather grow old and die of natural causes than live a life of immortality.

If it were only me and not my partner/children, then I would want to die when they did. I can't see myself living life without them. There would be no point with no one to love anymore. Even if I stayed young, I could never find joy in anything knowing I'd lost them and would have to continue alone forever. I'll happily keep my mortality to live one lifetime with them.

I can say right now that if I couldn't take the people with me that I love the most through my immortal life with me I would rather grow old and die. I'm a really loyal person once said loyalty is earned and it'd kill me to lose all those people and end up alone for eternity.

As for the monotony, I sometimes struggle with the Christian/religious ideals of an eternal life because my brain simply cannot comprehend wanting to be alive and experiencing things for an eternity. This isn't me admitting suicidal tendencies, but I just can't comprehend the idea of eternal life. To me there has to be a beginning to everything, and doesn't that too mean there must be an end? I dunno. That's a bit deep, and I'll stick with Christianity but that does bug me.

Anyway, if I could have at least one person that I loved with all my heart be immortal with me I'd stick around for a long ass time. I would love to see the world in 1000 years or more. This is all based on the idea that humanity doesn't die out of course. I'd be done if that happened.

If i was immortal and couldn't die...like from injury or whatever else...i'd probably do a bunch of reallllly crazy shit, not stuff that would purposefully hurt me, but i might give technical cave diving a shot. and probably do that stuff until it got boring.

I'm not doing the best at withstanding my given lifespan, but here goes. The world is infinitely full of beauty, whether you intend to stay in it or not. Apathy, death, idiocy, they're all a part of that beauty. I think that I would continue to evolve, endure, and take in the world with wonder so long as I could continue to stand it. In any case, the end will come. Whether the world would end first or I would put an early stop to it, I would still come eventually to my human conclusion. One could argue that we are already immortal in a way- what other end, to this life/plane/existence at least, do we know except our own end?

(Even if you've got thirteen lives...)

Well, since you ask this now instead of 8000 years ago, the numbers would change with what we know now. I'd be interested in living a thousand years just to see what happened. Of course if a nuclear holocaust or some other disaster wiped out life on the planet in the next 100 years then I'm going to be living a dreadfully miserable 900 years after that. I might be willing to take that risk though to see what becomes of human civilization.

Considering you lose people around you all the time, I don't think that would be an issue. Problem is, even though you're immortal. You gotta eat and drink and stuff. o-o Wouldn't life become indeed, very monotone if you'd have to still continue keeping your job and not use that immortality to discover? I'd die of boredom. Unless. I'd use my time educating myself and becoming so hella well paid I can discover and do whatever all the time. Then it would be awesome. Discover the world and it's rich beauty. It's weirdness too. My curiosity and love for culture. Damn. Immortality, gimme that shit.
Don't know how long I'd last though. 500 years minimum. 1000 years+++ if people don't become worse at writing.

I've thought about this. I've had arbitrary numbers I've come up with. But when I clicked on this thread, I thought of something new: I would really know until I've tried it. I'm limited in this conjecture because I am mortal. Until I'd seen what it means to go through all that, to see things change. Would that intrinsic weariness come about as I can't help but feel it would, or would I be fascinated by the changes, and be curious to see what's next? I don't know. I don't think I would know until I was immortal and had owned the idea of it.

I don't think I would be able to handle seeing my loved ones pass away while I live. And if I would keep going and make new friends i'll just be heart broken in the end. I don't think anyone can go through being immortal. Yeah sure there are some people who can't stand people but I know that they wouldn't want to be alone forever.

It's hard to determine now...I believe it would be long for me because there is such a vast amount of knowledge available, and being the curious person that I am, I would love to learn as much as possible as well as use my immortality to try and benefit the lives of the people around me who will eventually die.

I understand what you're saying, but I'd like to point out that it is impossible to know everything, considering how new information and knowledge is appearing all the time.

Very, very interesting topic. *applauds* Bravo.

As sad as it is to say it, Twilight had my husband and I talking about this very same subject. We sat and mulled over it, and it would be a very sad existence to build relationships with people and watch as they die again and again around us. Once you've lived a generation or two I would imagine that you would be quite numb to it, and that aspect of it wouldn't be as painful.

I'm quite torn. A part of me would, indeed, like to have immortality granted...however, only if I could take my husband with me. If I was to be the only immortal I would not want it...I am someone who needs to have companionship, and even if I could have a new companion every few centuries...I don't think I could do that. I think every death they had I would spend years lamenting their death. I honestly don't think I would ever grow fully immune to that.

This is ironic as I have been diagnosed with general anxiety, major depressive disorder, and also have had suicidal thoughts previously. You'd think the idea would just be out of the question for me -- don't I find life hard enough? I think knowing that I have as much time here on Earth, though, would quell some of that anxiety as I would no longer beat myself up for using time unwisely, or making a wrong turn in life -- I would know I have ample time to correct it.

You have to remember how many new things, and new stuff is invented or discovered all the time, all the places in the world, all the cultures, you could spend hundreds of years before you have done or seen it all at least once, and by then there would be new things... But also how often do you go on holiday somewhere nice, and would not want to go back because you would be bored? Not often... You could spend many times, and lots of time at the same place. Before being bored... So many talents you would want to learn, music language etc... It would be hard to see loved ones live and die. But even in the shortest life you see that anyway. It'd be worse outliving children. But you would be in a place where you can devote your whole life to giving them attention, as there is always time to do the things you want or need to do some other time. So they would have a full and rich life full of times with you! So I do think that I would be happy with immortality for a very very long time. But yes it may be hundreds of years or thousands, but eventually you will want to go to the next great adventure... But I doubt that I will become immortal any time soon, so thank my lucky stars everyday, that i have a wonderful life, with beautiful children, and wife. Live in a great country( not perfect) and that at any time it can all be taken away... So I make sure I kiss my loved ones goodbye every time i walk out the door just in case!