Science Would you...

[Access Denied]

You have no consciousness when you sleep.

Bollocks. What do you think dreams are? They come from you subconcious mind. Subconcious.

 

[Tom]

I prefer Iain Banks's ideas to Hamilton's. In the Culture universe humans live for a few hundred years. If they want to change sex, they can do easily. They can gland whatever drugs they like, whenever they like. If they get bored of being human they can mutate into something else. They can back themselves up in case of death. They can download themselves into robot bodies. They can be stored indefinitely, and woken up after a predetermined number of years have passed.

Oh and there are no laws in the Culture, just robots that follow you around if you've done something naughty, to make sure you can't do it again.

 

[Tom]

Bollocks. What do you think dreams are? They come from you subconcious mind. Subconcious.

Quote your last night's dreams in their entirety. Go on.

 

[Access Denied]

Quote your last night's dreams in their entirety. Go on.

I can't. Very few people can. However that isn't the point. The point is that I HAD dreams last night, I had dreams the night before and I'll dream again after I go to bed in a minute.

Your supposition that I don't have any form of conciousness when alseep, because I can't remember every last detail of my dreams is ridiculous.

 

[Tom]

I can't. Very few people can. However that isn't the point. The point is that I HAD dreams last night, I had dreams the night before and I'll dream again after I go to bed in a minute.

Your supposition that I don't have any form of conciousness when alseep, because I can't remember every last detail of my dreams is ridiculous.

Really. So when you're asleep, are you concious of your surroundings, beyond the influence they sometimes have on your dreams? Are you able to control your dreams? Are you even aware that you're dreaming?

The answer in all three cases is a resounding no, and the fact that most people cannot remember anything about their dreams belies the truth of the matter, which is that being asleep is probably no different than being dead - ie, nothing to be afraid of.

 

[Ormorof]

well i doubt i will be dreaming when i am dead seeing as ze brain will no longer function, so not exactly the same

 

[ford prefect]

Absolutely not! Personally I find life confusing, worrying and rather frightening. I find the fact that it will one day conclude rather comforting. The idea of extending it by hundreds of years is abhorrent to me.

 

[Ormorof]

and to answer the question, i picked yes, mostly out of curiousity to see what happens next

though i guess how pleasant it would be would depend on how much the immortality would affect your body, would you be say a strapping 25 year old all your life or stuck at the age of 80 forever?

 

[dysfunction]

I prefer Iain Banks's ideas to Hamilton's. In the Culture universe humans live for a few hundred years. If they want to change sex, they can do easily. They can gland whatever drugs they like, whenever they like. If they get bored of being human they can mutate into something else. They can back themselves up in case of death. They can download themselves into robot bodies. They can be stored indefinitely, and woken up after a predetermined number of years have passed.

Oh and there are no laws in the Culture, just robots that follow you around if you've done something naughty, to make sure you can't do it again.

I ah yes I got my scifi writers mixed up!

 

[noblok]

Bollocks. What do you think dreams are? They come from you subconcious mind. Subconcious.

In fact, the proper psychological term is the unconscious mind.

 

[ST^]

You have no consciousness when you sleep.

I can handle it because I know it won't last forever.

 

[ford prefect]

Being afraid of death has always seemed a little counter intuitive to me. It is an inevitable part of life. The standard medical model of clinical death shows the patient loosing all higher brain function within 20 – 40 seconds (including consciousness), as the brain tries to protect itself from the sudden lack of oxygen. That process happens so quickly that it is unlikely that you would even register the moment yourself, in the same way you don’t really register the moment you fall asleep. Within the next four minutes or so (at room temperature), the brain goes through a process called ischemic injury, which causes the blood vessels to close, starving the rest of the brain of oxygen. Over the next half hour the axons break down causing the odd random electrochemical reaction and then the brain falls silent.

If there is an afterlife then away you go, if not – then there is in the most literal sense – nothing, there is no forever, or past or present or future. Fearing such a process seems like a waste of energy to me if I am honest. The living part seems much more complicated and stressful.

 

[Ormorof]

true but there is such a thing as survival instinct and most people will fight to stay alive (even if they may not be happy about it afterwards)

 

[DaGaffer]

I wouldn't want to live forever, but I would like a much extended lifespan of maybe 300-400 years with ageing slowed down so I would be in good physical shape.

And what makes you think you wouldn't get to the end of 300 years and think "well that went fast, I wish I had more time". The experience of time passing and memory are completely subjective; I don't think an arbitrary "300 years would be alright" really works.

Also, living forever is one thing, but the death of the Sun and Earth and then the eventual heat death of the universe will fuck immortality in the ear.

We really don't know enough about the way the universe is going to pan out just because Brian Cox did a pretty TV show about it. Probably the ultimate challenge for sentient life will be how to get past the heat death of this universe, and into another one. Lets face it, if you survived that long, you're not going to be recognisably human anymore and will probably have a very different way of preceiving and engaging with the universe by that point.

well, from the perspective of living forever meaning other humans lives become but mere instants, reducing connecting with them to a pointless exercise thus making the effort of living an unbearable tedium, then yes.

on the other hand, I'd finally have enough time to learn to surf.

Not necessarily worse, just different. If you were immortal your current human motivations would change by definition. If there were other immortals, how you engage with them over millenia would be the way you'd define your relationships. I don't think being uniquely immortal would work, because as you say, you'd gradually disengage from the rest of humanity; you'd have to as a defence mechanism.

You have no consciousness when you sleep.

You have a different level of conciousness when you sleep; its not accurate to say you have no conciousness, there are plenty of brain functions working away, keeping an eye on things even while you sleep. A lot of the time noises you hear etc. are integrated directly into your dreams, but part of you is aware of them; its a basic limbic brain defence mechanism.


Back on topic; personally I think we'll certainly see increased longevity through a variety of means, but I'd be very surprised if there wasn't an upper limit to biological longevity (you can replace or regrow every organ, but if you regrow your brain you effectively stop being "you"), so it then becomes a case of whether you can download yourself (and upload yourself back into a biological body). Even if the technical hurdles can be overcome, we're into the realms of philosophy here; what is the definition of "you"?

 

[Fafnir]

Fearing such a process seems like a waste of energy to me if I am honest. The living part seems much more complicated and stressful.

I agree we are born to die. But would be cool if you where just one of a few to live a really long life, perhaps until the end of time, but would be no fun if you where the only one left alive.

 

[old.Tohtori]

Really. So when you're asleep, are you concious of your surroundings, beyond the influence they sometimes have on your dreams? Are you able to control your dreams? Are you even aware that you're dreaming?

The answer in all three cases is a resounding no

Actually it's not a resounding no, i sometimes take hold of my dreamworld. Muchos fun actually, technical term or some such is lucid dreaming.

I can quote most of my dreams from last night(can in most nights due to training to remember it), quite word for word too.

So answer to all your questions is a resounding "sometimes". More so if i try to.

 

[Job]

Cory Doctorow's, Magic Kingdom pretty well covers every base, going 'deadhead'
for thousands of years.
I like the idea of turning your consciousness on every twenty minutes and watching the world go by at x1000 speed.
Of course being dead is exactly the same as it was before you were alive, once you're alive you instantly have been dead for ever.

 

[Lamp]

Not forever, but a couple of thousand years would be cool. Assuming you have the full use of your mental faculties and are in good health. Wouldn't want to just exist as a crumbling, mumbling pissbag.

To see how technology changes, what cell phones will be like in 600 years time, quantum computers, laser weapons, lightsabres!, advances in medicine, whether we colonise other planets, find life on another planet, whether anyone does actually work out a quantum theory of gravity, a cure for cancer, etc etc

The shitty end of the stick will be outliving your children, your grandchildren, great grandchildren, etc etc. No parent should have to bury their child.

 

[Job]

You could still be run over by a bus.
Poor guy , he was only 257.

 

[old.user4556]

Being a vampire appeals.

Perhaps i'm watching too much True Blood.

 

[Cyradix]

Immortality? Yes please!
But only if it has an off switch you can control...
Say you get stuck while caving. It would suck if you have to wait 63 millions years for the mountain on top of you to erode.
Or like others said, if the world should end. Floating in space for a few billions years doesn't sound like fun...

 

[PLightstar]

I said yes, but only in terms of infinite lifespan, you can still succumb to accidents, like dying from hunger or no oxygen etc. The Gene Therapy idea, sounds alot like how life is extended in the WH40K universe and may go the same way with only rich people having access to it.