Slinging.org Forum - If you could, would choose to live forever?

Atlatlista

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Re: If you could, would choose to live forever?
Reply #15 - May 16^th, 2012, 3:14pm

I completely disagree. Knowing my life is going to end doesn't make me enjoy it more, and it certainly doesn't make me do more things. I keep up a pretty frenetic pace of learning, but it's not because I'm worried about dying soon. Statistically, I haven't even lived close to half my life. If I knew I would live forever, I'd carry on the way things are now.

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Mauro Fiorentini

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Re: If you could, would choose to live forever?
Reply #16 - May 16^th, 2012, 3:24pm

How different we are on this: after having been close to death, I realized that life is so brief that not enjoying every single second of it is a pity.
That's why I usually put all of myself into what I do... and that's why I'm so satisfied by the result

Why did you adopt such a frenetic pace of learning by the way??
Greetings,
Mauro.

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Mauro Fiorentini - 339 - 525

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Atlatlista

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Re: If you could, would choose to live forever?
Reply #17 - May 16^th, 2012, 6:04pm

Quote from Mauro Fiorentini on May 16^th, 2012, 3:24pm:

How different we are on this: after having been close to death, I realized that life is so brief that not enjoying every single second of it is a pity.
That's why I usually put all of myself into what I do... and that's why I'm so satisfied by the result

Why did you adopt such a frenetic pace of learning by the way??
Greetings,
Mauro.

I think it was ingrained more than adopted. I can't remember a time I wasn't obsessed with learning everything there is to learn. I think it's actually very similar to avarice, but with knowledge so nobody thinks it's bad.

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Bill Skinner

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Re: If you could, would choose to live forever?
Reply #18 - May 16^th, 2012, 7:08pm

Not only no, but Hell No! I have already lost way too many friends and family, I have major problems letting people get close to me because they die on me. If I lived for several hundred or even an extra 100 years, I would be barking at the moon mad. That is, if the population around me is lucky, if you loose all human empathy because you can no longer see anyone else as real, you will make the most vicious serial killer look like Ghandi.

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Atlatlista

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Re: If you could, would choose to live forever?
Reply #19 - May 16^th, 2012, 7:43pm

Quote from Bill Skinner on May 16^th, 2012, 7:08pm:

Not only no, but Hell No! I have already lost way too many friends and family, I have major problems letting people get close to me because they die on me. If I lived for several hundred or even an extra 100 years, I would be barking at the moon mad. That is, if the population around me is lucky, if you loose all human empathy because you can no longer see anyone else as real, you will make the most vicious serial killer look like Ghandi.

Actually, I think that's the definition of the most vicious serial killers - their lack of empathy. I've met people like that, and they didn't need to be immortal to get where they were.

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bigkahuna

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Re: If you could, would choose to live forever?
Reply #20 - May 16^th, 2012, 8:40pm

Quote from Atlatlista on May 16^th, 2012, 1:43pm:

Quote from Mauro Fiorentini on May 16^th, 2012, 10:13am:

You obviously don't live in Italy, which has become a Nation full of old persons.
A generational turnover is the most natural thing and we have to accept this fact with serenity, if we're willing to continue our species.
Greetings,
Mauro.

I disagree. I think generational turnover, and the aging process both represent tremendous losses. I think it would be really cool if I could go talk to somebody in good health with a sound mind who remembered the American Civil War or the Revolution, or the Crusades, or the conquest of Gaul. Those things would be staggeringly cool. These days, you're lucky if you can still talk to someone of sound mind who remembers World War II.

I actually had the very great fortune, as a young lad, to meet the last veteran of the American Civil War. What made it even more interesting was that he could recall meeting a veteran of the American Revolution. That really kind of puts our time on earth in perspective.

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Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

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Mauro Fiorentini

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Re: If you could, would choose to live forever?
Reply #21 - May 16^th, 2012, 9:30pm

I know what you're talking about!
A famous historian who is now in his 70ies, Piero Angela, once told on TV that in his youth he had the chance to meet a veteran of the Italian Independence War (1860). This veteran was the son of another soldier who fought for Napoleon in the early 1800.
The three of them covered 3 centuries: the Napoleonic soldier was born in late 1700, and Piero Angela is still alive. It's a really amazing coincidence!
Greetings,
Mauro.

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Atlatlista

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Re: If you could, would choose to live forever?
Reply #22 - May 16^th, 2012, 11:37pm

Quote from bigkahuna on May 16^th, 2012, 8:40pm:

Quote from Atlatlista on May 16^th, 2012, 1:43pm:

Quote from Mauro Fiorentini on May 16^th, 2012, 10:13am:

You obviously don't live in Italy, which has become a Nation full of old persons.
A generational turnover is the most natural thing and we have to accept this fact with serenity, if we're willing to continue our species.
Greetings,
Mauro.

I disagree. I think generational turnover, and the aging process both represent tremendous losses. I think it would be really cool if I could go talk to somebody in good health with a sound mind who remembered the American Civil War or the Revolution, or the Crusades, or the conquest of Gaul. Those things would be staggeringly cool. These days, you're lucky if you can still talk to someone of sound mind who remembers World War II.

I actually had the very great fortune, as a young lad, to meet the last veteran of the American Civil War. What made it even more interesting was that he could recall meeting a veteran of the American Revolution. That really kind of puts our time on earth in perspective.

How old are you?! Grin

Seriously though, that's incredible, and that's the kind of thing I'm talking about. Yeah, birth rates would plummet if we cured aging, but deaths would still happen from disease and accident and murder and all the rest of it, and those deaths could be replaced with new generations - new generations who would inherit a kind of stability and deep-seated living history that we can't fathom today. If nothing else, it's great fodder for a sci-fi book, but I would love to see it happen. I'd love to be around in a thousand years, still telling the new children that I can remember a time before the internet.

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bigkahuna Interfector Viris Spurii Past Moderator Posts: 3687 Gender:	Re: If you could, would choose to live forever? Reply #23 - May 17^th, 2012, 12:38am At this moment, I'm 63 1/2 LOL. Notice how everybody seems to drop the fraction when they get to be about 15???
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Jabames Interfector Viris Spurii :3 Posts: 1701 Gender:	Re: If you could, would choose to live forever? Reply #24 - May 17^th, 2012, 1:39am No. What if the girl I wanna be with can't be endowed with the powers of immortal life, and I only can? that would be an eternity of loneliness, surrounded by death and everything else facing the world with no one else.
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bigkahuna

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Re: If you could, would choose to live forever?
Reply #25 - May 17^th, 2012, 2:42am

What if, say every hundred years or so, you meet someone who looked and sounded and acted just like that girl you lost x number of years ago. I believe there are only a finite number of genetic combinations and that every couple of generations or so our combinations reappear. They are not us of course, but they look like us. You could hook up again.

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Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

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Jabames Interfector Viris Spurii :3 Posts: 1701 Gender:	Re: If you could, would choose to live forever? Reply #26 - May 17^th, 2012, 3:13am haha sounds good
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Mauro Fiorentini

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Re: If you could, would choose to live forever?
Reply #27 - May 17^th, 2012, 6:44am

I think that being immortal would create big troubles with jobs, taxes, retirements, technology and all.
Here in Italy, Govt. recently increased the retiring age: you now have to work until you're 67 (65 if you're a lady). What if you're immortal? An endless life dedicate to work? And in which conditions?
I mean if you're battered at 67 (not you Mister Walker!), how will you be at 243? At 961? At 1582??? Would you trust a 2000 years old man to drive a train?
Let's face it, humans have a deadline, it's what makes life worth living, in my opinion.
Greetings,
Mauro.

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Atlatlista

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Re: If you could, would choose to live forever?
Reply #28 - May 17^th, 2012, 9:28am

Quote from bigkahuna on May 17^th, 2012, 2:42am:

What if, say every hundred years or so, you meet someone who looked and sounded and acted just like that girl you lost x number of years ago. I believe there are only a finite number of genetic combinations and that every couple of generations or so our combinations reappear. They are not us of course, but they look like us. You could hook up again.

You're not far off on that. My mom's dad died of polio just before she was born, so I never met him obviously. My grandmother gave us a picture of him a few years back, when he was about 20-ish in the Navy in WWII. At that time, my younger brother was about 20-ish and in the army. When I was first shown the picture, I thought it was a prank, and that my brother had put on a navy uniform to get an old-time photo taken. It took a lot of convincing to make me believe it was actually my grandfather, because they look IDENTICAL. It was really weird to see.

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Bill Skinner Slinging.org Moderator Forum Moderator Slinging Rocks! Posts: 1358	Re: If you could, would choose to live forever? Reply #29 - May 17^th, 2012, 10:03am A total lack of empathy in an imortal? Eventually, everybody dies, even if they don't get stopped. Who said birth rates would plumment? Tell me one time in history when they did.
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Poll
Question: If you could, would you choose to live forever?
Yes - Explain your answer No - Explain your answer « Created by: Pikåru on: May 16^th, 2012, 12:29am »