Comments | quiettiger: Doesn't match up

quiettiger

Doesn't match up

Jul 28, 2009 21:26

Why would anyone be afraid to live forever? The retort usually goes "people say they want to live forever, but they don't think it through." Then they worry about running out of things to do, see and learn ( Read more... )

Comments 4

anivair July 29 2009, 11:13:49 UTC

Hob Gadling came pretty close to ending it, himself. And really, the desire to live forever is about a fear of death, not a desire to experience. My guess is that new experiences are few and far between after a while, especially without a new (older) body to experience them in. A roller coaster is different for me now than it was when I was young. If I had this body forever, it would never be different.

But what's more, without the knowledge of impending death, where is the impetus to act? Often times, people put things off saying they'll get around to them eventually. And when they hit 30 or 40 or 50 they start acting, because they know they only have so long. If there were no upper bound, there would be no limit to how long you could procrastinate.

Maybe some people are geared toward eternal life, but most are not. Most are just lame people.

quiettiger July 29 2009, 20:12:24 UTC

Ultimately, Hob chose not to die. His musings and his grief are the same human experience that any other human faces. He's not the first person to say that loss doesn't get any easier ( ... )

dandelioneater July 30 2009, 12:10:34 UTC

We do have longer lives now than people even just a few centuries ago, life spans change as the world changes, people change. I think more people now would chose to live longer, the world moves faster, there is more to do, or there seems it ( ... )

satansplaything August 4 2009, 02:01:13 UTC

Disclaimer: I can speak only for myself.
I would not want to live forever.
Life is miserable and hard, and while deep in my bones I feel that I do not get to give up, that I am not yet done, that there are things yet for me to accomplish; frankly, this shit sucks. People keep saying it will get easier; that it will get easier in high school,or college,or when you graduate, or when you move out of your parents' place, and none of it's been true. It hasn't gotten easier. It gets harder and scarier and the responsibilities just keep adding up and the days get longer and everything hurts. And it never, ever stops.

I would desperately love a fade to black before a commercial break, but I don't get to stop for any break anytime for a long while yet.
But I can't think of anything more depressing or terrifying than having to live forever.
Yes, I can handle fifty years this way. And yes, I could handle five hundred or five thousand just the same. But I can't come up with any good reasons I should want to.