Say that technology one day allows us the opportunity to truly live forever (barring irreparible injury). Since living forever would make the question of an afterlife rather a moot point, would you actually have a reason to go on living that long? What personality trait, ideal, quest, etc would be reason enough to keep going after milions of years had gone by and you'd experienced everything there was to see and do?

-- Jared Synn (silverarm@hotmail.com), October 09, 2000

Answers

I'm of two minds tonight.

Part of me thinks that since I can hardly get through today, a squintillion tomorrows would hardly be worth it.

But part of me thinks that if I could choose a skill or a trait, and maintain the energy, I could spend eternity on it.

Like so many things, I can hardly choose. My first thought is language: learn every language that interests me, read its literature, understand its evolution. I could spend millennia on that.

My second thought is that it would seriously rock to set off on some path of enlightenment and reach the end. With unlimited time, I'm sure I could come to some place where petty irritants of today actually teach me something ... or at least don't get right up my nose.

Then I'd teach it to other people, and spread The Way of Suriel.

Woo? You betcha.

-- suriel (suriel@darktapestry.com), October 10, 2000.

Yes, though some are now plotting my death or discomfort at the very least, I could do it. My thingummy that would keep me going would be just to learn everything I could possibly learn, glass blowing (no pervy comments here please), marine biology, captain a cruise ship, paint the big paintings, read all the books I could. Ya know, do all the things I dont have time for now, as I watch my skin graying and saying to myself "Ive got to make time"

-- dot (dotcartman@yahoo.com), October 10, 2000.

I have a very interesting question about this subject actually! If the technology got that advanced that you could live forever, would your religious beliefs or even beliefs about the afterlife that you hold so close to you still be valid? Or would they disappear? If we didn't have to die, we wouldn't need to care about what will happen to our souls after we die, would we?

Just a thought.

-- Sage Michaels (Sage@13dreams.com), October 10, 2000.

There is no doubt in my mind that I could keep myself happily content for eternity. I wouldn't have to worry about what to keep myself occupied with either, since people are continuously creating new ideas (and more importantly, time wasting gizmos and games) that I would like to explore more thoroughly, but simply don't have the time. It's not a matter of what one thing will keep me busy through the ages, but whether or not I can keep up with all the advances. There will be no end of new experiences, until we manage to exploit every last resource available to us and committ planetary genocide on every species on the planet.

-- silence (silence@g0th.net), October 10, 2000.