There’s one major upside to getting older: It beats the alternative. Ever since my return from Utah, I’ve been plagued by repeated reminders that I’m not 17 anymore, each of which spirals into the next like a perfect storm of irritation, reminding me of Mike Myers as ‘Middle-Aged Man’ on Saturday Night Live. Sure, people say 43 is the new 25, but all those people are themselves 43, so you can’t listen to anything those lunatics say. And while I can still stay up til 1 a.m. playing D&D with my friends, I don’t bounce back so quickly. Still, it’s fun to have the wisdom that comes with experience, reminding people of previous female Thors or the last time Captain America was African-American in the hopes that they’ll stop plotzing, which raises an interesting Friday query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) always hears people ask the question, but really wants to know the answer: Were it possible, would you want to live forever?
6 Comments
Forever is a long time. What kind of immortality are we talking about here? Like, could I survive an asteroid impact, and not need food, air or water? Or more Lazarus Long style from The Heinlein books?
In any case, I would probably choose to live forever. Oh the things you would see before going completely insane!
I guess it depends on how I age, right? I am in my mid-thirties right now. If I aged to 45 or 50 and maintained then I would say go for it. There are a lot of people who live into their late 90s and they are just (and I’m sorry for this phrasing) bodies that haven’t died. What is the point of living forever if I am not enjoying myself? If my best friend is gone (read as Dog) and if I’m physically unable to hold my girlfriend’s hand, then what’s the point?
Wait, can I be a robot? Because everything changes if I get to be a robot.
To be perfectly honest, immortality is actually one of my greatest fears. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t mind an extended life if there was a way it could eventually end, but real immortality? No thank you.
This actually surprises quite a few of my friends since I love vampires, “Doctor Who” and “Highlander” and all that and would love to be one of these supernatural beings/time lady/etc., but the truth is I can barely handle living THIS life and I’m only 34. It has been hard enough losing the people I care about (and even a few I didn’t) as often as I have, and I know that I could never handle it forever.
So unless there is a way I could opt out at some point, I’ll pass at immortality and enjoy my few short years I have here.
Nah, I don’t even understand why anyone would want such a thing. We all should aim to be a healthy and useful part of the vital flow, not to stay living forever.
Yes, provided that I didn’t have to remain in the same body forever, if I could change and evolve as time goes by, yeah sure.
Forever would just be too long to live. I hope to live a life in which I had enough time to do all the things I’d liked to do and read all the comics I’d like to read. That life would likely have to be longer than that life I shall live, but who knows. The ability to live forever seems like a fantastic gift to have, but it can become a curse just as quickly. What I would like is to be able to forever, but also being able to end that life whenever I’d like.