To those of you saying you don't fear death: I'm jealous. I'm really jealous. I know there's no point or logic in being terrified by it, but I can't change it. It's terrified me since I was a child, screaming out to my mum every night because I couldn't stop thinking about it. Give me your ability to think about it without your soul collapsing inside you. I want it.

Don't worry, Max. I'll still remember you after you're gone.

Not if I take you with me.

I'm in the same boat. When I really think about death, it frightens me.
I've managed to teach myself to just be apathetic about it. I used to think about it frequently when I was coping with depression. In those days, I used it as a legitimization to do nothing to improve. Now it's the other way around. Death is inevitable, so you should make the most out of life while you can and not dwell on it.

If you could grasp eternal life would you, though?

I most certainly would, since I became agnostic, I have serious doubts as to the existence of an afterlife, of course, and as such, I would happily live forever, so long as I had the ability to get off Earth if I so wanted to. To travel, and see the Universe. Like a cosmic Ulysses.

Yeah, I'd pick eternal life as long as a) I could be assured a decent quality of life, good bodily health, good mental health, and none of this extreme aging crap, and b) I could choose to end my life when I wanted to. I'd be totally all over that.

I guess.
I don't really think about things on such a cosmic scale, especially when there's so much shit in my own insignificant existence I have yet to conquer. I'd much prefer if my lifespan was just longer, as opposed to living for eternity.

250-300 years of life on this planet would, for me at least, provide greater insurance that I wouldn't have any regrets when I met my end. Of course, that's only if I was progressing at the same pace as an average human; done with school by your 20's, career by 30's, etc. Otherwise you're just biding your time for twice as long, and that would be pointless.

I've always like the idea that you should be in charge of how and when you die. I mean, I didn't get to choose to be born, so I feel like somebody owes me.

Eternal life would be a wish come true if it would be as Wil described. Hey, maybe that'll be possible in the future.

Certain experimental gene therapies that can expand lifespan already exist. Even if eternal, or even significantly expanded life became possible, it would have to be forbidden to all but a very select few as our civilization's stability kind of depends on the birth/death rate being relatively balanced.

But they aren't. The birth rate's been far higher for a long time, and our civilization has become significantly less stable as a result.

So making the death rate even lower is going to be fine because...

The good news is that rats can be genetically bred to have cells that don't die, making them immune to aging.

The bad news is that the life/death cycle of a cell is to protect the organism from cells living too long, acquiring complications and becoming cancerous.

So the rats were theoretically immortal, but tragicially all died of cancer of everything.

I'm not sure whether I'd want to be immortal or not. If space travel was advanced enough to be able to explore the stars, then like Scrabtrapman I'd want to travel through space. I don't think I'd be able to live on Earth for a huge period of time, more than 80 years would probably drive me nuts.

Earth has more than one man can explore in several lifetimes. I can't comprehend how you could get sick of it that quickly, Jordan.

My point exactly...

Yeh, I mean, I might want to leave the Earth after a thousand years or so, but only if I can return at a later date.

Yet you implied the opposite in support of your last point.

Whatevs. It's just one of those wacky language things.

I'll come to your funeral. I'll also make up a fascinating double life for you.

I'll pick up Spiderman so he can come too.

No I didn't. I stated that the stability of our civilization is hinged on a balanced birth/death rate. I never said that it is currently stable. It's not, which lends even more credence to my point that lowering the death rate would be a bad bad thing...

Unless some kind of "swap your fertility for immortality" deal is set up. Of course, dodgy underground places would probably start doing it illegally for cash.

That could work, but only if the birth/death rates evened out first.

Oh, so you mean Scientology, but for real.

"Deliberately said" and "Inadvertently implied" are two very different things.

Now, this isn't very helpful, so I'll be quiet.

I might have exaggerated a little there, give it maybe a hundred to a hundred and fifty years. If I lived eternally, I think I'd grow tired of the ways of humanity. I don't like a lot of people, mostly through stupid reasons, and if I maintained this feeling for a hundred or more years, I'd be pretty damn sick of it. This opinion will most likely change in years to come though. I'm still a kid, I haven't experienced the world yet and haven't been able to form a true opinion about human beings. I still need to appreciate the Earth.

I regret never considering a scientific educational path early on. Lately(meaning the past couple of years) I've been more and more facinated by it, and I've often kicked myself in the butt for not choosing Nanotechnology to study. I believe that nanotechnology combined with biotechnology is the way to prolong life. I'd really want to live longer than the expected 60-80 years that most live to.
I don't believe that it is enough. Once people finally gathered enough knowledge and wisdom over the years, they die... Unable to share more of it with the rest. I find that extremely depressing. I think we at least need elders. If they were good-hearted and fair. Elders that we listen to for inspiration and guidance.


To Wil:
I really don't know how to stop someone from fearing death... I dont remember if there was a time where I feared it. To me it's just inevitable, and I don't see anything wrong with it. I have reasons to believe that minds and consciousness is connected in ways on a very microscopical level, but that's just bullshit pseudo-philosophy so I don't really know in the end :p But I believe that we either continue on in some form after death, or we simply disappear.
It's the disappearing that gets to most people I guess. And that's the fear that most have to conquer. In my mind it's simple: I wont be there to experience not existing. So in the end it doesn't matter. You can't change it(unless you dedicate your life to science), and stressing over things you can't change is pointless. So it's better not to.


Like I said.. what I do fear is pain. Im afraid that whatever comes after will be so incomprehensible that we experience great spiritual pain cos of it.

You can't experience spiritual pain if you have no spirit.

Logic!

Buuut... If we do have one, we will... If we do live on in any shape or form, Im pretty sure we can experience that shape or form's pain. Or at least anything that makes it extremely uncomfortable.

My best bet is nonexistance though. Though if you do look at it logically our uh.... particles live on? :p

It's like Buddhism without the Nirvana or the karma or the reincarnation.

So it's like atheism then.

What is? The particles thing? Im just grabbing for straws :p

Entropy dictates that we all /have/ to die eventually right? I mean, unless you're a certain type of jellyfish. Technically one of the few truly immortal creatures. Any way, surely if our cells kept regenerating so we didn't age, our brains would change to the point we weren't the person we are now.

On a behavioural level you can do that in less than six months, on a physical level your body does that for you in less than seven years.