Simple question,
Would you rather know all the mysteries of the universe and be killed immediately upon finding out? Or would you rather live at your present state for all eternity (ie. you don't age, etc) and never find the ultimate answers?
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Simple question,
Would you rather know all the mysteries of the universe and be killed immediately upon finding out? Or would you rather live at your present state for all eternity (ie. you don't age, etc) and never find the ultimate answers?
Living forever in the same place sucks anyway, forever is a pretty long time :shock: So I would rather die, even if I didn't know the ultimate answers. And I suppose it also depends if you assume there is an afterlife or not.
i would rather know the truth/meaning of life and die instantly than live forever, for the same reasons as lucius
Well, I don't want to live forever nor do I want to know the ultimate answer (assuming it's not 42 as I already know that) and die because I still have my life ahead. Eternity is quite a long time as Lucius noted. If I really had to make that desicion it'd drive me crazy because I couldn't decide. Maybe I could choose the truth and die when I'm very very old.
I would definitely choose to live forever and not know the answers. This is because of two reasons:
1. I don't believe in an afterlife, so this would be the perfect opportunity to live forever...besides I love my life and am easily amused.
2. If I lived forever chances are I might end up finding out the answers anyways. ;)
neither simpliy do what i doo now and grow old
Yea, live forever and figure out the answer on your own. Then you will have both.
I would choose to live forever. It would be amazing to see the future. Being around for the Earth's ultimate destruction by the Sun, is something i wouldn't want to miss.
"Speak for yourself Sir. I plan to live forever" Will Riker
I figure boredom is rooted in survival, so being eternal would grant no boredom.
Then again, what happens after you die...after knowing the truth? What's the point of getting the answers and then immediately not have the consciousness to digest, reflect, or make anything meaningful of it? If you do have afterlife, then it's really living "forever."
Both choices are infinitely as good or bad as the other, really...
Ill take answers over living never to find out
"Faith is not believing without seeing, it is seeing and having to believe as if never having seen".
That is the reality of it.
To live forever in ignorance would probably be quite blissful to an extent, boring in some parts, until you found new things to occupy yourself with.
To suddenly be aware of all the answers to all the questions you ever asked and wondered about before death would be an imbalance of knowledge gathering, however, it would not completely destroy the quality of life, or lives, but [it would] quite considerably.
Therefore, I would choose eternal ignorance. http://img14.echo.cx/img14/4987/194vv.gif
Some interesting responses. That was a question that an agnostic friend of mine posed to me the other day and I was fascinated with.
I for one would choose to know everything and die. But with my luck, I would probably find out that Christianity is all true and I would go to hell. :shock:
Not so fast. You have to 'live for all eternity without knowing the answers\". :PQuote:
Originally posted by Lucius+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Lucius)</div>Well I would hope that you would factor your personal beliefs into your response.Quote:
And I suppose it also depends if you assume there is an afterlife or not.[/b]
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2. If I lived forever chances are I might end up finding out the answers anyways.
But then you have to sit there alone in the dark for all eternity.Quote:
Originally posted by Kula
Being around for the Earth's ultimate destruction by the Sun, is something i wouldn't want to miss.
I would personally get bored with humanity pretty quick. Watching as we continue to destroy ourselves and fight endlessly over the same dumb shit would get pretty old pretty quick. Furthermore, I already beleive that existence is pointless, so I'd rather find out what it's all about and get it over with already.
Interesting question.
Although I believe we are one mind having a subjective experience in a holographic matrix, it would be incredibly selfish to take the prize and run. I'd rather stay for the sake of the ones I love.
About the second option, does immortality come with not aging? Or would I still be able to put a bullet through my head and not live to tell what it feels like? :-P
:PQuote:
Originally posted by Awaken+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Awaken)</div>Ummm...Quote:
About the second option, does immortality come with not aging? Or would I still be able to put a bullet through my head and not live to tell what it feels like? :-P[/b]
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(ie. you don't age, etc)
Man, this question reminds me of a book I've read called "Time Enough for Love" by Robert Heinlan....
Anyway, I'd most likely choose to live in ignorance forever, because I'm sure there are so many books I could read in an eternity, and so many I could write. Think of how well someone could write after a million years! Anyway, if the stipulation was that were immortal but not invincible, than I could commit suicide, and if I couldn't I'm sure I'd find some way to entertain myself. Anyway, if this option was open to everyone to make, than immortlity would be prevailant....Other technologies would be deveoped such as space travel......
Just a thought...
I understand that I wouldn't age, but the question is, would I still be able to die through other means?Quote:
Originally posted by Rakkantekimusouka
Ummm... *
:P
Logic says no but I wanna be sure! This is a life or death decision here! ;)
If immortality came as well I would choose it, the possibility that life does end would be enough for me to choose the second option.
If it didn't it would be a tough decision. I could live to be 1,000 or I could live to be 30.
It also depends on whether death means an end to existance, or the afterlife.
That's an interesting thought...I wouldnt mind taking a spin around the universe to check the place out.Quote:
Originally posted by Awaken+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Awaken)</div>Nope, can't die. For example, if you tried to shoot yourself in the head, you would miss or the trigger would get stuck.Quote:
I understand that I wouldn't age, but the question is, would I still be able to die through other means?[/b]
Of course it depends on that, that's what makes the question so tricky. As a theist do you want to risk ending your existence? As an atheist do you want to risk going to hell? As an agnostic do you want to risk either?Quote:
Originally posted by Belisarius@
It also depends on whether death means an end to existance, or the afterlife.
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Other technologies would be deveoped such as space travel......
One point that hasn't really been touched on is what you would do with the information should you choose death. Many people would say that the only value that knowledge holds comes in the act of sharing it with somebody else....just a thought.
It also depends on how you aquire this knowledge. It is the learning process itself that is just as important as the actual answers (the path and how its walked being more important than the finish line). Would it be like *poof* you know everything..I think that would be rather overwhelming and you would go crazy :shock: Unless you are like send to the school of universal wisdom or something and everything gets taught to you :lol: Or maybe it would like the matrix..they never seemed bothered by getting stuff uploaded into their heads :o
i won't want either of them:
-why would you want to know answers and then die instantly?
then you wouldn't know anything eventually...
-why would you want to live forever? what if it will become boring?
or what if the universe will be destroyed or something, then you're still alive, THEN
WHAT?
:hrm: :doh:
Well, I would love to have that information, but I don't know what the point would be of me having it, if I would only die. I couldn't do anything about it, and if I was wrong about the whole christianity thing, I would be so screwed. I mean, having the knowledge is only viable if you can use it. Even an eternity in ignorance would be a well spent one, because all sorts of other knowledge would be open to you. As I've said before, we're bound to develop space travel at one point or another in humanity's existance, so when this world is destroyed or too over populated, we could just go to another planet. I don't think I'd get too bored during my eternal existance, because I think humanity will be around for quite some time. I'd love to witness it's development.
I would definitely choose life. Just think of the experiences you could have! I could easily perfect Lucid Dreaming if I wanted to escape the waking life. Think of it man!
Well, they say ignorance is bliss...but i'd rather know the truth and die when my time comes, rather than live forever and risk being at the behest of some crazy universal cult that's feeding me lies!
I think living forever would be over rated...look at that film Highlander, he lived forever, yet he loved and he always lost his wife...i'm not sure how many times i could stick losing someone i loved if i lived forever...and what's the point of living forever, if you can't share it with someone?
At least by sharing mortality with someone, you can make the most of what you have, and never take it for granted.
niceQuote:
Originally posted by InTheMoment
2. If I lived forever chances are I might end up finding out the answers anyways. * ;)
tough question. i don't have an answer.
I would probably chose to live forever. For example, I would be able to master all of the shit that I want, instead of having one lifetime and one profession.
Sometimes I sit there and say, "Christ. I'm probably only going to be very proficient in a single subject, and even then I won't be the best..."
In a way, I could be changing factor to the world--excel in arts, sciences, mathematics, etc, and try to move new ideas around.
Sure I would never die, and never get the answers, but I find it hard to imagine it getting ridiculously boring--after all, a day is a very long time as it is. And, like a user said before, space travel would be something to look foward to as well (even if it does take a few hundred to get things in true motion).
Then, to be honest, there's a fear factor in all of this too. I'll bet you anything that most of you wouldn't want to die on the spot right there. Even as great as human curiousity is, there's a difference between, "Open the box and get scolded" and "Open the box and get killed." In a way, the truths of the universe are this box--they are concept and idea by language, but we do not the answers they represent.
i think i'm with you stalin. there's so much in life that i want to accomplish, but i realize that there's far too little time for me to ever complete all these goals of mine. so i'm sure i could keep myself busy. however, forever is a long time, eventually i'll run out of things to try, and when that time comes i'll be stranded. hopefully if i live forever some of my big questions will be answered also.
well thats easy live forever
come on
think of
all the
things
you
could
do if
you
cant
die.
1. bungji jumping with no cord
2.sky dive with no parachuit
3.rob banks and not die from bullits
4. go all crazy and comando
5.experiance what it would be like to stand next to an a bomb when it goes off
6. walk at the bottom of the sea
7. get it on with the girl next door without worring about the father and his shotgun and dogs
8. .. ok you cant age right so pick the right time for the agrement
9. kill bush and take over the world then put these plans in to evect thttp://www.dreamviews.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15692&highlight=
10.watch the world end
11. then move off in to space and see whats there.
12 continute the above untill you find a new planet with inhabitants
13 kill the leader and take over the world and put the plans above in to effect
14 follow steps 10- 15 again
15 hope that the sexy girl next door also chose to live forever
well unfortunately you'd run out of things to do eventually. forever never ends.
i'm still on your side though, it's better than death (with no afterlife atleast).
What happens when the sun dies or if the earth gets 'destroyed' from a great disaster or something? Would you still be there just floating around?
I'd choose to live forever, you wouldn't have to get a job, you could jump out of school and just do whatever you want to do - for all eternity :)
And what good are the answers if you don't have time to think about them and what they mean before you die?
It would be the enormous satisfaction for the people who want to know everything about the world and how things work. Ever heard of Faust?Quote:
Originally posted by ronso
And what good are the answers if you don't have time to think about them and what they mean before you die?
Knowing the deepest "mysteries" of the universe, is the complete opposite of dying.
Living in the way we do now makes living for eternity impossible, since it is the very thing that slowly kills us.
Hence, the question isn't stupid, but it's contradictory and impossible to answer..
I have a feeling a lot of people who picked live forever so they could do all kinds of stuff might really end up just sitting around forever. If you don't do anything in your own life time, living longer isn't going to make you any less lazy.
Not if you die right away, and that's what the original post was about.Quote:
Originally posted by Hate
It would be the enormous satisfaction for the people who want to know everything about the world and how things work. Ever heard of Faust?
It's still the satisfaction of the extravagant urge to know the answers. The real value of the knowledge for a faustic person isn't the ability to achieve anything with it. The only value is the knowledge itself. All in all we seek satisfaction, and you can't live a happy life if you know you could have achieved satisfaction but chose not to. That's why they would choose knowing the truth and dying instead of living forever.Quote:
Originally posted by ronso
Not if you die right away, and that's what the original post was about.
I'd probably go for "live forever". Knowing the answers to everything would be wonderful, but if I'm killed a moment later I'm not going to get alot of time to be sastified by it. Living forever, on the other hand, means I could have a lie in forever. That is my idea of heaven.
Guess you're right ;)Quote:
Originally posted by Hate
It's still the satisfaction of the extravagant urge to know the answers. The real value of the knowledge for a faustic person isn't the ability to achieve anything with it. The only value is the knowledge itself. All in all we seek satisfaction, and you can't live a happy life if you know you could have achieved satisfaction but chose not to. That's why they would choose knowing the truth and dying instead of living forever.
But I'd still go with live forever, the questions are 75,3% of the experience!
Immortality has always seemed like more of a curse than a blessing in my opinion -- at least a static immortality. If you could live as long as you wanted and then end it when you chose, that's one thing. Making a decision at one point in a mortal life and being instantaneously transformed into something eternally immortal is entirely different. You can't predict the future. What if the world becomes a place in which you'd really rather not live? There is such faith in humanity's "technological destiny" here. What if humanity destroys itself before we develop practical long-distance space travel and you, an immortal, are left to walk the desolate ravages of a destroyed planet for four billion years until the sun goes red giant, swallows the solar system up the the orbit of mars and you have to float around in there as helium is gradually consumed and converted and the sun moves down the periodic table until it can no longer fuse the heavy elements and goes dark. And there you are. On a dead star. Forever.
Maybe that's a bit bleak, but the point is that there is absolutely no guarantee that once you choose to live forever, you will want to continue living forever. To make that decision, to choose a stagnate eternity, yourself never changing, never aging, destined to never discover the answers to the questions that have motivated humanity since the dawn of our species -- what sort of eternity is that? No, I'd take the answers and then take my chances with the hereafter. Better to satisfy intellectual curiosity and embrace the unknown than choose ignorance in the unknown eternity.
Where is your sense of fun :P
Vaporized when the last planet I was on got swallowed by a red giant. :whyme:
Both of those choices seem proposturous really.Quote:
Originally posted by bradybaker
Simple question,
Would you rather know all the mysteries of the universe and be killed immediately upon finding out? Or would you rather live at your present state for all eternity (ie. you don't age, etc) and never find the ultimate answers?
You should of seen it coming.Quote:
Originally posted by Peregrinus
Vaporized when the last planet I was on got swallowed by a red giant. :whyme:
That's the fun of hypothetical questions.Quote:
Originally posted by Lamminated Buddha
Both of those choices seem proposturous really.
Why wouldn't you want to seek the truth? And don't worry about death, it shouldn't be viewed in a negative light, it's a very positive experience for most beings.
Living forever..... would you like to be stuck in a dream? After a while you may begin to see it as the ultimate reality, and forget where you actually are. Where you came from. The only reason you'd wish to remain in a dream would be because you had found a means of leaving it, and wanted to help others do the same. Bring them to a higher level of reality....
.... which ultimately isn't true either.
Well-said, and I agree, there is no objective truth in the vibrational state :)
Unfortunately, omniscience was not part of the bargain. Probably written in small print the contract stated: "Upon conference of immortality, all rights to the answers to life, the universe, and everything will be forfeited. Omniscience, omnipotence, and any other omni- virtue are also forfeited under the assumption that such attributes would make eternity far too pleasant and easy to endure."Quote:
Originally posted by Kaniaz
You should of seen it coming.
And contrary to what Mr. Adams would have one believe, the electronic thumb has a very short range, astronomically speaking. Pretty useless, really. People don't stop anymore, either. Just cruise on by. Rough times, you know. Everyone's suspicious.
I don't think that you need to be omniscient to know when a giant sun is about to blow up in your face (heh). :PQuote:
Originally posted by Peregrinus
Unfortunately, omniscience was not part of the bargain. Probably written in small print the contract stated: \"Upon conference of immortality, all rights to the answers to life, the universe, and everything will be forfeited. Omniscience, omnipotence, and any other omni- virtue are also forfeited under the assumption that such attributes would make eternity far too pleasant and easy to endure.\"
Still, I really expect humans would of made some sort of fabulous spaceship that you could go on. I guess it's all a "what if" thing.
What if the sun blows up and humans haven't got any route to escape? What if the answers turn out to be just "god did it all" or something equally unsastifying, and you just die? You could say "at least I'd have the answers". Well, at least I'd have immortality. I figure the two balance out, except I'd just prefer to go with the one that has less of an uncertanity element to it.
At least with becoming immortal, you can make some very likely guesses as to what it would be like. If you chose the answers, you haven't really got any idea what they're going to be (if you do/did, I think that would make the answers a bit less sastifying). But that's just how I see it.
Well, sometimes you tend to sort of get caught up in things and the reduced solar luminosity, gradual shift toward lower-energy output wavelengths, and swollen solar diameter hints of impending doom just don't register. Especially on a low technology planet. With agriculture. Very interesting agriculture. Still have memory problems from that... Youthful indiscretion, you know?Quote:
Originally posted by Kaniaz
I don't think that you need to be omniscient to know when a giant sun is about to blow up in your face (heh). :P
I guess I'd just prefer the satisfaction of intellectual curiosity to an eternity of ignorance, even if in that ignorance, one is able to experience many beautiful and horrible things. Honestly, I think I'd just get tired of living-- watching everyone you care about grow, atrophy and perish while you remain eternally the same, seeing everything you work for bloom and die, a fleeting burst of color flashing brilliantly in the jumbled darkness before once again being consumed by the emptiness of infinite possibilities and an eternity of unspent time, watching everything move forward except you, time sweeping it all along like leaves atop a stream. Except you. You stand like a boulder, always an observer, as a world of experience flitters by.Quote:
What if the sun blows up and humans haven't got any route to escape? What if the answers turn out to be just \"god did it all\" or something equally unsastifying, and you just die? You could say \"at least I'd have the answers\". Well, at least I'd have immortality. I figure the two balance out, except I'd just prefer to go with the one that has less of an uncertanity element to it.
At least with becoming immortal, you can make some very likely guesses as to what it would be like. If you chose the answers, you haven't really got any idea what they're going to be (if you do/did, I think that would make the answers a bit less sastifying). But that's just how I see it.[/b]
This is my own personally philosophy, but what is the purpose of life if not to cherish every moment because it is fleeting, to know how precious every sight, every sound, every sweet and tangy and absolutely repulsive taste, every effervescent scent that transports one back to memories thought long ago lost, every timid touch and passionate embrace is, to know and understand and accept how wonderful and precious all of that is because it must end. Life and mortality are experiences of change and growth. Why would you let greed and fear of what lies beyond transform it into something less? Just my opinion.
I'm too lazy to read the whole thread so I don't know if this was already said.
I think that if you became conscious to the truth and all the secrets of the universe you would probably not worry about death or this earthly realm. You would be enlightened so a body and this realm would no longer be necessary.
Peace Sensi.
Here's an interesting question reguarding this topic:
How could any being possibly guaruntee that these answers were in fact the truth?
It doesn't seem to me that there would be any situation possible where this choice could be guaranteed to be real. This just furthers the case for taking immortality, even if that isn't guaranteed either.
Well, if you take the Truth option and are told that the true nature of the universe is an ice cream parlor with worlds floating like Dippin' Dots in translucent vases and when you die, you get a seat at the fountain, yet upon immediate termination from your mortal coil, find yourself in the brick oven of an Italian pizzeria, you'll know you were gypped.Quote:
Originally posted by Belisarius
How could any being possibly guaruntee that these answers were in fact the truth?
And in any case, this was merely a hypothetical question. The point is to weigh the relative value and benefits of an eternity of ignorance versus knowledge of universal truths followed immediately by death -- not to discuss which sorts of peddlers in immortality and Truth are trustworthy and which are not.
You never know when somebody will put you against gunpoint and say, I have the truth, you have these choices....
Like, some guy who wants 15 minutes of fame will think of this scheme, read a book out of the philosophy section in Borders, think he has this truth, and challenge somebody. Whatever the outcome of his crazy criminal intention, he will still be famous, and the victim will rest knowing what he really values in life. Hot damn, that is sweet!
Don't get any ideas AirRick.
What I'm saying is that knowledge of the truth isn't really possible, and so even if you believed that you knew the truth, you don't necessarily know it, and you might never find out.
How so?Quote:
Originally posted by Belisarius
What I'm saying is that knowledge of the truth isn't really possible,
I saw that coming... Discuss the truth matter there, so we'll have a whole thread for an interesting topic like it. :)
I'd rather not know, and live forever. Forever is an infinit amount of time, therefore you would eventually find out the ultimate answers through technological advances in 'forever'. :)
i would still love to live for ever as long as the girl next door does too ;)
Upon further reflection, not only would I take the answers over immortality, I would endure torture to get those answers.