maxbarry.com
Thu 21
Sep
2006

In defense of living

Max I don’t want to die.

This means I’m immature. At least, according to the world’s great thinkers. If we’re to call ourselves mature, intelligent adults, apparently we must each come to terms with the things we cannot change in life, and one of these is that it must inevitably end. If you refuse to accept this, it’s a sign that you are still in a child-like state.

But come on. Isn’t the only reason that we die because we haven’t got the technology right yet? I once heard an Australian scientist, Dr. Kruszelnicki, say that the current generation was probably going to be the last to die or the first to live forever. I tell you what, if I miss the immortal generation by a few years, I’ll be pissed.

I don’t get why more people aren’t upset about this. I mean, I’ve read angry letters to the editor about cabbages. Where’s the outrage about the inevitability of death? Seriously, which offends you more: petrol prices, or the idea that one day people will either burn your body or bury it?

Okay, there’s the afterlife argument. I’m not convinced. First, even if you buy the idea that after you die, you go to a better place, that strikes me as a little too much like, “Hey guys, let’s ditch this party; I heard that other one’s way better!” I’m sorry, but I’m enjoying this party. I don’t want to travel halfway across the city only to discover that all the cool people already left or we got the address wrong or the driver decides it’s kind of late so maybe we should just go home. “Let’s go to the other party” never works, and I don’t see why it should start working just because I’m dead.

Nope, I want to stay here. It’s not because I have a phobia about death. Actually, I don’t see how you can have a phobia about death, because a phobia is an “irrational fear,” and I can’t think of anything more rational to be frightened of than imminent nonexistence. But no, it’s not that I’m scared, exactly. It’s that I think it stinks.

Can someone do something about that, please?

Comments

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Jamie (#111)

Location: Auckland
Quote: "Anyone still spelling "internet" with a capital "I" is probably struggling with the complexities of their new-fangled electric typewriter."
Posted: 6398 days ago

Wow - who'd want to be the last person to die once scientists perfect immortality?

Imagine - you get to heaven (or hell, depending on your previous choices), and for the rest of eternity, everyone else bags on you as the 'new guy'.

Uncle Wiggles (#1091)

Location: Vancouver, BC
Quote: "In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move."
Posted: 6398 days ago

Right on.
I want to live forever too. (so far so good)

Yenzo (#829)

Location: Secret underwater pyramid base in the Pacific
Quote: "In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe (Carl Sagan)"
Posted: 6397 days ago

Wouldn't that kinda... overcrowd earth? I mean, even more than now?

Machine Man subscriber k (#650)

Location: NM
Posted: 6397 days ago

Dude, who says you cant live forever?

but this all depends on your definition of dead...

We worked this guy a few months ago who was in asystole (flatlined)when we rolled up on him. His feet were getting cold and stiff. Classic DOA. We were kinda bored that afternoon so I turned the gain up on the monitor, ran a strip of "fine V-fib", zapped him until he had burns under the defib pads, pushed a few rounds of ACLS drugs and after that didnt work our paramedic called for 10 miligrams of epinephrine 1:10,000 IV slam. "kevin this much epi would start pulses on a steak"

After about 45 seconds of perfect rib shattering CPR we had a palpable brachial pulse...

To this day he is still legally "alive" in lubbock texas breathing through an endotrachial tube and being fed intraveniously. He maintains a heart rate of 86 and a blood pressure of 120/60.

Just keep a pair of butcher shop medics around and we'll keep ya kickin ;)

Chris (#816)

Location: Quebec, Canada
Posted: 6397 days ago

Done. Max Barry, you are now immortal. However, if you want to retain your dashing good looks as you age, you'll have to ask Alex Chiu about his Gorgeouspil.

Matt (#808)

Location: AZ
Quote: "The only 3 books I've read in the last few years have been from the Barry Collection"
Posted: 6397 days ago

I agree with you Max. You definitely aren't going to a "better place," people just use that as a weapon against the fear of death. I hope they get the meds right before I die so I can live long :)

John Doe (#797)

Location: Live from Omicron Persei 8
Quote: "You're just jealous because the little voices only talk to me."
Posted: 6397 days ago

I've already come to terms with my mortality. By which I don't mean that I accept it.

I'm in my twenties, and I've given a lot of thought to how I would handle my mortality if I had to (I'm perfectly healthy right now, it was just an exercise in personal growth), but knowing that I'd be okay with it if it happened, and actually not putting up a fight are two completely different things in my mind.

You see, before our generation, there wasn't really any hope of averting death (less you consider religion), but now it's becoming increasingly probable for human beings to be able to extend their life even within my generation.

I'm going to use every resource in the book before succumbing to non-existence, whether it be cryogenics as a last resort, organ cloning as a way to prolong life, or nanorobotics for all it's worth.

So the whole concept of 'life must inevitably end' is flawed to begin with, and would be a very shaky foundation to build upon. Don't get me wrong, thinking about death can be a good thing every now and then. You can still die at any time (whether accidental or intentional), and it can be rewarding to think about the kind of person you want to be when you die. But thinking that you have no choice *but* to die seems like a very disempowering belief to me. Maybe I'm wrong. Death does seem to play a purpose in human life. Without death, there might not be any incentive to accomplish anything. We might forever be stuck in that 20ish mentality of "I've got all the time in the world." Who am I to tell. All I know is that's not going to be my case.

Jeffrey (#2286)

Location: Right here
Quote: "Mathematics is a powerful language. Just look at how mathematicians destroyed the housing market."
Posted: 6397 days ago

All hail immortality! Oh and Kevin scares me.

Phill Sacre (#1822)

Location: London, UK
Quote: "Computers are like air conditioners. Both stop working, if you open windows."
Posted: 6397 days ago

This reminds me of the quote: "I'm going to live forever, or die trying!"

Mick (#2190)

Location: East Coast, Australia
Posted: 6397 days ago

I'm working on a novel about a guy who becomes immortal.

He can't stand it.

(His opinion is based on my research into the inevitable consequences of being unable to cark it.)

So... keep that in mind, Maxness. Careful what you wish for.

Sophie (#891)

Location: Devon
Posted: 6397 days ago

"So... keep that in mind, Maxness. Careful what you wish for."
Yes! I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks it might be unbearable to live forever. I don't just mean living for 'a very long time', I could happily live for billions of years, but to live forever and be eternally unable to die just seems a bit intimidating.

Phill Sacre (#1822)

Location: London, UK
Quote: "Computers are like air conditioners. Both stop working, if you open windows."
Posted: 6397 days ago

Apologies for posting again, but the above two comments remind me very much of the character "Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged" from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Google the name if you want more info :-)

Machine Man subscriber Ryan FitzGerald (#736)

Location: Winnipeg, Canada
Quote: "Lying just for the fun of it is either art or pathology."
Posted: 6397 days ago

During a particularly long road trip with my friend's unlikeable girlfriend, we started playing the "If you had a superpower, what would it be" game.

I said I wanted immortality.

My friend's girlfriend was so shocked against my "crime against nature" that they spent the rest of the long weekend arguing and broke up a week later.

This was my gift to the world.

Ryan

Emily (#609)

Location: New York
Quote: "When in doubt, fuck it. When not in doubt, get in doubt!"
Posted: 6397 days ago

THANK YOU.

I've been terrified of death for years, and I continually have to defend myself and it blows my mind. Acceptance is one thing, but I think there's something fundamentally wrong with people who refuse to understand those who don't accept so easily. You have no idea what a relief it is to see everything I've been carrying around in my lonely way put into a concise blog entry.

As for immortality, it would be nice to have that option, but you know... still be able to kick it eventually in case we change our minds/overpopulate the hell out of the planet. Or something.

The important thing is, it should be completely okay to fear the idea of not going on forever, as Rosencrantz puts it, and the few of us who seem to get that need to stick up for ourselves. I'm with you, Max.

Ben Moss (#109)

Location: New York, NY
Posted: 6397 days ago

The thing to realize is that fear of death is something only a living person can have. It sound stupid and obvious at first, but I think there's something more to it.

I suppose it relies on a certain naturalistic view of death, that it's just oblivion and a destruction of the self, but once you're dead, you cease to care about being dead, because you can't care about anything. The whole idea of a dead person 'caring' doesn't even make sense.

So death to me is kinda like climbing up a really tough hill, only to find that when you reach the top, you lose all memory of the entire climb. It sucks while it's happening (getting sick, pain), but in retrospect it never even happened. You can't say the climb was good, you can't say it was bad, the climb is now for all intents and purposes irrelevant, except to some outside observer, but the only observers are people also on that hill, so their memories of it will soon be erased too.

This might strip your life of all sense of meaning though.

Andrew (#2695)

Location: Australia
Posted: 6397 days ago

I see accepting death as being like the world champion of something accepting that someone will eventually be better than them. They know it will happen, but they won´t just give up and stop caring about winning.

"Wouldn't that kinda... overcrowd earth? I mean, even more than now?"
In my opinion, having children is an attempt to live ´forever through them. In a horror story I read, a man chops off his hand on his deathbed and calls upon the devil to let him live forever through his severed hand so he can kill more people. If you think about it, a child is lot like that, except it doesn´t usually go around killing people.

Matthias Truxa (#576)

Location: Germany
Quote: "Nonsens"
Posted: 6397 days ago

Is this your feeling comparable to some kind of panic when you think about how nonexistance really must feel like?
I do share/feel that way since some years ago I recognized there might be the possibility to just be away.
Our inability to image what kind of existance will that be if you are nonexistant is what one panics. You simply can't imaginge emptyness in absolutely no way. Well, the best thing to compare is unconciousness - how do you feel there? right. holding on your thinking does not bring you to another world, it just stops.
but we simply can't tell in what context we are 'running', i.e. what bigger program has launched our existance resp. what the nature of universe is and whether we'll escape from the known world.
all we can do is develop a simulated brain matrix using to transfer our bits of thinking structure on, if its that what you prefer a human being to be.
in greater imagination, where the whole life is a circle of dependencies, you'll be kind of immortal - except of your current conscience / form.
anyways, there is no answer by living longer. what would you like to do in infinite time? leaving the childishness you'll recognize that this won't probably be the solution you'd like. there is just nothing to do with a thinking brain already initialized, so spoken. the true way is to reset it for being able to reconstruct it with newer information.
so your effort must be to not hold your existance, but make permanent influence to the coming - some more good stories and you're on the right way =].

Machine Man subscriber Adam (#24)

Location: Morristown, Indiana
Quote: "Why do I blog? Simple, because Max Barry blogs."
Posted: 6397 days ago

Sorry, Max, you will die eventually. Accept it.

-adam

Machine Man subscriber David (#1456)

Location: Sydney, Australia
Quote: "Why are the pretty ones always insane?"
Posted: 6397 days ago

Yes being really immortal might prove unbearable in the long run, think instead of living as long as you wish. The inevitable flip-side of indefinite life extension is the removal of the taboos against suicide and voluntary euthanasia.

The other issue is of course that even if all disease, aging, etc. causes of death are eliminated there will still be accidental deaths (and murder too presumably). Sooner or later you're going to get hit by a bus, die in a plane crash, fall from a tall building, be consumed by your blazing laptop or piss off one woman too many... I seem to recall reading somewhere that the majority of people would most likely die of accidental causes within about 200 to 300 years if old age and disease were eliminated.

Still, it sure beats living to 70 or 80 and coping with decades of increasing fraility and ill health.

Jane (#321)

Location: Melbourne, Australia
Quote: "Which is worse: Ignorance or apathy? Who knows? Who cares?"
Posted: 6397 days ago

While I do like the idea of immortality in some ways, it depends under what conditions. After watching "The Hunger" (the film) -- where David Bowie's character is a vampire that cannot die, but becomes increasingly more frail and ends up locked in a coffin in an attic -- I came to the conclusion that living forever in those circumstances would be bloody awful. But it would be great to have the option to live as long as I want, without loss of quality of life.

I think what we have is actually a (rational!) fear of dying, rather than death (for reasons explained in Ben Moss' post). I certainly don't like the thought of dying. Especially if it is painful or occurs over a long time. Unfortunately, as with birth, we don't get a choice about how it happens. So I suppose all I can do is try not to think about it; and then once I am in the midst of dying, I will deal with it because I have no choice. How? I plan to eat lots of chocolate when the end is nigh!

Robert Phillips (#2520)

Location: Whitby, Ontario
Quote: "I am not a tree."
Posted: 6397 days ago

Death scares me too, but not nearly as much as immortality. Sure, the idea of living forever seems enticing at first, but I think that after a while life would stop being fun or interesting and I would just want it to end. This would come only after living for quite a bit longer than the current human life expectancy, so I wouldn't have a problem with having my life significantly extended, but immortality would just be painful.

You might think that when the time comes that I'm bored of living I could just kill myself, but I'm not sure if I'm strong enough to do that. Even if I seemed to have absolutely no reason to continue living, I don't know if I would be able to bring myself to end my life entirely of my own volition. It's too final; once you've made that choice, there's no going back. And who's to say that it might not get better soon? I could see myself living hundreds or thousands of years in absolute misery, unable to end it because of the miniscule hope that something might happen to make my life worthwhile again and suicide might not actually be the best course of action.

For the same reason, I actually hope that the technology to make humans immortal is not developed in my lifetime. After all, opting out of immortality is pretty much the same thing as killing yourself. Even believing that living forever would eventually become torture, I don't think I could choose to let myself die if there was another option. I think the best thing is to just die, hopefully after living a long and full life, without having any real choice in the matter.

I will end this comment with a quote from Isaac Asimov: "There is nothing frightening about an eternal dreamless sleep. Surely it is better than eternal torment in Hell and eternal boredom in Heaven."

Queen Eve (#460)

Location: Dimensions at SanguinemDraconis.net
Quote: "Sanity is a gift; given at birth, lessened by maturity, and gone from us by the age of reason. --Kestral Lei"
Posted: 6396 days ago

Some people have a fear of dying. Others a fear of living. The latter would be me.

I dont want to live indefinitely. And I honestly dont see why anyone would want to. Even if the body remains in perfect running condition... the mind and spirit eventually grow tired.

Ever felt bored? Imagine that sense of ennui for months, years, decades... centuries! And I dont think euthanasia would suddenly lose taboo. Death is taboo for most 'civilized' countries now. There would be people who would choose not to take an indefinite spin, and others who wouldnt understand it and become prejudiced against them.
Most of us lack an inner mirror to properly reflect ourselves. Our views of ourself is affected by what view of others have of us. And for anyone who says that isnt true, I must ask you. If the opinions of others dont mean anything, why do mirrors exist?

And Max, I honestly believe that someone your age shouldnt accept death as inevitable. It should be a change in your thinking for late middle-age, early senior at soonest. I believe your thoughts are part of the natural fight-or-flight response. So, its ok to be scared of death at this point in your life. Its natural. Let the acceptance come later, when you have seen your life's goals accomplished and your child(ren) grow, and your body aged, and your mind full of happy memories of all you have seen.

SilverCloud (#2038)

Location: SANTA MONICA ,CA.U.S.A.
Quote: "Fortune Favors the Brave"
Posted: 6396 days ago

It's interesting you should bring up the subject of Death.
I am shattered over the untimely death of Steve Irwin.
And yet, Steve will live forever in our hearts, and in film.
He is a legion in our own time and will continue to live on into the far distant future.
NO WORRIES MATE ...STAY IN THE HERE AND NOW.
Keep writing your wonderful books, have more babies to follow
in your footsteps, and you too will live forever.
Hugs and Kisses, Silver Cloud

Joshua Carrell (#1755)

Location: California
Quote: "Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. --Pablo Picasso"
Posted: 6396 days ago

I personally can't see living forever as that great, there is no way the 401k is gonna last. Doing the 9-5 forever sounds kinda crappy to me. It is nice to know that I can stop working for a decade or so and then just kick it, and leave all my problems to the next generation. Besides if all you don't die, how are my kids gonna get a job. I can't have four kids living in my basement for eternity.
J

Kit (#850)

Location: UK
Posted: 6395 days ago

I don't want to live forever, just until I've mastered every martial art, and everything else on the planet, and made up a few things myself.

I'm guessing this'll take me a few hundred thousand years. We can negotiate on the exact amount of years I get if you like....

Kevin you rule.

Shawna (#2485)

Location: San Francisco, CA
Quote: ""She is a child of ferocious will. She would question the universe if it could answer." - Anon"
Posted: 6394 days ago

Living forever has no appeal for me. As I see it, part of what makes life precious is that it's short and you have to make the most of it. That sounds really quite saccharine, but...I don't know. No afterlife, no immortality. Just take what you get and make the most of it.

I think I've read too many frightening sci-fi short stories about the downsides of immortality. I just don't have a desire for it. Guess I can understand how some would, though.

Eel IzCool (#19)

Location: Hallsville, MO, USA
Quote: "When I read something saying I've not done anything as good as Catch-22 I'm tempted to reply, 'Who has?'"
Posted: 6394 days ago

Kinda like Kit said, I think learning and mastering everything would be an awesome thing to do if you lived for a long time. But I'd really want to live forever. People say it would get boring, but I only think it'd get boring if you were stupid. People say you'd run out of things to do, but no, I disagree. Because I think you can keep making new mathematical thereoms forever, and that'd be a great life. Spend 20 or so years proving the Riemann Hypothesis, and then take a 10 year break partying.

Blair Yacishyn (#1447)

Location: Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada
Quote: "Well, School is hockey since it's never nice to talk about water."
Posted: 6394 days ago

Well I have a slight isssue with immortality, because you see I've been compiling a list of people's graves I want to dance on and if they fail to kick, I'd forever be living with my shattered dreams.

I think what I'm trying to say is inevitably and this is going to seem horrible to some people, but there is a point where I think that inevitably life loses all purpose, some people i think reach this point far earlier than others. Most people, never manage to reach this point, but I think that if immortality existed I think most people would in fact reach this point. How do you bring purpose to an endless span of time? One thing is for certain it would complete change society as we know it. Thiunk how even more heinous a crime like murder would become.

Andrew (#899)

Location: England - 7th State of the EU
Quote: "History never repeats itself; at best it sometimes rhymes - Mark Twain"
Posted: 6392 days ago

Im not actually scared of dying at all, I mean why would I? Even if they do perfect the human genome your still going to die at some point anyway, and the idea that I would oneday, possibly, outlive my kids or grandkids horrifies me. Im more worried about the idea of my parents/grandparents dying as I dont want them to, sure I dont particularly want to die but its inevitable. C'est la vie...
But I understand what you mean about being immature and not accepting reality. George Bernard Shaw once said-

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."

Andrew (#899)

Location: England - 7th State of the EU
Quote: "History never repeats itself; at best it sometimes rhymes - Mark Twain"
Posted: 6392 days ago

actually I just thought of something, already in our society (in Britain) my generation will have to work until were 70, how bloody awful would it be to work forever! It would be the governments perfect solution to have an eternal unageing work force of minions, think of the famines! and the Wars! Im sure a new Hitler would pop up demanding "Lebensraum" for his/her superior race of immortals. What if only an elect get this power? Only available to the disgustingly wealthy while the poor are left to serve and die, a new sort of slave class.
To sort out population control would governments turn to genocide and ethnic clensing, removing the "superfluous" and "expendable" subjects?
Man immortality doesnt bear thinking about, judging from human nature I think immortality would turn into the greatest curse we ever inflicted upon ourselves.

Kinda reminds me of a book by Heinlein called "Lazarus Long" or something, it was quite interesting and a little bizarre when he found out that a fairly large chunk of people he was sleeping with were actually descended from him.

austin (#2462)

Location: rhode island
Quote: "hmmm...bleh..."
Posted: 6392 days ago

Yeah...good luck with that.

Machine Man subscriber David (#1456)

Location: Sydney, Australia
Quote: "Why are the pretty ones always insane?"
Posted: 6391 days ago

Immortality would require many changes, fundamental changes, in the way we live, organise society and govern ourselves (think of GWB, John Howard, Tony Blair, Osama, etc. for two or three _centuries_!) It would require big changes in work, consumerism, culture and religious belief systems. There is simply no way we could remain on Earth alone and live forever (or even a few centuries), having children would not necessarily be a fundamental inalienable right for everyone, the list goes on. But, none of this means it's impossible, or even undesirable, just that life would have to be very different to how we live now. Given all the myriad problems we have now that could be a good thing, a very good thing.

I worry that with our increasing knowledge of biology, the genome, genetic engineering, etc. we may discover how to greatly extend human life before we are able to make the social and political changes that would make it survivable. _That_ would be the real irony--humanity goes extinct because our society can't cope with the changes required for successful immortality... Maybe that's the answer to the Fermi paradox--aliens are not here because civilizations destroy themselves by discovering immortality, and their societies can't cope.

Al (#2419)

Location: Toronto
Quote: "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you."
Posted: 6391 days ago

This maybe short-sighted of me, but I would prefer to live without taxes...

Holangisus (#1628)

Posted: 6391 days ago

I'm not sure what touched this off, but I have a few links that may interest you, if they didn't inspire this post to begin with.

http://www.singinst.org/

http://www.kurzweilai.net/

http://www.nickbostrom.com/fable/dragon.html <-- Navigate up a few directories as well.

Make sure to check out the reading list on the SingInst page, Ray Kurzweil has written some books on the subject as well. And don't worry. Not all of us are resigned to bleak non-existence.

Jamie (#111)

Location: Auckland
Quote: "Anyone still spelling "internet" with a capital "I" is probably struggling with the complexities of their new-fangled electric typewriter."
Posted: 6390 days ago

Adam's comment is short and on-topic. What gives? :)

Tommy Mandel (#2554)

Location: nYc
Quote: ""Hah," she said."
Posted: 6390 days ago

It's natural that the end of life seems unpalatable to you at your current age and situation. A new dad belongs here. When you get to be late 50's (at least in my case,) the prospect isn't so daunting, kind of like all the naps you've ever wished you could take, strung end to end. But if my 85 year old mom is any indication, staying alive becomes more essential, the closer you are to the end. So go figure! (I do like your metaphor about The party across town!)

towr (#1914)

Location: Netherlands
Posted: 6385 days ago

Living forever is overrated.
Consider being put into a blender.. and not dying. Consider the sun going nova, and you being stuck on earth, no way to get off.
Forever is long, and tedious. I don't want to live forever, just go out on my own terms.

Holangisus (#1628)

Posted: 6385 days ago

--Quote--
Consider being put into a blender.. and not dying. Consider the sun going nova, and you being stuck on earth, no way to get off.
--Quote--

I'm sorry, but I feel I have to correct you, as I see this all too often. Eternal life does not mean invulnerability. A person who has gone through a number of oh, say, telomere replacement therapies is not now immune to death. Just because they live longer and perhaps the treatment can be repeated a number of more times without harmful side effects does not mean they can't be killed by the sun 'going nova' or a giant blender, as I know giant blender attacks are on the rise what with all those chopping pheremones being released into the atmosphere recently.
While it might be possible to survive having your meat body chopped up in a blender if you had a nanite enhanced brain, your body would be irrelevant anyway. And let's suppose the sun 'went nova'. Immortality is not a one person venture.
A) Therefore, you would not be the only person to survive. I'm sure that once life extension therapies are developed to stave off all natural causes of death, they won't be restricted to just one person.
B) Once again, you wouldn't be an unmodified human. As you are now, you couldn't survive the sun becoming a supernova. Even a person who had gene therapy to stave off natural aging and disease wouldn't be immune to extremely high doses of radiation and everything else that goes along with a supernova. And I seem to remember something about the earth being engulfed in the expansion to a supernova, or some such.
In short, there is no magic Eternal Life Spring like in Tuck Everlasting. That's the difference between Science and Fiction.

bchamber (#2724)

Posted: 6384 days ago

You know what I fear? Being 90 years old, wearing depends and not able to take care of myself and THEN they figure out how to stop the aging process. Just shoot me please. You can be the age you are forever, yeah, great...

At any rate, you know it would only be for the insanely rich.

Morton Milton (#2728)

Location: Fredericton, NB, Canada
Quote: ""If a man can beat you, walk him." - Satchel Paige"
Posted: 6380 days ago

Seriously though, whenever a scientist says stuff like "we'll be the last generation to die" I can't help but think about flying cars. Not only are they pure fantasy, but they are also unnecessary.

Just cure cancer, jerks, so I can die of something less painful and I'll be satisfied.

towr (#1914)

Location: Netherlands
Posted: 6377 days ago

--quote--
I'm sorry, but I feel I have to correct you, as I see this all too often. Eternal life does not mean invulnerability.
--quote--
That's exactly my point, it doesn't mean invulnerability. It means that whatever dreadfull thing happens, you keep living, hence "eternal life". If you die, your life was hardly eternal. I'd use the term "indefinite life", except that has it's own problems.

Holangisus (#1628)

Posted: 6377 days ago

I don't want to turn this into a flame fest or any such thing, but you're not getting it.
Genetic engineering to stave off aging, you get shot, you die.
Mind uploads to avoid being shot, the computer explodes, you die.
Plasma cloud at the end of the universe, you disperse, you die.
Name your preferred method of eternal life, I'll tell you how you'll die, and why you won't be alone floating throughout the universe without a kill switch.

towr (#1914)

Location: Netherlands
Posted: 6376 days ago

I get it just fine. What you are thinking of simply isn't eternal life, because it ends, and hence is not eternal. It's a misnomer. [And from what we know it's physically impossible for actual eternal life to exist (because the usable energy eventually runs out).]
It's a simple joke played on the distinction between the literal interpretation of what one says and what one actually means.
I know, I know, that's not everyone's sort of humour. To anyone whose sense of humour is offended, you have my most unheartfelt, insincere apology. :D

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