Suppose Science Made Immortality Into A Reality?

[Immortality]

Ladies and gentlemen, this is great stuff for my ‘Immortality FAQ’ thank you so very much. If you have more concerns, opinions, critiques, thoughts, questions, etc. on immortality please now move them over to the thread below if you can, it will just make it easier for me, because it’s a writing forum. I’m sure they will allow you to post more on the subject of immortality for the sake of my FAQ , post everything there from now on. Obviously, if it’s unrelated to my Immortality FAQ you can continue to write on this thread. As I will be using this new thread from now on in order to write a hopefully great Immortality FAQ, that will be edited well and in good form, thank you. I hope to get writing help from that part of the forum :

Immortality FAQ vs Nick Bostroms Transhumanist FAQ

Best,
immortality

 

[BAYLOR]

Im thinking that without our core memories, what would be the point of living forever?

 

[Montero]

If you are enjoying each day, each week, maybe that is good enough. Bluntly, anyone with dementia becomes increasingly disconnected from their memories but many still have quality of life. Terry Pratchett continued working.

 

[BAYLOR]

If you are enjoying each day, each week, maybe that is good enough. Bluntly, anyone with dementia becomes increasingly disconnected from their memories but many still have quality of life. Terry Pratchett continued working.

I wouldn't want to live that way.

 

[Elckerlyc]

I would assume that if somehow immortality becomes a reality and aging of the body is prevented, that this also goes for your brain cells. No deterioration of your mental abilities, as is now the case once you passed into your twenties. No diseases that can affect your brain

If not, the whole idea of immortality becomes a horror story.

 

[BAYLOR]

I would assume that if somehow immortality becomes a reality and aging of the body is prevented, that this also goes for your brain cells. No deterioration of your mental abilities, as is now the case once you passed into your twenties. No diseases that can affect your brain

If not, the whole idea of immortality becomes a horror story.

Indeed.



In remember a bit in the dystopian science fiction film Zardoz among a group called the Eternals , there was a faction of them called The Apathetics , These were Immortals who were so weary of immorality and long life that they mentally shut down , sat or stood there staring, vacant , unmoving , unable to respond to anyone or anything and worse, unable to die. Just unending existence to no purpose.

 

[Montero]

Yes it is interesting that there is quite a large number of people assuming that immortality only fixes diseases of everything except the mind.
If the brain degraded to the point that autonomous functions ceased then you wouldn't be immortal anyway.

 

[BAYLOR]

Yes it is interesting that there is quite a large number of people assuming that immortality only fixes diseases of everything except the mind.
If the brain degraded to the point that autonomous functions ceased then you wouldn't be immortal anyway.

The body would die without the brain.

 

[Elckerlyc]

A little story I once wrote, but never used:

“There are issues with Cut & Collect.”
“You mean, with Death?”
“Yes, him. He Cuts life threads and then forgets about what he was doing or tries to Collect the wrong soul. With nasty results.“
“What’s wrong with him?”
“The symptoms would indicate the onset of dementia.”
“Is that even possible? We’re immortal!”
“Well, he is the oldest amongst us, by far. He won’t die, probably.”
“Poor sod. Not remembering who you are for the remainder of eternity.”
“That’s not the real issue.”
“Not?”
“When Death is no longer capable, who of us can Cut and Collect?”
“...”

 

[Vertigo]

Yes I would assume that if we can successfully engineer our bodies for immortality then we can also prevent degradation of the brain. But we weren't talking about brain disease, dementia etc., or at least I wasn't, I was talking about the capacity of our memory; our brains are not infinite in size and therefore not infinite in capacity. Once that capacity is reached what happens? Can we no longer add any more long term memories? Or do we dump older memories and reuse the freed up capacity? If it's the former then we're stuffed so let's assume the latter. Consequently we will loose our older memories not through illness but through living. Let's face it we don't really understand how our mind stores information, we have some ideas about where information is stored but not, as far as I'm aware, how it is stored. So I suspect we are a lot further away from backing up our memories than we are from longevity.

So I never suggested we would forget through some sort of illness but rather because we don't have infinite storage in our brains. As I understand it we don't forget stuff because our brains are degrading but because we don't continually reinforce our memories by going over every single thing stored in our brains. And, without that reinforcement, those memories are simply lost and, presumably, that capacity is reused. Which is maybe where our sometimes muddled memories of events comes from.