Immortality - What would it do with humans?

[Terxpahseyton]

Assuming eternal youth as well. But not something supernatural. So let's say you don't age, don't get sick, but a plane crash or an exploding sun or a jump from a bridge will still end you.
Immortality is the answer to the biggest and deepest grievance many people have with life, and I think it means to destroy the fundamental structure of life as we know. So no surprise that is also the subject of much speculation. Some of the things i have heard speculated so far:

- Immortality makes you go mad (Commedore claimed so in the recently closed thread about nuking people as a means of pop control)
- Immortality makes life pointless
- Immortality means you will eventually be incredibly bored.
- Immortality makes people afraid to do anything out of fear of getting into an accident.
- Immortality would turn people into slackers

Personally, I think only the last two actually got something meaty going for it. The first three strike me as not being about immortality, but about coping with not being immortal at all. "It is actually great that I only get to be alive a couple of decades. Great, great, great!"

Life is already pointless, but people still live it and potentially enjoy it and potentially find a point regardless - because that is what people want and what works for them. Do not think too much, but live. That is as true now as it is if you were immortal. Don't see how you need to constantly age and see your death on the horizon to do that. That makes it sound like humans need to be constantly coerced and kicked in the butt to live, to move forward, and if you did not do that, they would just turn into mad depressed sloths. Some may, sure. Some already do, after all. But surely we aren't denying that people can also take some modicum of responsibility for their lives, by doing what is good for them, simply because it is good for them AND also feels good. And not because "OMG the clock is ticking!"

And regarding boredom: Some people already do the same thing for many years without much fatigue. I am mainly thinking of hobby sports. Imagine playing tennis for 20 years every week. Or soccer with friends. Crazy, isn't it? Why not just hang yourself. But actually, this kind of repetition seems to work quit fine.

I actually think the psychological affects will be very beneficial in many ways. Less pressure can also be a good thing. It can help you to relax, to try out new things, and to never loose hope, because if you are immortal, chances are abundant. And time to learn and grow is, as well.

Yet, I think there is a certain danger to becoming obsessed with not dying.
Death surely will be a much bigger deal in such a world. Every death will be a true catastrophe. Not the usual "Well this is life"-background noise of misery we got today. Everyday risks to our lives we do not even recognize as such because they are so mundane and normal may blow up to become irrational recklessness.
Riding a bicycle - are you crazy? Driving faster than 20km/h - do you have a death wish?!

 

[BvBPL]

Well it would certainly make a practice in probate a less appealing career path.

 

[Ryika]

I think the important factor is whether people would get overly scared of dying because they suddenly have a near infinite amount of time to lose. I tend to think they would, but then... the time in which humans care the least about their lives and their bodies is usually the time when they're young, and it is only when our time grows shorter and our bodies start becoming less capable, that we start worrying about death, so maybe the idea that the amount of time you have left makes you more scared isn't sound after all.

But I'm rather certain that in the end people would realize that immortality isn't worth much without the ability to come back from death.

 

[Berzerker]

I'd give it a try, I could always kill myself when I got tired of living

 

[Thorgalaeg]

Suicide booth in every neighbour, 25¢

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

First of is that life is only pointless if you are unable to find a point with life.

Second we do not know what death holds, I mean you where born which make me think that death is unlikely to be a total and forever end.

Third the boredom problem could be solved by just erasing the memories of people so that every day is a new day.

Ironical your immortal society seems to fear death more than our mortal society

 

[warpus]

The main problem we'd have as the result of immortality (for the masses) is overpopulation

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

The main problem we'd have as the result of immortality (for the masses) is overpopulation

Turn energy into food, water and habitate and that problem may be solved.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Second we do not know what death holds, I mean you where born which make me think that death is unlikely to be a total and forever end.

Off-topic but I don't care: Don't know about you, but I have been dead most of the time, and I can't recall anything memorable about it.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

The main problem we'd have as the result of immortality (for the masses) is overpopulation

Two words: Mandatory sterilization

 

[warpus]

No way any government would ever agree to that.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Not at first. Not in foresight. But if it becomes obvious there is no alternative, why not? Assuming there is none. Just saying that this will happen before the world goes to crap. Maybe it already suffices to heavily tax children.

 

[Narz]

Immortality is only appealing if you get to stay young. No one wants to be an achy old geezer for thousands of years.

The main problem would be boredom & lack of meaning but that's already the main problem in the 1st world. With a longer life people would eventually sort themselves out or off themselves.

 

[warpus]

Not at first. Not in foresight. But if it becomes obvious there is no alternative, why not?

The way our political parties and governments work, is that you can't expect changes until everything is on fire. And at that stage it might very well be too late.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Too late?

 

[Thorgalaeg]

Boredom is easy to solve: suicide boxes in every neighbour, normal suicide: 25¢ , gorish special: 50¢.

And i think zero growth would be a requeriment. Maybe some increments in total population would be allowed with the development of new advances in alimentary technology or to populate new conquered planets, but usually only enough children to substitute the victims of accident or suicide boxes would be allowed. There would be a looong waiting list for reproductive licenses, so everybody would have the chance of being parent at least once in his (potentially eternal) life.

 

[warpus]

Too late?

Yeah, too late. There's only so many people this planet can support. If you end up with too many people, it's not like you can just start killing them off..

 

[GoodSarmatian]

I think the important factor is whether people would get overly scared of dying because they suddenly have a near infinite amount of time to lose. I tend to think they would, but then... the time in which humans care the least about their lives and their bodies is usually the time when they're young, and it is only when our time grows shorter and our bodies start becoming less capable, that we start worrying about death, so maybe the idea that the amount of time you have left makes you more scared isn't sound after all.

But I'm rather certain that in the end people would realize that immortality isn't worth much without the ability to come back from death.

Young people don't worry much about death because they don't worry much in general and it's very far away. I'm not even sure if old people worry that much. Many old people I've known don't seem too concerned, but that might be because old age has already made life significantly less enjoyable. Eternal youth could make people overly cauteous and fearful of death.
However, there's also the possibility that people would just get bored after a few centuries and decide to either end it or start aging naturally.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Yeah, too late. There's only so many people this planet can support. If you end up with too many people, it's not like you can just start killing them off..

Aha
What I was getting at: As you will agree, "Too many people" is a long process with a lot of warning signs, gradually getting worse. And it is unclear to me when the impact of those signs reaches "too late" territory, for what it is too late, then and why you believe it to be likely that it would be "too late" before a drastic measure like sterilization could come into play.
What I was not looking for was a reminder why overpopulation is a concern to begin with.

 

[warpus]

Generally speaking our governments are responsive and not proactive, especially when it comes to issues they don't have experience tackling. That's why we're having such a hard time getting people on board to fight climate change. Overpopulation and unsustainable lifestyles are big problems right now and nothing is really being done about them.

At some stage (wrt to overpopulation) all you can really do is one by one put out the fires and try to mitigate the damage.