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Week 10 [11.01-17.01] – Should people be immortal?

 

Should people be immortal?

    Do you ever considered being immortal? People live longer and longer, health care is much better every year and technology is so powerfull nowaday. What if one day someone would tell us he know how to make people immortal? I suppose it is not the topic which you think about the most, but lets check out if would it be so awesome thing as it seems to be in the beginning.

 


 

Questions:

1. Do you think it is a good idea for people to be immortal?

2. If you could choose how long to live right now, in good health and with your friends and family, what is your personal answer?

3. What would you like your future to look like?


Comments

Karol Michalak said…
1. Do you think it is a good idea for people to be immortal?
I'm not quite sure. Death is natural process, some have to die in order to make place for next generations, but also for evolution to take effect. "You can't teach an old dog new tricks". Besides we would need to change our biological behavior in order to be immortal. We would need to control every birth to mitigate lack of space on our planet or universe as a whole.

2. If you could choose how long to live right now, in good health and with your friends and family, what is your personal answer?
I cannot answer this in numbers, but maybe in goals. I would like to live long enough to teach my kids everything I can to make their life easier and help them raise another generation.

3. What would you like your future to look like?
Close to nature, calm, taking only good things from environment and left behind every toxic thing our society created.
Piotr Góralski said…
@Karol Michalak thank you for answered. You said important thing about limited space in earth but maybe if we would colonise other planets or universe, then space will not be the problem.
Olga Przytula said…
Do you think it is a good idea for people to be immortal?

I’m not sure. We are all genetically inclined to procreate and living too long could go against our instincts. I think that I would not be able to appreciate life and its beauty, knowing I can live forever and postpone every adventure without consequences.


If you could choose how long to live right now, in good health and with your friends and family, what is your personal answer?

Oh gosh, that’s a hard one. I have no idea. Would they also be happy, healthy and safe? If so … I think I would be greedy enough to ask for 100 years of stable health. However, I don’t think I would like all of us to be immortal. You see, I think there is something very unique and special (though fearful and devastating) in passing away. We appreciate our families more; we think about our close ones with warmth and mindfulness. I would love to have more time to spend with my parents or my grandparents, but on the other hand thanks to this voice in the back of my head that reminds me how fast time passes by … I think I’m more loving, caring and understanding in my relations with them. I want to do it. I think that by being immortal or living for too long I would become more indifferent and wouldn’t use the time that I have on this earth as much.


What would you like your future to look like?

I don’t think I have any specific vision for my future (I’m assuming you are asking for my personal life future, not the future of earth in 1000 years). As many of us I fear early death and uncurable diseases thus my biggest dream is to live a healthy and happy life. I hope in my future there still will be plenty of animals and plants, as I love nature and it would be impossible for me to live in a grey, sad city center for the rest of my life. I also hope that I will achieve everything that I’ve dreamt of in my career, maybe start a family… I just hope I will be able to enjoy my life to its fullest, even though I don’t exactly know (yet) what it will be 😊
Interesting presentation. Answering your questions:

1. I don't know, it's hard to answer this question. But I think it makes no sense to interfere with the natural cycle of life. It is how it is.

2. Exactly as it is in the question: I would choose to live in good health with my friends and family. This is the most important thing for me.

3. As I wrote above - happy and healthy life with the family, good, well-paid work that develops my passion in IT.
Maciej Karnicki said…
1. Do you think it is a good idea for people to be immortal?
This would raise thousands of problems for example with living space, food stock or drinking water so I don't like that idea.

2. If you could choose how long to live right now, in good health and with your friends and family, what is your personal answer?
At least 50+ years but I'd rather not choose the exact number. I like they way it is, when you don't know how long will you live.


3. What would you like your future to look like?
Steady and happy life is all I ask for. Maybe life in motion, living in a campervan and exploring the world?
1. Do you think it is a good idea for people to be immortal?

It depends on many aspects. Will I be also young and healthy? Are the people that I love also going to be immortal? Is there going to be a way to stop that and die if you would like to do so? How are people going to react to it, and are there going to be any major changes in how reproduction is going to work?
If I could spend more time with the people I love, without getting old and with the ability to choose when I'm going to die, I think that I would decide on that. I would love to study and create more interesting things in my life, and immortality would give me the power to do so. I think that it would be also possible to change our planet for better if people knew that they are going to live here even after many years. But on the other hand, it would be difficult to stop overpopulation. There are already so many people on Earth, that it's hard to make everyone live with the same living standards. If people would be immortal, there is a high probability that they would live for a much longer time and keep reproducing, which would make overpopulation a much bigger problem than it already is.

2. If you could choose how long to live right now, in good health and with your friends and family, what is your personal answer?

I'm not sure. Probably as long as I could, if I got good health and people that I love. But it's getting more difficult when you really start to see your wrinkles and your hair turning gray.

3. What would you like your future to look like?

I would love to have a happy, healthy, and calm future in a tolerant, welcoming world, but it's probably some kind of utopia, so I can only hope that it's possible.
Piotr Góralski said…
@Olga Przytula I really appreciate your answer. As you said I also believe that thanks to the unpredictability of life, we can appreciate it more. I hope your comment will come true. #Make cities green again!
Piotr Góralski said…
@Igor Goryszewski thank you for the opinion. Good luck in IT.
Piotr Góralski said…
@Maciej Karnicki knowledge of exact year of death need to be so terrible. I hope you will stay happy for rest of your life. Thanks for your opinion.
Piotr Góralski said…
@Kinga Kwiatkowska, thank you for your opinion. Fortunately, the world is quite a nice place to live these days, at least in Europe. Everyone can be free to say what they want, so hopefully this situation will last forever.
1. Do you think it is a good idea for people to be immortal?

An immortality could have a lot of pros and cons but in my opinion it would be a catastrophe. Maybe I'm too pragmatic but fortunately it won't happen soon. We consider "immortality" as long, fascinating lives with many of adventures, but it wouldn't be. Economists claim that now it's the last moment to prevent a disaster because of overpopulation and lack of the sources. Nowadays, on the whole world people die due to starvation. In case of immortal, procreation would have to be banned.

2. If you could choose how long to live right now, in good health and with your friends and family, what is your personal answer?

Probably about 80-90 years.

3. What would you like your future to look like?

Right now, my only requirement is to have a possibility to leave outside without the mask on my face.
This video reminded me of a brilliant sci-fi series called "Altered Carbon" in which rich people could digitally transfer their consciousness into a synthetic body. By doing this process many times, they have become practically immortal. I highly recommend it to anyone wondering about the idea of ​​immortality.

1. The immortality of the body would have to imply the immortality of the mind as well. Not your brain itself, but your awareness of yourself. As biological beings, we are not adapted to a very very long life, even less to never ending life.

2. I think that what really gives value to relationships is the awareness of their passing. People tend to see reality from their perspective. "The grass is always greener on the other side". Eternal life in happiness and love with loved ones sooner or later would become common to us. Sooner or later, no matter how you think about it now, you will get bored with the current state of affairs. After all, you will not think that the best thing to do now is to survive to death with these people, because the death will never happen. The answer to this question should absolutely not be "infinity".

3. I don't want to guess, so many things can change. I prefer a short but active life and spectacular death.
Piotr Góralski said…
@Milena Dziełakowska you pointed out the significant problems occurring on earth due to overpopulation, but when people would be able to produce food without difficulty and if there was enough space, the option of being immortal would be interesting to me. Thank you for your feedback and I hope you will be able to go outside without a mask soon.
Piotr Góralski said…
@Karol Sołtysiak thanks for recommending a series that I will definitely add to my list of movies to watch. It's possible that, as it was said in the movie, it's not about being immortal but about living a little longer because we're not ready to die yet. Given this choice, would anyone be able to say that he is ready to die? I don't think I would be able to do that because I think it is very similar to suicide.
1. Do you think it is a good idea for people to be immortal?
I think that this might look good on paper but I am sure that it would have some horrifying results. When something is supposed to have it’s end then we are able to appreciate it more because we know that every second has it’s value. People who are told that their life is going to end soon are able to squeeze the most out of life, of course as long as their health allows them to. The other thing is that the whole concept of a life circle becomes outdated. People are supposed to come and go so there is place for others.

2. If you could choose how long to live right now, in good health and with your friends and family, what is your personal answer?
I don’t think that I am able to answer that question right now. There is so much ahead of me to discover. I think that being ready to pass away is something which comes to people at very different age. At the moment I think that being health while being 100 years old would be amazing and I would be very happy with such age. The problem with living longer then others is that you have to see your loved ones pass away before you.

3. What would you like your future to look like?
I would like to see more harmony in the future. I don’t know how the future will look like but I am afraid that there will be much more surveillance going on. If I were able to choose I would like it to stop in some way.
Piotr Góralski said…
@Piotr Malanowski you are right that a situation in which all the people we care about die would be terrible. And when it comes to supervision, it can also be positive supervision, parents supervise children not to do bad things, police catch thieves and courts punish them fairly. Hopefully the supervision will not interfere with honest people. Thanks for your comment.
Week 10 [11.01-17.01] – Should people be immortal?

1. Do you think it is a good idea for people to be immortal?

No, I think that's a bad idea. Why? Simple - the world would have long since been overpopulated if people had not died. Therefore, I believe that people should not be immortal.

2. If you could choose how long to live right now, in good health and with your friends and family, what is your personal answer?

Honestly, I never thought about it. I would like to die a natural death while sleeping, so as to avoid suffering and also the suffering of my relatives. I would not like my relatives to look at me with compassion. I didn't think about life expectancy.

3. What would you like your future to look like?

I hope the future will be better than what is happening today. I hope that the level of health care in Poland will improve and the government will also change. I hope we can avoid war.
Piotr Góralski said…
@Daniel Trzaskoma I think you have hopes that can come true. I understand that you think immortality shouldn't be for everyone, but maybe if it were available to some it would bring more gains than losses. Thanks for the opinion.
1. Do you think it is a good idea for people to be immortal?

It's hard to answer the question of whether we should be immortal. I believe that no, because elderly people are not fit for life. However, if we could stop time at the best age for us, e.g. at the age of 25, it would be pretty cool :D

2. If you could choose how long to live right now, in good health and with your friends and family, what is your personal answer?

If I lived in good health, always surrounded myself with friends and family, I could be immortal. Moreover, I would like to stop time at the current age - 25 years.

3. What would you like your future to look like?

Preferably, I would retire at around 45 and start traveling the world and pursuing my hobby all day long. It is a waste of life for continuous work.
1. Do you think it is a good idea for people to be immortal?

I am not sure about immortality, however I really believe that elongating human life is just inevitable. In the past 100 years the medicine has made a huge progress and the average life of persons that take care of themselves is increasing. I really think it would be great if humans could live 100-200 years, I know that I would love to. Still, the immortality part is quite tricky in my opinion, because of the one organ that humans still do not know much about – the human brain. I really believe that in 100 years people will be able to change many organs without damaging the other ones and it would allow people to live as long as their brain would let them.


2. If you could choose how long to live right now, in good health and with your friends and family, what is your personal answer?

I am completely not sure, however definitely longer than it is possible right now. Nowadays, we still do not live long enough, there are so many wonderful places to see, great moments to experience, unusual people to meet and endless conversations to have that even the thought of living only 70-80 years is just scary to me.


3. What would you like your future to look like?

I think this question is a little bit too general. However, I can say that I would love to be happy and I would love to spend a lot of my time traveling around the world and most importantly to always have great relationships with my family and friends.
Maciej Antonik said…
1. It would have to be on a par with stopping the reproduction of the human species on our planet. Earth cannot be overpopulated. If it were, sooner or later this "immortality" would be useless, because our planet would reach the level of conditions in which it is simply impossible to live. All existing processes in nature have causes and consequences. Even a small change can have a huge impact on the entire ecosystem. Not to mention stopping human mortality. Another thing would be the possibility of transferring human consciousness and memories to a computer, for example, as in the game Cyberpunk or the movie Transcendence. It would be very interesting, but there would probably be many opponents of this idea for moral reasons. Nevertheless, in this way we could keep the minds of many great people.

2. I would like to have a happy and fulfilled life as long as possible.

3. I would like to live in some warm country where I will not have to worry about economic issues and that the government will screw up something ...
Kacper N said…
I think it depends on certain conditions, but overall it's not so good idea. It depends if your body and organs would age with us too. If so, it would be not a great deal. But in the other case - if we and our bodies would be aging at all - I would say it would possibly be cool for some period of time, but we could get bored of everything after living for example 200 years, and maybe get some psychological problems.

It's really hard to say for me, because I'm quite young person. But If I need to estimate that value, I would say someting like 125 - 150 years. That would be a reasonable chunk of time.

I would be happpy if the health care development was getting faster and as a result our lives would be longer, but there is a limits, and we should not try to get immortallity.
Illia Kalinin said…
1. Do you think it is a good idea for people to be immortal?

Mostly, It is a bad idea, but I believe there are people that deserve to live forever.

2. If you could choose how long to live right now, in good health and with your friends and family, what is your personal answer?

Unfortunately those conditions can not be constant, but having them I would prefer to live as long as possible.

3. What would you like your future to look like?

I want it to be peaceful and with those conditions that you described in the second question.
1. Do you think it is a good idea for people to be immortal?
I will probably surprise you, but I don't want us to be immortal. First, it would mean overpopulation in the world that would happen very quickly. As a consequence, we would be living in very uncomfortable conditions. Immortality would mean we would not appreciate our lives. We would exist in a soulless way without any great purpose. For mankind, it would mean terrible torments and suffering. It's good that our life is over, although I would prefer it to be a little longer.

2. If you could choose how long to live right now, in good health and with your friends and family, what is your personal answer?
Thinking in the abstract, I would like to live 200 years. This is enough time not to enjoy life, to experience everything that is the most precious in life. On the other hand, it is not so much to get bored with life and get tired. Reproduced daily life, stagnation can become exhausting.

3. What would you like your future to look like?
It is not surprising that I would like to be a healthy person all my life. I want to take care of myself, eat healthy, play sports and enjoy every moment. The thought that life is one and no one knows how many we will live makes that we want to get the most out of it. Besides, I would like the medical industry to constantly develop. That they could help us so that the average age could easily reach 100 years. I think we are on the right track.
Piotr Góralski said…
@ Paweł Bluszcz thanks for the comment. It's good that your goals can still be achieved in the situation we have today. Have a nice and safe traveling!
Piotr Góralski said…
@Mikolaj Kaszubowski I also think that it would be better if people lived between 100 and 200 years. I think people who die before the age of 70 have lost a lot of moments that they should have lived. Thank you for opinion.
Piotr Góralski said…
@Maciej Antonik idea of keeping the minds of many great people is quite well, but for me it is a little bit immoral. As for living abroad, there are certainly many countries that would meet your expectations. Hope the new environment turns out to be your new home after some time. Thank you for the comment.
Piotr Góralski said…
@Kacper N I totally agree with you. I hope we will be able to live over the age of 100. As long as your idea of deteriorating mental state does not come true ;p
Thanks for the opinion.
Piotr Góralski said…
@Illia Kalinin maybe, indeed, immortality for the chosen people would be positive, but how to choose the people who deserve it. Maybe you have an interesting idea?
Thank you for your comment.
Piotr Góralski said…
@Adrian Kamiński you may be right that if people were immortal, they would not appreciate their lives as much as they do now. I hope you will live the 200 years which you mentioned in the comment. Thanks for your feedback.
I think is good idea but with two conditions. One - if you want to die you have option to do this. And second condition - if you want to be immortal you can't have children's. If we will live for 400-500 years and longer and everyone would have a kid, Earth is too small for everyone so we need to reduce population.
My personal answer is I want to be immortal. The main reason for this is I'm afraid of death. Human body is very week. The best example is Covid-19. Everyone can die because of it, no matter that you have 20 or 50 years, this disease can destroy anyone. Second reason is I want to try everything, all kind of jobs, hobbies. Life is too short for try everything so immortality is the best option to make everything what you want.
This is very tough question. Humanity are very weak. We don't know everything about our planet and world. One big space meteorite or explosion of super volcano can end all our species. When we want to thing about immortality we need to solve all of problems and dangerous like global warming or earthquakes. When we solve it we can try to make people immortal but we need to remember about make rules about this type of life.
Paweł Misiejko said…
1. Do you think it is a good idea for people to be immortal?
It is hard to say. I would like to be immortal, i have no doubt that life too short, i have infite number of things which i would like to do and try in the future. I have to hurry up. I'm pretty sure that in the future, people will live much longer, maybe forever.

2. If you could choose how long to live right now, in good health and with your friends and family, what is your personal answer?
3. What would you like your future to look like?

As i said, i would choose to be immortal. Spend time with family, friends, do awesome things, visit different countries. Life is too short in my opinion, there are so many opportunities which i would like to try. Now and in the future i will do my best to make my dreams comes true and enjoy life.

Mateusz Wietrak said…
1.I believe that people should not be immortal. If humans were immortal, the planet's natural resources would have been used up long ago, not even mention about overpopulation.
2.I think that such a question cannot be answered. Maybe the appropriate life expectancy is what we have now.
3.I would like to play computer games and not have to work;) of course I'm kidding. If I were to live longer than a normal human being, I would probably choose a different passion every few years in which I would try to be moderately good.
No. First of all I think our planet is not adjusted for people to live “forever”. We produce too much damage to the Earth so it would be devastating if people would live for 200 years or even longer. Second of all I don’t think that our current system would be proper for living for such a long time, because we are working most of our life. It could be depressing if we have to do it longer.
If I were in good health I would like to live as long as possible but not forever. I’m not sure if being immortal would be good because you could feel exhausted from dealing with problems, taking care of everything and everyone around.
First of all, I would like to be happy and fulfilled. I hope I will be surrounded by my closest ones and I will have everything I need to live a proper life. I hope that my future life will be full of wonderful adventures and that I will not have to worry about my health as I do now during a pandemic.
Unknown said…
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Unknown said…
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Piotr Góralski said…
@Mateusz Hartliński the idea of not having children if you want to be immortal is interesting, but it is a very serious decision. I think not many people would be able to agree to such a deal without problems.
Piotr Góralski said…
@Mateusz Wietrak we all want to stay at home and play games :(
Thanks for the comment, good luck with your passions.
Piotr Góralski said…
@Mikołaj Guzek-Szopa working most of my life seems like a bad idea. If only for this I had to live longer, it might be better to live like now. Thanks for the opinion.

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