If you could maintain good health, would you live forever if you could?

[msc545]

[abc3643]

God NO! Of course not!

Let me put it to you this way...

Imagine watching your favorite TV. It's so exciting when new episodes come out and even when you watch repeats the first few times.

But, after a lot of seasons, the stories get stale and repetitive. The characters are developed already, the writers are phoning it in. The show has jumped the shark. Even reruns of your favorite episodes become missable. You just no longer have a vested interest in the show. You know "It's time." and that the show should be cancelled.

Well, life is a lot like that.

You can divide life into 4 phases.

Young: This is where most everyone is older than you and you don't know your ass from your elbow about a great deal of life.

Hitting your stride: You are now and adult of parental. You may have kids or not, but the instinct that you have to provide for yourself and your family is prevalent. Inside your mind, you laugh at the learning foibles of the previous generation and recall "I remember when I was like that too."

Early senior: You now are of grandparent age; your kids are now adults and making babies... They are hitting the age when they begin to look forward to retiring but are also happy to help their kids get off to a good start in adulthood and to spend more time with the grandkids. Inside your mind, you relish the trials and tribulations that your adult kids are going through just like you did when you were raising them. You think "I told you so" and are satisfied when your once rebellious teenagers finally "get it" as adults what you were trying to teach them 20 years earlier. Your cohort pretty much is running the world at this point.

The Dark Ages: Your grandkids aren't kids anymore. Furthermore, you really have a pretty good grasp of human nature - and you realize you don't like it. You begin to dislike or outright hate most people and want to avoid them. This is especially so if you don't have kids or grandkids because you have no biologically vested interest in the future. And, perhaps the worst is "Been there. Done that." When you were young, you were idealistic and had dreams or at least hopes for the world and the future of humanity. Now, you realize "Nothing's really going to change. People are always going to be stupid assholes - even my kids - even my grandkids. What's the point of caring if they don't and aren't going to make things better?"

As depressing as that might seem, you also realize your increasing irrelevance. The older you get, the more people that are younger than you and the fewer people that are older than you. It is the people that were older than you who were important to you because they inhabited the world of your youth. They are the ones who loved you and cared for you and raised you and you were born into their culture. And now they are gone or fading away (*). You increasingly begin to feel out of place in the world. Even if you and everyone else could live forever, your cohort will still become an increasingly smaller fraction of the overall population so you become increasingly irrelevant. Your cohort isn't even running the world anymore so you feel your power and voice are fading.

Even your family is becoming irrelevant. You may be a great-grandparent by now... Are you special to your great-grandkids? Not really; they have 7 other great grandparents and 4 grandparents who love them. And, frankly, you may have a shitload of great-grandkids too, so each one isn't so important anymore. Can you imagine living forever? Think of the countless thousands of your descendants - none of who you really know nor to they really care about you! You have so many descendants at least one of them is having a birthday every day. You HAVE to disengage from them.

Anyway, something else kicks in...

Besides all the logical stuff I told you, there's an instinct in you... An instinct that is deep inside you and you are in touch with it the older you get and that is you that, one day, you know "it's time." and that "it's right to die. You've had your time and it's time for the younger generations to make their mark and care for the future. It's time to pass the baton. You've done your job in life and it's time to retire and move on with one final sacrifice for them: To die so you don't take up resources and opportunities they need and, with your body decaying postmortem, you give back to the world that created you."

(*) Today, my uncle died. He was almost 95. My mother is upset and she turns 80 in about 2.5 weeks. All of my mother's siblings are now gone. My father has been gone for 20 years. All of his siblings are gone. So, all of my biological aunts and uncles are gone with only 2 widowed ones (1 aunt and 1 uncle through marriage) still alive. Other than my mother, that generation is now gone. My father's cousin is still alive, but she's the last from that side of the family; no one from my mom's side. And since my sister and I had no kids, my mother had no grandkids. She has sort of one because my mom is shacking up with a man who had a daughter (now 47) and granddaughter (now 17), but that's not the same thing. So, I worry about my mother.

At 60, part of me is in that "Early Senior" phase, but I am also well into The Dark Ages. I already feel it. While I will always find life interesting and am never bored, I also know that my life is a bad TV show that won't get better.

I am estranged from my sister, so, after my mom dies, I recognize that I will be free to go too and that it will soon be my time too.

[exitseven]

Yes, I don't think a hundred years is nearly enough.

[exitseven]

Thanks for the MHO😎

[douride2]

I would like to give it a try. Only if I had my health & my mind though.

[lottiebannotie]

No I like the reincarnation version let's reset and try again

[razelove]

Most definitely, no matter what your goal is, with unlimited time achieving it goes to cheat mode. Then your other goals after that as well.

[shades777]

It would be an interesting experience watching people come and go, of course you could never tell anyone your age or you wouldn't get laid, after a while your girlfriend or wife would get suspicious because you haven't aged a day pass 35 but your actually 776 years old going on 777, also out living all your kids after a while you being to ponder what is a legacy? because now your 12 generations pass your children and nobody cares to celebrate your birthday anymore they all know you won't die so old age ain't special anymore, plus your costing the government a fortune because you been a senior for 700 years!

[RealMarek]

I might be able to handle that depending on the circumstances especially if my girlfriend could be with me and we could live someplace very remote from people, but it could get awfully burdensome too. Imagine seeing stupidity over and over again for thousands of years, or having to learn how to speak as language evolves. I’ll say no.

[Static_In_The_Attic]

It’s all in the fine print & as for me I would have to read the fine print as well. As for me if I could maintain good health I would like to live forever ONLY if I didn’t age & stayed my current age.

[lightbulb27]

Wow, I'd say yes. I'd take a throne like an old sage and just sit there drinking "my ever" juice, and charge people about $2 for wisdom.

The ever juice has to taste like a "chocolate drip"...

[lightbulb27]

ok, maybe ever is a long time ya know? most of forever? what is forever anyways...

[NathanDavis]

yes... but I would just sleep, through 99.9999% of that time

[goaded]

This pretty much sums it up:

[Askincuzimnosey]

H*LL NO! This place sucks!

[Paris13]

lol Vitamins right now only. Hope to live Past 100 if God sees Fit. xxoo

[msc545]

The vitamins will not help you unless you have a deficiency of some type.

[Paris13]

lol!!! Nah, Brought UP ON THEM TO STAY HEALTHIER. xxoo

[Anonymous]

Sure, why not, you’re only here once, why not make it last unless you believe in reincarnation

[Anonymous]

Hell no, life is already way too long. Why on earth would I want to live longer?

[FilmGuy93]

Nope. That just sounds exhausting.

[Dinklex3]

Hell no.