Who wants to live forever?

[djkvan]

Thanks, Oscar.

[Oscar]

LOL interesting results so far! I'm surprised I'm the first to choose "No, it's not possible"
For me it doesn't really matter, because I believe in infinite lives/reincarnation anyway, so dying isn't that big a deal. Plus, there are more experiences to get in different bodies.

[djkvan]

Plus, there are more experiences to get in different bodies.

With respect, Oscar. How will you know? Transfer of consciousness and all.

[Oscar]

I will know when I die of course (hence "I believe"), but if there's nothing after this life, then I'll be blissfully unaware.

[djkvan]

I agree. . No harm in believing. After all many people hold lifelong beliefs in things that they never have and perhaps never will experience. Of course if I believe there is nothing else perhaps there is a greater chance of me being fully invested in the present moment. On the other hand if I believe in another/after-life, such a belief perhaps relieves the pressure of the present moment.

[Oscar]

In the end it doesn't really matter what you believe. The only thing that's relevant is how you choose to be and how you choose to live your life. Since I believe it's all a (sort of) game, I'm having fun and am relaxed about it.

[djkvan]

"It's only life after all...And the less I seek my source for some definitive
The closer I am to fine"

- Closer to Fine (Indigo Girls)

[djkvan]

"...it's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst... And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life...

Lester Burnham- American Beauty

[CSIV]

If life were infinite, what would be my motivation to do anything? Death is what drives me to live.

[Oscar]

Every motivation is always purely personal, so whether life is ending or infinite doesn't really make a difference. In my opinion it's all a game, like a role-playing game, or MMO. So the motivation is simple: play the game and have fun.

[djkvan]

Life's all about the reward; always about the reward. Glucose is the great reward for the brain. Once mine gets some all I want to do is sit around, veg and sip OJ. Really, though, thinking about what is intrinsically rewarding is kind of amusing to me, since the talents most people cultivate in this workaday reality are generally designed to put food in the mouth (or partners in the bed) in the end. Employing this logic one could argue that what is intrinsically rewarding about "the game" is merely secondary to the true motivation: glucose.

(I damaged my reward system through years of cigarettes and alcohol, so my intrinsic reward system is on the fritz making it hard to read my energy needs and causing many peaks and valleys emotionally and physically these days).

[djkvan]

There are, of course, also emotional rewards (amygdala), but these likely serve the greater survival needs of the species and are still dependent upon glucose.

[Oscar]

I think we're talking about different ideas. If we're just talking about the body, then the reward mechanism is indeed the important factor.

[djkvan]

Of course we are spiritual animals too. The spirit may be muted, however, if the body is filled with inappropriate fuels (which this diet corrects) among other things.

[mario91]

Every motivation is always purely personal, so whether life is ending or infinite doesn't really make a difference. In my opinion it's all a game, like a role-playing game, or MMO. So the motivation is simple: play the game and have fun.

I think fun in very desirable, but I don't really think life is a game. At least not my life!
I believe in Nietzsche's philosophy. Not as a supporter, but as a lover. Not of his arguments, but of his poetry. The freedom and the sublimity he expressed.
"Man only lives to transcend himself" - Nietzsche
Even if something or someone is putting us in that game, I believe in the affirmation of my will as transcendence of that condition. Of whatever condition, in fact.

But I don't wanna live forever. Even if they invented something that would make us able to live forever, which I think is possible, I probably wouldn't want to.
Death makes sense to me. Our individuality is very important, but not only that exists. We are also part of something. We are the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world. And that is beautiful, and makes me wanna live and give life.