Mortality

**Sasaki Kojiro** · 01-10-2011, 20:52

Originally Posted by Hooahguy

So if you are eliminating only the most common forms of death, then you arent really immortal, only immune from certain things.

Yes, biological immortality. Everything you said in your opening post applies to biological immortality, so...

I believe there is a kind of jellyfish that they think is biologically immortal.

**Hooahguy** · 01-10-2011, 20:58

Then you arent really immortal, you are merely elongating the human lifespan to an extreme length. If you were not susceptible to biological causes of death, then artificial ones would kill you. War, car crashes, accidents, rabid animals, etc.
Over the course of thousands of years, one of them is bound to happen. Unless you live in a bubble.

**a completely inoffensive name** · 01-10-2011, 21:04

Originally Posted by Hooahguy

Then you arent really immortal, you are merely elongating the human lifespan to an extreme length. If you were not susceptible to biological causes of death, then artificial ones would kill you. War, car crashes, accidents, rabid animals, etc.
Over the course of thousands of years, one of them is bound to happen. Unless you live in a bubble.

No, you really are immortal. Most people in developed countries die from natural deaths. Yes, eventually one artificial death might kill you. But then again, it makes no sense to say "oh well he died after living 4,300 years because a hammer fell on his head by accident. so it's not really immortality.". You will not die unless you put yourself in danger, which means you will live forever as long as you are smart and don't hang around construction areas without a helmet, which means you are immortal.

**Hooahguy** · 01-10-2011, 21:18

So are we talking about biological or physical immortality?

**a completely inoffensive name** · 01-10-2011, 21:27

Originally Posted by Hooahguy

So are we talking about biological or physical immortality?

Biological. There is no such thing as physical immortality. However strong you can make the body, you can't make it immune to everything.

**drone** · 01-10-2011, 21:56

Does the immortality apply to just you/me, or everyone?

**a completely inoffensive name** · 01-10-2011, 22:20

Originally Posted by drone

Does the immortality apply to just you/me, or everyone?

OP said everyone.

**drone** · 01-10-2011, 23:37

It's impossible to tell how the human race would develop in this case then. Lessons learned would be remembered, but the motivations and drives would be altered as well. I imagine stuff like the plague and famine would clean up the pool every once and a while, until we figured out how to beat it. The societal adaptations to avoid overcrowding would be curious to see. Constant warfare, forced sterilization, life deservency testing, etc. The economics of wealth accumulation would cause some problems as well.

**Motep** · 01-12-2011, 03:18

Originally Posted by drone

life deservency testing

See, what a fine mess immortality would be for the species.

**a completely inoffensive name** · 01-12-2011, 04:42

Originally Posted by drone

It's impossible to tell how the human race would develop in this case then. Lessons learned would be remembered, but the motivations and drives would be altered as well. I imagine stuff like the plague and famine would clean up the pool every once and a while, until we figured out how to beat it. The societal adaptations to avoid overcrowding would be curious to see. Constant warfare, forced sterilization, life deservency testing, etc. The economics of wealth accumulation would cause some problems as well.

Depends. There are much more efficient ways to grow and harvest food than how we do it now. People are just too lazy to invest in those projects. If it came down to spending lots of everyone money to build skyscraper's full of artificial farms or the government implementing a policy of 1 child per family, people will willingly let their money be spent.

Also, most developed countries experience a negative growth rate anyway. Overpopulation simply isn't a problem. The richer you get, the less kids you have. It's a trend shown repeatedly across history. The US only has a positive growth rate right now because of all the immigration both legal and illegal.

**drone** · 01-12-2011, 06:17

I don't doubt that technology would handle the food issue, but overcrowding is still an issue from a lifestyle standpoint. A "negative" growth rate (say, 1 kid per couple) is not actually negative if no one is dying of old age. If warfare, disease, and famine are the main vectors of population control, I'm not sure it's a happy place.

I'd be really interested in how religion would develop in an immortal society. The removal of guaranteed death, and the diminished precedence of the afterlife, would have a large effect on how religion developed.

**a completely inoffensive name** · 01-12-2011, 07:11

Originally Posted by drone

I don't doubt that technology would handle the food issue, but overcrowding is still an issue from a lifestyle standpoint. A "negative" growth rate (say, 1 kid per couple) is not actually negative if no one is dying of old age. If warfare, disease, and famine are the main vectors of population control, I'm not sure it's a happy place.

I'd be really interested in how religion would develop in an immortal society. The removal of guaranteed death, and the diminished precedence of the afterlife, would have a large effect on how religion developed.

Disease will sooner or later be conquered as well. Just need to fine tune the human immune system and bolster it to be able to fend off the most deadly diseases.

There is a clear way on maintaining the current lifestyle but it would take massive social upheavals to undertake them. However, given the opportunity of either a lower standard of living or switching the structure of their respective countries to the alternative plan, many countries and societies will choose the alternative path.