Yes, that’s right – what if you were immortal?
How would that change your life or the way you live your life?
Writing fantasy novels certainly brings to mind all sorts of questions and what-if scenarios. I’ve always loved exploring these what-if scenarios even before I began my own writing journey. I’d delve into them via other books or movies and simply let the thoughts take me as far as they could.
Well one “what-if” scenario that has crossed my mind repeatedly since I was a kid, is that of being immortal.
It’s easy enough to say “yeah that’d be cool” or “nah I wouldn’t like that”. But why? In either case. What would it really be like to be immortal?
What if you were immortal? Click To TweetHere’s my take on immortality and the question of “what if you were immortal?”.
I’d very much be ok with it, but I wouldn’t want to be alone. Meaning that I’d want a family or community of other immortals. I feel like it would be too painful to repeatedly have to lose my loved ones every century or so.
Much like our beloved fantasy realms, I also wouldn’t want money to be issue. I mean really, how much would it suck to live forever dead-ass broke?
How would being immortal change the way I live my life?
This is a tricky one, because I don’t feel like it would really change much, which seems odd. But the reality is that I very much “live” my life. I may not be massively wild and crazy, always darting off on intense adventures, but that’s not really me and it doesn’t mean I’m not “living”.
For me “living” means enjoying my life, surrounding myself with my passions and following my dreams. I feel confident in saying that I truly do follow this mantra.
However, being immortal would certainly open up more opportunities, mainly because I’d know that I have more time available to do all the wondrous things I’d love to experience.
Mortality presents an issue with available time, immortality would, in my mind, solve this problem.
Would immortality solve our issues of not having enough time? Click To TweetAh, just the mere thought of never having to worry about how much time I have available to do something – yes this really is at the heart of my longing for immortality. It’s not about death or being invincible. I don’t actually care about those points. There are just so many things in this world that I want to experience and accomplish that I really would need multiple centuries to achieve it all. And even then it would never really end because technology would continue to change, there’d be new discoveries and advancements and it would just keep opening up more and more new possibilities and opportunities.
Seriously I get excited just thinking about it!
So now over to you! What if you were immortal… what would that look like and mean to you?
Photo by Jaimito Cartero and  Photo by tvol 
Some great points by everyone. I could do the whole extended life thing if we didn’t age, a cut off point could be good though so you get to decide when you move onto the afterworld. I think we all know when we’re ready for things if we listen to our gut reaction so on that basis, sign me up.
There are a couple of things that make me question immortality. Firstly is ageing. If we carry on ageing in the same way, immortality would be completely pants! As it stands now, when we get to 100 or so, chances are we won’t be able to take ourselves to the toilet, we’ll be struggling to walk, and we’re living with pain every day. Imagine how we’d be by the time we were 200! So for immortality to work, it would need to come with some sort of youthfulness or health clause.
Secondly, I think there would need to be choice – an option to end your long life if you wanted. Without choice, there’s no freedom, you’re trapped.
Thirdly, I agree with you sentiment about needing a family/community but if everyone in on Earth was immortal? I think the world would stagnate and become dull.
I get what you mean when you talk about time but I often find myself wondering – without the sense of urgency that death brings to life, would we ever get around to doing anything? Yes, we’ve more time to do stuff but the fact that there’s always a tomorrow might lead us to be lazy and put things off – there’s no need to rush around getting stuff done because life isn’t short any more. We’ve got all the time in the world. A lot of people do this exact thing when they’ve only got 80-years or so of life – imagine how they’d be if they had eternity! Whilst I don’t relish the thought of death, I do think that the fact that my life will be so short (compared to immortality), spurs me on to achieve more.
I’m pretty sure immortality is not for me. I’m certainly not ready to pop my clogs yet though. I’d like to go for something in between – perhaps 600 or 700 years of life instead?
Do you hold the secret that could give me that? :p
Oh such great points Riley!! So then I’d have to say that yes, there would absolutely have to be some caveats. Youth and health would definitely be a must. And I vote for immortality but not indestructible. Meaning that yes death would still be possible and would occur – either voluntarily or involuntarily.
As for stagnating, I could see that. Though I wonder if travel would become a bigger thing? The world is so incredibly huge I think it would take several millennia for it to become dull. I know I wouldn’t stay put.
Interesting spin on the urgency limited time imposes on us. I agree with it to a point, but also wonder if the quality of our world might be better if people actually had enough time to do a better job, to learn more, to improve. It feels like everything is done in such a rush these days.
But I think overall you might be on to something with the option of an extended life span. I’m afraid I don’t hold the secret, but I bet Amanae does! 😉
I totally agree with you Janet! 🙂
I can’t imagine being bored with life and I feel full of life, so I guess I’d be up for immortality, but this would assume a certain level of good health, an eternity of chronic pain would be hell! For most people and certainly for those not expecting an afterlife, we come to terms with our mortality by cherishing new life and the natural order. But if immortality was the natural order and we knew nothing else….