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HYPERtheticals - Questions for Insane Conversations (27 of 50)
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Post by
Sas148
Forever 75
You celebrate your 75th birthday in good health. As far as you can tell, you are a spry, relatively normal 75-year-old. And this condition does not seem to change over time: When you celebrate your 80th birthday, you look and feel exactly as you did on your 75th. When you hit 90, you still look and feel 75. On your 100th birthday, you realize that most of your friends are now dead or dying -- but physically, you are the same independent person you were 25 years ago. You hit age 110 with the same results. Every year, you are celebrating a new birthday without physically evolving beyond the age of 75. Doctors have no explanation for this inexplicable stasis.
How old would you have to be before you would start to seriously believe that you are immortal?
(##RESPBREAK##)12##DELIM##Sas148##DELIM##Fixed misspelling.
Post by
ElhonnaDS
There are people of all ages I suspect are immoral :P
In terms of immortality, I would begin to wonder probably at like 135 or 140, but probably wouldn't really believe anything that crazy until a solid like 160-170.
Post by
Squishalot
There are people of all ages I suspect are immoral :P
+1
On the topic of immortality, I wouldn't suspect it at all, nor would I advertise it. Suspicions of immortality has the nasty characteristic of making one a target for 'disproof' assassinations.
Post by
lonewolfe31705
There are people of all ages I suspect are immoral :P
+1
On the topic of immortality, I wouldn't suspect it at all, nor would I advertise it. Suspicions of immortality has the nasty characteristic of making one a target for 'disproof' assassinations.
I think I would start experimenting on myself around 150ish....seeing if I had ungodly healing speeds, stuff like that. I think I would also end up moving every 5-10 years and trying to stay off the grid. After people catch wind that you are older than dirt, yet have not aged past 75, then you might end up as a lab rat.
Post by
Izichial
Probably past 130 sometime. Up until around that point it's still a... sort of realistic age even if it's extremely unlikely you live that long. Someone has to be the first and all that. To still be in the physical shape of a 75-year old would be very odd of course, but I mean, immortal? Big thing to come to terms with.
Like Squishalot and lonewolfe I'd probably start keeping real quiet about it as well. I would be curious though, probably look around for someone researching ageing I could trust and let them test me on condition that my identity be kept secret and that any discovery be used for the good of humanity.
Either that or sell the recipe for immortality to a bunch of rich and powerful people I'd handpick and start up a real Illuminati with. Would be a lot more endurable with near unlimited funds and some company, plus you get to interfere with the course of history whenever you get bored of living in comfort forever.
Post by
asakawa
The idea of "immortal" wouldn't cross my mind (it doesn't really mean anything that isn't too wrapped up in the fantastical to have a serious meaning) but it would be noticed by doctors that your cells didn't degrade like other humans and this would be incredibly important and useful to investigate ways to increase human longevity. The science of ageing is an interesting topic but essentially cancer is a big issue now in a way it never used to be, not because of changes in the environment but because a lot of the other things that used to kill people have been solved leaving cancer as the thing to which we will all succumb if nothing else gets us. If that process wasn't active in someone then that would be incredibly valuable information.(##RESPBREAK##)16##DELIM##asakawa##DELIM##
Post by
b4xx
After like 140, 150? I also would start experiment the extent of my immortality; is it just something that stops me from ageing, or can I take a bullet and be just fine.
Also, I loved Izichial's Illuminati idea xD
Post by
ElhonnaDS
To clarify, I wouldn't make the leap in logic between no longer aging, and being able to take a bullet or being some kind of super-powered person. There are species that don't suffer the same kind of age-related genetic breakdown which is what we do. I would at most start to believe that I had some kind of genetic abnormality that kept my cells from losing their ability to regenerate themselves the way they do when we're younger.
Post by
b4xx
To clarify, I wouldn't make the leap in logic between no longer aging, and being able to take a bullet or being some kind of super-powered person. There are species that don't suffer the same kind of age-related genetic breakdown which is what we do. I would at most start to believe that I had some kind of genetic abnormality that kept my cells from losing their ability to regenerate themselves the way they do when we're younger.
Of course, but at least I would start suspecting some other abnormalities than only not-ageing if I was still alive at the age of 150.
Post by
Sas148
I said I'd have to live to four digits before I'd consider the immortal theory. lol - Before then, it could just be a fluke, right? :P
Post by
Sas148
Canadian Football Future
Someone builds an optical portal that allows you to see a vision of your own life in the future (it's essentially a crystal ball that shows a randomly selected image of what your life will be like in twenty years). You can only see into this portal for thirty seconds. When you finally peer into the crystal, you see yourself in a living room, two decades older than you are today. You are watching a Canadian football game, and you are extremely happy. You are wearing a Canadian Football League (CFL) jersey. Your chair is surrounded by books and magazines that promote the CFL, and there are CFL pennants covering your walls. You are alone in the room, but you are gleefully muttering about historical moments in Canadian football history. It becomes clear that -- for some unknown reason -- you have become obsessed with Canadian football. And this future is static and absolute; no matter what you do, this future will happen. The optical portal is never wrong. This destiny cannot be changed.
The next day, you are flipping through television channels and randomly come across a pre-season CFL game between the Toronto Argonauts and the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Knowing your inevitable future, do you now watch it?
Post by
asakawa
The important question here is why, the day after taking part in such a mind-blowingly, science-redifiningly amazing experiment, am I watching TV? I never watch TV.
Further questions might be why has UK TV suddenly decided to air Canadian...
anything
? How can the optic portal allow me to hear mutterings? And, assuming you're not talking about soccer (that's what football actually is) then why, if I gained an interest in that silly, overly-armoured sport, would I choose the Canadian brand?
Assuming all of the craziness happened exactly as you said and assuming we ignore all the issues of paradox , cause and effect and the other oddities surrounding all of this, yes I would watch it. I'd worry about anyone whose curiosity wasn't piqued. I'd also question my own sanity regarding my recent experiences because they sound more like a lucid dream than reality.(##RESPBREAK##)12##DELIM##Sas148##DELIM##
Post by
Interest
I'd let my free will decide in the sense that I won't let some sort of vision into the future (at least one as trivial as this) influence me. Pretty much, I wouldn't watch it because it is something I am currently not interested in. Who knows though? Some day it may become interesting and I may bandwagon onto it or something.
Post by
Sas148
The important question here is why, the day after taking part in such a mind-blowingly, science-redifiningly amazing experiment, am I watching TV? I never watch TV.
Further questions might be why has UK TV suddenly decided to air Canadian...
anything
? How can the optic portal allow me to hear mutterings? And, assuming you're not talking about soccer (that's what football actually is) then why, if I gained an interest in that silly, overly-armoured sport, would I choose the Canadian brand?
Assuming all of the craziness happened exactly as you said and assuming we ignore all the issues of paradox , cause and effect and the other oddities surrounding all of this, yes I would watch it. I'd worry about anyone whose curiosity wasn't piqued. I'd also question my own sanity regarding my recent experiences because they sound more like a lucid dream than reality.
-facepalm- lol -- Stop over analyzing.(##RESPBREAK##)12##DELIM##Sas148##DELIM##
Post by
asakawa
Isn't the part of the interesting way in which we all react to the same odd question though? The actual question requires only a yes/no answer, isn't this whole thing about the ways in which different people arrive at the answer? The things that seem important about the situation to them etc.
Post by
ElhonnaDS
I would see if it was at all interesting, and if not probably switch it off.
To be fair, I wouldn't immediately jump to the conclusion that I had 100% interpreted what I had seen correctly. I may have become an actor, after all, and could have seen a scene from a movie or commercial. I may have had a brain injury, and so enjoyed something that I normally wouldn't have now. I may have married and lost someone who was really into that, and so me sitting there rattling off those facts could have been me remembering him saying those things and repeating them- maybe as a way to comfort myself. Maybe I had a son, and that son now plays on that team, and so I got involved as a way of supporting him. There are so many scenarios that could have lead to that, that I wouldn't necessarily decide that it means that I must start getting obsessed with that sport right away.
Post by
Ksero
You wouldn't have a choice to watch/watch the game. The future self you see in the optical portal has experienced your entire life plus 20 years, if the future is set, then all of your decisions in those 20 years have already been made, so you can't "choose" to watch/not watch the game.
Post by
Izichial
Not necessarily, Ksero. The only thing that's fixed is that you will arrive at the point you saw, not what you do up until that point as long as it doesn't prevent you from reaching it. You can exclude some possibilities that would, like killing yourself before you get there, but most other possibilities between now and then remain open.
Of course those decisions
could
be fixed, but the question doesn't necessitate them to be. Even if they were you wouldn't know it and retain an illusion of free well, but that's arguing metaphysics.
I'm with asakawa on this one. I don't even have a TV! But since one is conveniently conjured into existence for me and compels me to watch it the day after... I would probably switch it off it it was boring, but yes, I would watch that game.
Post by
asakawa
If a friend whose opinion I trusted told me that Canadian American Football was amazing and I should check it out then I would definitely give it a moment of attention if I ever came across it after that. If you found out your future self thought it was great then is that not a recommendation from a trusted party and therefore worthy of at least curiosity?
That's my thinking on the question itself.
Post by
Sas148
What better recommendation can you get if not from yourself? hehe
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