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[MattG]

true immortality comes from an endless line of bilogical clones of yourself produced through mating called kids. Then your kids must have kids and on and on.

We are our ancestors travelling through time in a bilological time machine called geneology.

so the OP has it mixed KIDS are your only chance at immortality. We can however live hundreds if not more years but disease and accidents will allways come given long enough timeline even for those with the physical traits of non-geneological immortality

whew!

[Tumetsu]

Yep, so that's another reason to not be immortal, because either my brain is in complete stasis (eternal youth) or my brain keeps getting older and decaying (eternal aging.) I lose no matter what. And there's also the issue of memory capacity (and therefore loss), watching your kids and grandkids die, etc.

I don't see why brains should be in "stasis". Your brain wouldn't need to "freeze", just they didn't decay basically preserving them in prime condition. Also if we go by original assumptions, you couldn't have children who would die. Still applies your possible non-immortal friends.

In longer periods of time there comes memory issue but by that time we could maybe attach your brain to computer to get more memory capacity. Actually, whole medical immortality could be just stepping stone to cyborgs since one could wait for future. Also, for this purpose one could go to coma, and wait until needed equipments to counter problems of immortality are created. I imagine it would be nice solution for those interested in future who want to avoid accidents and wait for benefits of future.

That's a good thing. And if you did have infinite time (and therefore, over a long enough period of time, essentially infinite resources) to make something then it would never get finished since you'd keep expanding it, or scrapping it to work on something new without being able to focus on one particular thing you want to make awesome (because why do you need to, you have infinite time to theoretically do anything you want.)

I don't think it is direct result that one couldn't get anything done with infinite time but more about person in general.

About population growth, I remember it being calculated that we could conquer whole galaxy in about 1 million years. Is that long enough or too short time is up to anyone decide. I suppose that it is impossible to imagine what those creatures would think and how they would breed though.

[The Monster King]

i want a bunch of kids.

im sure some people would be glad to give me under-the-table immortality, until i get tired.

id like it mostly to see what happens to my kids and grankids etc anyway

[eiyukabe]

I can already tell I won't have time to do all the things I want and make all the games I want to make in even a 120 year life.

That's a good thing. And if you did have infinite time (and therefore, over a long enough period of time, essentially infinite resources) to make something then it would never get finished since you'd keep expanding it, or scrapping it to work on something new without being able to focus on one particular thing you want to make awesome (because why do you need to, you have infinite time to theoretically do anything you want.) Limitations and adversity breed greatness and creativity, life span is one of those limitations.

I don't see how finishing things becomes impossible with no sense of urgency, unless you are only doing those things because you feel like you have to (sense of urgency comes from not wanting to starve which means you need money which means you get a job that you otherwise would not do). Then again, you could also release a game that is never finished and simply keep patching it if the desire to always improve it is so strong. I don't see this as a bad thing, as long as it is actually released for others to enjoy. I also don't see how you know what I would do if given infinite time (not to sound snarky, that's just the only way I could think of to say that). If by "you" you meant "people in general", then maybe. But the poll was about me getting immortality, so  

In general, I don't believe that limitations and adversity are necessary to breed creativity (consider your more bizarre dreams, which for all intents and purposes happen in an unconstrained, stress-free manner), and I think they can get in the way too. I have to work on pretty uninspired and uncreative games in the game industry because I need a paycheck and am not in a position to responsibly go indie where I can risk innovating and being ignored. Without these constraints, I would be able to work unbridled on new game ideas not worrying that they might not sell and that I would lose my apartment. There are good constraints, sure, and I think I would still have those -- the desire to get my projects finished so I can watch other people enjoy them would be a larger motivator than death.

[LDuncan]

I suspect the vast majority of people commenting in this thread aren't parents, but after becoming one myself, I couldn't choose anything other than kids. All the time in the universe wouldn't matter to me now without
<--
that little guy there. Call it spiritual or chemical or whatever you want, but when I look back at how much of a failure I've been in my life, I at least know that I made the right decision about him.

And Tumetsu. I can't help but read your comments in a Tommy Wiseau voice.  

[Aquanoctis]

About the brain decaying and/or brain stasis stuff: There could come a time where 'brain uploading' becomes viable, essentially meaning that your body would merely be a vehicle for your brain. When it begins to decay you (your brain) could simply migrate to a new body.

[saibot216]

I am not fond of children, so I'd rather be immortal.

[Schoq]

immortality doesn't mean you stay as an old person though. it means eternal youth, not eternally being old. so the changes that you describe would not apply to people who don't age, because they are symptoms of aging

Yeah. What I was saying was just that eternal youth wouldn't mean no more mental development, since ageing after a point doesn't help it, but hinder it. (So even if you only lived 70 years and didn't age past 25, you would still be more "mentally developed" at that age than if you had aged normally).
It was a response to Caruso.

And here's another response to his response!

Yep, so that's another reason to not be immortal, because either my brain is in complete stasis (eternal youth) or my brain keeps getting older and decaying (eternal aging.) I lose no matter what.

I don't think immortality would mean no more neuroplasticity, or learning form experiences. Older people aren't more mature because their brains have aged more.
That's like saying you wouldn't want to be immortal because that would mean you couldn't become any better at basketball.

Memory capacity is a valid concern though.

[Paul Eres]

memory capacity is probably far higher than we actually use; but even in normal lifespans we can't remember most of the stuff we did 10 years ago, only the important stuff. the same would be true if we lived 500 years. i don't know how old most of you guys are, but i'm 33, and i can't remember even 1% of the things i did when i was 13 or even 23. our memories aren't that great as it is, they roll along with time, only retaining some stuff and forgetting everything else. that's why we take notes in class, and why some of us keep diaries, and why we take photos, etc.

[Schoq]

I guess by the time we have immortality we might also be able to artificially enhance memory capacity though.

[Paul Eres]

i'm not sure i'd want to, though. there doesn't seem to be that much of an advantage to doing so when you can just record and look things up when needed. is there really any advantage conferred by knowing exactly what you ate on sept 16, 1983?

i mean, it's not like you're going to forget your mother's face or personality, even if you live to be 500. we do remember the important things

[im9today]

dream on gamers you'll have neither

[CowBoyDan]

Memory capacity isn't limited you just can't recall things.  Think of it like deleting entries from a FAT32 table, the data is still there, you just can't figure out where.  The brain is a referential/associative system, its difficult to just "list" things.  And not all of us took notes for those that did some never looked at them again (teacher told us take notes, we took notes).  The brain is highly redundant, today alone you lost hundreds of neurons, if there wasn't redundancy built in you'd be laying in a pool of your own drool.

[im9today]

the fact that gamers dont want children surprises literally no one

[im9today]

ironically they love things that are actually made for children