Lorien? He's still out there drinking Margaritas and watching The Lost Tales beyond the Rim. 
Immortality - are you ready for it?
- Thread starter trekkiedane
- Start date
Lorien? He's still out there drinking Margaritas and watching The Lost Tales beyond the Rim.
And you should still listen to what he says about immortality.
Actually, I forget... what did he say?
In "Into the Fire", Lorien explains to Ivanova that he is the last of his race of essentially immortal beings, the first space-faring sentient race in the galaxy. Barring injury or disease, his people at the time of his birth did not die.
Eventually, however, "the universe" decided that for life to be properly enjoyed it must be finite and the new sentient races that began appearing throughout the galaxy were mortal. His people watched those younger races and helped them along until most of his people were either dead or had travelled beyond the rim. (Which is why the First Ones, including the Shadows and the Vorlons wanted him to come with them when Sheridan "ordered" them out of their galaxy)
According to him, those with a shorter lifespan can appreciate love, friendship, companionship in a way immortals cannot because those things are transient, they don't last forever and only with a short lifespan can someone believe in the illusion that they can.
"You should embrace that remarkable illusion, it may be the greatest gift your race has ever received".
Yeah, I remember that now. Although it's really impossible to know what effect immortality or very long life would have on Human psychology, I don't buy that a short or finite life is better; it seems like Lorien is just saying, "Settle for what you've got. Don't aspire to anything better." Personally, the older I get, the more there is of life to appreciate; I can't imagine ever getting tired of life, or jaded enough to become dehumanized (and Lorien didn't seem terribly dehumanized, either-- just the opposite). With age comes wisdom and peace; I think immortality would just increase that to superhuman degrees.
Now that I can get behind.
Who picked bananaphone?
It was supposed to be an option for the fruitcakes on the board -apparently they took it!
It's one thing if you learn life lessons and STAY physically 23. It's another when you learn them and you're physically 523.
--Ted
I was one of them, since none of the other options fit me. And hey, it sounded funny.
^Well, it is my standard none of the above fits me-option in polls. I'm just happy it still amuses 
But none of us knows what it's like to be 523 -who knows? -it could be better than 23 in more than one way!
But none of us knows what it's like to be 523 -who knows? -it could be better than 23 in more than one way!
It would very much depend on what the rest of society was up to. Am I one immortal among many, or unique? It's hard to imagine an immortal society (where would you put everyone, how would you feed them, what would they do for a living?), but a partially immortal society would be inevitably elitist and probably unstable, and the idea of being one of the only or very few immortals is not at all appealing. So I'd be OK with immortality or extreme longevity, so long as the social framework had arisen to support it.
^^ I agree. I was going on that assumption. Although I'd settle for being the lone immortal, if necessary.
That's very true.
523 is the new 337.
If I'm going to live so long, it has to be at a physical optimum.
No point in being Tithonus! (look it up, kids).
