What kind of person do you think you would be if you were 66 Billion years old?

[Jayson1]

One reason I have some extreme doubts about the afterlife is because I think a human who had a infinite lifespan would either go crazy or cease being the person they were to point where still being alive would be pointless. I think when people think of the afterlife the mostly think about day 1 when you get their or a extended vacation that will last a month.
At some point though once the new lifestyle smell has worn off and meeting old loved ones stops feeling great and things start to feel routine it means you basically got to start living again. Only if your never going to die it means at some point you will become 66 Billion years old only the worst part is you still have more and more life to keep living.
Can anyone imagine what that would be like? I am guessing at some point you would forget all memories of earth or even being human once upon a time. I guess emotions would also go away though that might be good because if you can't ever feel bad it means being a Stefford Wife being, forever and ever.
At some point I am guessing one would just stop giving up and aquiring new experiences and would basically try and sleep their entire existence away which might be possible at some point. A forever coma where you don't even dream might seem great to people at some point.

Jason

 

[DimesDan]

That is what? Four times the timespan that the universe has existed.

The Universe isn't the same as it was when it was formed and wont be the same in nearly 50 Billion years, so of course, any life form wouldn't be the same as they're not static throughout their life time of a few decades.

 

[Doom Shepherd]

In an ideal universe, I would spend eternity visiting every planet in that universe. Quite obviously, by the time I’d completed my survey, conditions on the earliest worlds I’d visited would have changed considerably, even if I could FTL between planets instantly. That could occupy my time, simply satisfying my curiosity.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

It's Groundhog Day all over again. You probably wouldn't remember recurrent events as human memory is finite.

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Come Armageddon! Come!

 

[Butters]

Well no. The afterlife would be boring if that were the case and nothing would ever matter.

What you’d need is some kind of virtual environment that you could temporarily and completely immerse yourself in without any connection to, or recollection of, the mundane truth of your eternal meaningless existence. Something that you could be randomly born in to, as literally anything, as far removed from your actual self as you can imagine, and with no comprehension of the truth, you can accept that virtual place as being real, with all of its pains and pleasures, hopes and fears, good and evil, and for a few precious moments in the otherwise endless eternity of long repetitive moments, you can imagine that things like parking spaces matter.

 

[Marynator]

I believe your perception of time would change dramatically, if you even perceive time at all any more. I feel it's always very difficult if you compare such a radically different state of being through your current perspective and understanding.

 

[BillJ]

Still complaining about Star Trek: Discovery!

 

[Jayson1]

I believe your perception of time would change dramatically, if you even perceive time at all any more. I feel it's always very difficult if you compare such a radically different state of being through your current perspective and understanding.

That's what I always find scary. Being so radically different that I am no longer even human anymore. I'm not sure I want to be a higher being if I'm no longer capable of even having human emotions. I would think I would even miss my pain. Captain Kirk is kind of right. "I need my pain."

Jason

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I might have a newfound appreciation for "Faith of the Heart."

 

[Timewalker]

I believe your perception of time would change dramatically, if you even perceive time at all any more. I feel it's always very difficult if you compare such a radically different state of being through your current perspective and understanding.

Agreed. 66 billion years is nearly 5 times the current existence of the universe. That's enough time for a dozen generations of stars to be born, live, and die, and the universe will be very different by that time.

It's not a number that could be anything but abstract to humans, and of course by that time there wouldn't be any humans anymore. We'd be extinct, either permanently or by evolving into something else. So I wouldn't be anything like myself at that point. Even the Doctor Who character Ashildr who became immortal wasn't able to cope; she was physically immortal but her memory wasn't. She couldn't remember her own original self, so she kept copious numbers of diaries and just started calling herself "Me." That would be a hellish existence, in my view.

@Jayson1: Why 66 billion? Why that specific number?

 

[Riker'sMailbox]

I believe your perception of time would change dramatically, if you even perceive time at all any more. I feel it's always very difficult if you compare such a radically different state of being through your current perspective and understanding.

I agree with Marynator.

I don't think time would actually mean much and, if it did, it would be drastically different.

 

[Jayson1]

Agreed. 66 billion years is nearly 5 times the current existence of the universe. That's enough time for a dozen generations of stars to be born, live, and die, and the universe will be very different by that time.

It's not a number that could be anything but abstract to humans, and of course by that time there wouldn't be any humans anymore. We'd be extinct, either permanently or by evolving into something else. So I wouldn't be anything like myself at that point. Even the Doctor Who character Ashildr who became immortal wasn't able to cope; she was physically immortal but her memory wasn't. She couldn't remember her own original self, so she kept copious numbers of diaries and just started calling herself "Me." That would be a hellish existence, in my view.

@Jayson1: Why 66 billion? Why that specific number?

The number was just random. I could have just as easily said 5 trillion years old. At some point time would have no meaning both in how we age but how we even carry out simply tasks. You could spend 1 million years eating a meal if you wanted. Though it would I guess be only a fake meal because why would anyone need food at some point. Also you family would be along with you if were talking about a Heaven type of situation but they would loose memories of you as well and they would change. Get to a point where even the people you love no longer really matter to you. Their just another being who you know you have a history with but only short term memories of being with each other in this new evolved state. I guess you might someday be so evolved you can recall old memories but would that just be like Data pulling out some old memory file. You remember something but you no longer have the emotional state to really appreciate it.

Jason

 

[Gary7]

We couldn't possibly even begin to understand, given the relative micro-fraction of time that we live in comparison.

The sci-fi worlds have come up with "ascendant" as the concept for practical immortality. It makes sense in a way, because being biologically bound is a terrible way to achieve a lifespan reaching into the thousands of years and beyond.

We see the concept of artificial enhancement, incorporating mechanical devices in place of essential organs, to extend life tremendously. But... the brain has its limits of a useful lifespan due to its biomass.

I hate to say this, because I'm a human being, but... the only long-term continuance of human life is going to be through its creation of artificial life. A conscious mind in electronic form can be transferred from one storage device to another. Even if you consider the fiction of a "positronic neural net"... hardware can be replicated for which the software to operate. Electronic life is the only thing that can truly last.

We will be forever bound to this solar system, unless some magic "blink drive" or "warp drive" technology is achieved. I seriously doubt it. It's cool and desirable, but physics just doesn't support it. It's fiction. Plus, you're always going to be wrestling with managing the complexities of keeping living beings alive and well. It's a tremendous overhead. Human beings in space makes about as much sense as keeping fish alive out of their natural habitat--forever trapped in a small tank, a sorry existence for any sentient life.

Has anyone here seen "Dark Matter"? Fantastic series that, unfortunately, was ended prematurely. In it, they had the concept of teleportation clones. Pretty neat idea of a human being entering a chamber in one location, and a clone copy being rapidly created in a chamber located far away. That clone copy is essentially "you" with a snapshot of your entire mind plus memories included, but has a limited lifespan. Once it finishes its duties, it enters the chamber and the memories are transferred back to the original person, and then the clone is destroyed. So essentially, you had a "copied existence" for a while and all the memories are in your head as if you'd actually been there.

So what would make sense is human beings living on Earth but having a long range neural connection to a robotic "android" being operating in space. At any time you just connect up to it and in a kind of VR you're there. Then when you need to attend to other matters, you disengage and you're back. This way we can explore space without the life risks and tremendously expensive biological management overhead involved. And that'll be fine for human beings, to satisfy curiosity. But for the real long term, humans will develop an artificial life form species and this... this will be our legacy. As for how that electronic mind will deal with existing for billions of years... I expect no problem at all. Each day is just another day of experiences.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Magic or technologically advanced space drives are not required if you're very long lived. You can take as much time as you like travelling between star systems. Even if you travelled at a speed of only c/10,000 (30 km/s), you could cross our Galaxy from edge to edge in 1 billion years, perhaps using nuclear fission to provide sustaining energy on each trip between stars or putting yourself into suspended animation - easily achieved if you've transferred your consciousness to inorganic matter. Spawn daughter craft when materials are available and you could colonise the entire Galaxy in a similar time period.

 

[Gary7]

Magic or technologically advanced space drives are not required if you're very long lived. You can take as much time as you like travelling between star systems. Even if you travelled at a speed of only c/10,000 (30 km/s), you could cross our Galaxy from edge to edge in 1 billion years, perhaps using nuclear fission to provide sustaining energy on each trip between stars or putting yourself into suspended animation - easily achieved if you've transferred your consciousness to inorganic matter. Spawn daughter craft when materials are available and you could colonise the entire Galaxy in a similar time period.

Yes, super drives like blink and FTL are not required if there's no short lifespan problem, but... life is life. Being away from others you care about can be a big problem, unless you're taking them with you. But then, the life you leave behind is gone forever. Your home is your ship, for the remainder of your days... until you settle down on a world somewhere else. "Interstellar" touched on that pretty well. The time factor changes everything. Your point is very salient and more practical than imagined FTL, and it will become the technology to pursue -- free-energy drives. Being able to tap into solar power from stars along the way. Of course, not as dramatic and impossible as Destiny's refueling capability shown in SGU... but all a ship would have to do is travel close enough to soak up plenty of energy, at the leisure of time, and then move on.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Perhaps even immortal beings need a goal - Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged's was to insult every mortal being in the universe in alphabetical order.

http://hitchhikers.wikia.com/wiki/Bowerick_Wowbagger

 

[Xule]

Dust

 

[Timewalker]

There are a lot of really depressing points brought up in this thread.

Something brought up in a novel series I read many years ago (in which scientists found a way to make children immortal but not adults, and just announced it one day) is that immortality comes with a decline in creativity. The main character became immortal after he had learned to play a musical instrument (I don't recall if it was the clarinet or oboe), and then he was tapped to be one of the new leaders of this new society. The training period lasted 50 years, and once he went through that, he took up his new position. Years after that, he noticed his old instrument lying around, thought about playing it, and it had been so many years since he'd last used it that it just fell apart in his hands.

At that point he realized that nobody had created new music in decades. When you live forever, creative things just don't seem as important anymore. So a new law was enacted, to bring creativity back to the human race: Anyone found to have the talent and desire to create art (painting, music, literature, etc.) would be given every means to pursue that... but they would have to give up the immortality treatment that was routinely given to everyone.

 

[GNDN18]

 

[Pondwater]

A dinosaur.