I use this as a loose term, meaning something more along the lines of invincibility.
If you had the choice to become immortal, would you choose it?
Pros:
-Can't die
-Be a super hero.
-Be a super villain.
-Do whatever you want etc

Cons:
-Watch all your loved ones die.
-When the world becomes a molten ball you will either have to live there in solitude for eternity or
-If the earth explodes due to the sun exploding drifting through space for eternity.

If i had the choice, i would most certainly choose immortality, mainly because i am an atheist and do not believe in any sort of afterlife. Plus the fact i can always go crazy and develop imaginary friends.

What would you choose?
- and discuss.

Immortality is the only way I can do all the things I want to do. And even that would probably not suffice.

I would hate seeing loved ones die. I hate it evn now, I don't need to be immortal to know that pain. Still they do live on in my memory.

But this one rock would not be my prison, if I had any say in the matter (and I would). There is a whole Universe out there, and I'd have all the time there is to explore it!

I would love to be immortal long enough to see both my children grow up and give me some grandchildren and all that sort of stuff.

But I would not want to stay this way as I have lost enough friends and family in my short life and would not want to see the whole lot pass on without me. I know it sounds strange but death is not something that I fear, in a way I look forward to it. I mean we all know we will eventually die and I believe that when I die my spirit will reunite with those I lost along the way so I think that I'd rather just live enough to see my family grow then pass on as normal.

Definitely don't want to be immortal. Eventually you'll have nothing to do but sit around in the vacuum of space getting your guts eternally sucked out through the pores in your ripped-up skin. Zombiedom: Not for me.

That image made me cringe Ivan!!!

i quite fancy the idea of being immortal. i would spent my time doing everything that i want to and just relax and not worry 'cos i know i'm never gunna run outta time. and if the world did end, i would drift from planet to planet making new alien friends and talking to myself in a smart, intelectual voice. :D

What about aliem friends Heather?

what about 'em?? lol.

fine be like that then! I will go befriend that rock over there then. It seems friendly enough!

You would see old friends pass, and that would indeed be sad. It is sad when you are mortal, too. But look at all the time you would have to meet new friends, and to watch their lives develop, to see their victories as well as their tragedies, and to keep them all alive in your thoughts.

And yes, that would include aliem friends.

owww, i love my Aliem friends Torana, love 'em to peices. :D

I knew it :p

(ok lets stop hijacking JetBlacks awesome thread now. Sorry Jetblack, tis solely my fault)

lol

well, i would become immortal only if the on i loved would too. without her there would b no reason to live forever...alone i wouldnt ever want to live forever cuz everyone around u dies so u have to stay in solitude somewhere and that will drive u eventually insane

Being Immortal would be great for a while, but I think it would get lonely after a while

nah. never lonely, there are aliens and aliems and whatnot. there must be more than just us, so being Imortal i would find 'em eventually.

hmmm well what if you were immortal and then sentenced to life in jail......that would be pretty crappy. I wouldnt like be immortal.(even if the whole life sentence thing didn't come up lol)

Being immortal would have some amazing advantages though. I mean you would be around to see your great grandchildrens children have kids and so forth.
It would get very lonely in the end though. I like being mortal....but some of the advantages would be good if you could be immortal for a short time then switch back so you can die normally.

I'd choose to be immortal in an instant. I want to see what happens in the future.

And once I finally got bored of everything (in several million years) I could throw myself into a black hole and see what happens on the other side.

You wouldn't really want to do that.

From an outside perspective, you would quickly approach the event horizon and vanish from all knowledge.

But from your perspective, youi would fall endlessly into a bottomless abyss, the event horizon forever beyond your reach below you. The outside universe would dim past red behind you to an absolute black void, both unobservable and unapproachable.

The tidal stresses would tear your ship and everything in it apart as you entered the gravity well. However, being immortal, you might be cursed to survive that and endure the endlessly increasing agony of every atom of your body trying to disperse along the radius of your inward trajectory.

I'd choose to be immortal only if those I love most become immortal as well. Otherwise, what's the point in living forever?

Well while you are in the vacuum of space, it could be another billion or so years before you see another planet that can host life.
And i get bored in 24 hours without a computer.
But i would still prefer the immortality

Oh, and you are only immortal remember, if you get sucked into a planets gravitational pull you will have to live there until you can get off, ie explodes or something along that line.
Yet i expect with the vast knowledge you would gain in your years on earth you could create a machine that would help you out. It never hurts to be prepared!

Immortality allows you more time to complete things that you wouldn't be able to do within the average lifespan. You also wouldn't fall into the normal limitations of mortality, such as senility and old age, which would also help you do more things.

As such, I will respond with this picture, for it is the way I would spend my immortality. Taking random British women to see ancient Japan, Shakespeare, and evil salt shaker robots that can kill everything. Evar. (except me)
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1251/1069697486_e8a73f2032.jpg
also, immortality doesn't necessarily imply invincibility, for instance: Norse Gods

Invincibly was a part of the hypothetical.
It was used just to show the choice of being able to die one day, to the possibility of never being to die, ever, for all eternity.

What about when the universe ends, and time ceases to exist? I would presume that would be the escape clause from immortality.

Time never ceases.. maybe it just starts again.. you get to see what really killed the dinosaurs!

Some physicists might disagree with you on that. Time is not an absolute either.

They don't live in my head. :p Just a thaory because ya never know what will happen!