On Immortality

One of my friends was talking at dinner about how he desired immortality. I found it rather amusing, and tried to get him to define exactly the sort of immortality he desired. It proved to be quite a challenging enterprise.

We started off with the typical understanding of physical immortality, that the immortal is incapable of dying. It was all well and good, except that the immortal may not be invincible. What may potentially result is perhaps the chance to become an eternally living pile of ash after incineration, because one is just incapable of dying. Hmm...not so desirable. Perhaps we should throw in preternatural regeneration, vampire style.

The next thing one would wonder at, is whether one could potentially regenerate oneself from a single shed skin cell. In effect, one could perhaps eventually grow an infinite number of clones of oneself, making individuality a rather hairy prospect. Very well, then. A single coherent individual must be maintained even though one is perfectly capable of miraculously regenerating oneself.

Yet, even with a perfectly functional regenerative system, there's no guarantee that one will mentally remain identical to how one was before becoming immortal. For example, the popular idea of becoming a vampire tends to take away one's humanity, so that one's out. So another condition would be that one must maintain one's psychological faculties and essential personality. By implication, one should remain in control of the immortalized body.

After considering the basic personality, another problem came up, since the personal experience of living eternally is quite different from a mortal existence. At some point, one's mental state will begin to diverge from that of an average mortal, because time becomes considered in terms of eternity and boredom with life in general may sink in eventually. In short, one can become a rather depressed immortal that is incapable of killing himself (by virtue of his immortality). It really is quite an undesirable state to be in.

In short, a desirable true immortality turned out to be a rather hairy thing to define, full of if's and but's. It also seems that, without an exit option, one may wind up stuck in a rather unpleasant situation. Ultimately, while one may wish to stay forever healthy, death remains a desirable option at some point...just in case.