Well, its a little late for me but I'm still up and a little bored (so I'm sorry if this is a stupid thread) and I thought I'd try out a question I've been pondering of late. Namely this:

If you were given the ability, right now, to determine the length of your own life, how long would you give yourself? 100 years? 1,000? Total immortality?

If you have an answer already, that's great; but if you're like me you'll want some more specifics, so here they are:
* The time you pick is relative to your personal frame of reference
* You make the choice now for all time; no changing your mind later (not even via suicide, see below)
* Until the time you set, it will be impossible for you to die by any means. You'll still be subject to injury and disease and all that, but will have the miraculous ability to eventually recover from anything, always returning (given enough time) to a state of relative health. Should you be truly vaporized or sucked into a black hole or some such, you'll just reappear elsewhere instantly...try not to think about it too hard.
* When your set time comes, your body and mind will simply switch off; it will be instant, painless and without any advance warning.

So, how long do you want to live? How long would be too long? And what would you do differently given your pre-set lifespan? Or would you turn down the choice and stick with the unknown date you have now?

Personally, I think I would just stick with the unknown or, if I had to choose, give myself about two centuries. But even that feels risky; if we nuke the earth into a cinder sometime this century, those last decades would be pretty dull, and likely uncomfortable.

I am as curious about the future as I am about the past. I would love to live for centuries (provided I didn't appear to be any older than I am right now) in health just to see what happens.

Much as I would love to live hundreds of years and see what happens next, I don't think I could stand to outlive my children. So even if I had the chance I guess I would stick with my allotted three score and ten.

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A nation of slaves is always prepared to applaud the clemency of their master who, in the abuse of absolute power, does not proceed to the utmost extremes of injustice and oppression.
Edward Gibbon

I feel the same ways you guys go. I hate to think I will not get to see what direction our species will go into once I am gone.

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"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

It doesn't exactly follow the guidelines , but I'd like to choose when I die. I'd like to be immortal (and retain my glorious youth ) up until the point I decide I've been through enough. There's no telling what the future will hold, so I don't think I could just choose a set amount of time to live.

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I don't want to die.

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"Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question."
-Thomas Jefferson in his first inauguration address

Greetings and Felicitations,

I don't intend to die. I am patiently waiting for the next couple of steps in technology. Genetic modification of human evolution to eliminate the death of cells. It is a lot closer than you think. When I have stopped my current state of degradation I plan to wait to get uplifted and then continue my progress until I become an AI God. A modified Turing Scale 6 should do nicely.

For further technical details please contact: Orion's Arm

Lord Vicari

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Dilettante, is this an offer?

Anyhow, I recall a legend about people who don't die when they die and that's not one I'd favor come true. So, to answer the question, I'd like to die when I die

If everyone stayed around to see what direction our species will go, I can tell you right here what direction our species will go

Who hasn't day-dreamed about having a time-machine and visiting future generations?
The curiosity of what lies ahead out-weighs the desire to live forever.

It depends on health etc. To live young or to live old ?

Immortality would be unbearable though.

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______________________Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag.”___________________Alexander Solzhenitsyn

I feel exactly the same. Life would then be a daily torture
I don't want to change anything, the perspective of dying is something I accept well as part of my life.
And I would not be interested in seing how the far future is, I fear I would be highly disappointed.
I would be more interested in going back to the past and being a fly witnessing the important events that made the history of this world.

Well, immortality would totally suck. Eventually, the earth will be nonexistent and you'd find yourself either hanging out on an airless, crispy rock or you'll be floating aimlessly through space for (potentially) eternity.

I'm not sure. I'd like to live a long time, but I could totally imagine reaching a point where I'd just had enough. Plus, watching all your friends and family die and having to live with it would be pretty harsh and might make enjoying your long life a bit difficult. Wouldn't want to live 100 years longer and spend them totally depressed.

I guess I'll stick with what I've got.

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“Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people.” -Dr. Carl Sagan

www.myspace.com/BusinessSocksBand
www.moresay.com

I'm not all too sure when I would want to die, but I know when I would like a few other people to die...

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Obama's New "57 State Patriotic Pin":

At least you've got a plan.