h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Jonathan Swift had an isle of immortals in "Gulliver's Travels." They became more and more emaciated, had few social interactions, and didn't seem to think living so long was worth it.

There hasn't been a world war in almost 70 years, so the streets aren't full of amputees. I'll bet the victims of wartime injuries weren't keen on the idea of living forever, either.

The most enthusiastic proponent of a greatly expanded lifespan is a billionaire who seems to want more time in which to spend his fortune. People who don't know where their next meal is coming from may not be eager to face an infinity of uncertainty.

But go ahead and enjoy immortality if you have a plan for making it enjoyable.

But what happens when a brain gets full?

How long would that take?

I'd take immortality on one condition - that there existed the option to end my life when I chose to. Immortal but not indestructible, then. Absolutely.

True immortality without escape, though, would be mind-shatteringly dull, as your perspective on life would be that there had been an all-too-brief blink of interesting stuff right at the very, very beginning, lasting a scant couple of trillion years, then aeon upon aeon of basically nothing happening at all in the all-enveloping cosmic dark. To a large extent, it would be functionally indistinguishable from death in any case.

I'd like to live forever. My opinion might change over time, of course, but there's a lot I'd like to see. The colonisation of Europa, for example.

>> But what happens when a brain gets full?

How long would that take? <<

About 18 years give or take five. From what I can tell the brain loses its plasticity after teenagehood and settles down into a stable state. At that point learning new facts & figures becomes more difficult and relies on strategies that make use of what you have already developed during your childhood - teenagehood.

I'm more than 18 and I can remember things that happened recently. So my brain is not full. There appears to be no limit to the amount people can remember.

And the sun isn't dying. It is only half way through its 10-billion-year hydrogen burning phase. So your son can relax.

surely halfway through would be on the downward slope..imagine the birthday cards, the last 5 billion years are the worst!

Mind you, if I'm going to live forever, I can look forward to seeing the sun turn into a Red Giant in about 5 billion years' time. It should grow big enough to engulf Mercury, if not Venus.

It is said that if you don't learn language in your childhood it will be very difficult for you to learn language from scratch in adulthood. Similarly if you don't learn a second language in childhood it will be very difficult to learn a second language in adulthood. This suggests there is a change in how the brain stores facts and figures in childhood compared to adulthood and it is generally recognised that the childhood brain is geared to learning facts & figures and the adult brain less so.

But you will have an eternity to let it sink in

The trouble is that the older you get, the more song lyrics there are in your head blocking out other stuff you *should* be remembering. Or is that just me?

I'm with Hoo on the get-out clause. There was a TV programme (Dr Who, maybe?) where an immortal baddie was crushed like a car and you were left with this squashed cube with a blinking eye. Scares the heck out of me!

But just think of all the people you could insult

Deb

Can you be scared without thinking?

Google glass and its many successors will sort that out

I've heard that a 2-year-old has 50% more brain cells than an adult. Once they've done the job of learning the language, they die off.

But an adult has developed a way of information abstraction which allows a huge amount of data to be memorised, much more than a child, who tends not to abstract and as a result must fill up their brains with lots of irrelevant detail.

Most children reorganise their brains from "remember everything" to "remember abstracted summaries" at about age four, which is why most of us can't remember anything before our fourth birthdays, although some of us can remember almost continuously from age 4 onwards.

"The trouble is that the older you get, the more song lyrics there are in your head blocking out other stuff you *should* be remembering. Or is that just me?" [Deb]

I learn new music two or three times a year for performances, and I'm 65. Granted it's harder than it used to be, but I can reliably manage to do it. Does anyone remember the movie documentary "Young At Heart", which was about some elderly singers in Northampton [Massachusetts] who learned rock music and performed it concerts? If they can do it, probably anyone except those with dementia can.

It's the effort that counts. Elderly people who try to learn new languages are better off for it even if they don't do it very well. The brain needs the exercise at any age.

If i was going to live forever I would want some others that I'm close to to live forever too....
in a mad scientist sort of way where I get to pick who lives forever
but then those people like my sons they will grow up and make connections and might not want to live forever... or might want there family with them too... and then eventually everyone is living forever and it's a bit too loud and I'll turn myself off thank you very much...


only then that's not forever that's just a very long time isn't it?

as I dont particularly enjoy the heat or too much sunshine, suppose there's always the vampire route to immortality and if you do get bored just go out midday without the factor 5mil?

If everyone wanted to live for ever ... then what? Viva la revolution!

Population control lottery, planet without kids eventually, certainly wouldn't want to be a part of that.