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Comment by krisoft | Hacker News Reader

> Immortality being a curse is a common trope.

The silliness of the trope starts with the notion that once you have gone immortal you can't go back. Somehow you are stuck yearning for the sweet release of death.

In reality life is extremely fragile, maintaining the right conditions to support it requires constant effort. There is no reason to think that any future scientific advance will alter this fundamental fact.

Therefore it is highly likely that whoever achieves practical immortality will be also able to undo their "curse" by simply discontinuing whatever practice keeps them alive.

Also, "forever" doesn't happen all at once. Give me immortality, and then check in with me yearly if I still want it. I will let you know once I'm over it.

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You have substituted immortality with being able to live as long as you want. Fair enough, but you’re just changing the premise. The word immortality has a specific meaning, even if you don’t like what it is.

There are many definitions of immortality. The Oxford definition is "the ability to live forever; eternal life."

That seems to jive with GC's point. The definition is the ability to live forever, not the requirement to live forever.

> Fair enough, but you’re just changing the premise.

Because the "true and cursed" immortality is not on offer. Spending resources to extend our life is a possibility. Spending resources to better understand what aging is and how to extend our youth is. Getting cursed with immortality is not in the cards.

> The word immortality has a specific meaning, even if you don’t like what it is.

Ok. You can have your discussion about your fantasy concepts. They are fun! What should we discuss next? How many duck sized horses we would fight just to avoid being cursed with true immortality? It is all good with me as long as we don't try to draw real world conclusions from said fantasies.

>Give me immortality, and then check in with me yearly if I still want it. I will let you know once I'm over it.

I like the rational attitude. Like you pointed out, somehow people think it's some magic portion that you drink without ever the possibility of going back to being mortal.

> Also, "forever" doesn't happen all at once. Give me immortality, and then check in with me yearly if I still want it. I will let you know once I'm over it.

Immortality as a subscription service—brilliant!

Also kind of a trope. It's a minor plot point in Sandman. Morpheus and someone else were arguing about immortality and how eventually we would all tire of life. So they grant a random guy immortality for as long as he wanted. Every so often, Morpheus checks up on him to see if he's ready to die yet. And he never is. In good times, he's enjoying it too much. In bad times, all he desires is to change his fortune.

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