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Pieter

Haha so weird title right? Anyway...
OK so if you are christian like me, you know of a few people who did not die, but for the moment, set them aside.

To be clear, I probably will die. But here is the thing: Does The fact that everyone before us died mean that we will die?
Does the fact that something never happened before make it impossible? If everybody before me have died, then that only proves one thing: Everyone before me died. That does not yet prove that I will die.

So persuade me that I will die... (If you dare... )

Ampersand

OP, I'll meet you in 200 years today at Big Ben and you can tell me how never dying is working for you.

someone234

If you have found the key to immortality and are in connection with the beings of the North Pole, please PM me, I will be very interested in unlocking immortality.

Pieter

Haha that's the spirit. I sure will cc you in the email don't you worry. I haven't found the key yet, so don't get your hopes up just yet!

cdog1950

Disregarding the fact that your first and second paragraphs contain contradictory premises, and assuming that you are human, you will die. The mythology of the Bible does "record" several people who were presumably carried up to heaven and thus avoided biological death. Good luck with that. Some microorganisms appear to be able to cycle between stages of life and may be relatively immortal. Spores may remain viable for thousands of years, but I doubt that you are a spore. Some tree clones appear to be greater than 80,000 years old, but that is not immortal, and I also doubt that you are an aspen?  Human life span maxes out at about 120 years. It is not a matter of how many have died before you, it is a  matter of genetics. Your DNA has developed to allow a life span long enough to raise children to sexual maturity and perhaps assist with grandchildren. Then, the best thing you can do for the species is croak. It's that simple.

Pieter

You are presenting a relevant argument, however all of it is based on past observation.

Your statement: "Human life span maxes out at about 120 years. It is not a matter of how many have died before you, it is a  matter of genetics. Your DNA has developed to allow a life span long enough to raise children to sexual maturity and perhaps assist with grandchildren. Then, the best thing you can do for the species is croak. It's that simple."

Does not apply, because it is based on past observation. In 1900, flying was considered impossible because of past observations, and knowledge based on those observations. A few years later the Wright brothers proved these observations wrong.

An observation can only be used to base knowledge on the past. We can only invent theories on them. I can say: "Since X trillion people before me have died, it is likely that I will." But that puts the probability of me not dying at 1/X Trillion. That sure is a low chance, but nonetheless, it exists. Even though we can say: "According to observations about your body, your cells just won't last that long." But once more, we are using an observation, regarding what happened in previous situations. Once again I will have a chance for eternity.

someone234

Pieter said:

You are presenting a relevant argument, however all of it is based on past observation.

Your statement: "Human life span maxes out at about 120 years. It is not a matter of how many have died before you, it is a  matter of genetics. Your DNA has developed to allow a life span long enough to raise children to sexual maturity and perhaps assist with grandchildren. Then, the best thing you can do for the species is croak. It's that simple."

Does not apply, because it is based on past observation. In 1900, flying was considered impossible because of past observations, and knowledge based on those observations. A few years later the Wright brothers proved these observations wrong.

An observation can only be used to base knowledge on the past. We can only invent theories on them. I can say: "Since X trillion people before me have died, it is likely that I will." But that puts the probability of me not dying at 1/X Trillion. That sure is a low chance, but nonetheless, it exists. Even though we can say: "According to observations about your body, your cells just won't last that long." But once more, we are using an observation, regarding what happened in previous situations. Once again I will have a chance for eternity.

CYDdharta

Pieter said:

Does not apply, because it is based on past observation. In 1900, flying was considered impossible because of past observations, and knowledge based on those observations. A few years later the Wright brothers proved these observations wrong.

Flying was considered impossible in 1900?


Otto Lilienthal - 1893

WilliamSchulz

CYDdharta said:

Pieter said:

Does not apply, because it is based on past observation. In 1900, flying was considered impossible because of past observations, and knowledge based on those observations. A few years later the Wright brothers proved these observations wrong.

Flying was considered impossible in 1900?


Otto Lilienthal - 1893

How about Leonardo da Vinci's drawings of flying objects with similar capabilities?

CYDdharta

WilliamSchulz said:

How about Leonardo da Vinci's drawings of flying objects with similar capabilities?

I was thinking more of people who had actually achieved flight.  If we want to look at manuscripts, we can go back 2 millennia to Gaius Hyginus' myth of Daedalus and Icarus.

anonymousdebater

Eventually, the Sun will burn out and the Heat Death of the universe will occur when it is impossible for any action to occur. You probably can't survive that...

BaconToes

Ampersand said:

OP, I'll meet you in 200 years today at Big Ben and you can tell me how never dying is working for you.

But that would only happen if both of you survive. And what if the Big Ben isn't there after 200 years.

I have a lot of "what if's"

MayCaesar

In theory, all you need to avoid dying is to have the dying/degrading cells replaced with the new, fresh ones regularly. Otherwise your body will slowly age and fall apart, and at some point, even if you have a perfectly healthy lifestyle, it will become inadequate to support itself and give up.

It is my hope that a method for cell refreshment will be developed within my lifetime - but aside from this possibility, we will all die eventually. You are right that there have not been such people in the past does not in itself make immortality impossible, but there are pretty objective reasons making our bodies have a limited lifetime.