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Comment by BjoernKW | Hacker News Reader

Not enough time? Perhaps, but forever is a long time. Quite possibly it's exactly our limited time that has us achieve great things. If you have all the time in the world why bother starting that business or learning that new skill today? Might as well start tomorrow ...

I also find it at least a bit disturbing that WoW is so high on that list. Then again, if you have all the time in the world ...

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Also, no one is trying for immortality. You will still die, just not from standard health decline. Hack, why not at least try and see what happens, going back to normal dying will be easy (depending on the cure, but most likely).

> going back to normal dying will be easy

Depending on the solution, normal dying might indeed be impossible. I remember a piece of dystopian fiction (I think it was an Outer Limits episode) where characters couldn't even kill themselves anymore because nanobots would instantly repair any damage.

Not that this scenario is extremely likely but there might be ramifications we can't think about yet. Immortality after all isn't a particularly well-trodden path.

[Spoiler alert for Black Mirror]

Black Mirror's "White Christmas" covered a similar theme with uploaded consciousness, where the victim obviously couldn't self-terminate in any way.

The items were not listed in order. I've had a couple spins of playing WoW and DotA, and often times the reason I quit are because there are so many other things I want to do. I work full time, I have a rental property, I have a small business (with my wife), 1 dog, 3 cats, no kids yet, but soon hopefully. We get outdoors, go camping, visit family. Probably getting into sailing next summer. Life's great. Don't get me wrong. But, dang. With "forever" I could get so much done. I'm also fairly patient, and conservative, so with time on my side, the safest investments will pay off well. But, then again, if you have time to work, why not jump into the risky investments. If you lose everything, you can just rebuild. Maybe a hybrid of both approaches. However, if death were cured, then money, investing, and finance would probably change quite radically as well.

I love thinking about this concept. I hope that over the next 20 years, they figure out how to extend life to 125 years, so that then in the following 20-40 years they can extend life indefinitely. Here's to hoping.

I'm unsure if anyone who thinks "there's just not enough time" is the kind of person who would sit around because of their immortality.

There's the rub. The feeling of "There's just not enough time." precisely stems from the fact that our time is limited. If that's no longer given that feeling might disappear from humanity entirely, which in turn could lead to stagnation and ultimately - and ironically - to mankind dying out.

I disagree. I believe that a big reason kids are so good at learning and trying things is that they haven't yet internalized the concept of "not enough time" - there's always shitloads of time; if not today, then tomorrow. If not this summer, then next summer. When you don't have to worry about running out of time, you don't mind blowing it on learning stuff.

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