A philosophical question for the morning...

Soldato
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Was having one of those cack-handed philosophical debates that students seem to specialise in last night, and someone brought up the concept of immortality. We all agreed that it would be terrible to be truly immortal and never die, even at the implosion of the Sun and end of the universe.

However...

If the universe was to end (which presumably it would in the concept of infinite time), would the immortal being be left outside space and time (and therefore logic) and be able to die as the concept of immortality would mean nothing without it?
 
It's like the immovable object and the unstoppable force. You cannot have a truly immortal being in a universe of finite temporal length.
 
I would love to live forever, and yes I realize the downsides (there are also many up sides) but I still want to live forever.

*the above is only if I never get any older than I am now, I don't want to end up as "The Face of Bo!"

And who knows, after the end of everything, something else may happen. :)
 
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An immortal being at the end of time:

Isaac Asimov - The Last Question

For those uninterested in the story:


***SPOILER*** ONLY READ THIS IS YOU WONT READ THE LINKED STORY

And it came to pass that AC learned how to reverse the direction of entropy.

But there was now no man to whom AC might give the answer of the last question. No matter. The answer -- by demonstration -- would take care of that, too.

For another timeless interval, AC thought how best to do this. Carefully, AC organized the program.

The consciousness of AC encompassed all of what had once been a Universe and brooded over what was now Chaos. Step by step, it must be done.

And AC said, "LET THERE BE LIGHT!"

And there was light----
 
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Was having one of those cack-handed philosophical debates that students seem to specialise in last night, and someone brought up the concept of immortality. We all agreed that it would be terrible to be truly immortal and never die, even at the implosion of the Sun and end of the universe.

However...

If the universe was to end (which presumably it would in the concept of infinite time), would the immortal being be left outside space and time (and therefore logic) and be able to die as the concept of immortality would mean nothing without it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega_point_(Tipler)
 
The question is wrong.

The universe cannot end whilst something still exists.

Depends on how you define a Universe and, I know this is against the logic of it, whether you believe there to be something outside the Universe.
 
Isnt the universe defined as existence, the universe isnt a place, if it was then it would be inside something would it not?

So as long as anything exists anywhere then there is a universe.

surely?
 
Time is intrinsically linked to the concept of the universe, without the universe time would not exist. If the universe ceased to exist, time would come to an end.

As an aside - first post, greetings all :)
 
Why not just be immortal until you decide you want to die? That'd be much better :p Just chop off your head or something ;)
 
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