> Hrm. True enough. I guess I was assuming that the birthrate would drop to (or very near) zero once immortality became a reality, since otherwise it'd be pretty hard to keep population levels in check barring space colonization.

That does present and interesting dilemma: either live forever or procreate. That's pretty much the decision to be made, considering the population boom that would occur in such a circumstance.

It brings to mind something I heard once or twice growing up that I never confirmed to be truth. Is it true that citizens of China are--or were at one time--restricted to having only one child? I understand that population control is a problem they face, but it seems that number of offspring should not be governmentally regulated. Perhaps the particular type of freedom allowed in the United States, which some other nations do not enjoy, has tainted my objectivity a bit, but I believe that the right to procreate is one of those "inalienable rights" either "endowed by our creator" or inherant to our existance, depending on your belief system of course.

This brings to mind another question. In the event that population control would have to be enforced on a global scale, and there was yet no successful colonization of other planets/moons/space stations/etc., would you deny others the right to procreate to exercise your right of immortality?


> But you're right, the very same people who reject immortality would be the people still reproducing. Another thought I had after posting was that there might be a few religious people who would "put off" eventual paradise as it were to continue spreading their particular faith, and religion might live on in that way (and might find acceptance among ancient immortals grown weary of life.)

One more question (hypothetical and speculatory, of course): How long must one live to grow weary of life? I mean, I hear of those in their teens and 20s who claim to have grown weary of life. I might have even thought such a thought once or twice. However, I don't think the act of living is what one has grown tired of in such a case, but rather the circustances of that particular life. On the other hand, I have heard of much more elderly individuals who say that they have grown tired of living, and I find it much easier to belive they are talking about life itself. What causes this? Is it the physical deterioration? The mental fatigue? Something else, perhaps? I don't know that I have ever understood this, unless it is out of a longing for fulfillment of whatever religion/faith one exercises. So then, with the possibility of immortality for those who do not believe in an "afterlife", what would make that person weary of living?

Shandar