No, but I wouldn't want to live for 1000 years regardless of how I looked. Sounds exhausting.

I totally agree with desjardins.

In fact, I once used that line of thinking with a couple of my Jehovah's Witness friends who believe that after Judgment Day, all true believers (except for the chosen 144,000 who will ascend to heaven) will "live forever in paradise on Earth"...

I said "Why would we want to live forever? Wouldn't we get bored?" But maybe I just suffer from a lack of imagination, or I'm not forward-thinking enough.

What desjardins said.

I would not want to live for 1000 years. Noooooo. It's funny, there's a lady at our church who is 87, and every time I see her, she says, oh, being old is the pits! She hates being old, feeling trapped by her body, seeing all her friends die. And she's only 87. Imagine how 870 would feel.

I'd go for it. I'm only 45 and I can already see how decades go by like chapters in a book. And they're all so different from each other! 100 chapters instead of (at best) 10? Oh hell yeah.

Also, physical beauty is great in the short term, but you can overcome the lack of it in the long term. You'll get laid eventually, and probably learn how to do it often, with that amount of time to learn what makes a person attractive on many other levels. The question says you could be any physical age you chose- I'd choose 30, I think, and it would be a hell of a ride.

So all of you that don't want to live for 1000 years: why not? It doesn't seem to be the "be ugly" part bothering any of you so far. Why not, then?

I wouldn't. 1,000 years would be a lonely time. Imagine, everyone you loved would be long dead.

I think it would be lonely. I also think it would be boring. Think of how boring people younger than you are (in general, not at the individual level). Imagine how boring it would be when everyone on earth was younger than you!

Having lived through a time where almost everybody I knew died, I'll say this: it's survivable. And in my case, it didn't quench my curiosity to see "what happens next." More experience = more pain, for sure, but it also = more wonderful moments. New people you never knew before, and you'll love them as much as the ones who are gone. Not as replacements, but just as a continuation.

i think that in one of the Dune books the guy has lived for a very long time as a worm. and it seems to pretty much suck because he's in love with a chick but can't do anything because while he has human feelings, he has no human body parts anymore.

i would love to live for a long time to see how the world changes, but the world will always change. jack from torchwood seems pretty tortured by the way his loves have had to have been left behind.

I'm terrified of death and love to read, so I'd go for the 1000 years. Presumably there'd still be new books coming out to read and I'd want to read them.

Absolutely. I'm already 5.2% of the way there.

I would do this in a second.

Let's say you didn't have to leave your loved one behind. While it's romantic to think that love lasts forever, and I generally believe in monogamy, I'm not honestly sure I want to be married to the same person for ONE. THOUSAND. YEARS.

Just think - Mick and Keef would write songs about you. (Although come to think of it, perhaps Keef has already agreed to the deal himself.)

Let's say you didn't have to leave your loved one behind.

The fun of these kind of questions is that you get to define your own rules... and I say you WOULD have to leave your loved ones behind. You're the only immortal one. Is that better, or worse, in your case?

perhaps Keef has already agreed to the deal himself

I mean, yeah, now that he's made it this far the next 900 years should be a jog.

I'd do it, BP, in a heartbeat. Yes, I'd miss my loved ones, but that's going to happen anyway. And I think 30 is a good age, not too young, not too old.

You're the only immortal one. Is that better, or worse, in your case?

That might help, because then I could boss everyone around as the voice of experience.

I would not do it, one because I do not want to be extremely physically ugly and two because I really think life only makes sense if it is finite -- that is, for me, the fact that life ends is what pushes me to make meaningful contributions while I can -- and 1000 years is long enough not to feel very finite.

Meh. I'm already bored with a lot of human behaviour and the same things just happen in different guises. I doubt a thousand years would make it any more exciting. It just sounds boring and tiring.

They all say that the first 100 years.

I think I'd do it, though I'd want to know what "extremely ugly" meant. Like, skull-faced with maggots crawling out of my eyes, or what?

Dick Cheney's hairy ass with a really big nose.

What is "The thing that haunts Dubya's nightmares", Alex?

I'm already extremely ugly. And I'm pro-death, in that I think it's the only thing that saves us from having someone like Dick Cheney in charge of us for ever and ever.

I'll meet you halfway. Average looking and 500 years. Sold.

Bring on the ugly! I'd love 1,000 years to create beauty.

Besides, your subjective experience of 1000 years would only amount to a 5% increase in life span.

I admit, I'm with Jessamyn on this one: in a second.

Whomever said the thing about the books? Yeah, that's why I'd do this. Also, even if I were extremely physically ugly, I think I'd know how to work that to my advantage with clever pseudonyms, funky masks, etc.

One thing I learned when going to my first actual real BDSM club on the East Coast? Beauty is really in the eye of the beholder.

No. As I've gotten older, it is hard enough to register the change in how people view me. Getting very old and being very ugly - people would be repulsed, and that would hurt too much.

I'm with fleacircus: what kind of ugly? Since we're making our own rules, I'd say yeah, I'd go for it. I'd have surgery to minimize the uglies first thing. Hell if I live 1000 years they'll have that face transplant thing perfected well before then.

& I agree that 30 is a good age to lock in - we can still bounce back from illness at that age, but we're over the severe naivete of youth by then.

Also, I'd establish a chatgroup for all the other ugly 1000 year olds.

I want more life, fucker! Where can I sign up? I'm already pissed off that I'm (at least) half way through my life. I'm never going to finish my reading list or get through half the projects that I've planned.

And think of the compound interest that you'd accrue in 1000 years.

I wouldn't want to do it. Living that long would involve too much loss, deception (if you didn't want to end up the subject of intense scientific scrutiny), and general weirdness with other people.

This will be a great question to ask my housemate over a bottle of wine - two things he wants are to live forever and be beautiful. It'll be interesting to see which way he falls.

I think I would want to live longer than a hundred years if I could move around and not lose my mind. 1000 years is a long time. I think it could be a very lonely existence. I do want to see what is coming next. I'm not sure I would trade it for extreme physical ugliness.

I would love to live a thousand years. Just to see all the changes in the world. In just a hundred years, so much has changed, imagine a thousand. We could be traveling around the galaxy by then (Star Fleet, here I come). I could try out a bunch of different careers, too -- writer, scientist, politician (there have been plenty of ugly politicians). I'd never be bored. There's so much to see and learn. Imagine how good a musician I could be with a thousand years of practice? And I imagine I, and others, would get used to the ugliness (though, I must admit, "extreme" ugliness gives me pause, but I think it's still worth it). In terms of age, 22 would be nice. Physically, I felt great at 22.

I bet even a thousand years would still go fast, though.

I bet even a thousand years would still go fast, though.

That was my first thought.

I'll meet you halfway. Average looking and 500 years. Sold.
Yeah, I could handle that, too. 1,000 years, regardless of beauty? I don't think so.

Wasn't this discussed in the Vampire Lestat?

I would totally do this. I think I'd rather live longer than be attractive. These days I could easily hide out on the internet and make friends with people who wouldn't be bothered by my ugliness.

Except that, long before your 1,000 years is up, people will be able to see you on the Internet.

On the upside, you might actually get your flying car ...

the longer you live, the more you forget, so you won't even be much of a font of wisdom to people. And you get to see each new generation make exactly the same mistakes as the all the ones before.....it would be like being god but being helpless.

I'm with BoringPostcards, I've already outlived all my close relations, apart from my daughter and 4 of my grandmother's siblings (I see one of them maybe 2 - 4 times a year, the other 3 I see every 3-4 years at funerals). That's it for family.
I don't know if I'd feel any lonelier in 1000 years than I do now.

Friendships come & go, some last longer than others. Some friendships fade, friends die, move away, drift apart. You meet new friends. I'm sure if I was 800 years old I would miss many people, but I would hope to still be forming & maintaining relationships with new friends.

Hopefully they wouldn't care how ugly I was.

The key question is aging. If I was aging every day, and had an achy body, osteoporosis, arthritis, etc and just kept on getting physically older but being immortal, I would not be interested.
If I could remain at a relatively healthy physiological age (20 - 50?) I might be up for it, but I'd like "ugly" to be clarified.

This is a question I've thought about quite a bit before. The novel Jitterbug Perfume made me wonder about this, as does Doctor Who, especially the "romance" between the Doctor & Rose, which I thought was pretty unbelievable. Love is never predictable, but the 800(give or take) year old Doctor falls for 18yo not that bright earth girl Rose? REALLY?! Rose?! Of all people? Yeah, OK, cute blonde, but wow, that's babysitting not dating.
Given that long a life span, I'd imagine I'd have heaps of time to seek out the brightest, most interesting people in their fields and get to know them.
With 1000 years I ought to be able to build up some income generating investments & be financially secure enough to seek out pursuits that interest me.
I'd read so many books, watch so many movies/DVD box sets, learn languages, master instruments, try to influence powerful figures to change the world (hopefully for the better unless I do go nuts), reach nirvana via meditation, play every iPhone game I've ever downloaded, study as many disciplines as I wanted - become specialist in multiple fields of medicine, law, engineering, physics, chemistry. I'm sure I could find projects to keep me occupied.
Perhaps I'd learn more patience & find a passion for teaching & share some of millennium of knowledge, or maybe I'd just find a favourite pub & sit in the corner & watch the young people between reading 3010 posts to Mefi & MeCha on whatever the internet has developed into.

When I started typing I wasn't sure if I would choose to live 1000 years, but I think I've just talked myself into it.

SIGN ME UP, BORINGPOSTCARDS!

Also, I just watched a doco about children with Noma. Those kids were so inspiring, so beautiful & graceful even with such disfigurement. I'd get myself a collection of pretty scarves to cover my ugliness if necessary, but I reckon I could still get laid/married even if I was deformed.

Yes, I have previously over-thought this before. Bloody Russell T Davis.

Oh, and The Hunger with Catherine Deneuve, Susan Sarandan & David Bowie.

I know that I'll never be any smarter than I already am, so although I may get to learn new things, which can be lots of fun, I still wouldn't become an actual expert on anything...I suppose you would have to enjoy learning and not mind forgetting. You can't keep learning all kinds of new languages and new instruments year after year without forgetting most of it.