Which would you rather be?

I'll avoid mentioning my preference because, well, everyone agrees with everything I say.

I want to be what clay akin is.

Immortal.

Invincible means you cannot be defeated, but eventually old age will claim you.

Immortal means you cannot die, or be killed, and you last forever. So it doesn't matter if you suffer a mere defeat which in the grand scheme of things means little.

Umm, elves died at Helm's Deep, and they were immortal.

AndrewB said:

Umm, elves died at Helm's Deep, and they were immortal.

I think the concept of immortal elves in LoTR is stupid.
Irregardless...I chose invincibility. With immortality, I think one would inevitably go insane.

AndrewB said:

Umm, elves died at Helm's Deep, and they were immortal.

That's not the dictionary definition of immortality.

I'd choose immortality over invincibility. Without pain, what is life?

I chose invincibility, because with immortality, you have to face lots of emotional trauma. You will outlive all of those you love, cherish, and hold dear. I wouldn't be able to handle that.

A Dvoraking Virgin Unitarian Canadian.

Immortality.

Of course this means that you'd also see your loved ones die one by one, unless they too were immortal...

Scuba Steve said:

A Dvoraking Virgin Unitarian Canadian.

Look out! Quadruple threat.

This reminds me of a horror film where a wife had three wishes.
Wish 1: To be rich. Result: husband dies, leading to a big life insurance pay-out.
Wish 2: To have her husband back. Result: husband is returned to her, still dead.
Wish 3: For her husband to live for ever and ever and ever. Result: the husband comes back to life, enbalming fluid already filling his body, and lives forever, perpetually in extreme agony.

Anyway, immortality on its own doesn't sound too tempting; some further powers would be needed.

SlowMotionHobo said:

I chose invincibility, because with immortality, you have to face lots of emotional trauma. You will outlive all of those you love, cherish, and hold dear. I wouldn't be able to handle that.

That is exactly how I see it. :D

Plus, with invincibility I can humm the Super Sonic or invincibility shield theme everywhere I go! :D

But of course not have invincibility to everything, for age can kill me...Or endless pits, even with invincibility, I always watch out for those. :D

DooMBoy said:

... unless they too were immortal...

You have a point, if my significant other and loved ones were immortal too, then I too would choose such. :D

Oh oh, also, if one were immortal, how would they Age? Would they age at all? That boggles my mind.

BlackFish said:

I want to be what clay akin is.

Gay?

Immortal

doesn't invincibility imply immortality? wouldn't you be invincible against the aging process?

anyone who votes for immortality has to read one of the Tales From The Crypt comic i've got where a man asks a voodoo shaman for immortality. the guy ends up getting cancer, and the cancer eats up his entire body and becomes this huge blob of cancerous tissue, and it won't die because he's immortal.

just because you're immortal doesn't mean you will stay in the same form. imagine rotting away while you're still alive.. yuck

Invincible. Although being stuck here forever would be horrible.

But just think, you could start flamewars with DeeP, AndrewB, DooMBoy, ShadowRunner, etc., certain in the knowledge that you'd emerge the winner.

The question is an interesting one indeed. Invulnerability and immortality are not necessarily bound together, and if I could choose only one of them, it would be a tough choise indeed.

Immortality means I can theoretically get an eternal lifespan, but a passing car can kill me when I the least expect it. Would it not be stupid to gain immortality and die two years later? However, if I can avoid all these, I will live to see so much, I will be able to learn many interesting things, and since I'm not invulnerable, I can choose to end my life when I want (presumably it will get boring after several millennia).

Invulnerability on the other hand... I may be limited to 60-100 years, but at least I can do everything I want. Think about it... I can win wars against armies of millions on my own. I will be able to eventually rule the planet. But then, just when I'll start liking it, I will have to go.

So "Can't decide" is my vote.

But this is all academic. For none of you people will get a chance to claim either of these, and I already have both, so there.

Heh, ever see that one Twilight Zone where the guy sells his soul to the devil for immortality, then he kills someone and gets a life sentance? Man, that show was awesome.

Grazza said:

This reminds me of a horror film where a wife had three wishes.
Wish 1: To be rich. Result: husband dies, leading to a big life insurance pay-out.
Wish 2: To have her husband back. Result: husband is returned to her, still dead.
Wish 3: For her husband to live for ever and ever and ever. Result: the husband comes back to life, enbalming fluid already filling his body, and lives forever, perpetually in extreme agony.

That's the same setup as "The Monkey's Paw".

Anyway, immortality would be better. Somehow, it'd lead me to use better judgement with my power and I probably would have the option to kill myself should life become to wearisome.

What Ravage said..

Danarchy said:

Heh, ever see that one Twilight Zone where the guy sells his soul to the devil for immortality, then he kills someone and gets a life sentance? Man, that show was awesome.

That would sux0r :p

Job said:

That's the same setup as "The Monkey's Paw".

Yes, very similar, but with a nastier ending. BTW, "wish 2" wasn't quite as silly as I described it; it was that he should become exactly the way he had been just before the accident - but it turned out he had died of a heart attack, and that had caused the accident.

Anyway, surely if you're immortal you can't kill yourself, or be killed in an accident or whatever. And come to think of it, being invincible doesn't mean you'll win anything - just that you can't ever be defeated. Two invincible guys arm-wrestling would make great television. :p

Invincibility is not the same as invulnerability. Invincibility is the property of being impossible to defeat, invulnerability is the property of being incapable of being hurt. And neither of the two says anything about the aging process either.

Clearly two different ideas. Don't get all of these confused.

Omnipotent.

Potent.

Sterile.

As I see it, immortality doesn't imply invincibility or invulnerability by itself, but if you aren't a lazy ass you may gain either, given immortality first. Impending death is the time limit that limits our potential. Think of how much you could learn and how much you could engineer yourself given an infinite amount of time to do so. As long as you remained determined to keep growing and learning, you would eventually be more knowledgeable and powerful than any mortal, thus making you invincible (unless there are other immortals).

AndrewB said:

Umm, elves died at Helm's Deep, and they were immortal.

When elves die their spirits go to the halls of Mandos, so they actually do live forever.

nerd!

I wouldn't want to live forever, so I'll pick invincible I guess.

Invincible.