"I don't think we need to answer these questions to agree that many people would prefer to live longer than they currently are able."

Certainly, but that's not the issue here. The issue here is immortality. Many transhumanists desire to live forever, literally. Myself included. In fact I believe that many people in general do. Extending the human lifespan to thousands of years would be a great victory already, but that doesn't invalidate the search for true immortality, if people are interested in such which I'm sure some are.

"I have no idea what problems need to be solved to enable people to happily and productively live thousands of years, but I also have no reason to believe they're insurmountable."

Once again you're deviating from the question. I haven't questioned the possibility of living a few thousand years, but forever properly.

"Do I choose between being forced to exist forever, or to die after less than 100 years of existence? Neither. I'd like to have the option to keep living for as long as I want."

I didn't mean being forced to exist forever, or pre-commiting to anything. I meant that I really do WANT to exist forever, yet I can't see a way that it can work. That's the dilemma that I mentioned: to die, ever, even after a gazillion years, feels horrible, because YOU will cease to exist, no matter after how much time. To never die feels just as horrible because I can't see a way to remain sane after a very long time.

Who can guarantee that after x years you would feel satisfied and ready to die? I believe that as long as the brain remains healthy, it really doesn't wanna die. And even if it could reach the state of accepting death, the current me just don't ever wanna cease to exist. Doesn't the idea of inevitably eventually ceasing to exist feel absolutely horrible to you?

" I can’t imagine getting bored with life even after a few centuries."

Ok, but that's not a lot of time, is it? Furthermore, this isn't even a question of time. For me, no finite time is enough. It's the mere fact of ceasing to exist. Isn't it simply horrifying? Even if you live a million healthy years, no matter, the fact is that you will cease to exist one day. And then there will be two options. Either your brain will be "healthy" and therefore will dread death as much as it does now, or it will be "unhealthy" and welcome death to relieve it's poor condition. To me both options seem horrifying - what matters more is that the present me wants to live forever with a healthy, not tired of life, not with dementia or Alzheimer's, sane brain forever.

Like I said in my post, as time tends to infinite, so do memories, so there will inevitably be a time where the brain no longer holds up. Even the best brain that science could buy in a far future, so to speak. It seems that we will have to cease to exist inevitably.

"I’m sure that there will be people that choose to die, and others that choose to deadhead, and those that choose to live with only a rolling century of memories. None of those sound appealing to my imagination at this point."

The latter actually sounds kinda appealing to me, if only I was more convinced that it was possible...

You're coming from a psychologic/spiritual point of view, which is valid. But I think you should perhaps consider a bit more the scientific perspective. Why do people get Alzheimer's and dementia at old age? Because the brain fails to keep up with all the experience/memory accumulation. The brain gets worn out, basically. My concern is more scientific than anything. Even with the best psychotherapy or the best meditation or even the best brain tinkering possible, as time tends to infinite so do memories and so does "work" for the brain to do, and unfortunately the brain is finite, so it will invariably get overwhelmed eventually.

Like, I don't doubt that in a few centuries or millenia we would have invented the technology to no longer get our brains worn out at age 100 but only at 1000 or 5000, but I don't think we'll ever invent the technology to avoid it past age 1 billion (just a gross estimate of course).

Personally, I'm only 30 and I don't feel tired of living at all, fortunately. Like I said, I wanna live forever. But both my intuition and these scientific considerations tell me that it can't remain like that indefinitely.

"So, odds are, you would not need to explicitly delete anything, it fades away with disuse."

I don't know. Even some old people feel overwhelmed with so many memories. The brain does some clean-up, for sure. But I doubt whether it would work for really long timelines.

"So, I don't expect memory accumulation to be an obstacle to eternal youth. Also, plenty of time to work on brain augmentations and memory offloading to external storage :)"

Mind you that your personal identity is dependent on your "story", which has to encompass all your life, even if only the very key moments. My concern is that, as time tends to infinite, so does the "backbone" of memory, i.e. the minimum necessary, after "trimming" with the best technology possible, to maintain personal identity which should include memories from all along the timeline. So the question is whether a finite apparatus, the brain, can keep up with infinite data. Is it possible to remain you while not remembering all your story? And I don't even care about not remembering all my story. I just care about remaining me.

We know that a computer can theoretically function forever. Just keep repairing its parts (same could be done with the brain, no doubt) and deleting excess data. But the computer doesn't have a consciousness / personal identity which is dependent on its data. So computationalism might be leading us astray here. (Yes, I don't like computationalism/functionalism.)

Note: this is all speculation, of which I'm quite uncertain of. Before all the downvotes come (not that I care, but just to make it clear anyway).

It does ring true to me a bit. How could it not, when one cannot imagine a way to exist forever with sanity? Have you ever stopped to imagine, just relying on your intuition, what would be like to live for a quadrillion years? I'm not talking about a cute few thousand like most people imagine when we talk about immortality. I'm talking about proper gazillions, so to speak. Doesn't it scare the sh*t out of you? Just like Valentine says in his comment, it's curious how very few transhumanists have ever stopped to stare at this abyss.

On the other hand I don't think anyone hates death more than me. It truly makes me utterly depressed and hopeless. It's just that I don't see any possible alternative to it. That's why I'm pessimistic about the matter - both my intuition and reasoning really point to the idea that it's technological impossible for any conscious being to exist for a quadrillion years, although not to 100% certainty. Maybe 70-80%.

The ideal situation was that we lived forever but only ever remembered a short amount of time, so that we would always feel "fresh" (i.e. not go totally insane). I'm just not sure if that's possible.

The concern here is not boredom. I even believe that boredom could be solved with some perfect drug or whatever. The concern here is whether a consciousness identity can properly exist forever without inevitably degrading.

Thanks for the feedback (and the back-up). Well, I'd say that half of what I write on Lesswrong is downvoted and 40% is ignored, so I don't really care at this point. I don't think (most of) my opinions are outlandish. I never downvote anything I disagree with myself, and there's plenty that I disagree with. I only downvote absurd or rude comments. I think that's the way it should be, so I'm in full agreement on that.

You also got it right on my main point. That's precisely it. Mind you that "ending" consciousness also feels horrid to me! That's the dilemma. Would be great if we could find a way to achieve neverending consciousness without it being horrid.

"Whatever posttranshuman creature inherits the ghost of your body in a thousand years won't be "you" in any sense beyond the pettiest interpretation of ego as "continuous memory""

I used to buy into that Buddhist perspective, but I no longer do. I think that's a sedative, like all religions. Though I will admit that I still meditate, because I still hope to find out that I'm wrong. I hope I do, but I don't have a lot of hope. My reason and intuition are clear in telling me that the self is extremely valuable, both mine and that of all other conscious beings, and death is a mistake.

Unless you mean to say that they will only be a clone of me. Then you're right, a clone of me is not me at all, even if it feels exactly like me. But then we would have just failed at life extension anyway. Who's interested in getting an immortal clone? People are interested in living forever themselves, not someone else. At least if they're being honest.

"Your offspring are as much "you" as that thousand year ego projection. "

I've been alive for 30 years - not much, I admit, but I still feel as much like me as in the first day that I can remember. I suspect that as long as the brain remains healthy, that will remain so. But I never ever felt "me" in any other conscious being. Again, Buddhist projection. Sedative. Each conscious being is irreplaceable.

Also, what to have for dinner, day after day into infinity would be a challenge.

Soylent on most of the days. Sometimes something different, if you are in a mood for a nice meal.

At least this problem with immortality is already solved.

More like COMO: Certainty of Missing Out.

"Death is the most terrible of all things; for it is the end, and nothing is thought to be any longer either good or bad for the dead." — Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics