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Topic #319: Would you rather be able to read other people’s minds, or live forever?

If I had to pick between having the ability to read minds or to live forever, I would probably go with reading minds, for a pretty obvious reason.

If I were to live forever, there’s no mention what will happen to my actual aging. I don’t want to be an old man who only gets older for all of eternity, because as I get older, my body will start to get weaker and less functional, and my older years will be terrorizing more than they would be enjoyable. People with an uncurable disease causing them extreme pain have death as an escape; if this were to happen to me, I would not have that option.

On the other hand, if the prompt specified that my aging process would be frozen and I would never get any older, I would still not want that to happen because I want to age and progress through my life like a normal human, rather than being stuck at a particular point in my life for the rest of my life. It would be great if I could maintain my current health forever, but I’m pretty sure that most people would agree that it doesn’t sound that appealing to be a 19-year-old forever.

Reading minds comes with its benefits as well. It seems like it would be a way to save significant time in my life, because it would eliminate the need for extensive communication. Frequently, it takes a long time for someone to pass on his/her ideas to me, either because it is a complex idea, or simply because the person is bad at explaining concepts in his/her mind. If I was able to read minds, I could get a solid grasp on what the idea is without having to go through the trouble of physically illustrating or describing it.