If you were given 9 lives to live (like a cat only you would be human in all 9 lives and not a cat in any of them) and you had one chance at immortality which would occur in one of those lives and you could pick at the outset which of those lives would contain the one chance at immortality and that is all the information you have to work with...and any whining about the rules will make you lose all 9 lives and the one chance at immortality....then.....would you take the one chance for immortality in the first life relying on beginners luck or would you take it in the last life hoping for accumulated wisdom?

Remember....no whining or you get nothing.

Chownah

Life number 8. Gives me a lot of practice (with a safety net.)

Wow. Great question ! One really has to think about all the choices and ramifications. More information would be helpful (but not within the "rules"), such as, would your experiences/skills and wisdom be carried over into your next life ? Or would you start each life with the slate wiped clean ?

In such case, waiting until life #9 for your chance at immortality wouldn't help much. It would also be likely that you may decide to play "fast and loose" with your first 8 lives, knowing that whatever happens, immortality may be just another dumb accident away.

But what if you took your shot in life #1, and blew it ? Then you would know that you had to live through 8 more lives before the final bell rang.

But, if you did miss your chance in life #1, who's to say you may not get another shot in one of your remaining 8 lives ? After all, you got a chance in this life, maybe your number will come up again somewhere down the road.

Hope does spring eternal in the minds of men.

Taking your chance in lives 2-8 would be the same. You would know (if you lost your chance at immortality) that you only had a couple lives left to live and then it's over for good. The advantage would be though, that by life #2, you would know if your experiences/skills/wisdom do carry over from your previous lives.

I think I would have to agree with NR. Life # 8.

If your "wisdom" and such do carry over, you would have had 7 lives to prepare for your chance at immortality. Then if you blow it, you could spend your 9th life making peace with yourself (and use all that accumulated wisdom and skill to make sure you go out in style !).

Would anyone really want immortality? Living forever means making loads of friends, loving loads of partners, maybe having loads of children and then watching them all grow old and die.

And think of the nostalgia. You'd be sitting there in the year 5391 saying bluddy kids of today all they gotta do is get into a matter transfer chanmber and they are the other side of the galaxy in a blink of an eye. And all they can do when they get there is whine about the visa regulations. In my youth it took massive rocket motors just to lift a few people into low Earth orbit for a few days. As for visa regulations pppfffffftttttt! They don't know they're born.

But that's another point about immortality. At what point in your chosen life do you become immortal? I'm not sure I'd like to spend eternity in diapers and as for achieving the goal at age 87, <deleted> that!

I'M NOT WHINING ABOUT THE RULES, just pointing out some pitfalls in the ultimate prize.

I dunno, I'll have to think about this one. Do you spend 8 lives in suspense on whether you sieze the chance or get it over with in life #1? It would be worse than an eight lifetime run up to your university finals.

This seems to be a no-brainer , so I'm probably missing something.

You have 9 life-times as a given.

You take your "one chance at immortality" in the 9th.

In the previous 8 and a bit you have hopefully gathered a bit of smarts.

At this point there are three possibilities :

You go for it and make it - wuhaaaay !

You go for it and don't make it - <deleted>

You don't even bother because you are so tired of all this sh*t.

I still have a problem with these nine lives apart from being a cat I already have nine so do I get nine squared? Anyway my problem is about this accumulated knowledge and wisdom. Although essential to attain the goal of immortality it has it's downside.

Life #2, you are lying flat on your back totally unable to get to your feet. Despite all your accumulated knowledge you cannot remember ever being this p1ssed. You call out for help but the only sound that emerges from your mouth is some incomprehensible gurgle. Then two giants with halitosis lean over you and say "Ooochy coochy coochy cooo, hubba dubba bubba, iggle wiggle wiggle woo, would little babykins like his/her milk then?"

"<deleted>, milk! Where's my <deleted>' Chang?"

I AM NOT COMPLAINING just working out the fine print and terms and conditions before I sign the contract.

No Chownah...seriously, what is that stuff that you're smoking and who is your dealer?