Imagine being able to do ANYTHING you wanted, no matter how
dangerous - because brain damage was 100% reparable?
(This is assuming that they could do a complete mapping of
your brain wiring, so you'd keep your memories and skills after
repairs were made.)
For instance, I have an interest in martial arts. Imagine the possibilities
here... imagine I'd been at it for say, 500 years and had been in several
thousand DEATH MATCHES... many of which I'd been KILLED in by
my opponent (especially the early ones!) but had been revived/repaired to go at it again, none the worse for the injuries and lethal-level damage... over and over until I honed it into a SCIENCE...
Imagine what levels of combat mastery I could reach... it would be
cool knowing I could tear apart fifteen 21st-century idiots with my bare hands... each of them armed with bowie knives... with me not getting a scratch! And think about the MENTAL DISCIPLINE I could cultivate. (Move over, Yoda..!)
(Not to mention the more esoteric aspects of these arts, most of
which take an entire (normal human!) lifetime to even get a tentative
grasp on.)
Imagine how insensitive I'd become to PAIN (one true measure of ALL great men, is their ability to ignore pain, is that not so?)
One thing's for sure, I'd be one CONFIDENT S.O.B.!!! And confidence
is the key to ALL good things, is it not?
Imagine... a life where I feared NOTHING, not even death - in a hard-edged, "nasty" world at that! To be GOOD at being a shark, among sharks. Talk about self-validation! (No "greenhouse plant" existence for me. Why would I want to be dependent on the goodwill of OTHERS for my security? Pretty unreliable thing to depend on..!)
But the sort of neural repair technology required for this scenario, is a couple centuries away at least.
Only two ways to get there - reincarnation (which as recoverer points out, might not do ME any good, but some OTHER clown) and cryonics.
Guess I'd better get started on financial planning, so I can afford to be put in the freezer when I die...
And I'll get to the afterlife eventually anyway (even if I lived in C1 for 10,000 years, it still wouldn't be FOREVER), but why be in a hurry about it? If I was in a hurry to get to the "spirit world", I have a nice Winchester 12-gauge in my closet to speed things up... BUT notice I haven't shot myself, and don't plan on it anytime soon?
"Heaven" can wait, methinks... but is this not true for all of you who
read this? (Notice how you haven't killed yourselves yet?)

B-man

Actually, all we need to do is to transplant your brain into a super-computer that could fight all the world's battles at once, and you'd get it all in a single dose, without even needing spare parts. Like my wife keeps saying, "Jack up the navel and slide a new body under it."

As I recall, even in the Lower Astral you can actually cobble this kind of thing together, should you later decide to do it. Might be interesting. Maybe I should look for a report in a few centuries when I'm back.

dave

Actually, all we need to do is to transplant your brain into a super-computer that could fight all the world's battles at once, and you'd get it all in a single dose, without even needing spare parts. Like my wife keeps saying, "Jack up the navel and slide a new body under it."

As I recall, even in the Lower Astral you can actually cobble this kind of thing together, should you later decide to do it. Might be interesting. Maybe I should look for a report in a few centuries when I'm back.

dave
******************
Of course, in the Lower Astral I'd have two major problems, Dave...
#1. I would have no CONSCIOUS MIND, and therefore no free will.
Rather than be able to initiate the self-improvement campaign I mentioned above, I'd
just become another "torture toy" for the established gangs of demons "down there", and I wouldn't learn to be anything better than the cowardly groveling nerd I was in junior high (the worst years of my life!)

#2. Where would the sunsets, beaches full of beautiful young women (the favors of which I'd have at last EARNED!) and the good chow and fine drink be? How about technological stuff like computers and the Internet (a BIG part of the good life to me!) I'd plan on taking some days OFF from training, ya know... all work and no play makes Johnny a dull boy, no??? And with centuries to do this I'd NEED a vacation every now and again. (And NOT in some cold gray "Mictlan"-type wasteland, if you please..!)

B-man