3 ms·

> I think, most people who want to be immortal are actually motivated by either the fear of death... How are you not afraid of death? How is anyone not afraid

by m_a_g 2y ago

> I think, most people who want to be immortal are actually motivated by either the fear of death... How are you not afraid of death? How is anyone not afraid of death? This baffles me. I mean, I don't spend my days agonizing over the fact that I will die someday, mainly because it has no use. Chronic anxiety won't help me as long as I take the necessary actions. But I'm sure as hell scared shitless of dying overall. If I were 100 years old and every day was a struggle, sure, I'd want to just get it over with. But I have a really hard time understanding why people won't want to stay 30 years old forever. You, your conscience, the only thing that matters, will cease to exist. If that doesn't strike fear in a person, I don't know what will.

supertofu 2y ago
What is there to be afraid of about death, exactly? If you don't believe in any afterlife or continuation, then there will be no consciousness to perceive the other side of death. If you do believe in an afterlife or continuation, you'll have spent your life preparing accordingly.
- adrianN 2y ago
  For me the problem is not death itself, but the steady decline that usually comes before it. Biologically immortal humans would still die eventually, but there wouldn’t be decades of old age before death.
- Auracle 2y ago
  Because I don’t want to stop existing. I want to be able to see my daughters (and hopefully grandchildren someday) grow up. Sure, once I’m dead it won’t bother me, but I’m alive right now and it does.
jewayne 2y ago
I mean, there are plenty of things that are worse than death. I myself have an informal "anti-bucket list" -- things I want to make sure I die without doing / have happen to me. It's a LOOONG list. Alzheimer's. Paralysis. Elder abuse. Bone cancer. Even identity death. I think anyone who is that terrified of death is doing so from an adolescent "bad things only happen to other people" mindset.
- lainga 2y ago
  If I see any of those coming around the corner, I have intent to make like Ambrose Bierce: get my affairs in order and then go off into harm's way. "If you hear of my being stood up against a Mexican stone wall and shot to rags, please know that I think it is a pretty good way to depart this life. It beats old age, disease, or falling down the cellar stairs."
  - jewayne 2y ago
    I think most people have that thought, but few act on it. And unfortunately, death is not the only harm that can come from harm's way. Stray bullets can find spines and genitals about as easily as they can find hearts.
Lambdanaut 2y ago
Death is just the name we give to the moment when the condensed energy that is moving this system that calls itself a body breaks down into a temporarily simpler state. At some point I'll get caught up in some whirlpool of energy and find myself crawling out of some uterus again as I have time and time again for all of eternity. Yippee.
- alonsonic 2y ago
  So you define yourself as energy? Not your conscience? Because your conscience and sense of self is what most people would describe as gone when you die, and that's where the fear comes from. Energy has no feelings, no conscience, no self...
  - Lambdanaut 2y ago
    > So you define yourself as energy? Not your conscience? No division. > Energy has no feelings, no conscience, no self Where did you get that idea?
    - digging 2y ago
      > Energy has no feelings, no conscience, no self > Where did you get that idea? It is not an idea that one needs to have given to them. It is the simple conclusion of known physics. However, the claim that "energy has consciousness" is a non-obvious idea, which can't be derived from the evidence and mathematics we use to describe the universe. It should be supported if you believe it. It would be an important learning about the universe. That, or you're redefining "energy" as "any system that contains energy," (including a human being, which very few would define as "pure energy"). Is there any meaning to this position you're taking? Does it support predictions about the world? Does it change how you think about the world?
- jewayne 2y ago
  Even if that is true, the actual you is just as assuredly dead.
mensetmanusman 2y ago
The existence of a mind is a property of this mysterious universe that is obvious yet not described by any physical law. We know so little what consciousness is at the age of the universe timescale (and possibly the infinite multiverse, which actually guarantees an infinite number of configurations of you), it’s hard to think that death is the obvious end of you-ness.
r14c 2y ago
I didn't exist for billions of years before I gained consciousness as a child. I'm sure I won't mind not existing for billions of years after my system expires.
- Panzer04 2y ago
  Definitely my favourite perspective on death.

by m_a_g 2y ago

supertofu 2y ago

What is there to be afraid of about death, exactly? If you don't believe in any afterlife or continuation, then there will be no consciousness to perceive the other side of death. If you do believe in an afterlife or continuation, you'll have spent your life preparing accordingly.

adrianN 2y ago
For me the problem is not death itself, but the steady decline that usually comes before it. Biologically immortal humans would still die eventually, but there wouldn’t be decades of old age before death.
Auracle 2y ago
Because I don’t want to stop existing. I want to be able to see my daughters (and hopefully grandchildren someday) grow up. Sure, once I’m dead it won’t bother me, but I’m alive right now and it does.

jewayne 2y ago

I mean, there are plenty of things that are worse than death. I myself have an informal "anti-bucket list" -- things I want to make sure I die without doing / have happen to me. It's a LOOONG list. Alzheimer's. Paralysis. Elder abuse. Bone cancer. Even identity death. I think anyone who is that terrified of death is doing so from an adolescent "bad things only happen to other people" mindset.

lainga 2y ago
If I see any of those coming around the corner, I have intent to make like Ambrose Bierce: get my affairs in order and then go off into harm's way. "If you hear of my being stood up against a Mexican stone wall and shot to rags, please know that I think it is a pretty good way to depart this life. It beats old age, disease, or falling down the cellar stairs."
- jewayne 2y ago
  I think most people have that thought, but few act on it. And unfortunately, death is not the only harm that can come from harm's way. Stray bullets can find spines and genitals about as easily as they can find hearts.

Lambdanaut 2y ago

Death is just the name we give to the moment when the condensed energy that is moving this system that calls itself a body breaks down into a temporarily simpler state. At some point I'll get caught up in some whirlpool of energy and find myself crawling out of some uterus again as I have time and time again for all of eternity. Yippee.

alonsonic 2y ago
So you define yourself as energy? Not your conscience? Because your conscience and sense of self is what most people would describe as gone when you die, and that's where the fear comes from. Energy has no feelings, no conscience, no self...
- Lambdanaut 2y ago
  > So you define yourself as energy? Not your conscience? No division. > Energy has no feelings, no conscience, no self Where did you get that idea?
  - digging 2y ago
    > Energy has no feelings, no conscience, no self > Where did you get that idea? It is not an idea that one needs to have given to them. It is the simple conclusion of known physics. However, the claim that "energy has consciousness" is a non-obvious idea, which can't be derived from the evidence and mathematics we use to describe the universe. It should be supported if you believe it. It would be an important learning about the universe. That, or you're redefining "energy" as "any system that contains energy," (including a human being, which very few would define as "pure energy"). Is there any meaning to this position you're taking? Does it support predictions about the world? Does it change how you think about the world?
jewayne 2y ago
Even if that is true, the actual you is just as assuredly dead.

mensetmanusman 2y ago

The existence of a mind is a property of this mysterious universe that is obvious yet not described by any physical law. We know so little what consciousness is at the age of the universe timescale (and possibly the infinite multiverse, which actually guarantees an infinite number of configurations of you), it’s hard to think that death is the obvious end of you-ness.

r14c 2y ago

I didn't exist for billions of years before I gained consciousness as a child. I'm sure I won't mind not existing for billions of years after my system expires.

Panzer04 2y ago
Definitely my favourite perspective on death.