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Yeah, I find the need to live forever kind of.. juvenile? You can’t let go of your ego for long enough to realise that at some point it’s better to make room fo

by audunw 2y ago

Yeah, I find the need to live forever kind of.. juvenile? You can’t let go of your ego for long enough to realise that at some point it’s better to make room for a new human with new perspectives and new ideas? I like to think of it this way: if life was a game would you want to play the same character forever? No.. if you’re gonna keep playing the game it’s more interesting to start from scratch now and then. I don’t believe in reincarnation. There’s no need to. What you really are deep down is an instance of humanity. Almost all your genes and all your culture comes from and is shared with other humans. Any new instance (new human) is you playing a new character, essentially. If you’ve contributed to shaping the world you’re leaving behind this is even more true. Unless you’re believe in a soul in the christian/jewish/muslim sense I guess, but then why would you fear death? IMO the pursuit of immortality is far more dangerous and far more likely to kill humanity than AI. At least it may make us deteriorate to insignificance. Humanity is a super organism and we have a name for the phenomenon where parts of an organism figures out how to die and yet still replicates: cancer

tim333 2y ago
We don't need to live forever as shown by the fact we've got by without it so far but death is kind of depressing. I've never really got the distinction that say killing millions in the holocaust is terrible but similar millions dying through age is desirable.
- giantg2 2y ago
  That distinction should be very clear - killing vs dying.
  - tim333 2y ago
    Both are dying. One killed by age one by gas. My grandfather and his brother went those ways. I'm not sure the years of Alzheimer's were much better than Auschwitz.
    - giantg2 2y ago
      You're missing that one is avoidable and was intentionally caused. It's not reasonable to expect to be murdered. It is reasonable to expect to die eventually of some natural cause or accident. It is a necessity that previous generations need to die for the new ones, given constrained resources.

by audunw 2y ago

tim333 2y ago

We don't need to live forever as shown by the fact we've got by without it so far but death is kind of depressing. I've never really got the distinction that say killing millions in the holocaust is terrible but similar millions dying through age is desirable.

giantg2 2y ago
That distinction should be very clear - killing vs dying.
- tim333 2y ago
  Both are dying. One killed by age one by gas. My grandfather and his brother went those ways. I'm not sure the years of Alzheimer's were much better than Auschwitz.
  - giantg2 2y ago
    You're missing that one is avoidable and was intentionally caused. It's not reasonable to expect to be murdered. It is reasonable to expect to die eventually of some natural cause or accident. It is a necessity that previous generations need to die for the new ones, given constrained resources.