Is anyone baffled by the thought of their own death?

[Meatbot]

Wow, thanks. I can actually take comfort in that. BTW what is quantum immoratlity?

It's a idea related to consciousness and the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. If the universe is constantly splitting, then so are you and so is your consciousness. But "you" only experience one of those branches. What if there is a situation where the universe is about to split and in one branch you are dead while in the other you are not? The idea is that you might have to experience the one in which you are still alive since it's the only one in which you can experience anything. So every time you might die, there is a possible universe where you are somehow miraculously saved and you would need to experience that one. We would need to know more about how the universe decides which version you experience I guess.

There are only two ways that I can think of to test this, neither of which are palatable.
1) If you tried to kill yourself, you would always fail from your perspective. You could try to do it over and over and you'd always find that you somehow survived. This is the quantum suicide idea. Not advocating that you try this though.
2) Wait and see if you get to be 1,000 years old and have survived multiple accidents and events that might have killed you but didn't.

 

[solidon]

It's a idea related to consciousness and the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. If the universe is constantly splitting, then so are you and so is your consciousness. But "you" only experience one of those branches. What if there is a situation where the universe is about to split and in one branch you are dead while in the other you are not? The idea is that you might have to experience the one in which you are still alive since it's the only one in which you can experience anything. So every time you might die, there is a possible universe where you are somehow miraculously saved and you would need to experience that one. We would need to know more about how the universe decides which version you experience I guess.

There are only two ways that I can think of to test this, neither of which are palatable.
1) If you tried to kill yourself, you would always fail from your perspective. You could try to do it over and over and you'd always find that you somehow survived. This is the quantum suicide idea. Not advocating that you try this though.
2) Wait and see if you get to be 1,000 years old and have survived multiple accidents and events that might have killed you but didn't.

The whole problem with quantum immortality is that in the vast majority of scenarios with serious accidents you survive you end up disfigured, crippled, in pain, etc. not pleasant. you can also lose your memories along the way. Only a minuscule amount of the alternates do you come out truly unscathed.

As for my problem with death, it is that it is not certain what the outcome will be, after all what keeps us being ourselves are the patterns/arrangements of our brains not the matter that composes them(given that it is being recycled/replaced constantly.). And patterns can always pop-up again.

The lack of control is what mostly bothers me, and the knowledge that my memories are likely going to be thrown in the garbage bin, seeing as while still alive they can be easily lost, no reason to expect that after death if somehow a similar enough pattern pops up
it will miraculously have all ones memories. I'd personally prefer immortality and godlike powers to enjoy existence at my whim without having to worry about threats, uncertainty , unecessary suffering and forceful memory loss.

 

[Meatbot]

The whole problem with quantum immortality is that in the vast majority of scenarios with serious accidents you survive you end up disfigured, crippled, in pain, etc. not pleasant. you can also lose your memories along the way. Only a minuscule amount of the alternates do you come out truly unscathed.

That is one scary aspect of it, yes. However, it might be that the mangled ones are not the most common survival scenarios in the future. Perhaps the most likely one then is that you are saved or brought back from death and stitched up by advanced medical technology. Perhaps the situation can be so severe that only advanced tech could keep you alive. What if an asteroid fell on your head? There'd be basically zero chance for a mangled suvival and a better chance for a technology-based survival of some sort. Maybe the Centaurians beam you to Neptune Base 5 just in time. That's ridiculous, but if it's the most likely survival scenario and you must experience a survival scenario then that's what you'd probably see. Of course, maybe you'd just be dead.

 

[Arkarian]

i don't think death is baffling, what's more baffling is what comes after it
you get sad by thinking about your death, then imagine that after you die, your mind remains, and you get to some sort of place where you are the only one there, so you are conscious but you are the only thing there is, you don't have a body, you can't see anything, all there is is just blackness...

 

[PlasmaSphere]

Wow, thanks. I can actually take comfort in that. BTW what is quantum immoratlity?

I'm not so sure about quantum immoratality, but it seems to be based on quantum consiousness concepts.

http://www.quantumconsciousness.org/

I spent twenty years studying how computer-like structures called microtubules inside neurons and other cells could process information related to consciousness. But when I read The emperor’s new mind by Sir Roger Penrose in 1991 I realized that consciousness may be a specific process on the edge between the quantum and classical worlds. Roger and I teamed up to develop a theory of consciousness based on quantum computation in microtubules within neurons. Roger’s mechanism for an objective threshold for quantum state reduction connects us to the most basic, “funda-mental” level of the universe at the Planck scale, and is called objective reduction (OR). [..continued]

 

[eastside00_99]

i don't think death is baffling, what's more baffling is what comes after it
you get sad by thinking about your death, then imagine that after you die, your mind remains, and you get to some sort of place where you are the only one there, so you are conscious but you are the only thing there is, you don't have a body, you can't see anything, all there is is just blackness...

thats the primitive way to get rid of the fear of death...fear something greater...

 

[Meatbot]

imagine that after you die, your mind remains, and you get to some sort of place where you are the only one there, so you are conscious but you are the only thing there is, you don't have a body, you can't see anything, all there is is just blackness...

There is no reason to think the mind survives the death of the body. That seems not worth worrying about. Even if it were true, wouldn't you quickly begin to hallucinate as people do under sensory deprivation? What if that state was meditative, like when the buddhists clear their mind? Maybe it wouldn't be as bad as you think.

 

[PeteKL]

For me death would mean no more smelling, hearing, touching, seeing, thinking, feeling or tasting. I can't imagine such a way of being but that could be how it is. I think of death everyday because I have too much free time on my hands.

 

[_Mayday_]

There are only two things guaranteed in life, death and income tax.

If you want something depressing to think about, unless you turn into an Einstein before your death, in a 100 odd years you will be forgotten, not a single person on this Earth will think about you, and probably not know who you are either.

 

[moving finger]

There are only two things guaranteed in life, death and income tax

and even the latter is not guaranteed - I pay no income tax.

 

[elmobile]

life and death!

there is neither birth nor death - they are merely human concepts. Reality only exists right here right now - all else is speculation. Leave 'life' to life and 'death' to death. Whatever you think about life after death will be wrong because it's just thinking and reality is beyond thinking.

 

[Holocene]

Life is but the blink of an eye. For billions of years our consciousness lay dormant, and then one day we find ourselves thrust into the here and now, perhaps oblivious to just how fast it’s all leading back to the same state of nothingness from which we arrived.

It may ways, it’s quite sad. Our lives are truly just a brief glimpse of a universe so far beyond our level of understanding or appreciation. Even a lifetime of a million years, simply wouldn’t be enough to appreciate all that the universe has to offer. What we make of this life is far more than likely all we can ever hope to accomplish, and all too often I cannot help but feel like I’ve already fallen short; forever cut off from second chances by the inescapable flow of time.

In other ways, perhaps we are more fortunate than we could ever hope to imagine. As has been described by Richard Dawkins:

“We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they’re never going to be born. The number of people who could have been here in my place, but who will in fact never see the light of day, outnumber the sand grains of the Sahara. In the face of these stupefying odds, it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here”.

Looking at it like that, maybe ever person who has ever lived has hit some sort of cosmic jackpot. But what then of young children burned in Nazi furnaces, or those consumed from cancer during their first few years alive? Cases like these are in the millions, and none ever had the opportunities I’ve taken for granted, or have simply thrown away.

Upon contemplating these thoughts, I truly wish there was something beyond death. But, for all our observation of the physical world, that just doesn’t seem to be the case. What we see may truly be exactly what we get.

If we’re wrong about that, we’ll eventually come to know it. If we’re right about that, we’ll fade away and never know of it again.

In so many ways, life really is but a dream.

 

[PlasmaSphere]

In so many ways, life really is but a dream.

Life is but a dream within a dream in which we wake up upon death. -Edgar Allen Poe

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I usually fear how I am going to die. I would hate a violent death or dying slowly of a degenerating disease. What is the best way to die? What are the odds?

 

[basePARTICLE]

I usually fear how I am going to die. I would hate a violent death or dying slowly of a degenerating disease. What is the best way to die? What are the odds?

Something like mountain climbing, if you are not already an avid climber. The trick is to over-reach yourself, when you think that time has arrived!

 

[HallsofIvy]

Shot by a jealous husband?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Shot by a jealous husband?

That depends on what he shoots.

 

[Astronuc]

I usually fear how I am going to die. I would hate a violent death or dying slowly of a degenerating disease. What is the best way to die? What are the odds?

Well, when I die, I think I'll just die. And if I don't like it, I'll do something else.

Seriously, in the end, I think finding a nice hillside and watching a sunset would be a nice way to go. As for disposal of the body, well I'm partial to Evo's suggestion of letting the vultures (let Nature take her course) take care of it, otherwise I'd prefer cremation.

 

[Holocene]

Life is but a dream within a dream in which we wake up upon death. -Edgar Allen Poe

I like that. Sig worthy...

 

[turbo]

Shot by a jealous husband?

At the age of 90...on the downstroke. (Stolen from George Burns)

 

[lisab]

At the age of 90...on the downstroke. (Stolen from George Burns)

At age 86, in a tragic bungee-jumping accident.

 

[Evo]

Falling asleep outside in my glider chair, admiring my garden.

 

[binzing]

Sleeping would be my preferred method.

 

[Sarah_Heck]

Another question is what would make a person choose to die? I recently lost a close friend of mine to suicide, so this has been on my mind a lot lately.

 

[Astronuc]

Another question is what would make a person choose to die? I recently lost a close friend of mine to suicide, so this has been on my mind a lot lately.

Sarah, I'm sorry to hear of the loss of your friend.

I believe for some that the pain (despair) of living becomes too great and that death seems to be the only release. Some folks can deal with an enormous adversity or pain, and continue, but others cannot.

 

[Huckleberry]

After nearly being obliterated by a meteorite I am infected with alien fungal spores. I spend weeks quarantined in a medical facility being examined by doctors, who discover the only remedy is to consume radioactive material. I will be the only man in the world prescribed plutonium for medicinal purposes. I get a job at a nuclear waste disposal facility until I am abducted by terrorists demanding I give them plutonium. I die of an anyerism while sitting on the toilet wondering if I should fold or scrunch.

 

[KooCmstr]

After nearly being obliterated by a meteorite I am infected with alien fungal spores. I spend weeks quarantined in a medical facility being examined by doctors, who discover the only remedy is to consume radioactive material. I will be the only man in the world prescribed plutonium for medicinal purposes. I get a job at a nuclear waste disposal facility until I am abducted by terrorists demanding I give them plutonium. I die of an anyerism while sitting on the toilet wondering if I should fold or scrunch.

Lawl.

Seriously, I do believe there may be SOMETHING after death, what that is we have no way of knowing. I believe that our consciousness and personal realities far transcend our physical bodies and brains.

 

[a2tha3]

Lawl.

Seriously, I do believe there may be SOMETHING after death, what that is we have no way of knowing. I believe that our consciousness and personal realities far transcend our physical bodies and brains.

You can believe in anything really.

Hell, I can believe there is a big spaghetti monster up in the sky who urinates to make it rain. Doesn't exactly make it true. Just because a lot of people think something is real, doesn't mean it is; for example thousands of people claim to have seen UFOs (extraterrestrials), and thousands of people also don't believe that the Holocaust happened.

I hope you get the point I'm trying to convey, but back to the topic question... I personally am not baffled by the thought of my own death because I am unafraid to die. I have nothing to lose and nothing can mess with me.

Maybe it's because of the nerves of steel I've developed combined with the death which has plagued my family in recent years..

Someone asked the question "what is life" or something like that. I didn't bother to quote it however My response to that is life is being able to think or being able to move. I'm assuming someone will ask something like when someone stops breathing but their brain is still working, and provide my pre-emptive response of if it is working, then it is moving slightly.

As for the best way to die for me it would be any way that didn't involve pain.

--Remember any day is a good day to die. No day is a good day to throw your life away.-- (I have no idea who said that, but i think it is a pretty wise statement)

 

[easyrider]

http://discovermagazine.com/2005/jul/extreme-states/?searchterm=near death experience

http://discovermagazine.com/2006/dec/god-experiments/?searchterm=near death experience




Looks like science is getting fairly close to proving NDEs/OOBEs are made by the brain. I don't know about yall but I've believed there wasnt a soul all along.

 

[Holocene]

Looks like science is getting fairly close to proving NDEs/OOBEs are made by the brain. I don't know about yall but I've believed there wasnt a soul all along.

The concept of a "soul" is a remnant of earlier times, when humans had not yet understood the various organs and systems within the body. When someone died, it really did appear to them that something had "left" the body, as the reason for someone to suddenly stop moving wasn't easily explained any other way. Sure people knew that if you crushed someones head with a rock, that the person would stop moving, perhaps forever. But they still didn't know WHY that happened, or what processes within the body were at fault.

Today, belief in a "soul" is just another religious belief that continues to defy rationality and logical thinking.

 

[P4PPY]

As long as you can keep the brain alive, you remain 'alive' correct? You may not be able to communicate, interact or even post on PF. Your body will decompose and be returned to mere particles.

Give it 100 years and our grandchildren will be nothing more than floating heads in a jar, hopefully by then scientists will have constructed some method of communication that does not require a physical presence.

(Think telepathy)

If the mind were to be able to communicate via telepathy, we would achieve everlasting life. We could communicate with others, move objects and complete daily tasks via telepathic commands to an artificial body.

The human body is nothing more than a tool our minds use to communicate and transport goods with. The heart is nothing more than a pump that sends nutrients and oxygen to unneeded extremities (if telepathy were available).

The brain degrades of course... and everlasting life only lasts as long as the tissues in the brain can be maintained. But who's to say we can't dunk our brains in a tank of preservatives. =)

I keep getting the image of that super villain who has the brain attached to the top of a gorillas body. lol... we'll be nothing more than a parasite looking for hosts!

/discuss