272 replies to this topic

[Athanasios]

So...

On a grand scale, there is no meaning to my life that i know of. I think I will take the subjective meaning and be satisified though. I dont really care if I have meaning in relation to the grand scale of the universe. This is sort of like you saying sex is fun. Life is fun. What is the meaning of sex?

It is not logical to not have fun with your life. I may do something seemingly illogical, such as jump up and down in the mud with barefeet while I am screeming. To me though, that is a very logical course of action if I get enjoyment out of it. Luckily, I have the intelligence to see forward, and see how immediate actions could affect me later on as well. I am going to have to wash my feet for my carpet to be clean, since I just jumped up and down in the mud.

[dimasok]

I didn't say it is illogical to enjoy life and I didn't say you shouldn't embrace your subjective meaning. I just don't understand why one would want to extend that to infinity, especially since it is not clear yet whether we will ever reach that stage of immortality and whether this "immortality" will be in an "ageless" 60- or 18-years old body (and even if one could stop the aging process, would it actually reverse back the process ala going back in time in a time machine?).

[Athanasios]

I see, so it is the striving for the infinity that seems wierd?

Reminds me of the imminst's movie "if you are not the type of person to walk off of a cliff (to your death) tomorrow, then you are on the side of life" For me, it is a "I want one more day" decision. I also do not want to have the crippling effects of age. If the time comes that I am sure that I would rather have death, I may just make that decision.

I think we can stop the aging process, and eventually, be able to have whatever bodies we would like (one way or another).

[RighteousReason]

I just don't understand why one would want to extend that

So it goes:

First you are non-existent. Suddenly you exist, spend 50 years having fun, then you are non-existent again.
or
First you are non-existent. Suddenly you exist, spend 1,000,000,000 years having fun, then you are non-existent again.

If you had the choice, which one would you choose?

[DJS]

Bravo dimasok, my tragic hero! You would make Camus proud. )

In the spirit of one-upsmanship, I strive towards maximal absurdity with a paragon of grandiose meaning. What better purpose than to come up with a better purpose - all the while taking solace that Being is process.

[forever freedom]

Death is mystery; there's no way anyone can know for sure what's going to happen after we die.

If i die and i keep on alive in spirit, great. But i'm taking not taking my chances to discover what happens only after i died.

[AdamSummerfield]

Oblivion. Death is the absence of whatever we call any form of consciousness.

- Adam

[Starfire]

Dieing is embed in our DNA... So is RE-membering life.

[williamhessian]

i love option 11. as far as it is probably 99% of peoples true answer. and mine, a majority of the time. I find thinking about death very disabling.

Option 11: I'd rather not think about it
Option 12: _________ (fill in the blank)

The height of your accomplishments will equal the depth of your convictions -- William F. Scolavino

The options above influence our expectations of everlasting life in this world; those options that presume to hold any promise of life beyond death weaken the motivation to seek effective solutions to (1) optimal health, (2) "successful" aging, and (3) dramatic life and health extension. The assumption of oblivion after we die is, for many, a tough one to swallow. And yet, a belief or conviction in the value of life shaped by this assumption is much stronger for having been shaped by it. If you feel there's another option worthy of mention, please indicate it, but give us a sense of where you think you're going, or what you think will happen, when (or after) you die.

[xEva]

Death is the only guarantee in life. Everything else is negotiable.

[brokenportal]

I picked oblivion but I would have went with:

"Probably oblivion but Im born an ignorant speck in an infinite ocean, one of the reasons I want life extension is to have the chance to figure out things like this or witness their reality bear itself into fruition as the future unfolds."

[HereInTheHole]

I picked Oblivion,
which isn't as cool as A Portal Mystery
that grants me A Chance to Roam the Earth
and blesses my zombie soul with (yet) Another Chance at Reincarnation.

I wouldn't mind having My Ticket to Nirvana in my spiritual pocket
so I could give the finger to A Gateway to Heaven or Hell.
Losers!

Maybe in a few decades, we'll all be on, as Simon and Garfunkel sang,
"A Transition to Another Simulation,
A Bridge to Another Realm."

But don't mind me.
I Honestly Don't Know what I'm talking about,
which would bother me except that when it comes to thinking thoughts,
I Don't Know how and I Don't Care.

Edited by NarrativiumX, 07 August 2008 - 06:51 PM.

[REGIMEN]

Death will be unlike the night-times when we lie awake thinking of death
Death will be unlike the Spanish maracas that rattle inside your last breath
Death will be unlike the Mexican festivals, skeletons wearing top hats
Death will be unlike the brownstone apartments that dynamite or dereliction collapse
Death will be unlike the mandolin the hangman relaxes by playing
Death will be unlike the Hound of the Baskervilles, chilling the moors with its baying
Death will be unlike the British museum, its bodies from peat bogs and bones
Death will be unlike the curse of the mummy that turns the explorers to stone
Death will be unlike the great roller coaster, a plunge from a boast to a scream
Death will be unlike mahogany coffins great pianists play in their wildest strangest dreams
Death will be unlike a garden in autumn where poets can sit and compose
Death will be unlike the granite memorials where memories wither in rows
Death will be unlike the charge of the Light Brigade Alfred Lord Tennyson rhymed
Death will be unlike the thin piece of paper that Reagan and Gorbachov sign
Death will be unlike the hospital bedside with Novocain needles and cards
Death will be unlike the great day of judgement when God the headmaster presents the awards
Death will be unlike the marriage that bickers 'til death us do part
Death will be unlike the dreams of the young man who sang 'Love will tear us apart'
Death will be unlike TV documentaries showing us life from outside
Death will be unlike the Buddhist nirvana the moth seems to seek in the light
Death will be unlike the Cities of crystal they build in a few grains of smack
Death will be unlike the long picture window the coffin looks through to a widow in black
Death will be unlike a room full of spiders all clinging together and crying
Death will be unlike the wedding guest's story, the ship drifting lost and the dead sailors sighing
Death will be unlike the din in the steeple when cholera poisons the village
Death will be unlike the illumination that Tolstoy provided for poor Ivan Illych
Death will be unlike the wrinkling sea children glimpse through the chinks in the boardwalk
Death will be unlike the magical land of 'The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe'
Death will be unlike the treacherous virus that murders the lovers with AIDS
Death will be unlike the phantoms of freedom that lead the crowd over the barricades
Death will be unlike the night thoughts of 'Late Call' when ministers stop being cosy
Death will be unlike 'The Pit and the Pendulum' co-starring Bela Lugosi
Death will be unlike the bulge of the mouse inside the boa constrictor
Death will be unlike that drunkard the phoenix, so tight on the moonshine of golden elixirs
Death will be unlike that violent pornography, dear to the Marquis de Sade
Death will be unlike the last stitch of clothing the stripper discards as her nipples grow hard
Death will be unlike the bankrupt, handing over the keys to his house
Death will be unlike the last day of summer, when insects grow stupid and swallows fly south
Death will be unlike the skull of a merchant that slants through the portrait by Holbein
Death will be unlike that strange proposition on silence, the Tractatus of Wittgenstein
Death will be unlike your holiday snaps when the camera lets in the light
Death will be unlike the honest-but-cold-blooded bank clerk whose hobby is homocide
Death will be unlike the hands of the clock, coming together at midnight
Death will be unlike the grim amputations of medical students larking on rag night
Death will be unlike the hijacker's voice in the heads of air traffic controllers
Death will be unlike the sea as it thunders on Liv Ullman vanishing under the rollers
Death will be unlike the abbey the pilgrims all saw when they prayed
Death will be unlike the unholy land at the end of the Children's Crusade
Death will be unlike the hell in Huis Clos Mr Sartre informs is just other people
Death will be unlike the travelling salesman who woke up one morning transformed to a beetle
Death will be unlike 2001, the room at the end of the ride
Death will be unlike the wrath that Charles Bronson let loose on the Lower East Side
Death will be unlike the House of the Shades the dog Cerberus guarded for Hades his master
And death will be unlike that lesson on Infallibility, the Chernobyl disaster
And death will be unlike the empty career of the temp's vacillations gone permanent
Death will be unlike the unlucky omens the clairvoyant reads in the meaningless firmament
In the meaningless firmament

What will death (what will death)
Be like? (be like?)

What will death (what will death)
Be like? (be like?)

Death will be like -

----------------
"What Will Death Be Like?" by Momus
http://www.phespirit...us/19900106.htm

[.fonclea.]

Honestly I don't know, should i care ? nan

[drus]

simply put, death is moving from a state of existence to 'total' non-existence. i'm sure subjective consciousness might play a small role in the definition, but can someone who suffers from complete and permanent amnesia be considered 'dead'? (because as a side note i think its fair to say that people in cryo-stasis when we are finally revived will likely suffer from at least some amount of possibly permanent amnesia) certainly we are more than just our memories? for example, i cannot recall my entire life up to this point, but i would say that i am just as much 'me' as i've always been. death is trickey to really define. if i suddenly lost all my memories would i have died? and the new amnesic personality, would it be a different person? tuff questions to answer really. death is a complex process that likely takes several days to complete. but i would say generally once the brain has reached an (irreversible) state of complete destruction, death has infact occured. consciousness is key however. i believe all people possess the same basic/general raw consciousness, but our personalities/egos are shaped by experience throughout our lives. this is what leads to our percieved differences...when in actuality we are all basically the same. we are animals that can think and reason, we have sentient consciousness...everything else is just fluff so to speak....it has no real substance...it's interpretation...it's ego based illusion actually. and whats more is that the ego is born out of a natural fear based on a false assumption of what defines 'you' as being 'alive'. we are all basically using the same neural program really...raw sentient consciousness...if you look at it from that standpoint...we never die. since non-existence can never be subjectively experienced...death does not exist.

Edited by drus, 20 December 2008 - 12:01 AM.

[brokenportal]

I made a blog about this here. I must have been subconciously inspired by this topic. It says,

"Stumble upon infinite wonder. Then embark upon its vast wonderous meaning. Then begin writing a story about it that hasnt even begun to scratch the surface of what is going on, that takes every single minute of 80 years to read and write, and throw it away. That is what death is."

[fatboy]

I just don't understand why one would want to extend that

So it goes:

First you are non-existent. Suddenly you exist, spend 50 years having fun, then you are non-existent again.
or
First you are non-existent. Suddenly you exist, spend 1,000,000,000 years having fun, then you are non-existent again.

If you had the choice, which one would you choose?

Is there really much of a difference?

Edit: I mean both mathematically and philosophically.

Edited by fatboy, 02 January 2009 - 05:02 AM.

[fatboy]

Death will be unlike the night-times when we lie awake thinking of death
...

What will death (what will death)
Be like? (be like?)

... Death will be like -

Hmmm .... poetry?

[brokenportal]

I just don't understand why one would want to extend that

So it goes:

First you are non-existent. Suddenly you exist, spend 50 years having fun, then you are non-existent again.
or
First you are non-existent. Suddenly you exist, spend 1,000,000,000 years having fun, then you are non-existent again.

If you had the choice, which one would you choose?

Is there really much of a difference?

Edit: I mean both mathematically and philosophically.

Is there really much of a difference between 80 years and indefinity, and a difference between a chance to experience what humanity and existence has to offer at this point with 80 years and what humanity an existence will have to offer in 1,000,000,000 years and on indefinently???

[fatboy]

Is there really much of a difference between 80 years and indefinity, and a difference between a chance to experience what humanity and existence has to offer at this point with 80 years and what humanity an existence will have to offer in 1,000,000,000 years and on indefinently???

?

[JLL]

It does seem to me that only eternity gives things true meaning.

If you only have two hours two live, what's the use of doing anything? You're very unlikely to be able to really enjoy anything if you know you're going to die.

Yet, we can't pinpoint any specific amount of time away from death where things become enjoyable again. That is, it seems strange to say that "If I know I'm going to die in 2 hours, then yes, everything is meaningless, but if I know I'm going to die in 2 days, then no, everything is not meaningless." Replace 2 days with 80 years and the result is still the same.

From this point of view, even if you know you have 100,000 years to live, it will still be meaningless.

However, in those 100,000 years, there will be plenty of time to find ways to live another 100,000 years and contemplate on how to avoid heat death. So, it becomes rational to want to live as long as possible, even though - or precisely because - there is uncertainty about death.

I know in practice people think it's meaningful even if you have to die after 80 years, but philosophically the argument doesn't really hold. It's just that the idea of death rendering everything meaningless is unbearable.

[jdgauchat]

the real answer is not in the poll

dead is how humans call to the end of the development of a material structure (humans call this "body")

[jdgauchat]

sorry, something wrong happened with the forum. I had to erase this post, was duplicated.

Edited by macrojd, 11 March 2009 - 04:35 PM.

[jdgauchat]

I just don't understand why one would want to extend that

So it goes:

First you are non-existent. Suddenly you exist, spend 50 years having fun, then you are non-existent again.
or
First you are non-existent. Suddenly you exist, spend 1,000,000,000 years having fun, then you are non-existent again.

If you had the choice, which one would you choose?

I choose "First you are non-existent. Suddenly you exist forever"

And about why somebody would want to extend that... well, this is our only chance to exist. That is enough reason.

Edited by macrojd, 11 March 2009 - 04:36 PM.

[brokenportal]

This is awsome, I must have missed this. It seems like it should say, "Death will not be unlike" though.
Death will not be unlike the last gasp of a knight in the dark ages who took his last few gasps while trying to rationalize why he has put himself in a position to have had a sword run him through, as he contemplates the mysterious fading sky and this orb of dirt he is melting back into.

Death will be unlike the night-times when we lie awake thinking of death
Death will be unlike the Spanish maracas that rattle inside your last breath
Death will be unlike the Mexican festivals, skeletons wearing top hats
Death will be unlike the brownstone apartments that dynamite or dereliction collapse
Death will be unlike the mandolin the hangman relaxes by playing
Death will be unlike the Hound of the Baskervilles, chilling the moors with its baying
Death will be unlike the British museum, its bodies from peat bogs and bones
Death will be unlike the curse of the mummy that turns the explorers to stone
Death will be unlike the great roller coaster, a plunge from a boast to a scream
Death will be unlike mahogany coffins great pianists play in their wildest strangest dreams
Death will be unlike a garden in autumn where poets can sit and compose
Death will be unlike the granite memorials where memories wither in rows
Death will be unlike the charge of the Light Brigade Alfred Lord Tennyson rhymed
Death will be unlike the thin piece of paper that Reagan and Gorbachov sign
Death will be unlike the hospital bedside with Novocain needles and cards
Death will be unlike the great day of judgement when God the headmaster presents the awards
Death will be unlike the marriage that bickers 'til death us do part
Death will be unlike the dreams of the young man who sang 'Love will tear us apart'
Death will be unlike TV documentaries showing us life from outside
Death will be unlike the Buddhist nirvana the moth seems to seek in the light
Death will be unlike the Cities of crystal they build in a few grains of smack
Death will be unlike the long picture window the coffin looks through to a widow in black
Death will be unlike a room full of spiders all clinging together and crying
Death will be unlike the wedding guest's story, the ship drifting lost and the dead sailors sighing
Death will be unlike the din in the steeple when cholera poisons the village
Death will be unlike the illumination that Tolstoy provided for poor Ivan Illych
Death will be unlike the wrinkling sea children glimpse through the chinks in the boardwalk
Death will be unlike the magical land of 'The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe'
Death will be unlike the treacherous virus that murders the lovers with AIDS
Death will be unlike the phantoms of freedom that lead the crowd over the barricades
Death will be unlike the night thoughts of 'Late Call' when ministers stop being cosy
Death will be unlike 'The Pit and the Pendulum' co-starring Bela Lugosi
Death will be unlike the bulge of the mouse inside the boa constrictor
Death will be unlike that drunkard the phoenix, so tight on the moonshine of golden elixirs
Death will be unlike that violent pornography, dear to the Marquis de Sade
Death will be unlike the last stitch of clothing the stripper discards as her nipples grow hard
Death will be unlike the bankrupt, handing over the keys to his house
Death will be unlike the last day of summer, when insects grow stupid and swallows fly south
Death will be unlike the skull of a merchant that slants through the portrait by Holbein
Death will be unlike that strange proposition on silence, the Tractatus of Wittgenstein
Death will be unlike your holiday snaps when the camera lets in the light
Death will be unlike the honest-but-cold-blooded bank clerk whose hobby is homocide
Death will be unlike the hands of the clock, coming together at midnight
Death will be unlike the grim amputations of medical students larking on rag night
Death will be unlike the hijacker's voice in the heads of air traffic controllers
Death will be unlike the sea as it thunders on Liv Ullman vanishing under the rollers
Death will be unlike the abbey the pilgrims all saw when they prayed
Death will be unlike the unholy land at the end of the Children's Crusade
Death will be unlike the hell in Huis Clos Mr Sartre informs is just other people
Death will be unlike the travelling salesman who woke up one morning transformed to a beetle
Death will be unlike 2001, the room at the end of the ride
Death will be unlike the wrath that Charles Bronson let loose on the Lower East Side
Death will be unlike the House of the Shades the dog Cerberus guarded for Hades his master
And death will be unlike that lesson on Infallibility, the Chernobyl disaster
And death will be unlike the empty career of the temp's vacillations gone permanent
Death will be unlike the unlucky omens the clairvoyant reads in the meaningless firmament
In the meaningless firmament

What will death (what will death)
Be like? (be like?)

What will death (what will death)
Be like? (be like?)

Death will be like -

----------------
"What Will Death Be Like?" by Momus
http://www.phespirit...us/19900106.htm

Edited by brokenportal, 11 March 2009 - 05:17 PM.

[fatboy]

It does seem to me that only eternity gives things true meaning.

And if there is no such thing?

[VictorBjoerk]

death is...... bad for you

[fatboy]

And about why somebody would want to extend that... well, this is our only chance to exist. That is enough reason.

Aye, just because we are covers it.

[Imminst = pro murder (omega)]

I chose the fourth option.

"Our forever is today."

"No eternal reward will forgive us for wasting the dawn." Jim Morrison

Edited by Omega, 27 March 2009 - 06:51 AM.

[fatboy]

No eternal reward will forgive us for wasting the dawn. - Jim Morrison