Poll: When I was 5, I felt that death was...
AgeVivo 27 Jun 2009
it seems to be a lot more common (/universal?) than one might think. i thought it would be fun to ask the question...
Edited by Mind, 19 September 2009 - 01:21 PM.
AgeVivo 27 Jun 2009
AgeVivo 27 Jun 2009
Edited by AgeVivo, 27 June 2009 - 10:05 AM.
bacopa 27 Jun 2009
i wonder if it is common to human kind, or to people who are able to question/change things, if it is a cultural thing, or somthg that life extensioners have in common...
I tend to think it is more the norm to obviously fear death and thus think it unacceptable. I think it is mostly religion that brainwashes many people once they get older. Than people kind of put death on the backburner hoping that God and heaven will make it all better.
But I really think that alot of people lack the scientific thinking that perhaps death can be stopped. We are groomed to think at a young age that death is inevitable and that you can't do anything to intervene in the aging process. I came from an agnostic/atheist family, and I think that gave me the open mindedness to question if one day we can do something about it. Most people use religion as their way of dealing with death, and this is unfortunate.
AgeVivo 27 Jun 2009
i myself became convinced much later that smthg could indeed be done, when i heard of dolly the sheep, read about its short telomeres and discovered about CR
Cyberbrain 29 Jun 2009
We passed a cemetery. One friend asks how would you like to die? One says she would like to be cremated and have her ashes thrown in the sea, the other says he wants to be buried with his dog.
I sat there, looking out the window and simply said "I don't want to die". My friends laughed and the day continued. But since then, my whole outlook on life changed.
Edited by Cyberbrain, 29 June 2009 - 04:06 AM.
grammer errors
Luna 29 Jun 2009
In elementary school one day I was going on a field trip and was sitting next to 2 friends.
We passed a cemetery. One friend asks how would you like to die? One says she would like to be cremated and have her ashes thrown in the sea, the other says he wants to be buried with his dog.
I sat there, looking out the window and simply said "I don't want to die". My friends laughed and the day continued. But since then, my whole outlook on life changed.
It reminds me myself on school trips.. always feeling anxiety that made my forehead burn when passingn ext to cemeteries and being really down..
No one else seemed to care.
Cyberbrain 29 Jun 2009
bacopa 29 Jun 2009
Cyberbrain 29 Jun 2009
forever freedom 29 Jun 2009
didierc 05 Jul 2009
I didn't think a lot about this when I was a kid. And later, like most people, I was afraid of dying, but I thought that there was no choice. I only discover recently that there could be a choice even maybe during my lifetime.
One of the biggest problems to convince the people is that the people do not want to think about their death. Consciously or unconsciously, they refuse to speak and think about it. And as long as death is unavoidable, it is a very logical choice. It is better not to think too much about something painful because thinking about it is increasing anxiety.
And for people like me who do not believe that there is a god, it is of course even more painful to think about the dead.
So, our work is not easy at all. But on the other hand, the mystery of life and death always fascinates us. And we live in a world changing incredibly fast. And our goal here is to make people discover that, if we receive a large support and if the scientists are working good enough, we will live a lot longer pretty soon. And maybe we will not age anymore in a not so distant future.
Didier
cyborgdreamer 19 Sep 2009
brokenportal 19 Sep 2009
I thought most kids got that though. I think that went on until I was about ten, then from what I remember I kind of forgot about it. Cant really remember though. I wonder if I would find mention of it in journaling I did in those years. Then when I was about 18 or 19 I thought about it until I realized there was something we can do about it, and then I dedicated myself to helping get indefinite life extension, or "life expansion" and "curing all diseases" and "stopping death" as I called it at that time.
n25philly 19 Sep 2009
Mind 19 Sep 2009
xEva 20 Sep 2009
brokenportal 28 Sep 2009
That was a good tactic to qualm the hysteria while an underground of progressivists slowly pushed forward. A way to fight death has now opened up, and all we have to do now is keep the desire to fight death, alive in kids heads, rather than turning it off. Thats all we have to do really, just unveil the paths in science that have opened up for us all to fight death with.
trevinski 03 Oct 2009
This is an interesting thread and hits close to home to what I was going to propose discussing. Initially when I had the apple fed to me back when, I was thinking that a Life not obeying the commands of a God of a religion was worse than just randomly dying, because it is not a tragedy to die when you are young and full of potential because somehow you are "clean" at that age and gain salvation. I know look at the concept of justified suffering and death as much more unacceptable than the absence of the aforementioned belief systems. I don't look at Death as something negative, as I know nothing of it, but I can relate to the pain in a lesser extent. So I guess I find the preventable causes that create suffering to be more unacceptable than Death now, if we can't reconcile the two,obviously.
Berserker 27 Oct 2009
Shannon Vyff 27 Oct 2009
brokenportal 27 Oct 2009
I started to think about it this year. And im 18 years old. For my is quite inacceptable as well.
Thats the age I started to think seriously about it too for some reason. Maybe it has something to do with seriously starting to comtemplate what you really want to do with your life at that point, spurred by the kick of turning 18 and having to leave the house. They say that most serious change happens in conjunction with a significant emotional event. I dont remember the event being emotional, but subconciously it may have been.
This reminds me how in about 9th grade our science teacher got on to the subject of aging, and he built up a little suspense for us, asking us what the mechanisms of aging were, leaving us thinking there may be a way to work with it. Then he came back with dramatic points about how its all in our telomeres and that they break off and can not be fixed like some kind of catch 22. I wonder if that is a common theme that science teachers go over. If it is, then maybe that means its worth a vip outreach, sending copies of ending aging to them.
brokenportal 27 Oct 2009
it really seems to be inherent genetic temperament.
I wonder how true that may be. It seems that maybe free thinking is a trait/ ability that is evolving to allow for the survival of the smartest, in addition to, and some times over lapping with the survival of the fittest.
exapted 28 Oct 2009
Shannon Vyff 28 Oct 2009
it really seems to be inherent genetic temperament.
I wonder how true that may be. It seems that maybe free thinking is a trait/ ability that is evolving to allow for the survival of the smartest, in addition to, and some times over lapping with the survival of the fittest.
Just want to point out that the terror of death, does not always help-it can shorten your life. An adult who is more happy with life and accepting, with a healthy amount of fear of death-enough to cause them to eat well, exercise, wear their seat-belt etc.-can do better than an adult who is terrorized to the point they can barely function. Some people genetically have large extremes with their expression of and feeling of emotion--some of them even turn to self medication of various legal or illegal drugs to alleviate their fears, this too can shorten their lives.
brokenportal 28 Oct 2009
I dont know, Im just speculating, but its interesting to think about.
Luna 29 Oct 2009
They can be just as intelligent but for whatever reason, be it genetic or education or even feeling, sometimes even intelligence, they will accept it more.
But intelligence I mean that generally, living is emotional.
Living is for the benefit of you.
If you come to the conclusion you are not that important, you might see it differently.
I my opinion, I am still important for myself, even if not for anyone else.
exapted 05 Nov 2009
shazam 06 Nov 2009
I think the main reason people fear death is they are not doing what they want. There are some religions that say that fear of death propels alot of the suffering in the world. It's why people feel the need to have a positive opinion about them coming out of the mouth of the crowd, because it would 'immortalize them' in a way. Personally, while I find it sort of interesting, I don't really contemplate it alot, though I think I might start. Might get a fire under my ass =P.
That's not to say this isn't a worthy endeavor. But doing it because you're afraid to die? First of all, you're gonna die anyway, looking at how fast most science progresses when it's niche science. Second of all, that is an extremely unhealthy attitude towards death. I'm not saying be some nihilistic bum who wouldn't step out of the way of a bus, but realize that the time you have is finite. I'm also not saying 'dduuuuuudes, party your fuckin' brains out! Yeah, take a hit off that crack pipe!', though to each his own, but do the things that are genuinely important to you instead of spending your life seeking 'approval' or 'acceptance' or 'validation' or meaning derived mainly from others. Posturing is such a damned waste of time. The biggest waste of time of all, actually. I say, don't bother posturing. Focus on the moment, plan for the future (instead of obsessing/worrying over it), and do what you want. Focus on the things you can control.
I'm a big fan of Ayn Rand's work, though her characters are sorta like walking philosophy discourses, but Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged are two very good books that really go over the whole 'pursue your own selfish wants vs be selfless' situation and do it well. Two awesome books to read if you're self actualizing, they are packed with solid gold, and just good reads. Don't take it TOO seriously, though. Understand with your own mind. A dogma is completely useless. You learn nothing from it, you suceed only in twisting your mind to convince yourself you understand, or that it's valid even though in understanding it you would realize it isn't.
Edited by shazam, 06 November 2009 - 07:38 AM.
Teixeira 20 Nov 2009
You have a very interesting point :"...non-existence." What do we konw about non-existence? When we talk of that, we usually utilise our time to measure the time of the dead people wright? But how can we be sure that we can do that? The flux of time of a dead person is it syncronnised with ours? I´m affraid it isn´t! Why this might be like so needs a very long explanation that includes the different time dimensions, and so on. One of this days i´ll discuss that in my topic. Keep an eye on it.I remember in the 1990s I heard about Dr. Jack Kevorkian, and assisted suicide. I didn't have any complaints about him, but I felt it was amazing that someone could voluntarily die. I thought that, since there was no afterlife, even pain was better than non-existence. I must have been in my early teens.