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Randy
SFN Regular
USA
1990 Posts |
 Posted - 10/25/2008 : 09:18:31
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Beyond our last gasp...an interesting article from Sci.Am.
Key concepts
* Almost everyone has a tendency to imagine the mind continuing to exist after the death of the body.
* Even people who believe the mind ceases to exist at death show this type of psychological-continuity reasoning in studies.
* Rather than being a by-product of religion or an emotional security blanket, such beliefs stem from the very nature of our consciousness.
....read on:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=never-say-die
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"We are all connected; to each other biologically, to the earth chemically, to the rest of the universe atomically."
"So you're made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?"
-Neil DeGrasse Tyson |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 10/25/2008 : 10:55:31 [Permalink]
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An interesting article, if long. I suppose it means that we will not get to see the look on Jerry Falwell's face as he stumbles though Oblivian, the Lamp of Diogenes held high, searching for the fundi-Christian's sterile version of 72 virgins. Well, I never planned on it anyway.
Anyone who has had general anesthesia knows at least somewhat about what death is like. My last spine surgery took some 15 hours, but to my consciousness it was less than an eye-blink. Those 15 hours were exactly nothing throughout their span of time and for all practiclal purposes, that part of 'me' was dead.
Thanks for the read.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
Posted - 10/25/2008 : 11:42:10 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by filthy
An interesting article, if long. I suppose it means that we will not get to see the look on Jerry Falwell's face as he stumbles though Oblivian, the Lamp of Diogenes held high, searching for the fundi-Christian's sterile version of 72 virgins. Well, I never planned on it anyway.
Anyone who has had general anesthesia knows at least somewhat about what death is like. My last spine surgery took some 15 hours, but to my consciousness it was less than an eye-blink. Those 15 hours were exactly nothing throughout their span of time and for all practiclal purposes, that part of 'me' was dead.
Thanks for the read.
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Aye. It's like those hours never existed. Not bad, not good, not anything.
Good read, though. |
"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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furshur
SFN Regular
USA
1536 Posts |
Posted - 10/26/2008 : 17:24:41 [Permalink]
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| I figure you die and it is like a dreamless sleep from which you never awake. Seems kinda peaceful if you ask me. If people really thought about it the worst thing I can imagine would be living for ever. 1000 years would be nice but you would tend to start getting bored. After living 100 of those thousand year periods I would think that you would be going out of your mind with boredum. After about 100 trillion years you would be begging to end your existence. The thought of living forever scares the crap out of me. I enjoy life now, shit that's plenty for me! |
If I knew then what I know now then I would know more now than I know. |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 10/26/2008 : 17:46:12 [Permalink]
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Well, after mastering day trading, and then chess, badminton, stock-car racing, TV advertising, nematode biology, Newtonian physics and knitting, I figure I'll be ready to learn gourmet cooking, transmission repair, golf course design, cell phone manufacture and whatever else comes along.
It's said that to master a skill takes about ten years of hard study. Above, I've scheduled the first 120 years of my eternity. There will always be new things to learn, and if you find something you really enjoy, 10 years will be too short. Hell, there will probably never be a lack of need for new software, so I've got tons of time left on my current career before I'll even want to start something different. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 10/26/2008 : 22:47:27 [Permalink]
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| I'd really like to be able to say something like, "well, it's been a thousand years since I performed neurosurgery, so I think someone who's more 'fresh' should do it, but I'm flattered you asked for me. Now, if you had needed a replica Conestoga wagon, I'd be your guy. Except that I've got a Foosball championship next month, so I've gotta practice, practice, practice." |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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bngbuck
SFN Addict
USA
2437 Posts |
Posted - 10/26/2008 : 23:00:53 [Permalink]
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Dave......
Hell, mastering the roundworms alone should take about 800,000 years, by the ten year rule, so you'll have a toehold on eternity right there!
Larry Sanger's Citizendium tripled in the previous ten months and doubled in the last one hundred days, and that was a full year ago. There have been estimates that the total knowledge base of mankind doubles every five years!
Even if you were dead forever you never could catch up!
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chaloobi
SFN Regular
1620 Posts |
Posted - 10/27/2008 : 08:18:35 [Permalink]
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| Immortality might be boring but I'd sure like to give it a try. The universe is a big place - lots to see and do. Now, I understand the classic scifi story about the guy that couldn't die, in all its variations, but in the universe I'm familiar with, death, even with spontaneous super-healing, is just a blast furnace away (or something similar). So if it gets too bad in a thousand millenia, there's always definitve suicide. In fact, in my version of Utopia, the only way to die is suicide (barring very catastrophic accidents) - freedom, that's what I'm talking about. |
-Chaloobi
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| Edited by - chaloobi on 10/27/2008 08:23:26 |
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pleco
SFN Addict
USA
2998 Posts |
Posted - 10/27/2008 : 08:26:52 [Permalink]
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I want immortality with the option to choose when to die.
That is all. Get to work on it. |
by Filthy
The neo-con methane machine will soon be running at full fart. |
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Hawks
SFN Regular
Canada
1383 Posts |
Posted - 10/27/2008 : 08:33:34 [Permalink]
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| I wonder if the motto "why do it today if you can do it tomorrow" would be used all too frequently if one was to live forever... |
METHINKS IT IS LIKE A WEASEL
It's a small, off-duty czechoslovakian traffic warden! |
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chaloobi
SFN Regular
1620 Posts |
Posted - 10/27/2008 : 09:52:20 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Hawks
I wonder if the motto "why do it today if you can do it tomorrow" would be used all too frequently if one was to live forever...
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I put off everything near and dear to my heart and I know I'm going to die. The only difference from immortality is that the time will come much sooner when I'll never be able to do what I've put off.
I'm sad now. Thanks.  |
-Chaloobi
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bngbuck
SFN Addict
USA
2437 Posts |
Posted - 10/27/2008 : 10:58:47 [Permalink]
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"Why we can't imagine death"
There are those of us approaching the end of double digits that can indeed imagine death, and we imagine it as merely "the end".
I am one that falls into that category! I am currently in the anger stage of the denial of death.
And it does cause some problems!
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Never Say Die: Why We Can't Imagine Death
