Just how cool would the future be? Would it be all peaceful, and with a Miss World-style World Peace, or would it be Warhammer 40k style, with nothing but perpetual war, when we finally break off of Earth and really **** off some other lifeforms?
The only thing that I want to do before I die ATM is to nail the little shite who damaged my bike's exhaust cover...
Let's take it from a guy who had a knife held towards his neck by his own brother (aka me)
Well, people do not know why they fear death. Rather, everything that lives does not know why they fear death. When cats look down from a rather high distance, they have the fear of dying, sort of like humans. When gazelles are being hunted by predators, they run for fear of their lives.
So what makes them afraid? I have no idea, after all, I'm no certified biologist. However, if there has to be a reason, I guess it is to pass down one's generation, and continue their species.
The other thing that is scary about death is what happens to you. Will people remember you? Will they simply forget you, and walk over your grave? Nobody knows. What happens to your consciouness? Will it ascend in the Heavens, drop into the burning depths of Hell, or simply be darkness. Nobody knows.
Quite simply, the answer is nobody knows.
Quite frankly, I feel quite dead, but yet alive. I don't necessarily feel pain much, but I feel the cold chill of weather. Food seems tasteless to me, and I don't talk as much as I used too. Who knows? Maybe I'm just depressed, or my heart died a long time ago. (By heart, I mean the 'omg I care about j00' part of me, the actual organ is beating as we speak <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink-fix.gif' /><!--endemo--> )
I've heard often that it's just fear of the unknown. In some people, it might be fear that they won't be remembered, or that they didn't leave their mark. Could be simple disappointment in the fact that there's much left undone. Could be the desire to see what will happen afterwards.
No one actually knows what happens after death, and that is one of the major reasons people fear death: uncertainty. I mean, wouldn't you be scared if you were on the verge of death and thought, "Oh crap, I've been a horrible person...I hope I don't go to hell". I don't know that there is really a specific or even explainable reason why people fear death, I guess its just one of those things residing on a deep human spiritual level.
I do not strongly fear death. I don't know what happens when you die. It's comforting, almost, after hearing all these horror stories about hell from the Catholics in my community when I was young. I simply think of death as the next step on the path, the next world to explore - and if it isn't, or if I just cease to exist (something my mind just can't grasp), well, too damn bad. Can't change it now. That is the core of my philosophy - might as well do it, because whatever happens happens and there's never a bad result, nothing you can't get over. Including death.
The only real thing I would regret about dying is that I would not be here to see what happens next. Or will I get to watch like a spectator? No one knows, but that would be awesome.
Also, unless it somehow effects me in the afterlife (if there is one), I don't care what happens to my corpse. People can visit or not, people can walk on it or not, they can throw it in a ditch for all I care, and avoid those expensive funerals. The only exception would be if I actually felt what they were doing, in which case science has definitely failed us. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
We don't know what happens to the consciousness after the brain dies. Theres no way to know without doing it yourself, and then youre not about to come tell us what its like.
Secondly, there is a deep fear of the unknown that has an evolutionary advantage. All you need to know to understand this is that parents pass on their traits to their offspring, (be it through genes or through upbringing and teaching, it doesnt matter how). Those people who are afraid to die have a greater chance of surviving, and therefore have more offspring than those who are suicidally reckless.
the suicidally reckless trait doesnt proceed into the future generations.
thats the why. now for the hard to follow personal belief: I personally believe that the body is like a computer and death is like pulling the cord out of the wall. it just stops, the consciousness is a program that runs on the body with no connection to other consciousnesses and with no afterlife. it just ends. however, i believe it is possible to be brought back to life by a diety, and that it is possible to create a diety given infinite technology (and humanity WILL attain infinite technology given an infinite timespan). since i'll be dead it wont matter that it might take a bajillion trillion years to have that technology, therefore the second after i die, i'll be reincarnated into the infinite future. a world where everything is instantly creatable is a generic definition of heaven in the real world.
<!--QuoteBegin-Zel+Feb 20 2005, 01:53 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Zel @ Feb 20 2005, 01:53 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Its been said a few times, but I'll reiterate;
We don't know what happens to the consciousness after the brain dies. Theres no way to know without doing it yourself, and then youre not about to come tell us what its like.
Secondly, there is a deep fear of the unknown that has an evolutionary advantage. All you need to know to understand this is that parents pass on their traits to their offspring, (be it through genes or through upbringing and teaching, it doesnt matter how). Those people who are afraid to die have a greater chance of surviving, and therefore have more offspring than those who are suicidally reckless.
the suicidally reckless trait doesnt proceed into the future generations.
thats the why. now for the hard to follow personal belief: I personally believe that the body is like a computer and death is like pulling the cord out of the wall. it just stops, the consciousness is a program that runs on the body with no connection to other consciousnesses and with no afterlife. it just ends. however, i believe it is possible to be brought back to life by a diety, and that it is possible to create a diety given infinite technology (and humanity WILL attain infinite technology given an infinite timespan). since i'll be dead it wont matter that it might take a bajillion trillion years to have that technology, therefore the second after i die, i'll be reincarnated into the infinite future. a world where everything is instantly creatable is a generic definition of heaven in the real world. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> alright.... so you go and get your head frozen in liquid nitrogen...... and hope that works out for you... computer person/cyborg wierdo....
while that all sounds fine and dandy and makes sense in theory..... I don't think thats how its going to play out, course this is coming from the mouth of a devout and faithfull person... so take that for what its worth
Nothing happens after your death. You're dead. If you can prove me there's a heaven of whatnot after death, I believe you. But until now, I believe there's nothing.
Actually, since consciousness was mentioned, I think that fear of not having consciousness is another reason. People live their entire lives (or as much as they can remember, anyway) with conscious thought. Humans are self-aware, so we have all these concepts of our own minds. How strange and scary is it to think about that consciousness simply disappearing? People don't understand how that would feel, simply because there would be no feeling if your own conscious mind (or soul, as some might consider it) simply disappeared.
<!--QuoteBegin-X Stickman+Feb 18 2005, 02:37 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (X Stickman @ Feb 18 2005, 02:37 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Personally I'm just upset that I won't get to see what happens after I'm dead. I wanna see Jetson's style life, with people going into space to go shopping (lower prices, of course) and aliens and everyone with a hover car and stuff.
And I just <b>know</b> that it's gonna happen about 2 years after I die. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> According to the schedule, it happens the day after you die, becomes public within six months.
I believe that upon death you lose all memory and conciousness, almost like a coma, however, to come back would be near impossible unless we were indeed held in stasis until revivation, and how expensive is that? Thousands of pounds. Eventually immortality-by-age will come about, and the only deaths are not by natural causes, but until then, the great beyond... doesn't look that great.
Back on the subject of conciousness, or the lack of it causing the fear, I personally have no fear of losing my conciousness, as I've done it before. About 2 years ago now, I ended up on my skates in a park, not too far away from where I live. Did the ramps and the flat stuff like I always did, and just lost it on one quarter. Came down about 10 feet and landed on my arm, then bouced onto my head (This is what I'm told happened). And I lost conciousness for supposedly 30 mins. This I can vaguley remember, as around that time, there's about an hour or so that I can't remember anything what happened. All I can remember through my eyes is going to the park, then about 15 mins later, or what seemed 15 mins later, I was in hospital with what remained of my helmet and skates lying on the floor beside my bed. Apparently I had been stitched up, and put into a bed pretty quick. Even when they guys who owned the park turned up, I couldn't remember what I had done. Only when they told me what had happened did everything click into place. I had lost my conciousness, and had probably experienced what it is like to "die" in a mental sense, not in a physical one. Although it might be considered dying if the mind no longer controls the body. Even though I can't remember anything of what happened to me during the hour or so that I lost, all I know is that I don't really want it to be permanent next time it happens.
Also had hormone-induced epilepsy for about 4 years during puberty, so I know what a blackout feels like, and it feels f*** all like losing consciousness, or as much as I can tell...
Mans perception of life is limited due to his physical form. We cannot grasp the concept of eternity, so we set ourselves a "timetable" that helps us understand our reality. Time itself is an invention of man, as he can only understand the universe as linear accumulation of events.
We can only experience our present, and we can remember this present as our past. We then make assumption, based on our past experience, to anticipate our future. We plan our own future, based on our past experience. E.g., we can predict how an object will be damadged when it drops out of a certain height, based on our experience with similar situations, or what he have learned about similar situations. For example, we imagine a car faling down a cliff to explode spectacularely, because we have seen it hundreds of times in a movie. This is, however not the regular event of things in reality, as cars actually seldomly explode (if reasonably constructed). Is is however our way to predect a future event based on the information we have handy, since most of us will never have the opportunity to see a real car driving over a cliff.
In the matter of death, it is impossible for us to make a prediction, as we do not have past experience about it we can count on. This makes it almost impossible for us to predict what will happen to us and THAT is the frightening thing. As someone said, it is the unknown that ingnites fear. however, it is more than the unknown, because unknown usually would results in couriosity. It is the inability to handle this particular unknown: all we know is, that finally our live ends. We do not know whether there is something afterwards, feft alone what exactly we will face. Yet it is our nature to search for these answeres. We understand at one point in our live that we cannot escape this reality. So everybody will find his own answeres he can stick to until his time comes. Some are fatalistic and accept the prospect of a simple cease of existance, others resort to one of the various interpretations of reincarnation or salvation. Some do by ignoring the fact that they will die one day. The do not let this thought strike their mind as long as possible. Such persons will fear death their whole live and when encounering death ( like when they lose an important person in their live) they will not be able to cope with it.
Whatever ones own way is, we should never EVER try to convince another being out of his, nor make fun of this, as this is one of the most important things we have decided for our own lifes. It gives us the security we need to deal with the inevitable.
One problematic aspect of death in our modern society is, that we seldomly are exosed to its sight. We see it on screen, but few of us, especially those grown up in the safety of the well developed industrial nations do realize what death means. Children are not exposed do death anymore and therefore do not build up "resistances" (in lack for a better word). Half a century ago, most people had seen how animals are slougtered for their meat. People had more children and not few of thm died because of bad medical supply. They have seen their grandparents grow older and die eventually, because back then they still were living in the same place in most cases. Half a century ago, and even more in earlier days, people learned very erly in their live to deal with live and the loss of it. Our fear of death is partly that great nowadays, because we have distanced ourselves from it, we are estranged from it.
I don't really fear death. I have an innate sense of curiousity, and for as long as I can remember I just figured death as the great answer to that big question. I doubt hoping for any sort of 'heavan' or 'nirvana' or anything will really have an affect on the outcome.
My personal hypothesis is that it's a sort of empty blackness where you can think and dream for eternity. Possibly with consciousnesses able to bind and interact with eachother - sort of like dreaming for eternity. So, I suppose, if you imagined your own heavan, that's what it would be, where you could imagine yourself as a racecar driver or astronaut or whatever. This one makes the most sense to me, since once your shell of a body completely dies your inmaterial consciousness can 'escape' (which could explain out of body experiences, and when the consciousness realizes the body is still alive it's forced to return...or something), and since there's no possible way for me to imagine life without consciousness; plus if they're inmaterial they don't need to be destroyed - so continual creation of more of them wouldn't be a problem.
My other idea, which I'd be a bit disappointed (not really, once you read it) if it were true: that nothing happens. No thought, no interaction, nothing.
Another idea: That you'll begin living a new life in your continuation of the old one is some kind of individual universe simulation (where if people from 120AD died, they'd have had parts in their life that managed to let them live another 1900 years. I'm not really big on this one.
I suppose reincarnation is just as possible, or some magical intangible location that is only visitable once you die (although that seems a bit too surreal).
I just figure: woot, I get to figure it out eventually. I just choose not to waste physical time on pointless endeavors (meaning: I'm not going to go shoot myself, but I'm sure other people hold their physical essence in higher regard, so I'll push someone out of traffic or something). I was probably the least worried person during my appendectomy <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> .
Anyway, people tend to fear the unknown and aren't quite willing to embrace the idea of "at least I get to know what happens." I'm not quite sure why, not like you can do anything about it...it's inevitable (maybe you want to live to be 120 instead of 99?).
Comments
Would it be all peaceful, and with a Miss World-style World Peace, or would it be Warhammer 40k style, with nothing but perpetual war, when we finally break off of Earth and really **** off some other lifeforms?
The only thing that I want to do before I die ATM is to nail the little shite who damaged my bike's exhaust cover...
Well, people do not know why they fear death. Rather, everything that lives does not know why they fear death. When cats look down from a rather high distance, they have the fear of dying, sort of like humans. When gazelles are being hunted by predators, they run for fear of their lives.
So what makes them afraid? I have no idea, after all, I'm no certified biologist. However, if there has to be a reason, I guess it is to pass down one's generation, and continue their species.
The other thing that is scary about death is what happens to you. Will people remember you? Will they simply forget you, and walk over your grave? Nobody knows. What happens to your consciouness? Will it ascend in the Heavens, drop into the burning depths of Hell, or simply be darkness. Nobody knows.
Quite simply, the answer is nobody knows.
Quite frankly, I feel quite dead, but yet alive. I don't necessarily feel pain much, but I feel the cold chill of weather. Food seems tasteless to me, and I don't talk as much as I used too.
Who knows? Maybe I'm just depressed, or my heart died a long time ago. (By heart, I mean the 'omg I care about j00' part of me, the actual organ is beating as we speak <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink-fix.gif' /><!--endemo--> )
Who knows these things? The dead can't speak.
The only real thing I would regret about dying is that I would not be here to see what happens next. Or will I get to watch like a spectator? No one knows, but that would be awesome.
Also, unless it somehow effects me in the afterlife (if there is one), I don't care what happens to my corpse. People can visit or not, people can walk on it or not, they can throw it in a ditch for all I care, and avoid those expensive funerals. The only exception would be if I actually felt what they were doing, in which case science has definitely failed us. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Well, that's the update from the resident psycho.
We don't know what happens to the consciousness after the brain dies. Theres no way to know without doing it yourself, and then youre not about to come tell us what its like.
Secondly, there is a deep fear of the unknown that has an evolutionary advantage. All you need to know to understand this is that parents pass on their traits to their offspring, (be it through genes or through upbringing and teaching, it doesnt matter how). Those people who are afraid to die have a greater chance of surviving, and therefore have more offspring than those who are suicidally reckless.
the suicidally reckless trait doesnt proceed into the future generations.
thats the why.
now for the hard to follow personal belief: I personally believe that the body is like a computer and death is like pulling the cord out of the wall. it just stops, the consciousness is a program that runs on the body with no connection to other consciousnesses and with no afterlife. it just ends.
however, i believe it is possible to be brought back to life by a diety, and that it is possible to create a diety given infinite technology (and humanity WILL attain infinite technology given an infinite timespan). since i'll be dead it wont matter that it might take a bajillion trillion years to have that technology, therefore the second after i die, i'll be reincarnated into the infinite future. a world where everything is instantly creatable is a generic definition of heaven in the real world.
We don't know what happens to the consciousness after the brain dies. Theres no way to know without doing it yourself, and then youre not about to come tell us what its like.
Secondly, there is a deep fear of the unknown that has an evolutionary advantage. All you need to know to understand this is that parents pass on their traits to their offspring, (be it through genes or through upbringing and teaching, it doesnt matter how). Those people who are afraid to die have a greater chance of surviving, and therefore have more offspring than those who are suicidally reckless.
the suicidally reckless trait doesnt proceed into the future generations.
thats the why.
now for the hard to follow personal belief: I personally believe that the body is like a computer and death is like pulling the cord out of the wall. it just stops, the consciousness is a program that runs on the body with no connection to other consciousnesses and with no afterlife. it just ends.
however, i believe it is possible to be brought back to life by a diety, and that it is possible to create a diety given infinite technology (and humanity WILL attain infinite technology given an infinite timespan). since i'll be dead it wont matter that it might take a bajillion trillion years to have that technology, therefore the second after i die, i'll be reincarnated into the infinite future. a world where everything is instantly creatable is a generic definition of heaven in the real world. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
alright.... so you go and get your head frozen in liquid nitrogen...... and hope that works out for you... computer person/cyborg wierdo....
while that all sounds fine and dandy and makes sense in theory..... I don't think thats how its going to play out, course this is coming from the mouth of a devout and faithfull person... so take that for what its worth
And I just <b>know</b> that it's gonna happen about 2 years after I die. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
According to the schedule, it happens the day after you die, becomes public within six months.
I believe that upon death you lose all memory and conciousness, almost like a coma, however, to come back would be near impossible unless we were indeed held in stasis until revivation, and how expensive is that? Thousands of pounds. Eventually immortality-by-age will come about, and the only deaths are not by natural causes, but until then, the great beyond... doesn't look that great.
Also had hormone-induced epilepsy for about 4 years during puberty, so I know what a blackout feels like, and it feels f*** all like losing consciousness, or as much as I can tell...
We can only experience our present, and we can remember this present as our past.
We then make assumption, based on our past experience, to anticipate our future.
We plan our own future, based on our past experience. E.g., we can predict how an object will be damadged when it drops out of a certain height, based on our experience with similar situations, or what he have learned about similar situations. For example, we imagine a car faling down a cliff to explode spectacularely, because we have seen it hundreds of times in a movie.
This is, however not the regular event of things in reality, as cars actually seldomly explode (if reasonably constructed). Is is however our way to predect a future event based on the information we have handy, since most of us will never have the opportunity to see a real car driving over a cliff.
In the matter of death, it is impossible for us to make a prediction, as we do not have past experience about it we can count on. This makes it almost impossible for us to predict what will happen to us and THAT is the frightening thing. As someone said, it is the unknown that ingnites fear. however, it is more than the unknown, because unknown usually would results in couriosity.
It is the inability to handle this particular unknown: all we know is, that finally our live ends. We do not know whether there is something afterwards, feft alone what exactly we will face.
Yet it is our nature to search for these answeres.
We understand at one point in our live that we cannot escape this reality. So everybody will find his own answeres he can stick to until his time comes. Some are fatalistic and accept the prospect of a simple cease of existance, others resort to one of the various interpretations of reincarnation or salvation.
Some do by ignoring the fact that they will die one day. The do not let this thought strike their mind as long as possible. Such persons will fear death their whole live and when encounering death ( like when they lose an important person in their live) they will not be able to cope with it.
Whatever ones own way is, we should never EVER try to convince another being out of his, nor make fun of this, as this is one of the most important things we have decided for our own lifes.
It gives us the security we need to deal with the inevitable.
One problematic aspect of death in our modern society is, that we seldomly are exosed to its sight. We see it on screen, but few of us, especially those grown up in the safety of the well developed industrial nations do realize what death means. Children are not exposed do death anymore and therefore do not build up "resistances" (in lack for a better word).
Half a century ago, most people had seen how animals are slougtered for their meat.
People had more children and not few of thm died because of bad medical supply.
They have seen their grandparents grow older and die eventually, because back then they still were living in the same place in most cases. Half a century ago, and even more in earlier days, people learned very erly in their live to deal with live and the loss of it.
Our fear of death is partly that great nowadays, because we have distanced ourselves from it, we are estranged from it.
My personal hypothesis is that it's a sort of empty blackness where you can think and dream for eternity. Possibly with consciousnesses able to bind and interact with eachother - sort of like dreaming for eternity. So, I suppose, if you imagined your own heavan, that's what it would be, where you could imagine yourself as a racecar driver or astronaut or whatever. This one makes the most sense to me, since once your shell of a body completely dies your inmaterial consciousness can 'escape' (which could explain out of body experiences, and when the consciousness realizes the body is still alive it's forced to return...or something), and since there's no possible way for me to imagine life without consciousness; plus if they're inmaterial they don't need to be destroyed - so continual creation of more of them wouldn't be a problem.
My other idea, which I'd be a bit disappointed (not really, once you read it) if it were true: that nothing happens. No thought, no interaction, nothing.
Another idea: That you'll begin living a new life in your continuation of the old one is some kind of individual universe simulation (where if people from 120AD died, they'd have had parts in their life that managed to let them live another 1900 years. I'm not really big on this one.
I suppose reincarnation is just as possible, or some magical intangible location that is only visitable once you die (although that seems a bit too surreal).
I just figure: woot, I get to figure it out eventually. I just choose not to waste physical time on pointless endeavors (meaning: I'm not going to go shoot myself, but I'm sure other people hold their physical essence in higher regard, so I'll push someone out of traffic or something). I was probably the least worried person during my appendectomy <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> .
Anyway, people tend to fear the unknown and aren't quite willing to embrace the idea of "at least I get to know what happens." I'm not quite sure why, not like you can do anything about it...it's inevitable (maybe you want to live to be 120 instead of 99?).