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RE: Death
March 26, 2012 at 7:30 am
(March 26, 2012 at 6:54 am)Mosrhun Wrote: If one day everything is just gone, then why do we experience life as it is? Most people have their first memory at around age 2-3. You have no recollection of your life as an infant, so it seems to you that one day you just pop into existence because you can't remember anything prior. So if one day all of our memories cease to exist, then how is it that we are living life now? Wouldn't it work the same way as it did as an infant? Where I would not remember all these years and just cease to exist? If that's the case then we shouldn't even experience ourselves as "alive". Thoughts?
You're fast forwarding in time for some reason. I'm living my life now. I haven't gotten to the part where I'll die and won't ever be capable of knowing I was once alive. The future isn't the here and now.
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it" ~ Aristotle
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RE: Death
March 26, 2012 at 9:40 am
(March 26, 2012 at 6:54 am)Mosrhun Wrote: If one day everything is just gone, then why do we experience life as it is? Most people have their first memory at around age 2-3. You have no recollection of your life as an infant, so it seems to you that one day you just pop into existence because you can't remember anything prior. So if one day all of our memories cease to exist, then how is it that we are living life now? Wouldn't it work the same way as it did as an infant? Where I would not remember all these years and just cease to exist? If that's the case then we shouldn't even experience ourselves as "alive". Thoughts?
Thats some badass mindfuckery.
I get exactly what you mean but the jump to not experiencing being alive is flawed. Even though we will die until we die we would not lack the tools to perceive our past.
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RE: Death
March 26, 2012 at 10:21 am
The slippery slope of philosobabble can be a bit like a badly maintained amusement park ride if you stay on it.
Trying to update my sig ...
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RE: Death
March 26, 2012 at 11:42 am
Well, it has been mentioned, but I will reiterate. You are experiencing life because you aren't dead yet. I don't know how that got you befuddled. *shrugs*
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RE: Death
March 26, 2012 at 1:51 pm
(This post was last modified: March 26, 2012 at 1:52 pm by Napoléon.)
(March 26, 2012 at 7:24 am)Mosrhun Wrote: I appreciate your input but there's no need to be a douche.
I agree with the sentiment above.
As for the OP. It's a question about consciousness more than anything else unless I'm mistaken. The question doesn't make a great deal of sense to me, as memory isn't necessarily relevant for existence, I would counter the question with, does it matter if you can't remember existence?
Say we lived a thousands other lives before now without remembering it. But just because we don't remember those lives, does it mean that those existences were impossible?
It is all philosophical crap essentially.
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RE: Death
March 26, 2012 at 2:57 pm
(This post was last modified: March 26, 2012 at 3:00 pm by Nine.)
Any thread with death as the title needs some Monty Python.
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RE: Death
March 26, 2012 at 3:30 pm
(This post was last modified: March 26, 2012 at 3:30 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
Do you have any relatives with Alzheimer's? Are they alive, do they exist? Case closed.
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
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RE: Death
March 26, 2012 at 3:33 pm
(This post was last modified: March 26, 2012 at 3:35 pm by Cyberman.)
The most beautifully-reasoned commentary on the subject I've ever seen - the Argument ad Tom Stoppard:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LYDKs480UA?rel=0
Meanders a bit but do watch it right through.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
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RE: Death
March 26, 2012 at 3:35 pm
(March 26, 2012 at 3:30 pm)Rhythm Wrote: Do you have any relatives with Alzheimer's? Are they alive, do they exist? Case closed.
No, No, No 
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RE: Death
March 26, 2012 at 3:42 pm
(March 26, 2012 at 3:30 pm)Rhythm Wrote: Do you have any relatives with Alzheimer's? Are they alive, do they exist? Case closed.
To be fair I think he's talking about first person experienced consciousness rather than life itself.
Trees are alive but more than likely don't know it.
You are currently experiencing a lucky and very brief window of awareness, sandwiched in between two periods of timeless and utter nothingness. So why not make the most of it, and stop wasting your life away trying to convince other people that there is something else? The reality is obvious.
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