Proof that I'm immortal

[Gawdzilla Sama]

What Mathilda said.  If I have a plank of wood and reduce it to sawdust, it is still wood, but no longer a plank - the pattern is broken.  Similarly, what makes you 'you' isn't just matter and energy, it is a particular configuration of matter and energy. When you die and that particular configuration no longer exists, neither do you.

Boru

You disrupted the organization of the wood. Until it rots or gets burned, etc., it's still the same wood.

[I_am_not_mafia]

Energy is even less persistent. It's like saying that all the electricity that you have used up running your computer throughout its lifetime is also part of the computer.

Or another analogy, you can't step into the side river twice. All the water molecules that have ever flowed through the same river are no longer part of it once they leave the river.

But you would never look at the river water, and say that's not the river. You would never look at the ocean and say none of this water came from the river. We are ever changing beings.

But neither would you look at those same atoms of water trapped as ice in the South pole and say that's part of the river Nile because it once flowed through it thousands of years ago.

My point is that those atoms are part of the river while it makes up the persistent pattern.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

What Mathilda said.  If I have a plank of wood and reduce it to sawdust, it is still wood, but no longer a plank - the pattern is broken.  Similarly, what makes you 'you' isn't just matter and energy, it is a particular configuration of matter and energy. When you die and that particular configuration no longer exists, neither do you.

Boru

You disrupted the organization of the wood. Until it rots or gets burned, etc., it's still the same wood.

But it isn't a plank of wood.

Boru

---

Energy is even less persistent. It's like saying that all the electricity that you have used up running your computer throughout its lifetime is also part of the computer.

Or another analogy, you can't step into the side river twice. All the water molecules that have ever flowed through the same river are no longer part of it once they leave the river.

But you would never look at the river water, and say that's not the river. You would never look at the ocean and say none of this water came from the river. We are ever changing beings.

*sigh*  Let me try this another way.  Suppose I kill you.  I take your corpse and grind it up. I take the resulting goo and burn it.  I take those ashes and reduce them with acid.  I take what's left and place it on a rocket and plunge it into the sun.  The total energy of the universe hasn't changed, but in what sense are you still 'you'?

Boru

[Shantideva]

Boru, the energy that comprises me is all that I am. I understand your alternate thread title though, and that makes sense too.

I didn't say that I just "fathomed" it today, I think it's special that humans can fathom it at all.

---

We are stardust.

And sure, in some ways eternal. I mean, not really because that's not how I define "me", but at the same time it's a nice thought for those of us that don't buy into woo. Bits of us were here before and will be after, ripples in the pond, that sort of thing.

Word!

But neither would you look at those same atoms of water trapped as ice in the South pole and say that's part of the river Nile because it once flowed through it thousands of years ago.

My point is that those atoms are part of the river while it makes up the persistent pattern.

But those atoms were part of the river Nile...I'm not sure that the water analogy will ever fit a persistent pattern.

Boru, as soon as you kill me the universe will change, if you reduce me with acid it will change even more. I'm only me in a pretty cosmic sense...if it holds no significance to you then so be it.

[The Grand Nudger]

Consider this..when you're no more sentient than a rock is today, every bit of that rock might have made it's way into hundreds of sentient things.

Who'll be laughing then? Why.....the rock, ofc.

[brewer]

Hi immortal god. What do you have planned for your creations today?

[robvalue]

Yeah, as far as we know, energy can’t be destroyed. We can’t know for sure it will never happen.

[vulcanlogician]

I suppose if you identify the self as the energy you are comprised of, you don't die, and never will. You will just continually flow to a more and more entropic state.

However, most of us identify "self" with our personal conscious experience (either directly or indirectly) and that will end. It's only a matter of time.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Yeah, as far as we know, energy can’t be destroyed. We can’t know for sure it will never happen.

Primarily because we aren't yet sure if any system is truly a closed one.  The Laws of Thermogoddamics only apply to closed systems.

Boru

[Anomalocaris]

The first law of thermodynamics states that energy can neither be created or destroyed.

Since my body is a collection of atoms, and atoms are energy, then the energy that comprises me has always existed and always will.

I realize that the same argument could be made for a rock, but since I'm thinking about it and the rock isn't it seems significant. 

What do you think?

Let me drop a big rock on your head, and we’ll see which of you is more immortal.