Edit: grammar in the alt-text

  • PurplePixie@midwest.social
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    5 days ago

    When we were nothing we had no concept of being something, so we had nothing to lose. Now that we are something, we have the concept of loss, and in life loss is usually painful and saddening. I feel like it makes sense that we would imagine the loss of our whole selves as being painful/sad, whether or not that’s actually the case.

  • DJKJuicy@sh.itjust.works
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    4 days ago

    Well since the fear of death is so seared onto our existence, and since we’ve already experienced non-existence, doesn’t that imply that we’re fundamentally so afraid of not existing because we’ve experienced not existing and it’s horrible?

    • regdog@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Check out the science fiction novel The Reality Dysfunction by Peter Hamilton.

      In the distant future humanity finds out that an afterlife exists for every sentient beeing. The problem is that the afterlife is fucking terrible. So bad in fact that the dead souls would do anything to posess a living body once more.

      I really liked it.

  • √𝛂𝛋𝛆@piefed.world
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    5 days ago

    The point of pain where your body shuts down is actually not that bad. I could watch myself die no problem. You don’t really experience death anyways. Your consciousness exists in user space but your body functions in kernel space. If kernel space dies, you don’t even get a memo. It is all kinda shocking and hard to take in when a super traumatic thing happens like breaking your neck back and a bunch of other stuff. It is like you are not part of it. The pain kinda just fades into a noise you barely hear your own thoughts over. I’ve been damn close to dead, and only barely recall little bits and pieces while missing most of three hours. I’ve watched people die from far far less severe injuries. They did not see their kernel space fail. So yeah I don’t think it matters. Smaller injuries hurt worse most of the time. The really big stuff passes a threshold where pain is kinda irrelevant.

  • CentipedeFarrier@piefed.social
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    5 days ago

    I’m not afraid of what comes after death, I want to experience a good death. And I’m afraid that I won’t. And there’s only the one chance.

    I want my brain to shut down in a cascade, like they have found by doing EEG scans of dying people. It’s supposed that this cascade may be what causes the life flashing before your eyes and peaceful feelings often reported by people who have been resuscitated.

    I want that. I want a good death.

    • BeeegScaaawyCripple@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      yeah, i have already experience severe pain enough. i have been told that your brain is supposed to release chemicals when it gets extreme enough, but the last time (if you press me for details i won’t give them. i don’t visit those memories) i did not pass out. i’m concerned i’ll keep fighting until i can’t, even when i’m too far gone, because i’m just that dipshit.

  • 🦄🦄🦄@feddit.org
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    5 days ago

    Well I hated it enough to claw myself out of it and into this flesh cage. So must be pretty terrible there.

  • Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    5 days ago

    I would miss out on all the new experiences that would happen if I wasn’t here lingering like a fart

    I’m gonna stick around for as long as I can

  • TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    Yes but it’s the survival instinct ingrained into our consciousness by the cosmos is kicking in. I’ve imagined it multiple times and I still feel dread.

  • N.E.P.T.R@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    5 days ago

    Question for the comments, what is the earliest (aka youngest) you can remember memories. I can remember stuff from being at most 2 years old.

    • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      5 days ago

      I’m not sure the exact age, but anywhere between 2 and 3, because I spent a lot of time in hospitals at that age, I had some serious issues when I was young. I remember being in the hospital and hating it, and it feeling dark and foreboding. I never understood what was going on and I was scared. I remember my mom giving me a Hot Wheels-sized toy helicopter and truck. I have panic attacks being hooked up to medical machines as an adult, and I hate having my blood drawn or having an IV.

    • Tonava@sopuli.xyz
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      5 days ago

      About three. The older the memory the less I can rely on it though, since most get mixed with dreams and I can’t tell what was real.

    • JackFrostNCola@aussie.zone
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      5 days ago

      Circa 3-5yrs old. I remember watching some VHS tapes of a couple songs and gumby episodes - also some ‘thomas the tank engine-esq’ tugboat show that occasionally drives me mad that i cannot find.
      I would watch these over and over on the rug in fromt of an old dial-select CRT TV and loved them so much.
      But the earliest definitive memory of an event i could pinpoint down to a day/week with a family member would be age 8.

        • JackFrostNCola@aussie.zone
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          4 days ago

          Holy shit i think that may just be it?! I dont know why i said tugboats instead of just ‘boats’ in my previous comment because i think whenever i have searched i was looking for something along the lines of ‘stop motion boat show’ or ‘toy boats in harbour show’, but never actually saying tugboats.
          I remembered them being toys in a port/harbour setting and thought it was some show for 5 year olds in the 90’s that wouldnt be captured on the internet and probably only existed in a decaying library archive box now.
          Man i love the internet, this has made my day, thank you!

    • isyasad@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      Probably about 7 for me. I have vague memories before then of objects or faces, but about 7 years old for things I really remember.

      • morto@piefed.social
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        5 days ago

        Me too. I wonder if I’m terrible with past memories, or if people exaggerate what they can remember. Seeing people saying that they remember things from when they were 2 or 3yo leaves me both amazed and skeptical.

    • Rookeh@startrek.website
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      4 days ago

      Similar to others, maybe 2 or 3 years old. I was “helping” (probably hindering) my mum paint my bedroom. I distinctly remember waving the paint roller around.

    • BeeegScaaawyCripple@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      i was riding a tricycle in around a friend’s front yard. 2 and a half, maybe 3? then we picked blackberries and peaches from their backyard and made and ate berry mush. delicious.

  • gigastasio@sh.itjust.works
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    4 days ago

    I subscribe to the idea of consciousness as an emergent property of a complex system. And the consciousness currently typing this just happens to be “me” at the moment. Eventually this meat sack shuts down and this consciousness emerges in a newly formed system elsewhere. Maybe another person. Maybe a giraffe. Maybe some life form in some galaxy we can’t even see from here.

    It’s not cosmic. I don’t take any life experiences with me. I’m not some eternal being learning lessons about the universe with some eventual higher-plane goal in mind. It’s purely utilitarian and just how things work.

    Being a giraffe might be cool tho…

    • humorlessrepost@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      I think that view would equally make you all currently existing giraffes, so you don’t even have to wait! There’s not really a meaningful distinction between emergent properties of current systems and those of systems after your meat sack rots.