Death!

[Buffalo Souljah]

Talk about death: What is it? How can we deal with it? Is it really that big a big deal?


Discuss!

[Invincible Summer]

Death is when one's body ceases to function entirely.

It is a big deal in that one will no longer be able to experience life, but it isn't a big deal in that death is a pretty frequent occurrence.

It can be dealt with through the promotion and development of human life/healthspan extension technology

[Buffalo Souljah]

Death is when one's body ceases to function entirely. What about hair and fingernails? Are they not part of the body? According to your judgment, we've been burying a whole lot of people alive!

[RedAnarchist]

What about hair and fingernails? Are they not part of the body? According to your judgment, we've been burying a whole lot of people alive!

That's an urban myth - after death the skin retracts, showing more of the hair and nails.

[Dean]

Death indicates a lack of life. The human creature dies when its body ceases regular life functions.

From a moral or philosophical standpoint, the important aspect of death is the permanent cessation of mental function.

[RED DAVE]

Death is a bourgeois plot. After the revolution, we're going to abolish it

RED DAVE

[Jimmie Higgins]

Death is a bourgeois plot. After the revolution, we're going to abolish it

RED DAVEAnd we're finally going to get that 1000 miles per gallon automobile engine that the auto and petrol industry has locked up and buried in a vault somewhere.:lol:

We'll need the better gas mileage if we're going to live indefinitely.

[Invincible Summer]

What about hair and fingernails? Are they not part of the body? According to your judgment, we've been burying a whole lot of people alive!

Fingernails and hair don't exactly "function," so I don't know what you're talking about. It's not like they keep growing after people die, and it's not like I said "Death is when every single molecule of your body is turned into dust."


Also, what's with people always using euphemisms for death? It's like people can't just say "____ died." they have to candy coat it by saying "____'s passed on" or "___'s in a better place" or "_____'s not with us anymore."


Hmm... interesting how it's always implicitly religious...

[Ocean Seal]

Death is death, its as simple as that if you cease to function then you don't have to worry about it.

[Philzer]

Hi Jimmie!


And we're finally going to get that 1000 miles per gallon automobile engine that the auto and petrol industry has locked up and buried in a vault somewhere.:lol:

This is a good joke. :D

Unfortunately, there cannot be this.

But there could be small cars with 750 kg of weight and 45 Horsepower, but nobody wants that. They are not good as a status symbol although they her purpose as a vehicle fulfil.

And by such diesel cars the consumption would be about 2.5 litres on 100 km, around 10 gallons on 1000 miles. But the most people want to waste much more of our world. :(


We'll need the better gas mileage if we're going to live indefinitely.

What did yuo mean with live indefinitely ?

As long as the people will not imagine to the world of her children and grandchildren nothing allow to change.

Conviviality (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Illich)

Kind regards

[Pavlov's House Party]

To me the idea of not existing anymore is simply mind boggling; I often think about what it would feel like to not exist anymore, but you can't even conceive of it. Its kind of understandable why so many people insist in an afterlife when faced with such a frightening thought.

[NGNM85]

I would define death as; 'the reduction of the sum of the near-infinite possibilities of human existence to zero.'

Here's a fascinating lecture by Oxford professor Nick Bostrom:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd9cf_vLviI

His take is that death represents an intolerable loss of knowledge and experience.

This piece by Eliezer Yudkowsky; "Transhumanism as Simplified Humanism", is also quite good;
http://yudkowsky.net/singularity/simplified

Yudkowsky makes the point that chronological age, by itself, is essentially irrelevent to our moral imperative to preserve and protect life. We're just as morally bound to save a drowning seven-year-old, as a 50-year-old. Therefore, we have a moral imperative to use GNR technology, or whatever means availible, to preserve and extend life.

[¿Que?]

All's I know is I don't want to die. I don't really think about it much more deeply.

[TheSamsquatch]

Death is inevitable, the only true guarantee in life. I strongly agree with Sartre when he said that: "Every existing thing is born without reason, prolongs itself out of weakness, and dies by chance."
I also think that fear of death is what compels the masses to be easily lead and manipulated. It is really up to yourself to give your own life meaning, because there is no inherent meaning.

[The Fighting_Crusnik]

I see death as being more or less a transition. I believe in the existence of a soul, and I believe that soul passes on into Judgement. Where we go from that point is based upon our choices in life. :)

[leftace53]

One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure its worth watching.
I don't know who said that, but its pretty damn awesome. I don't worry about death, and death doesn't worry about me. Like I said in another thread, I don't much appreciate the thought of dying, but death is no big deal. When its over, its over. Frankly I can't wait till it happens, but I figure I only get once chance at living, I'll make the most of it.

[A.R.Amistad]

Live your life to the fullest. Death is simply a physical function where the body ceases to function as living organism. Your essence that you build in your own life can be immortal.

[Meridian]

Live your life to the fullest. Death is simply a physical function where the body ceases to function as living organism. Your essence that you build in your own life can be immortal.
What is an essence, and what does it mean that I build it and that it can be immortal? Presumably it is alive, since it can be immortal.

[Buffalo Souljah]

"Death is inevitable, the only true guarantee in life"

Why is this necessarily true? At some point in the past, typhoid was incurable, as were malaria and many other pathological conditions that we now better understand and are able to treat. WHy couldn't the same be said about death?


What is an essence

Firstly, you have to distinguish between the term "essence" and what it is supposed to refer to.

When I make an observational sentence, e.g., "The cup that is on the table is blue", the words I am using to describe what I experience are not identical to that experience, and therefore must somehow correlate to that experience in order for the sentence to have any meaning: for instance, if I point to the cup and say :"bubububu", no one will know that I mean "Next time it rains, I will go swimming" because "Bububu" has no meaning.

In the same way, the word "essence" is a derivation of idealistic forms of thinking (which place a subjective "ideal" element above and "outside of" material reality) and attributable to a misuse of language. More can be read about this here (http://anti-dialectics.co.uk/page%2003_02.htm).

Walter Benjamin writes somewhat of the "aura" of a piece of art in Das Kunstwerk in dem Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierung, but I have some reservations about that type of thinking. [we can talk some more about this if you like]




I see death as being more or less a transition. I believe in the existence of a soul, and I believe that soul passes on into Judgement.But, who are you beyond the bone, muscle and tissue that comprise you? That's a fanciful thought and one I'd see the place (comfort) of, but it doesn't wash, empirically! Judgment entails a subjective, immaterial entity (since we are discussing our "souls") transcendent of space & time, and as far as we know, there is no such being. Sorry!

[John "Eh" MacDonald]

I have a poem that my friend wrote that explains it all..

people live, people die
but in the end we all get high
if in life you don't succeed
fuck it all and smoke some weed.

words of a wise man.

[meow]

we all die. sometimes.

[NotQuiteAsOne]

At the end of the day, without death, what would be the purpose / point of life? There really would not be one - death is the main focus of life, it is why we strive for things, why we are motivated by things, it is the most fundamental of forces driving humans. Thus, why should it be feared? It should be accepted whilst not necessarily embraced.

[Buffalo Souljah]

There is a species of jellyfish which possesses the ability to continually return to the polyp state (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turritopsis_nutricula) (i.e., infancy) and is thereby rendered theoretically biologically immortal. A handful of other species (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydra_%28genus%29) have displayed similar capacities. I am curious as to whether the particular genetic variables responsible for this curious quality can be adapted to the human genome at some point in the future. Perhaps less a matter of philosophical than of scientific speculation, but I thought I'd throw that out there nonetheless. --JW

[Telemakus]

Everybody dies (omg rly??/) and it's only a big deal if we react to it as if it is.
Therefore, "dealing" with it simply means adopting a healthy attitude towards it, akin to "Death is a necessary part of life. I will one day die, and I accept this. My loved ones may die before I do, and while I will take time to honour them when they are gone, I will not let their death take too heavy a toll on me."
There's really no need to take excessive measures to try and extend life, and I see the fear of it as being largely a result of modern-individualism/solipsism (i.e. not being able to see yourself as just a part of the whole).


I have a poem that my friend wrote that explains it all..

people live, people die
but in the end we all get high
if in life you don't succeed
fuck it all and smoke some weed.

words of a wise man.
And/or you could actually try and do something productive with your life...

[Queercommie Girl]

Life and death are in dialectical union. We have all died many times already. Every year, all of our body cells completely change a few times. Every single cell in me now is made up of completely different molecules compared with a year ago.

Neither life nor death are static constants. Dialectics teach us that "the only constant in the universe is change". Yes, it is not death, it is change. Even death changes. If the universe exists into the future for an infinite amount of time, then everyone of us will live again and again an infinite number of times simply by random chance.

The philosophical purpose of socialist civilisation is to master change. As the ancient Chinese saying goes: "for those who address themselves to the times, even danger is safe; for those who master change, even chaos is orderly". For those who master change, even death is life.

The key to human life is self-consciouness. We can never become immortal in the sense that we do not change and transform, that old patterns of consciousness persist forever while new ones never arise, but potentially we could preserve the historical continuity of our consciousness streams. Our physical forms always die and reborn again, but our consciousness streams can become continuous.

[ZeroNowhere]

Life and death are in dialectical union. We have all died many times already. Every year, all of our body cells completely change a few times. Every single cell in me now is made up of completely different molecules compared with a year ago.
This thread seems to have been created to discuss death in its ordinary English sense, though.

[Queercommie Girl]

This thread seems to have been created to discuss death in its ordinary English sense, though.

Ok. I'm suggesting that perhaps our understanding of "life" and "death" itself needs to deepen.

If "death" is simply meant the termination of consciousness stream continuity, then I think with future technology, in principle death can be prevented, though there is never guarantee that a particular individual can live forever.

[Evil Dead]

Death Is like the prize at the bottom of the cereal box, you never know what it is.

[stella2010]

DEATH is no big deal.

During the mid 1800s the five points district of NEW YORK experienced a murder a day for 16 years.

There is an old saying..


"Let's call it a day"

BOOM

Thats why the ITALIANS were so good at dealing with the RUSSIANS during the COLD WAR.


Words of a wiser man.

[The Guy]

I've spent the past few months trying to overcome the fear of death and accept that it's an inevitability. Of course, we'll die, but accepting it is a challenge itself. I'm not living my life, I'm only waiting to die -- but that comes down to your own view upon things.

If you're scared of death, then what's the point in living and delaying the process?

[BeerShaman]

We do not know what death is.
We have made an hypothesis commonly publically accepted:
Death is the termination of biological and material life.
Other than that hypothesis, we know nothing.
And because an hypothesis is not a fact for sure, we know nothing.

Well, we don't know what life is. Are we afraid of it (theoritically, 'cause some do)? No.
Why being afraid of death then?

[4kmrx]

Natural part of life and its end. A point where we cease to be sentinent beings and turn in to source of nutrients. Any thoughts is there anything after are pointless for if answer is no thats just last call and lights out and if yes that just come as nice suprise when time comes.

[John "Eh" MacDonald]

And/or you could actually try and do something productive with your life...

Not the way I see it. You make of life what you want. If you want to be a slave of society and try and move up the ranks of the bourgeoisie that's fine. But I think everybody should loosen there tie and belt and have fun while they're still here.

But of course drugs are not the only way to achieve this. Perhaps I should have answered a little more seriously. My apologies.

[Tor_Hershman]

Death is the same as before birth, the equation is
0=T=0
T standin' for Totality & 0 being Zero/Nothing.

Good equations run the same both ways. :thumbup1:

[Meridian]

Life and death are in dialectical union. We have all died many times already. Every year, all of our body cells completely change a few times. Every single cell in me now is made up of completely different molecules compared with a year ago.
Dying is not when the cells of a body changes. We have not died many times already, because we are alive. Once you die, you can no longer be alive because the body ceases to function. If it does not, you have not died. That is the ordinary meaning of the word "dying". Death is the event. Talking about molecules changing is irrelevant.



Neither life nor death are static constants. Dialectics teach us that "the only constant in the universe is change". Yes, it is not death, it is change. Even death changes. If the universe exists into the future for an infinite amount of time, then everyone of us will live again and again an infinite number of times simply by random chance.
Life and death are two completely different words, yet you treat them like they are similar. Death, as I said, refers to the event of dying, like in "I am afraid of death". Life is used in many ways, it can refer to living things, it can be used like a broad look at things or a situation as in "I find life difficult" or "she was a kind person her entire life" referring to the time that 'she' was living, it can even have a different meaning altogether like in "he has no life". Of course, when you use "life" and "death" in the way you do, they are similar, which is because they are considered as metaphysical entities. But really, they are words we use regularly and in different situations.

Besides that I don't see any reasoning behind your claim that we will live again an "infinite number" of times. (I disagree that infinite is an amount at all, but that is another topic.)


The philosophical purpose of socialist civilisation is to master change. As the ancient Chinese saying goes: "for those who address themselves to the times, even danger is safe; for those who master change, even chaos is orderly". For those who master change, even death is life.
Master change? What change? Coins? "Change" can not be mastered, karate can be mastered. You are misusing words, "change" is used like "I had to change my job", among a myriad of other types of uses.

[Luisrah]

Death is the same as before birth, the equation is
0=T=0
T standin' for Totality & 0 being Zero/Nothing.

Good equations run the same both ways. :thumbup1:

I've been thinking about this, and think that whatever happens after you're dead is what happened before you were born.

Do you remember anything? No, than that's what will happen. Not that bad actually, considering I was atleast a few billion years without existing and I can't remember a thing.

[ZeroNowhere]

Once, as Mung went his way athwart the Earth and up and down its cities and across its plains, Mung came upon a man who was afraid when Mung said: "I am Mung!"

And Mung said: "Were the forty million years before thy coming intolerable to thee?"

And Mung said: "Not less tolerable to thee shall be the forty million years to come!"

Then Mung made against him the sign of Mung and the Life of the Man was fettered no longer with hands and feet.
-Lord Dunsany.