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I'm choosing euthanasia etd 1pm. I have no last words.

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Re: I'm choosing euthanasia etd 1pm. I have no last words.

#141

Post by jnbiche »

happy-go-lucky wrote: post #128

From the article Confessions of a Necromancer: if you have the trust of your client, and s/he has real power, you have done half the work already. don't make stuff and then try to sell it unless you are growing an existing client base. breaking into markets you don't know is probably impossible. Build up trust with the client and sometimes they will reward you for it. When you've paid for all the mistakes, you should…

To expand a little on this comment, it is highlighting some of the main ideas from one of Pieter's most recent posts (and one of his very best, which is really saying something).

It's presumably the parent's tribute to him, which I can appreciate.

Re: I'm choosing euthanasia etd 1pm. I have no last words.

#142

Post by gravypod »

When does a computer scientist stop being a computer scientist?

It's sad seeing Bob and Alice used in such a morbid context but at least we know we'll be thinking in terms of protocol, complexity, and CS even on our death beds. It's something that will never leave us.

I've read very little of his work. I think I'll change that.

Re: I'm choosing euthanasia etd 1pm. I have no last words.

#144

Post by Razengan »

ekianjo wrote: post #139
Razengan wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Writing this as a reply to all the comments regarding death; I think "death" is just another condition like disease or disability that will eventually be defeated through technology. Someday we will have medical immortality and maybe even mind-backups, to "restore" a person (or a very close approximation of them) in the case of accident/violence. We should be looking at death as something surpassable and not necessar…

> I think "death" is just another condition like disease or disability that will eventually be defeated through technology. Someday we will have medical immortality and maybe even mind-backups, to "restore" a person (or a very close approximation of them) in the case of accident/violence. Backing up your brain does not prevent you to die. Your organic form will die anyway and you will have to go through death, it's j…

It may still be comforting for people to get their loved ones back in some way.

Even without such "resurrection", medical immortality in the form of immunity to aging and disease and disability could be considered as "defeating" nonviolent death.

Re: I'm choosing euthanasia etd 1pm. I have no last words.

#145

Post by [deleted] »

ekianjo wrote: post #139
Razengan wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Writing this as a reply to all the comments regarding death; I think "death" is just another condition like disease or disability that will eventually be defeated through technology. Someday we will have medical immortality and maybe even mind-backups, to "restore" a person (or a very close approximation of them) in the case of accident/violence. We should be looking at death as something surpassable and not necessar…

> I think "death" is just another condition like disease or disability that will eventually be defeated through technology. Someday we will have medical immortality and maybe even mind-backups, to "restore" a person (or a very close approximation of them) in the case of accident/violence. Backing up your brain does not prevent you to die. Your organic form will die anyway and you will have to go through death, it's j…

[deleted]

Re: I'm choosing euthanasia etd 1pm. I have no last words.

#146

Post by chriswwweb »

This should remind us that life can be short and will end one day anyway. So we should try to enjoy every bit of it and don't waste time with bullshit.

R.I.P. Pieter Hintjens. For more about Pieter Hintjens check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Hintjens

Re: I'm choosing euthanasia etd 1pm. I have no last words.

#148

Post by fsloth »

icantdrive55 wrote: post #70
Odenwaelder wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess it's more frightening because we're more likely to develop cancer than most other diseases, it occurs for the most part purely randomly and chances are high that it leads to a slow and painful death. Cancers evolve to resist drugs and radiation, and due to the nature of evolution, you are unable to tell if and when it happens. As I wrote under another article, cancer is a fundamental dread of all higher multi…

My father died of liver cancer. A piece of me died in those weeks of his misery, and pain right up to his horrid death. My father was not a kind man. He was petty, selfish person, but I still would have done anything for him. Looking back, he was under medicated while in Palliative Care. He was at home, but that shouldn't be an issue? No one in the family could figure out why he wasen't given more medication. He saw…

There might be some screwy regulations that if you drug a person too much - no matter how terminally ill they are or how in pain - you are doing a criminal offense. Also, there is this strange worship of suffering in some circles - how just bearing ones load is somehow more noble than being blissfully stoned.

Not a medical professional, though.

I think parts of me died for both of my parents death. All the strength.

My mother spent her last month as psychiatric patient at an alcoholics ward, and only after she had died autopsy discovered she had pancreatic cancer. She was mostly incoherent, frightened and delusional. They said she screamed through the nights. Despite her history I cannot even after years stop wondering was that really the correct place to tend to her-and why did her mental condition lapse so thoroughly before the end. Death and lack of dignity sucks.

Re: I'm choosing euthanasia etd 1pm. I have no last words.

#149

Post by FireBeyond »

anexprogrammer wrote: post #104
arkades wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> hard to fear it more than any other thing that can kill me - a stroke, a car accident, etc. Hm. I wonder your age. Young folk seem to think death impossibly foreign, and fear it / ignore it all equally. Older folk, that have had more first-hand experience with the decline of the flesh in themselves and those they grew up with, have more an appreciation for the difference between an abrupt death in a car accident, a…

The only way to win is not to play. I'm past 50. I'm not overly fussed about dying, it's not like it's avoidable. I'm not overly fussed about how either as I'll get what I'm given. Of course I'd prefer a pain-free exit rather than a 2 year painful decline to incoherent as my father had. Unless you go in your sleep I suspect all routes have pain as the final memory. I have no fear of any of it. The only thing actually…

I'm a geek, and a paramedic.

I entirely agree - prolonged suffering is not life, it's misery. That decision should belong to people going through this, and not anyone else (they can discuss with those they feel appropriate).

One of the most memorable transports I ever did was for a woman with terminal metastatic cancer, taking her home where her husband had set up a bed in the living room so she could watch the sunrise.

To understand the amount of pain she was in - the movement of the ambulance driving her home about 20 miles exacerbated her pain such that her morphine dose which was already at 450mg/day was pushed to 600mg/day.

For comparison, if you're a 200lb person with a broken bone, you will likely get 15mg.

I have seen the prolonged suffering patients, and their families. Whatever happens, it's not easy.

Re: I'm choosing euthanasia etd 1pm. I have no last words.

#150

Post by SubiculumCode »

LeanderK wrote: post #24

This keeps me up at night. I hope the collective advancement in science makes it possible to defeat cancer some day. I believe/hope that my contribution as a insignificant CS-student helps somebody develop tools that help somebody researching etc. I am really convinced that every advancement is connected somehow and the collective improvement in efficiency and livings standards makes it possible to commit more resour…

Yes. Fuck cancer. Took my grandmother, and took my friend. Took your grandfather. Took your friend. Fuck cancer.
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