Nice vignettes but I don't really believe it. Not knocking those getting value out of them, but they don't work for me.
What did you expect them to work on you?
Have sufficient credibility to move me.
Life lessons from the death bed
181–190 of 196 posts
Re: Life lessons from the death bed
#182I find it easier to come to terms with death if I just accept that I'll have regrets.
The view that I have formed is that we all have regrets. Anyone who claims they don’t is blinded by ego. That claim is only possible if every decision they made was the right one - at the time and with hindsight. Clearly, that is not possible.
Paraphrasing FDR, the only thing we have to regret is regret itself.
Re: Life lessons from the death bed
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
Right! This whole life thing is about striking a balance between "eat your cake today" and "spend your day in the field cultivating wheat to make the flour to make more cake in the future". In every moment of my life there has been some "cake" I could have "eaten" that would have been more enjoyable than all the hours I spent up in the middle of the night with screaming babies. But on my deathbed I'm certain it will…
Your children are your cake.
That approach means your life ends with your first child; since you'll presumably want your children to believe that line too, then their lives will all lead to and end with their children. All in all, this is just saying, the only meaning of life is to procreate - and reduces humanity back down to level of any other simpler life form. Eat, fuck, die, repeat.
It's a belief I find hugely depressing.
Re: Life lessons from the death bed
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
This: > The anxiety today is not useful because it's anxiety about something that will never happen. You'll never be aware of having died or lost anything through your own death. Isn't addressing the thing that (I think?) most people are worried about when they worry about death. I don't think most are worried about how bad they will feel after they die, which is what this is concerned with. It's totally beside the p…
> imagining what it means for that consciousness to end and for the entire future of the universe to not exist to us at all—really imagining it—can be rather unpleasant. It's unpleasant, and it's difficult to imagine, that doesn't mean you should be anxious about your own death. Again... from your subjective experience, I'm not sure it's even meaningful to say that you will die. You will only ever experience being al…
For me it’s… let’s say I enjoy wine. When I die I won’t get to enjoy wine. But I like wine! I’d rather continue to live and enjoy it than die.
I’m not worried about the nothingness after I die. I’m anxious about the impending loss of enjoying my wine.
Have you ever been to a party and it started winding down and people left and you wanted them to stay and the fun to continue? That’s the anxiety.
Re: Life lessons from the death bed
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your children are your cake.
That approach means your life ends with your first child; since you'll presumably want your children to believe that line too, then their lives will all lead to and end with their children. All in all, this is just saying, the only meaning of life is to procreate - and reduces humanity back down to level of any other simpler life form. Eat, fuck, die, repeat. It's a belief I find hugely depressing.
People get a lot of gratification in raising children. Something that people without children can't really understand fully. I know I didn't understand it until I had children. You're building (for lack of a better word) something that will outlast you, the original legacy, one that nearly anyone can achieve. If you spend time helping people in need, I mean really spending time and energy, not just donating or virtue signaling, it's similar. An example would be teaching or coaching; being a big brother or adopting a child; being a good aunt or uncle; mentoring even, to a lesser degree, etc. Taking care of and benefiting someone who depends on you doing it really gives a lot of gratification.
>reduces humanity back down to level of any other simpler life form. Eat, fuck, die, repeat.
It's a little more than that but though humans (most) are civilized and intelligent, we're still a great ape.
>It's a belief I find hugely depressing.
Why? It's our nature. Jonas Salk is probably the finest human I can think of and he was certainly motivated by all those things.
Re: Life lessons from the death bed
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
As someone of the same age I feel the same. Sometimes I'm enjoying myself or finding it especially easy to be stoical about mortality. But sometimes it makes me breathless with dread for a few minutes. The realisation I was probably born a bit too early for technology to give me immortality saddens me; I only have so many weekends left to do hobbies and even fewer blocks of a few thousand hours to master something ne…
I was afflicted with an awareness of existence from an early age and struggled with it till around 40. Having kids obviously enhanced that but also changed me so profoundly and I realized we are just human sized atoms flying through the universe. I’d simply advise to get on getting on. It is. You are you so see what you can do with it in the way you feel you can.
What is the point of being immortal, if lt bring eternal suffering, Life in itself current form is suffering for many, unless you solve all other problem other then just mortality, life in itself bring difference with long lifespan. Inherently I see no difference if I live 100 years or 1000 years.
Re: Life lessons from the death bed
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your children are your cake.
That approach means your life ends with your first child; since you'll presumably want your children to believe that line too, then their lives will all lead to and end with their children. All in all, this is just saying, the only meaning of life is to procreate - and reduces humanity back down to level of any other simpler life form. Eat, fuck, die, repeat. It's a belief I find hugely depressing.
I think you misunderstood the comment. "Cake" in this thread is just a metaphor for "that which brings you joy". It is inarguably the case that peoples' children are one of the things that bring them joy.
None of the rest of what you seem to have read into it is written there.
Re: Life lessons from the death bed
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
That approach means your life ends with your first child; since you'll presumably want your children to believe that line too, then their lives will all lead to and end with their children. All in all, this is just saying, the only meaning of life is to procreate - and reduces humanity back down to level of any other simpler life form. Eat, fuck, die, repeat. It's a belief I find hugely depressing.
People get a lot of gratification in raising children. Something that people without children can't really understand fully. I know I didn't understand it until I had children. You're building (for lack of a better word) something that will outlast you, the original legacy, one that nearly anyone can achieve. If you spend time helping people in need, I mean really spending time and energy, not just donating or virtue…
Plus I think what parents do a poor job expressing to non-parents is that kids are fun. Like, they're a lot of tedious work, especially in the first three or four years, but they're also like the most entertaining fun thing out there. You know how it's fun to be around people who are really having fun? It's like that, but often.
Just as a top-of-mind example: All through my adulthood, I really disliked Halloween. Just not my thing, too much pressure to pick a creative costume, then go to a tedious party. But last night I had such a great time taking my five-year-old trick-or-treating. Because it's so new and exciting and fun for her, and that's infectious! But that sort of thing happens a lot.
That's what the metaphorical "cake" is. But that doesn't mean "that's it, there is no other joy to seek in life now", like the parent comment seems to be inferring. It's just one source of joy, but one that is hard to capture any other way.
Re: Life lessons from the death bed
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
> There is no reason to perceive a dying person as having special insight Have you ever had a near-death experience? Those often seem to be followed by a sense of clarity that inspires some people to live better. They seem to cut through the crud and reveal the unimportance of certain things, and highlight the value of other things
There have been a couple of times I knew death was possible in the immediate future and all was out of my control. I thought, what happens, happens. And I let go, relaxed and peaceful. But it is not easy nor useful to hold that attitude in everyday life.
"But it is not easy nor useful to hold that attitude in everyday life."
Why do you think it would not be useful? Aren't you more productive, when you are relaxed, compared to stressed out, where one does make misstakes easy?
Re: Life lessons from the death bed
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
I dont get this obsession with immortality, if its unleashed then it will be to enhance slavery. Dictators that dont die, potential dark ages. Enjoy rather current times, we have it easy and pretty compared to whats coming
Quite hard to enjoy the current times if you're dead. I would take my chances with the immortality even in spite of some vague "dark ages" hand-wave scenario, thanks.
Well, if there is a immortality drug, it won't be cheap.
So only the rich can get it, who will then live longer, and have more time to accumulate wealth, while thinking, "the earth is already overpopulated. If the drug becomes too cheap, that problem will worsen" So it will stay out of reach for the masses.
So the result will likely be immortal overlords and mortal peasants. Hard to see any other outcome.