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At 31, I have just weeks to live. Here's what I want to pass on

theguardian.com

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Re: At 31, I have just weeks to live. Here's what I want to pass on

#191

Post by Talanes »

podgaj wrote: post #48
johnnujler wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you conflate not existing before birth to not existing after death? Comparing cosmic duration to one's lifespan is not the same thing. It might sound very profound, but it is not, believe me. Also, I don't think you are 50+. You seem like a young kid who has just read some pop-philosophy to me. Anyone who has had a life-threatening experience or a grave illness will tell you that philosophical solace that is e…

"How do you conflate not existing before birth to not existing after death?" How can you not? Do you remember what it was like before you were born? Do you know of anyone who told you what it is like to be dead? If we do not know what death is how do we know what life is? We only know it by it's external appearance, which really tells us nothing. I am not an existentialist or a nihilist, I am a Daoist who is indeed o…

How can you escape the cycle of birth and death if you can't even escape high-school level philosophical debate?

Re: At 31, I have just weeks to live. Here's what I want to pass on

#192

Post by Talanes »

komali2 wrote: post #141
ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> " How awesome would it be, if we could revive someone who lived around the year 1500, 1000 or even 0? " One or two of them, maybe. Probably the most famous ones. All of them, including ordinary people like you or I? Not a chance.

I would be much more interested in what a tenth century peasant had to say considering all the famous ones were the only ones whose perspectives we get to see. The historical gaps concern the other 90% of the population.

That's great, but the peasant couldn't afford the long-term storage fees and his body got unfrozen and chucked 2000 years ago.

Re: At 31, I have just weeks to live. Here's what I want to pass on

#193

Post by est31 »

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #10
biolurker1 wrote: post #3

I wish more people would learn about cryonics. It's either 0 or something above zero probability.

Surely mass cryogenics is a non-starter in this day and age when we are concerned with lowering carbon emissions. All that refrigeration in perpetuity would consume so much energy, and keeping the dead frozen would erase the gains that we expect to get from the gradual decline in birthrates.

Volume scales cubically while surface area with the square of the length. It should be possible to build large scalable cooled facilities.

I do agree though that we aren't ready for such a system yet, both legally (currently a frozen person counts as dead, leading to their assets being taken away) and ecologically (carrying capacity limits of our planet). One day we might, who knows.

Re: At 31, I have just weeks to live. Here's what I want to pass on

#194

Post by Talanes »

echelon wrote: post #139
_ink_ wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would they not want to revive you? How awesome would it be, if we could revive someone who lived around the year 1500, 1000 or even 0? I expect people in the year 3000 (if there are still people around and if they have it relatively good) would see it equally when looking to the year 2000.

I'd be worried some rich psychopath (actually, probably an AI) would resurrect people and put them into a torture dungeon for eternity. Imagine never being able to die. Only suffer. No mouth, must scream vibes. Who knows what the future holds. But in the remote chance this is what the future holds, the AI may not even need your body. It might be able to simulate you up to the moment of your death. Or find some quirk…

So... Satan with a science fiction coat?

Re: At 31, I have just weeks to live. Here's what I want to pass on

#195

Post by Talanes »

podgaj wrote: post #67
srtjstjsj wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your rude attitude and misrepresentation of the ideas you are trying to express is why you are having trouble conversing here today.

"Your rude attitude" Ha! You should meet a monk sometime? Wrong audience, yes. Rude? Ha! So what! It exposes the people who are still attached to their ego. If you do not understand it is just you who does not understand. Misinterpretation? No, just a deeper understanding. Sorry I interrupted the death porn. I will go now.

>It exposes the people who are still attached to their ego.

Yes, we all see you. You've gotten the attention you so clearly desire.

Re: At 31, I have just weeks to live. Here's what I want to pass on

#197

Post by Talanes »

podgaj wrote: post #27
codetrotter wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So if I never loose my money it is worthless! Ha! Maybe not but, you probably had to earn it in the first place and that is why you know its value. I think if you were born rich and never had to worry about money in an existential way, then you would not really know the value of it. Not even from observing the pain of others. I think the only way is to really experience it first hand. Even if a rich person tried to…

"But if you had to go through a lot of real pain, then you know the real value of money. " The more pain and suffering I have the more I realize money is not important at all and that money might be the cause of most of the pain and suffering in the world. (Is that not a religious soul left on the internet?)

So it is loss (pain and suffering), that taught you about value (money is not important.)

Re: At 31, I have just weeks to live. Here's what I want to pass on

#198

Post by Talanes »

biolurker1 wrote: post #121
biolurker1 wrote: post #3

I wish more people would learn about cryonics. It's either 0 or something above zero probability.

One would wonder on the rules of the forum where 500ers can downvote a comment that sparked such a nice discussion. Internet never ceases to dissapoint.

I'm not someone who downvoted you, but you can't just assume everyone else sees value in the same things as you. Perhaps those votes are from people who find the whole digression about cryonics off-topic and boring?

Re: At 31, I have just weeks to live. Here's what I want to pass on

#199

Post by gumby »

12xo wrote: post #164
jcims wrote: post #149

My wife passed this year from cancer. Looking back we had no idea how close we were to the end, and in the last few weeks her beautiful mind was influenced by the disease. I’m sure someone on HN is going through this at least adjacently and my recommendation is to not wait to the end to have important conversations. For those that aren’t going through this now, maybe for a little while live life like you are...it mig…

This is where faith steps in... There is wisdom in the ages that will help you and your daughter. Try and find a pathway of peace and guidance from the universe's deep pool of human experiences.

Appropriate for some people, irrelevant or worse for others. I know you mean well and don’t intend to harsh on you, but I think your statement could much better have started “this is where religion might offer some solace”.

Every person has to make a different journey, and no tool is appropriate to everyone.

Re: At 31, I have just weeks to live. Here's what I want to pass on

#200

Post by apricot »

esemor wrote: post #109

”But everybody dies, and there will always be places and experiences missing from anyone’s life – the world has too much beauty and adventure for one person to see.” Damn gut punch...

I remember precisely when I had this particular epiphany. I was 12 years old, in love with books, and thanks to my parents who had signed a form, I had just gotten my first library card for the real (read: non-kiddie) section of the public library. Awed by the sheer number of tall bookshelves, intoxicated by the library smell and my newfound source of knowledge, I asked the librarian how many books they had, she said more than 100,000. I was duly impressed. But then I started thinking, and did some arithmetic on a piece of scrap paper.

And I realized that even if I read one book a day for the rest of my life, I would only be able to read a fraction of all the books on the shelves. Right there in the same room with me was provably unattainable knowledge. I could decide to read any book, but I could not read all of them. If I decided to read this book, then that other book would remain forever unread. Years before I would be able to put the words on it, I had stumbled upon a kind of incompleteness theorem, and I started to understand how small one's life actually is. This thought never left me.

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