LIfe After Death

[robfosters]

You wake up as another person. No recollections or anything. You just become a new person.

 

[Surfer]

I guess it depends what your starting point is.

if you think the universe is fundamentally material or fundamentally immaterial (from consciousness).
That colours your opinion on it.

I think each approach leads to a fundamentally different Science.

 

[KatanaDV20]

worm food

+1

 

[Angilion]

Do you ever think what happens to you after death?

Rarely, because of the answer.

Is it the end? Or is there another life?

I don't know. I have no way of acquiring evidence that would enable me to know.

So it's a pointless thought to idle away a little time every now and again. It's an interesting question, but a pointless one because of the lack of any possibility of an answer. If I had to put money on it, I'd go with death being the end because I've no evidence of people having some sort of soul that would continue to be them after death. But I wouldn't put much money on it because what we don't know is large enough to include that.

 

[Angilion]

When we die, our bodies decay, and the atoms and molecules that made up that body find their way back into the food chain. The resources of your body are recycled and re-purposed and become part of future generations of life.

Not necessarily. The atoms will end up as part of something else, yes, but not necessarily anything alive.

 

[Angilion]

I like to believe there's something so that the idea of death doesn't scare me.

If I get there and there is nothing, tough luck, I wont care, I'll be dead.

I think you have it the wrong way around.

If death is the end of your existence, then there's no more reason to fear death than there is to fear the time before you were born. You couldn't be scared because you wouldn't exist.

If death isn't the end of your existence, then there is reason for fear. There are many ways in which existence could be worse and if you death doesn't end your existence then you could suffer forever without any hope of respite, not even death.

 

[adolf hamster]

you know that bit just before you die when your life flashes before your eyes? it's called living.

don't believe in an afterlife myself, but when the time comes i'm open to the pleasant possibility that i'm wrong and there is some eternal paradise.

never know, i'm young enough yet that we may beat death before i'm anywhere near, we can but dream...

 

[Angilion]

The idea of transferring consciousness into a computer is interesting, however if I copy my consciousness into a computer but carry on living then is the consciousness not just a simulation rather than a continuation of my being?

Is there a difference?

If your consciousness can be uploaded to a computer, then your consciousness must be seperate from your body anyway. That which is truly you is your consciousness. You'd just be running on different hardware.

In your interesting hypothetical scenario, there would be two of you at that instant in time. You and you would immediately start to diverge into two different people because you would be living different lives and at least to some extent a person is continuously altered by their experiences. The hardware would be relevant to the different experiences after the copying, but that's a different issue to whether each is a person or a simulation of a person. That's not about the platform you're running on - the question would be the same if you copied your consciousness into an organic body somehow copied from your own.

If you make an exact copy of some music from a CD and put it on a media player, is it the same music or is it a simulation of the music?

 

[areksnumbr1sxylady]

You just wake up in another dimension as you.... Deja vu is when you end up doing exact same action as other you in alternative dimension.

Hence dreaming, you are just seeing some parts what alternative you is doing but in a very weird way... So thats why you get people who say they see future in their dreams... Its not all the same because even though alternative is exactly same there is still a chance that you will take different paths although that chance is very small since we are very predictable beings.

Since Universe is infinite, therefore there should be infinite alternative realities with infinite you`s

No, you cant have what am having

 

[[FnG]magnolia]

Overclockers UK Forums > Life > General Discussion > Terrible answers to 1st Year Sociology questions

 

[Angilion]

I wonder just how far away we are from that. They say it won't be too long before people start living to well over 100 so maybe those of us lucky to be around in 80+ years time might see this tech starting to emerge?

I would expect that to happen, unless civilisation collapses. There are already early experiments in bona fide cybernetics, such as cameras feeding to the brain and thus functioning as working artificial eyes. The first in vivo ones (Dobelle's work) worked but soon failed. The biggest problem with them has disappeared, though - the major infection risk of permanent holes in your skull with jack plugs in them. No need for that when you can wifi the signals through your skull. The level of vision is crap at the moment, but on paper it's possible to make it superior to natural vision. Night vision, magnification, telescopic vision...anything that can be done with a camera. Human brains are hugely versatile - people can learn to process the incoming data.

It's also theoretically possible to extend human lifespan in the same organic body. Our bodies are self-repairing and self-building. At any given time, much of your body is only days or weeks old. If the process could be made perfect, the average lifespan could be extended to centuries without needing any artificial parts. There are early experiments on that too, though they're nowhere near human trials yet. We're at the "very long-lived simple worms" stage at the moment.

 

[Angilion]

We could find out if someone volunteered to kill themselves temperately and then get revived, I don't know if this is possible yet with current technology.

It isn't. People can get nearly dead and be revived, but dead is dead.

 

[areksnumbr1sxylady]

It isn't. People can get nearly dead and be revived, but dead is dead.

Depends what you class as death?? Heart-Stop?

 

[yhack]

I personally believe that we are reborn to live another life, completely unaware of the past life. None of that "if you are bad you come back as a dungbeetle" rubbish!

Although I'd like to come back as a dog and be able to lick my own balls.

It's funny that you disregard another idea as rubbish, when your idea is just as implausible and has just as much evidence. Do you not see what you type?

 

[areksnumbr1sxylady]

Btw, what is death?? Have a read of Schrodinger cat experiment Essentially there is a chance that the cat is alive and dead at the same time but neither intercept.

 

[£15]

I sometimes think about this and always come back to how I felt when I once had a general anaesthetic.

I was given the injection and asked to count to ten. I tried to fight it, just to see if I could; I think I got as far as 2.

I can't remember how long I was out for, but I remember nothing. (Which is good.) It was way beyond normal sleep. With normal sleep I can often 'remember' being asleep. But this was complete and total nothing.

I sometimes think that is what being dead is like - but you never wake up. It's quite depressing actually.

So, I think the question becomes, 'What have you done with your life?' rather than, 'What happens after you're dead?'

My genes will carry on with my 3 children and I like to think I'll have helped enough people over my lifetime (especially during my 15 years in the emergency services) that someone, somewhere, might momentarily spare a thought for me.

 

[Angilion]

Depends what you class as death?? Heart-Stop?

It's been a while since that was used to define death, since your heart stopping doesn't mean you're dead. It will cause you to die, but it is not in itself death.

Brain rather than heart, I think.

 

[Angilion]

Btw, what is death?? Have a read of Schrodinger cat experiment Essentially there is a chance that the cat is alive and dead at the same time but neither intercept.

Schroedinger wrote that thought experiment as a reductio ad absurdum rebuttal to an idea. It's meant to be ridiculous.

 

[areksnumbr1sxylady]

Schroedinger wrote that thought experiment as a reductio ad absurdum rebuttal to an idea. It's meant to be ridiculous.

Yeah but it does have a point though, there is a lot of debate on this theory... Because on quantum field, atoms are really in 2 places... So essentially you could be alive and dead at same time.... Well it depends on observer.

Its an absurd idea which clearly has a point.

 

[ChrisJSY]

It's funny that you disregard another idea as rubbish, when your idea is just as implausible and has just as much evidence. Do you not see what you type?

You're asking someone to rationally explain something they never did in the first place. :x