Something that scares me about death...

[Coal54321]

Before you're born, time essentially goes by infinitely fast from your point of view. That is, you are not aware of any amount of time before you are conscious. It may have been 14billion years; it may have also been only a few hundred - it makes no difference to you as you were not there and could not experience it. One day you were not conscious, the next day you were and then begin to experience time passing by.

Assuming there's no afterlife etc, when you die you "experience" the same thing. Everyone you know and love, from your perspective, may as well die instantly. Humanity will become extinct instantly. The universe will reach its end instantly.

Hopefully I am making sense and resonating with at least someone rather than sounding crazy. The moment your life ends nothing else matters from your perspective in terms of time. Years, months, days, seconds no longer have any meaning. I don't know if anyone else thinks about it like this but it just scares me. When I finally do it, I will essentially be forgotten in an instant. I don't really know how to explain myself properly I'm kind of just in crisis mode.

 

[affirmatice]

Before you're born, time essentially goes by infinitely fast from your point of view. That is, you are not aware of any amount of time before you are conscious. It may have been 14billion years; it may have also been only a few hundred - it makes no difference to you as you were not there and could not experience it. One day you were not conscious, the next day you were and then begin to experience time passing by.

Assuming there's no afterlife etc, when you die you "experience" the same thing. Everyone you know and love, from your perspective, may as well die instantly. Humanity will become extinct instantly. The universe will reach its end instantly.

Hopefully I am making sense and resonating with at least someone rather than sounding crazy. The moment your life ends nothing else matters from your perspective in terms of time. Years, months, days, seconds no longer have any meaning. I don't know if anyone else thinks about it like this but it just scares me. When I finally do it, I will essentially be forgotten in an instant. I don't really know how to explain myself properly I'm kind of just in crisis mode.

I know what you mean and it's hard to wrap our minds around.

Actually, I would say it's impossible to understand. Because we only "understand" and "know" things from our current perspective as a conscious human.

Even trying to make sense of time by saying it will go by infinitely fast, it's still just trying to make sense of it from your current perspective. Nothing will exist after death, there is no concept of time, instant, infinite, anything.

I share the similar thoughts, as I am only human, but it's ultimately impossible to understand from our current perspective.

Honestly, I have never been religious or spiritual. But that actually scares me more. If I get reborn, is there something after, who really knows.

 

[maniac116]

In reality the only one we make extinct is ourselves!

 

[yakhriv]

Any arbitrary large number of years will have instantly passed once you die.
A year, 10 years, 10^10 years, 10^10^10 years and so on.
For that reason I believe in some form of reincarnation after death - after a long enough time (which will pass in an instant from ""your"" perspective) , you'll perhaps come to exist again ex nihilo, just as before you came to exist ex nihilo.

 

[cali22♡]

Everything is scary no matter what you think about

 

[Adûnâi]

Is it scary if it's natural and part of your own life?

 

[AnderDethsky]

It seems to me that time is something we, as a living organism, needed to be able to perceive in order to survive. If it were necessary to describe the main function of the brain in a nutshell, then this is — predicting the future.

For millions of years, predators and herbivores have completed to better predict the behavior of others for better thought-out their behavior. And nothing has changed for us these days, we use the brain's ability to predict same reality but after a period of time, for example, to assess whether we will have time to run across the road , to enjoy music because it is essentially a constant prediction of which note will sound next, or even just for walking — all this is possible due to the fact that the brain is able to mentally simulate all the same things that it sees, but after n seconds. Our ancestors would not have survived if, seeing a predator in the bushes, they could not, based on experience, mentally be at the moment when they would be attacked, and on the basis of this forecast they would try to avoid it.

In general, time is also what we need for survival and reproduction. In the absence of life, accordingly, there is no possibility to perceive time, it sounds really hard to understand, which is natural, because death, the absence of existence is the complete opposite of everything that we know and can imagine.

 

[chester]

I don't know if anyone else thinks about it like this but it just scares me.

It's natural that it scares you, I think it's a part of our survival instinct. To me the possibility of going to hell would be way scarier, thinking that death is the end can actually be comforting in this context ;)

For that reason I believe in some form of reincarnation after death - after a long enough time (which will pass in an instant from ""your"" perspective) , you'll perhaps come to exist again ex nihilo, just as before you came to exist ex nihilo.

I have a problem understanding this concept, how do you define "you"? I define myself (as a person) as the sum of my views and opinions, my knowledge, my way of thinking, my history, my memories, my preferences, my goals and aspirations (if I still had any) etc. Most of these are acquired through experience of various sorts, the rest might result from some genetic predispositions.

If none of the above will be passed on to a person who will exist in the future, then what's the reason for saying that one of them could be me? What would make them me?

 

[passer-by]

Similar concept was introduced in a short story "The egg" by Andy Weir. I recommend you reading that. Time was basically treated there as another(4th.) dimension, in which you could arbitrary move, even going back in time. It was quite fascinating and somehow it made a lot of sense to me. But yeah, we can only speculate from this point of view, while on Earth, which is very limited.

Also novella "Flatland: A romance of many dimensions" and movie "Cube 2" both toy with this idea.

If anyone has more recommendations of movies or books I could add to my bucket list teehee, reagarding this topic, bring it on

 

[CantDoIt]

It's natural that it scares you, I think it's a part of our survival instinct. To me the possibility of going to hell would be way scarier, thinking that death is the end can actually be comforting in this context ;)

I have a problem understanding this concept, how do you define "you"? I define myself (as a person) as the sum of my views and opinions, my knowledge, my way of thinking, my history, my memories, my preferences, my goals and aspirations (if I still had any) etc. Most of these are acquired through experience of various sorts, the rest might result from some genetic predispositions.

If none of the above will be passed on to a person who will exist in the future, then what's the reason for saying that one of them could be me? What would make them me?

I thought a lot about what would make a reincarnation 'you', and my answer was always that it was a frame of reference. Why is your mind stuck in this single perspective now ? In my concept, this other person would be in the same frame of reference as you. Like when a different TV show appears on the same channel.

 

[pthnrdnojvsc]

There was no I or me for 13.8 billion years before I was born

I didn't have any problems for all of that time. The big problems began for me only after I was born. Suddenly I have to work 15 hours per day a job chores , every day risking extreme torture for no objective reason

What am I? 30 trillion Cells , a brain in a box . The problem is this brain that can suffer long lasting constant unbearable pain

All I am is a brain nothing more

What was I at one year old ? I didn't have the sane consciousness I have now but I was still this same brain .at one year old this brain was being taught it was a person . But it could still feel unbearable pain

All I am is pieces of software running on a 3 pound ape brain . Once this brain dies I will never be able to suffer even again. The problem is this brain that can suffer long lasting constant unbearable pain

 

[yakhriv]

It's natural that it scares you, I think it's a part of our survival instinct. To me the possibility of going to hell would be way scarier, thinking that death is the end can actually be comforting in this context ;)

I have a problem understanding this concept, how do you define "you"? I define myself (as a person) as the sum of my views and opinions, my knowledge, my way of thinking, my history, my memories, my preferences, my goals and aspirations (if I still had any) etc. Most of these are acquired through experience of various sorts, the rest might result from some genetic predispositions.

If none of the above will be passed on to a person who will exist in the future, then what's the reason for saying that one of them could be me? What would make them me?

I mean reincarnation in the sense that the subjective conscious experience would persist after my death.
If I were to be involved in a car crash that would make me develop complete retrograde amnesia (I would lose all of my memories and my previous sense of identity), I would still consider this new version of me a direct continuation to what I was before, the subjective experience would persist.

 

[ijustwishtodie]

Intriguing at how this scares you. For me, this is one of my most greatest comfort and relief ever. This is why I want to die earlier

 

[Coal54321]

Intriguing at how this scares you. For me, this is one of my most greatest comfort and relief ever. This is why I want to die earlier

I guess the main reason it scares me is because I still have so many people I love and care about and from my perspective when I die they are also gone with me. I wish more than anything I could have been able to live a normal life and grow up with them. Our lives are so small and meaningless already but the one chance I had was destroyed and will likely never come back.

 

[finallydone]

Totally agree, however there is no "perspective" the moment you die

 

[theolivanderroach]

I think that's just a long way of saying everything from your perspective ceases to exist when you die. But everything will keep going on for others who are still alive. Are you a solipsist?

 

[Coal54321]

I think that's just a long way of saying everything from your perspective ceases to exist when you die. But everything will keep going on for others who are still alive. Are you a solipsist?

No but I get why what I said implies that. I think I just can't explain it very well. I used to do ketamine every now and then to try to self-medicate as an antidepressant but it opened up my mind a lot about death. It wasn't a good idea to take it while my mind was in a bad place as it made me feel like I was dead at times and just made me scared about a lot of things.

 

[chester]

Why is your mind stuck in this single perspective now ?

My view on this is that my mind IS my brain along with the personality stored in it. But I understand that for this discussion to make sense I need to assume there's something supernatural that continues to live after my body is dead.

If I were to be involved in a car crash that would make me develop complete retrograde amnesia (I would lose all of my memories and my previous sense of identity), I would still consider this new version of me a direct continuation to what I was before

I would compare it to a new OS being installed on a computer, i.e. a new person inhabiting your body. If it happened to me, I wouldn't say that I was still the same person.

the subjective experience would persist.

Would it though? If the old "you" is gone, then to me this isn't really much different than dying. Whoever lives on, it's no longer the same person.