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How does the great void of death not disturb you? (programming.dev)

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Or does it?

I know we were once nothing, but it is still terrifying and depressing to me to think about returning to this. In fact, as of late, I've been unable to not think about it: the loss of all experience and all memories of everything, forever. All the good times we had, and will have, with anyone or anything ever will totally annihilate into nothingness. All our efforts will amount to nothing because the thoughtless void is ultimately what awaits everything in the end.

The only argument against this would have to be supernatural, like another cause of the Big Bang or somehow proof of reincarnation, but if my consciousness won't exist for me to experience it, then what does it matter either way?

There is no comfort in Hell, either. The anvil of death weighing down, infinitely, on all values and passions is becoming unbearable for me, so I could really use any potentially helpful thoughts about this matter.

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[–] cynar 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

We all have a fundamental drive to avoid dying. Our awareness of this inevitability is in direct conflict with this. The solution is often a change in how you think about things and yourself.

My personal view is that I have something analogous to a soul. It is the 'me' of me. It is also fundamentally tied to the structure of my brain (and body). When that structure changes, I change, when it goes, my 'soul' is destroyed with it. Critically however is that it is not alone. I can imagine what friends and relatives would say or do. In some ways, I have a weaker copy of their 'soul' within mine.

I also imprint part of my soul onto others in other ways. I create ripples in the world. Changes that wouldn't happen, were I not alive. Those ripples propagate through others, changing them. Some of those ripples are weak, only affecting 1 person. Others are stronger, affecting several people. A few are strong, able to spread, grow, and change the world (if only slightly). While those ripples, or their echoes exist, part of me does too.

My goal in life is 2-fold. Maximise my happiness and maximise the positive ripples I can create.

A quote by Terry Pratchett put it more poetically.

"No one is finally dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away, until the clock wound up winds down, until the wine she made has finished its ferment, until the crop they planted is harvested. The span of someone’s life is only the core of their actual existence."

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Right, I've certainly thought about this:

No one is finally dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away

Here's my problem: that "finally" will still come, and even centuries or eons of influence are nothing compared to the eternity of experience-less-ness. Death will eventually come for everyone and everything, even stars. Perhaps I was influenced a bit by this graphic about the life cycle of stars, especially the anthropomorphic white dwarf: https://old.reddit.com/comments/1j68uai

This is the core of the issue with Dio de Los Muertos, the idea that your existence will last as long as others' memories of you will; that will still eventually come to an end, so why try so hard from a moral position to alleviate suffering if all suffering itself will also cease anyway?

You can certainly still do it, and I will also still try to reduce others' suffering in whatever ways I feel I can sustainably repeat for my own comfort level, but we then can't claim some kind of moral superiority in doing so versus selfish people if it all comes to an end anyway; you simply do it because it makes you feel good, perhaps fed by millennia of evolutionistic altruism. There is no basis for any moral high ground when everything all comes to an end in this tiny blip of life existence anyway.

The ace in the hold to my view here is life extension and age-reversing technology. If we can actually conquer age-caused death, then that would totally change the ballgame. I guess we'll see if that's possible, with all the billionaires and scientists currently pouring beacoup bucks into this endeavor. But... I don't know...

Anyway, thanks for sharing. It's an extremely difficult topic no matter how you slice it.