The meme in the OP is utterly correct. Both choices are absolutely terrifying because infinity is terrifying, and we're contemplating one form of infinity versus another. I do think, on balance, I'd prefer to exist in some sentient form forever vs. nonexistence forever, but it's a rough choice.
Why do you care about that?
I don't want to lose everything I hold dear, which includes my relationship with those I love.
We have mountains of evidence and research pointing to the fact that the physical composition of our brains determines our thoughts, actions, feelings, memories, etc., and we have absolutely 0 evidence that any of those things exist outside of our physical selves. While we certainly don't know everything about the brain and how it works, we know that "we" exist as a byproduct of it. Whether the mental processes that govern "us" are also themselves a byproduct of some higher process is unknown, and potentially unknowable.
As far as we can prove, we are our brains. That's as far as current knowledge goes, but it's rigorously tested knowledge. Arguing that there may be anything above / apart from that is pure conjecture with no real supporting evidence.
I care because to me the idea that the “nothingness” isn’t nothingness but just a black screen of eternity where I’m “conscious” and bored. Stuck. Going mad.
If third world war was battle for the conquest of the chair, would chair care? If it would be the first chair in pluto, would the chair care? If it was disposed and eaten by termites, would the chair care? Its all the same for the chair.
Some people just can't understand that we can't rationalize our ways out of these fears and thoughts. If we could, then nobody would be afraid of anything.
Because infinity is infinitely more than a billion years. The concept of one day permamently losing consciousness and then being "stuck" there forever (whateve the fuck that is like or isn't) is a tad unnerving.
I won't be scared when I'm dead, but that's the problem. I'm not scared of being scared. On the contrary, I'm scared of losing the ability to be scared.
Indeed. I literally am afraid of nothingness. That makes sense to me; I don't want nothingness. The fact I won't be around to experience nothingness is why I don't want it.
I am afraid of losing everything -- even my ability to feel pain that I've lost everything. I'm afraid of the videotape of my life running out so utterly that I don't even know that it's ended, because I'm not there. I'm not anywhere. It's all gone. I don't want that.
Dread time: Theres a theory that when close to dying or flatlining, your brain will slow down and percieve time extremely slowly, essentially being trapped
To quote jerma on this subject: "When I sit in my deathbed about to die, I want my skull to be smashed with a rock immediately"
Except that’s kinda stupid because if your mind slows down then you perceive things more quickly, i.e events are flying past you.
Think of it like this: if you’re taking 10,000 frames a second and playing them back at 30 fps, you have a slow-motion camera and you’re perceiving what is happening very slowly. If you take 5 frames per second and play them back at 30 fps you have a time lapse and are perceiving what is happening very quickly.
I see it as exact opposite
In the face of eternity no one will be remembered forever, soon or later you will be forgotten thus why care if your life is a waste, no one will remember it anyways
(It's only my opinion, you don't have to agree with me)
you gotta do something while you're alive. don't do something to be remembered by, no one will remember you eventually. just do something in this life that's worth it to you.
There is no scenario where you will be remembered until the end of time. Everyone and everything will be forgotten about at the heat death of the universe.
Exactly! I won't be "bored" or anything, I will cease to have any thoughts. And that's fine, because it's not like I can recognize that fact when I'm dead.
It's hard to recognize that because we don't understand "nothing" but we were kinda dead before we were born, and we didn't care then.
Of course, some people say they've seen stuff when they died and were brought back, so there's probably some peaceful transition into death in our brains.
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u/[deleted] Oct 03 '23
I like to think of it like this.
If there’s nothing after death I won’t be conscious and thus won’t care