Philosophy Discussion Forums | A Humans-Only Club for Open-Minded Discussion & Debate

[Sy Borg]

Ahem, how much time have you spent not alive?

Close to ten billion years is my best guess.

It was quite a ride but, alas, I cannot remember a thing about it. Then again, I can't much remember my next four billion years either, not until I manifested as an individual called "Greta". Still can't remember that much since her arrival either so I'm thinking there's more to existence than memory.

[Repoman05]

All connected, guesstimate 45 minutes total.

[Repoman05]

You might like to draw an ad'hom at this time. That ad'hom may be accurate or it may not be. But I'm going to add another claim to the last one. I've also killed more people than you'll ever even see in your whole life.

And I get an extra little kick out of admitting it while knowing no one would ever believe me

Sometimes you just have to fall off a log at just the right place and time. It was so easy i could even say I made you do it (:

[LuckyR]

Ahem, how much time have you spent not alive?

Close to ten billion years is my best guess.

It was quite a ride but, alas, I cannot remember a thing about it. Then again, I can't much remember my next four billion years either, not until I manifested as an individual called "Greta". Still can't remember that much since her arrival either so I'm thinking there's more to existence than memory.

Ah, but you weren't you back then (as you allude to vis a vis your memory). Others aren't nearly as circumspect.

[Repoman05]

I'm not planning to consider that which isn't yet living to be dead. But then again, dead wasn't the term that was used. "not life" was the term. Perhaps I should have drawn the same distinction rather than presuming 45m was closer to the answer you were looking for.

[Sy Borg]

Close to ten billion years is my best guess.

It was quite a ride but, alas, I cannot remember a thing about it. Then again, I can't much remember my next four billion years either, not until I manifested as an individual called "Greta". Still can't remember that much since her arrival either so I'm thinking there's more to existence than memory.

Ah, but you weren't you back then (as you allude to vis a vis your memory). Others aren't nearly as circumspect.

Then again, I am not "me" either, as such. I am just one of a vast number of entities of my type.

The way I see, with 7.8 billion humans, there must be many out there who form similar kinds of relationships with society and the natural world as I do. It's just the laws of averages.

When I die, there will be many out there who will think the thoughts I would have thought, many will do the deeds that I might have done had I lived forever. Others would make the mistakes that I would have made and form relationships in the ways I would, and some will create the kinds of things that I would have done. Death is a handing on of the baton to the next generation.

There is a very long way to go in this journey, and we are on this ride all the way to the cosmos, whether we are conscious of it or not.

[LuckyR]

Ah, but you weren't you back then (as you allude to vis a vis your memory). Others aren't nearly as circumspect.

Then again, I am not "me" either, as such. I am just one of a vast number of entities of my type.

The way I see, with 7.8 billion humans, there must be many out there who form similar kinds of relationships with society and the natural world as I do. It's just the laws of averages.

When I die, there will be many out there who will think the thoughts I would have thought, many will do the deeds that I might have done had I lived forever. Others would make the mistakes that I would have made and form relationships in the ways I would, and some will create the kinds of things that I would have done. Death is a handing on of the baton to the next generation.

There is a very long way to go in this journey, and we are on this ride all the way to the cosmos, whether we are conscious of it or not.

I don't necessarily have a problem with your commentary, but it is also compatible with the fact that no one alive has personal experience being either dead or not alive. Any purported experience would, by definition, be perceived through the lens of life, rendering the observations skewed and therefore unreliable.

[Sy Borg]

Then again, I am not "me" either, as such. I am just one of a vast number of entities of my type.

The way I see, with 7.8 billion humans, there must be many out there who form similar kinds of relationships with society and the natural world as I do. It's just the laws of averages.

When I die, there will be many out there who will think the thoughts I would have thought, many will do the deeds that I might have done had I lived forever. Others would make the mistakes that I would have made and form relationships in the ways I would, and some will create the kinds of things that I would have done. Death is a handing on of the baton to the next generation.

There is a very long way to go in this journey, and we are on this ride all the way to the cosmos, whether we are conscious of it or not.

I don't necessarily have a problem with your commentary, but it is also compatible with the fact that no one alive has personal experience being either dead or not alive. Any purported experience would, by definition, be perceived through the lens of life, rendering the observations skewed and therefore unreliable.

We experience quite variably. During deep sleep we barely experience at all. Everything in nature goes through periods of relative quickening and dormancy.

A way of thinking about humanity. Consider those personality types, the "Lucky type", "Greta type" etc. . Imagine a huge grid with each of those personality groups being lit at variable brightness, depending on how many are alive at any one time. It would be flashing on and off all over. We are part of the "flash", not the entire one.

[LuckyR]

I don't necessarily have a problem with your commentary, but it is also compatible with the fact that no one alive has personal experience being either dead or not alive. Any purported experience would, by definition, be perceived through the lens of life, rendering the observations skewed and therefore unreliable.

We experience quite variably. During deep sleep we barely experience at all. Everything in nature goes through periods of relative quickening and dormancy.

A way of thinking about humanity. Consider those personality types, the "Lucky type", "Greta type" etc. . Imagine a huge grid with each of those personality groups being lit at variable brightness, depending on how many are alive at any one time. It would be flashing on and off all over. We are part of the "flash", not the entire one.

Yes, deep sleep and comas may mimic death or not life... or they may not resemble them in the slightest. No one alive knows. Interesting thoughts, yet proof of nothing.