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Infinity issues

Daniel_EC

Hello again. Wanted to share something that always seemed nonsense to others, but quite logic for me. I always had trouble with the idea of eternal life after death. While others always seemed to find relief in this possibility, to me it`s been the most horrifying thing imaginable. Thinking about existing forever was always far beyond distressing, and the certainty that it is either that, or ceasing existence at all, would make me feel trapped, doomed, and that there was no solution available at all. It used to be so bad, that I couldn´t even sleep as a child, and stress caused me the feeling that someone was whisperng in my ears, like when someone is mad at you, but it was not a hallucination because I knew it was in my head. I would love to know if anyone else has had this kind of trouble with time, death and eternity as well.

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  • Like you, the logic of etermal afterlife seems a bit of a ropey concept.

    There is no proof of life after death - I spent over 10 years studying this with the Society of Psychical Research and all the information I could find and all the tests we performed could find absolutely no conclusive proof.

    30 years later and they are no further forward which makes me think that if there isn't even a glimmer or evidence then there is a pretty good chance it doesn't exist.

    I think we are just biological machines where our sentience is an accidental byproduct of millions of years of evolution.

    It is quite natural to worry about what comes next but I find a comfort in thinking that all the most unpleasant people in history are not hanging about somewhere no doubt tormenting people in the afterlife just as they did in life.

    The afterlife would also get pretty crowded when you consider that at this point in time there have been around 100 billion people who have ever lived ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimates_of_historical_world_population ) so their telephone directory will be enormous.

    If you struggle in crowds then how does 100 billion sound?

    Then again since autism is caused by our brains and they obviously won't be there in the afterlife then will we still be autistic?

    Meh, too much vagueness, no proof and the answers all seem unpaletable so I'm sticking to my belief of it being lights out at the end.

  • in reply to Iain
    Iain said:

    There is no proof of life after death - I spent over 10 years studying this with the Society of Psychical Research and all the information I could find and all the tests we performed could find absolutely no conclusive proof.

    We have quite a good understanding of how the brain stores memories, and it does involve physical structures and processes.

    This implies that after our bodies die, our memories die with it. So if our spirit did survive, it wouldn't remember who we were, who we loved, what mattered to us.

  • in reply to A

    Is it correct to equate our fundamental sense of self with our memories? What about people who have illnesses which change or distort these memories? How accurate are they anyway in a healthy person? These are questions to consider.

    I realise everything I'm talking about so far is deviating from the OP which is more about having trouble with dealing with existential matters rather than existential matters per se.

  • in reply to A
    A said:
    Deepthought said:
    You seem not to have considered the holographic theory where the cerebral brain processes memories rather than as storing them, remembering that people have lost considerable proportions of their cerebral anatomy, in part or whole, and have not lost the ability to recall or remember things. The process of memory recall can and does end up being compromised to some extent in particular cases, but not all. Neural linguistic programming for instance helps people to circumnavigate neural network damage ~ such as for example learning to write with the non-disabled hand after strokes

    That is because neural networks store information  in a distributed manner, but when the brain dies, that is all lost.

    Lost from and by the body though decomposition, yes, of course.

  • in reply to Deepthought
    Deepthought said:
    You seem not to have considered the holographic theory where the cerebral brain processes memories rather than as storing them, remembering that people have lost considerable proportions of their cerebral anatomy, in part or whole, and have not lost the ability to recall or remember things. The process of memory recall can and does end up being compromised to some extent in particular cases, but not all. Neural linguistic programming for instance helps people to circumnavigate neural network damage ~ such as for example learning to write with the non-disabled hand after strokes

    That is because neural networks store information  in a distributed manner, but when the brain dies, that is all lost.

  • in reply to A
    A said:
    "I" am the collection of physical structures, experiences, memories and beliefs that have accumulated in this body. If those things were gone I would be something else, not me.

    You assume as such that you are a human 'body' and not a human 'being' ~ and given:

    A said:

    We have quite a good understanding of how the brain stores memories, and it does involve physical structures and processes.

    This implies that after our bodies die, our memories die with it. So if our spirit did survive, it wouldn't remember who we were, who we loved, what mattered to us.

    You seem not to have considered the holographic theory where the cerebral brain processes memories rather than as storing them, remembering that people have lost considerable proportions of their cerebral anatomy, in part or whole, and have not lost the ability to recall or remember things. The process of memory recall can and does end up being compromised to some extent in particular cases, but not all. Neural linguistic programming for instance helps people to circumnavigate neural network damage ~ such as for example learning to write with the non-disabled hand after strokes.

  • in reply to A

    Sure it would be their clones!

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