LC Q
scared that when I die, I will never experience being anything until the end of the universe and so on. Nothing will ever happen again forever. Will I ever be conscious again? Will science ever find out if something will ever wake up as I am now?
I’m scared that when I die, I will never experience being anything until the end of the universe and so on. Nothing will ever happen again forever.
I agree: When we die, that is the end of our conscious experiences. Why be afraid of it? You won’t know you’re not conscious. You won’t be bored, or angry, or tired, or in pain. You just won’t… be.
In my opinion, it’s not something to be afraid of. It’s inevitable anyway; why waste the precious few years we do have worrying about the ones we don’t?
Will I ever be conscious again?
Well, some people think you have a soul that persists after death, and maybe that soul is even conscious. Not me. I’m a hardcore materialist: consciousness is an emergent property of a functioning brain, and when the brain stops working, consciousness flips off like a switch.
Will science ever find out if something will ever wake up as I am now?
Almost certainly not. When your brain dies, (usually due to hypoxia caused by cardiac arrest or arterial blockage) it starts to break down quickly. There’s a short window in which medical science can “re-start” the brain by restoring the flow of oxygenated blood, but we’re talking seconds, maybe minutes, not years.
Some science fiction writers have toyed with the idea that a person’s consciousness could be uploaded into a computer. I’m skeptical that this will ever be possible, but even if it is, it’s not you. It’s a digital copy of you. There will be no continuity of experience from the cessation of consciousness in your flesh-and-blood body to the activation of the digital clone.
Bottom line: Death is one of the few things we know will happen to all of us. The process of dying might be harsh, depending on how it happens, but death will be an infinite period of non-existence, as far as the dead are concerned. Don’t spend your life being afraid of death; enjoy your life while it lasts.
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