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comment by _refugee_

On a tangent, I would refuse the singularity if offered.





thenewgreen  ·  3559 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I'll bite on the tangent. I was recently at a bar in Wilmington NC and had a great conversation with a guy there that also said he'd pass on it.

"But what about immortality and the ability to be the best version of yourself etc...?"

"no thanks." Was his reply.

Immortaility, it's not for everybody.

What is your reason for "refusing?"

_refugee_  ·  3559 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I don't think that I talked about this in the thread about death we had recently. I think I watched that thread but didn't participate. I can't remember much more than that otherwise I'd try to find it. We were all talking about how we feel about death and dying.

A long time ago I used to agonize over the fact that I'd eventually die and fade away and my life would be "pointless" and, therefore, what was even the point of living day-to-day? (I used to be a big "destination" person, not a big "journey" person, if that makes sense.) In coming to accept my mortality I have come to see it as a beautiful thing which I look forward to. I am not afraid of death. I find the idea that we all disappear into nothing at the end of our lives is, in a way, a giant relief.

I've had one or two people say that the way I approach death is depressing. I find it factual and in its factuality reassuring. Mark Twain said "I do not fear death. I was dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and did not suffer any inconvenience from it." (Or something similar.) That is kind of how I feel.

I want my life to matter, which it will & does to a certain select group of people, and then I want it to stop mattering. Because everything stops mattering at some point, and that's not a bad thing. That's life.

I think immortality would become, in many ways, a burden. I think it would take some of the joy out of life. I think knowing that you don't get all of the sunsets makes each sunset you get more valuable. And those are more valuative statements that people can disagree with or not, based on economics and sentiment and a bunch of other things, but at the crux of it, I find the idea that I am going to disappear into nothing reassuring and grounding.

Would you live forever, tng? It sounds like you might - be the best version of yourself - I think as someone with children you are also approaching this from a different angle than I do.