Our attempts to defeat death.

[peter]

Humans have attempted to conquer death in three ways - two of which are related.

Firstly we attempted to do it with religion. That, when all said and done, was the basis of all religion. Where do we go when we die; are we forever lost to the World. Emphatically not [says religion]. You....i) enter the sprit realm where the ancestors go and a Shamen will occasionally pop in to say Hi...... ii) Just get recycled over and over and over untill you get clever enough not to need to be anymore and then you're in another place altogether! .........iii) get to go to the Land of Milk and Honey, where all you have lost will be returned to you and you get to do good stuff all the time untill - well, forever [or if you've been bad, well, best not dwell on that.]

Secondly we attempt to do it with medicine. On the face of it doctors will say they are in the business of making people well, aleviating the suffering that illness causes - but ultimately it's all about cheating death. If I have a heart attack, the system swings into action in it's attempt to drag me back. Cancer has to be erradicated, Old age has to be pushed further and further away. Death is the final goal that medicine confronts - and it won't give up intill it understands why and how we age, and how it can be perevented or circomvented.

And finally we have Physics. Physics and medicine hold hands in their primary attempt to defeat death. If we can strip down brain function to it's basic coinage of elctrochemical signals, reproduce it and upload the information onto a hard drive or whatever, we can live a virtual life, be beamed from our home to the far reaches of the Universe, improve and adjust ourselves untill we have the power of gods - oh yes, and never die. the secondary attempt of physics to defeat death is to demonstrate that in actuallity, all of that stuff is really a waste of time anyway - because in truth you never die anyway. There is always a Universe somewhere where you are alive doing your thing [or all the things that you wished you'd got to do but never achieved - and the other stuff as well]. Or it may be that time is just an illusion and that in reality all of it exists all the time anyway, so the subjective 'life and death' you imagine are really just illusion anyway - you exist, you always have, you always will.

[finally I should include the sub-catagory of the 'ok - death exists, we can't do shit about it so lets just get out and have a good time and stop worrying about it' mentality. Still in it's own way, an attempt to defeat death.]

[Avatar]

I would say technology, not physics. And that whole virtual life thing will probably happen, although it is likely to be a simulacrum of life at best, at least for some time, if not always.

--A

[peter]

Like pleasure is a simulacrum of happiness; it ain't perfect but it fills a gap.

[Fist and Faith]

This is how you defeat death: https://youtu.be/nltU_HFjqaI

[Avatar]

Like R A Wilson said, I intend to live forever, or die trying.

--A

[peter]

I just think that existence is more significant than 'life'. We can't even define clearly the boarders between animate and inanimate - and that's because they are illusory. But to exist! That is something that while the universe lasts, can never be taken from you!

[Avatar]

Except you won't know it, and soon nor will anybody else.

Nope, to live is more important than to exist.

--A

[peter]

The vast bulk of our lives are already lost to our memory - and we miss it not one jot or tittle. No more do we miss life in toto when it is gone. Life is the source of all our pleasure, all our pain, existence simply is. Dust to dust, ashes to ashes, matter to matter ...........
Existence is the natural state toward which our matter strives. To live is a futile (but nevertheless majestic) attempt to swim against the current.

[Avatar]

In the long run though, our existence is as meaningless as our lives. If we're going to be here at all, we might as well make the most of it.

--A

[peter]

I completely agree with that Av - though my liver has caveats to add.

[Avatar]

Tell your liver it's not in charge.

--A

[peter]

.......it begs to differ!

(One of nature's little kindness's that we have been endowed with about ten times more liver than we actually need .)

[Avatar]

How convenient.

--A

[hierachy]

Even if you manage to digitise your consciousness or otherwise liberate it from your mortal flesh, every form must eventually fade. Entropy will see to your end one way or another.

[peter]

Well yes, entropy will always triumph unless ....

[Avatar]

Hey Hier!

--A