Discussion Are we bound to experience?

[Superdeterminist]

Suicide brings an end to our individual experience, and we can't experience death, so we will only ever know life. Even if we grant that death can be experienced however, this leads to the same conclusion of being bound to experience, only we would become bound a new reality of death, whatever that could possibly look or feel like. Assuming, reasonably, that only life can ever be experienced, this would mean that we are condemned to a new life immediately after death, i.e. reincarnation (it's more suitable to call it incarnation). As long as brains continue to be birthed, this will continue indefinitely.

This idea doesn't at all invalidate suicide however, because we know that our experiences are localised to ourselves as individuals, so suicide would effectively just be a kind of re-roll of the dice. The implementation of assisted suicide then becomes even more appealing, because it would allow these dice to be re-rolled far more quickly and efficiently when people wish to do so, so that life can roll high more often when it feels it has rolled too low, resulting in a world consisting only of happy people (they are happy enough to want to stay).

Thoughts, opinions, refutations welcome.

 

[death137]

I'm addicted to your writings.

 

[Checkmate3]

The idea of reincarnation scares me, because it means that reality is a prison from which it's impossible to escape even after death.

As long as brains continue to be birthed, this will continue indefinitely.

I read on the news that tomorrow a large asteroid will pass close to Earth. I'll draw a huge red cross on my roof so it won't miss our planet. So no more brains to keep us here.

 

[Superdeterminist]

The idea of reincarnation scares me, because it means that reality is a prison from which it's impossible to escape even after death.



I read on the news that tomorrow a large asteroid will pass close to Earth. I'll draw a huge red cross on my roof so it won't miss our planet. So no more brains to keep as here.

Lmao. Although personally I find it hard to believe that earth is the only planet harbouring conscious life in all of reality, so ending earth would not be ending life. That's entirely conjecture though obviously.

 

[TheQ22]

Talking, analysing and over thinking leads to procrastination and inaction.

 

[televised_suicide]

You have perfectly articulated thoughts I had been struggling to put into words myself.

 

[feast or famine]

The idea of this absolutely petrifies me because if I had a choice in the matter, I would never want to exist on earth again. At all. Not even if the next life was completely different or better. Not even if I could make different choices that could spare myself pain. I find the human experience to be a curse. That's not to say I wouldn't want to exist elsewhere, though, or my consciousness anyways. Just not here...if you get my point, haha.

 

[Superdeterminist]

The idea of this absolutely petrifies me because if I had a choice in the matter, I would never want to exist on earth again. At all. Not even if the next life was completely different or better. Not even if I could make different choices that could spare myself pain. I find the human experience to be a curse. That's not to say I wouldn't want to exist elsewhere, though, or my consciousness anyways. Just not here...if you get my point, haha.

I couldn't and wouldn't blame you, there is so much pain here.

 

[souljah222]

i have very similar thought, you put it very nice into words tho

 

[Jojo81]

Based on Physics, we know Energy can neither be created nor destroyed.. What happens to our energy after our Death?

 

[esse_est_percipi]

Suicide brings an end to our individual experience, and we can't experience death, so we will only ever know life

Yes, we aren't 'there' to experience nothingness.

Assuming that we never had any past lives before our birth (and if we did it still wouldn't change the main point), the 13.7 billion years before we were actually born were not 'experienced' by our 'pre-existence selves', since there are no pre-existent amorphous nearly-selves (probably) waiting around in a dark void for the right opportunity to be born.

Those 13.7 billion years may as well have been 13.7 miliseconds from our subjective viewpoints.

Assuming, reasonably, that only life can ever be experienced, this would mean that we are condemned to a new life immediately after death, i.e. reincarnation

Assuming that this particular spacetime universe is all there is, and that consciousness cannot exist independently of brains, yes.

But even if consciousness can exist independently of brains in some astral hyperdimension or sub-quantum dimension, this would still be experience of something i.e. not an experience of complete nothingness.
Whether you want to call that experience of another dimension 'life' is just a question of semantics. I think that the main point is experience/consciousness of something.

So whether reincarnation is a possibility and we are reincarnated (which would subjectively be experienced as instantaneous rebirth whether the new 'us' is conceived 1 second or 1 billion years after our death) or whether consciousness persists in some other dimension after death, or even if neither of these are true, we can only ever know experience of something/consciousness.
And time periods in which 'we' do not 'exist' organically or otherwise cannot be said to be 'experienced' in any sense whatsoever.

so suicide would effectively just be a kind of re-roll of the dice

Not necessarily. If buddhism has got it right then there is nothing random or stochastic about rebirth. The determination of the specific location of rebirth/shift in consciousness perspective is a product of karma i.e. intentions and actions of a lifetime having good or bad consequences. 'The universe does not play dice', to modify a famous quote.

 

[ojinzo]

Lmao. Although personally I find it hard to believe that earth is the only planet harbouring conscious life in all of reality, so ending earth would not be ending life. That's entirely conjecture though obviously.

I concur.

The idea of this absolutely petrifies me because if I had a choice in the matter, I would never want to exist on earth again. At all. Not even if the next life was completely different or better. Not even if I could make different choices that could spare myself pain. I find the human experience to be a curse. That's not to say I wouldn't want to exist elsewhere, though, or my consciousness anyways. Just not here...if you get my point, haha.

I agree with this too.