Willa's Shortform

Willa

This is a special post for quick takes by Willa. Only they can create top-level comments. Comments here also appear on the Quick Takes page and All Posts page.

Several very important to me people whom I love told me that they would rather die than live even a few hundred years or indefinitely, that they would not choose cryopreservation if life extension capabilities aren't advanced enough by their "natural time", and so on, when I asked them how they felt about immortality (scenario was: imagine that humanity figures out how to be immortal and there are no restrictions, anyone can have it if they want it, do you take it yes or no?).

There's too much deathism in this world, aahhhhhhhhh. I've already started to mourn those people, and it hurts so fucking much, it literally is keeping me awake tonight...I was meditating then trying to sleep and reminders of their choice bubbled up and now here I am, typing away. Crying about and mourning the loss of loved ones who haven't died yet, but ultimately said that that was their preference over life extension / immortality.

It hurts so bad.

Writing this felt helpful somewhat, at least I've channeled those feelings and temporarily diminished their intensity, somewhat...well, back to trying to sleep.

I made the following claim in reply to wunan's comment below: "I make this claim: Individuals with sufficiently strong religious beliefs in a religion that has an afterlife will more often than not prefer to die on the "mortal plane" and go to their faith's afterlife than continue living (even in good health and restored to youth, etc.) for [100 more years] [300 more years] [lots more years] [the rest of time]."

I think there would be variation even amongst individuals with strong faith in the afterlife of their religion regarding how long they may wish to ... (read more)

1Willa5y

I wonder what the research area for "finding out whether people with strong beliefs in a religious afterlife of some kind change their minds near death regarding wanting to die vs wanting to go to that afterlife" is called? I do think you underestimate the strength of religious individual's convictions and the impact of that on their decisionmaking especially near death if they have significant faith in their religion's conception of an afterlife (assuming it has one). Still...staring imminent death in the face does spur many changes whenever an individual experiences that, so maybe that does shake things up...but, I'm not sure how much hope I place in that idea without seeing some research around the topic. I make this claim: Individuals with sufficiently strong religious beliefs in a religion that has an afterlife will more often than not prefer to die on the "mortal plane" and go to their faith's afterlife than continue living (even in good health and restored to youth, etc.) for [100 more years] [300 more years] [lots more years] [the rest of time]. I make that claim because of my experiences interacting with individuals who have very strong faith in their religious beliefs, including interacting with such individuals when they are near death. I need to figure out what kind of research people have already done that points in the direction of that claim and see what others have found, then I can pursue this inquiry further. I don't want to make a claim and forever rely on anecdote to support it!

1garbageactual5y

Believing in hell is the strategy against sinning.

Willa's Shortform

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Willa's Shortform

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