Re: How do you calm down the hot-heads? / Death meme

From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Thu Aug 21 2003 - 10:41:04 MDT

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    On Thu, 21 Aug 2003 ankara@baynet.net wrote:

    > Isn't there a difference between believing [in death]

    This sounds like the "Leon Kass" position -- i.e. people *should* die.

    > and the awareness of it?

    This sounds like the everyone else who has had someone close to them die.
    (Death, currently, is part of reality.)

    > Wouldn't the absence of an awareness of death seem like immortality?

    Perhaps, but it is hard to maintain that lack of awareness at this time
    unless you are very very young.

    > Why can't we construct a better matter transmutation?

    If I understand this statement properly, I have toyed with this idea.
    It would be the ability to leave behind and make available to others
    all of ones knowledge, experiences and history separately from ones spirit,
    consciousness or free will. It is kind of like bequeathing "What you
    are" but not "Who you are". I would tend to view this as a reasonably
    extropic action, particularly if the technology were available to allow
    anyone to pick up the information base. But I think that requires individuals
    in an uploaded form and we don't know yet if that is really possible.

    Robert



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