For some wierd reason, I got to thinking about death.

[Theophilis]

“All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable."

REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.

"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little?"

YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

"So we can believe the big ones?"

YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.

"They're not the same at all!"

YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET?Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME... SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.

"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point?"

MY POINT EXACTLY.”

From Terry Pratchetts Hogfather

[Moe]

Your life is just as important to you as the ants is to it.

That is unlikely. What are you basing this on? The ant isn't self aware. It doesn't know that it exists. It protects itself to s certain degree out of instinct, but it's unlikely that it can experience fear of death or appreciate life or anything like that.

[Mullertime]

To me, pondering death is like watching a film / playing a game whilst lamenting what would happen after the credits

Anything else I have to say... well, LoCo pretty much summed up my views with far greater eloquency. I've never understood the hunt for the "meaning of life" - Why life has to be an existential mission... and not just a little bit of time to smile. I'm all for the idea of "pass it on" - Receive happiness, enjoy it, then share it around. It's why I like to make music in my spare time - I've received a lot of enjoyment from music, and love the thought of just passing that feeling on to someone else and letting them experience the same joy

Would you rather people said "He found his life's meaning" or "He lived the best life he could"?

The way I see it, if you achieve the latter, then the former has taken care of itself

[mlai]

Nietzsche had already reflected on death, in the concept of eternal recurrence. And the way he puts it... is actually pretty logical.

1. You are made up of atoms and molecules that came out of the deaths of stars. What composes you exactly, will never be destroyed in this universe. They will always be around.
2. Given the unfathomable vastness of the universe, after you die, it is only a matter of inevitable probability that one day you will be reformed/reborn, into you again, exactly as you were.
3. It may take countless eons. But so what? It's not as if you feel the passage of those countless eons from the time of your previous death. From your perspective, the second you died is the second you are reborn.
4. Therefore, we are all as the Phoenix, endless and immortal, reincarnating in the universe until the end of all time.

P.S. I just quoted Nietzsche. Fear me.

[Moe]

Yeah, that's not how it works. The universe is vast, but not endless, and it does have an expiration date. That aside though, even if all of those assumptions came true, you wouldn't remember it. So it'd be more like a copy or clone of you running around.

[Ewokz]

Well assuming what Mlai said was true, the "reincarnated" version of you would technically be you, right down to the memories, as long as those particle that make you up now were both exactly the same particles that make up the future version of you.

Of course its impossible so its rather a moot point.

[Moe]

Well assuming what Mlai said was true, the "reincarnated" version of you would technically be you, right down to the memories, as long as those particle that make you up now were both exactly the same particles that make up the future version of you.

Again, that's not how it works. It's not how memory works, it's not how life works, and it's not how quantum physics works.

[Black]

as long as those particle that make you up now were both exactly the same particles that make up the future version of you.

All particles of the same type are indistinguishable.

[Moe]

Get your hands off my leptons, dude.

[mlai]

So what if it's a "clone"?
If you fell down and got total amnesia tomorrow, are you gonna say "Welp, I can't remember my past at all. It's basically like I've died. I might as well go shoot myself now"?
You wouldn't think that way. You would still consider yourself alive. You would still consider yourself "you."

[LoCo]

Actually I'd think of myself as a completely different person.

It would be basically like the old me died.

But why would I shoot myself? You're right, I wouldn't think that way.

But I would consider the old me dead and the new me alive. And no, I wouldn't consider both the old me and the new me 'me'. Just the new me is 'me'. The old me is someone else.

[Flagg]

@Moe, well whether an ant is self aware or not in not important, if it tries to protect it's own life when threatened out of instinct, does it still not hold some value over its existence?

[Ewokz]

Loco do you then consider moments of your life that you can't remember as other people? Say ages 0-15?

@Moe yeah I know, pretty much why I wrote it was impossible below it

[Moe]

Mlai: what Loco said, though this really gets into the realm of philosophy.
Flagg: I see ants more like tiny little robots. Self-preservation, to a degree I might add, is part of their comparatively simple programming. That doesn't mean that they "hold value over their lives" the way humans do. Humans think "I don't want to die". An ant doesn't think, and it doesn't know what wanting is.

[Belgarion]

Ants will unthinkingly defend a nest. A human will way up the odds of survival against the prospect of helping in a meaningful way. Its more a matter of nature over nurture but in the ants case they have virtually no nurture

[LoCo]

Ewokz: That's fading memory over time.

I was answering a complete memory wipe situation. The two are distinctly different.

With fading memory there is a slow, natural transition from one to the other. Like the shedding of dead skin. My personality is formed from this process and will continue to form along those same lines. Further, I'm not entirely sure that the time-frame you provided is realistic. Most people can easily remember things from before they were 10. Most people also remember at least one or two things from before they reached 5. Myself, I have trouble even with remembering anything before 8, but my wife remembers things from when she was 2.

What you are talking about is also a mix of philosophy and science since I think, not sure, that those old memories are still there, the neural pathways or something have just either broken or have shifted. It is possible for those pathways to be re-constructed and the data to be retrieved. (At least, from what I understand, though I'm not too clued up on it)

The key point, though, which I think you are trying to get at is "Am I the same person my whole life?"... Well, it's rather complex and depends on how you look at it. In my early years I'm still being formed. Like a painting that's getting painted. Some of the brush strokes won't be visible in the final painting. Some of the paint will be covered over either to produce a different texture or colour. Just because the finished work doesn't show those things as they originally are doesn't mean that while it was being worked on it was a different painting.

At this point in my life there isn't much that is added that will be covered or hidden when the work is finished. So anything new that gets added now will be visible at the end. The picture that is me is mostly complete, just touchups and stuff now. But those hidden brush strokes and paint (the 'lost' memories) were needed to get me where I am now.

But in a case where I lose all my memories... that's like the canvas being covered by a new one. I'll never end up with exactly the same painting as I did before. And as soon as I wake up in the hospital I'll already be painting new memories. My first memories will then not be "when I was 6 I..." instead my very first memory will be waking up in hospital with strangers everywhere.

Forgetting some things and remembering others is not the same as forgetting everything.

There is also the example of not being able to form new memories (no short term memory retention). It's at that point where the painting is left unfinished but the person lives on. But I'm getting wildly off topic.

I'll tell you something though, I'd much rather have amnesia than Alzheimer's. It's the difference between a quick death and a long drawn out one.

When I was younger I wasn't a different person, I was just the early stages of the person I would become. Remembered or not, those experiences helped to form me, shape me into the person I was. I may not remember the experiences themselves, but I do still have their imprint on my mind and on my emotions.

But amnesia? That's a clean canvas. A new you.

EDIT: Sorry, this was written in a rush and I don't think I've explained myself at all well here. I might give it another shot tonight.