IamAlia
Wee Gulp
I may be a dork, but my hair knows how to party.
Posts: 84
|
Post by IamAlia on Nov 27, 2003 23:57:38 GMT -5
"On a long enough timeline the survival rate of everyone drops to zero" -Tyler Durden
Approaching my 17th full year of evading death and considering the paradoxical significance my birthday has in my life, I begin to wonder exactly what causes/ allows death...
Is there some sort of Karmic destiny that causes my moment of death no matter what I do to avoid it or it is just some sort of random "whoops, probably shouldn't have walked in front of that moving bus" type of things?
Personally, I think it's destiny and defiance, destiny can want you dead, but you can you can belate your death with some force of will
|
|
|
|
Post by The Wanderer on Nov 28, 2003 12:56:30 GMT -5
"On a long enough timeline the survival rate of everyone drops to zero" -Tyler Durden Approaching my 17th full year of evading death and considering the paradoxical significance my birthday has in my life, I begin to wonder exactly what causes/ allows death... Is there some sort of Karmic destiny that causes my moment of death no matter what I do to avoid it or it is just some sort of random "whoops, probably shouldn't have walked in front of that moving bus" type of things? Personally, I think it's destiny and defiance, destiny can want you dead, but you can belate your death with some force of will I believe it may be a bit of both... I don't believe in the entire "it happened for a reason" thing though. Sometimes unexpected things happen and people die for no reason than they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. You can only do so much to prevent your own death. That's why you don't hide and be all conservative, because in the end we all must one day die. So why live in fear from something that has already been determined? No regrets, no doubts, no fear, just live! |
|
|
|
Post by ♫MysteriousMan♫ on Nov 28, 2003 21:56:05 GMT -5
Have you ever seen X-Men the movie? I faintly remember something like Wolverine (Logan, whatever) had the ability to heal rapidly through his mutation. They said his age was indeterminate because as his body aged and deteriorated, it healed so he never really got old.
I believe that when you die of "natural" causes like heart attack, cancer, or just plain getting too old, that is your body wearing out, getting used up, like batteries. When batteries die in your flashlight, the bulb still works, but the batterys don't, so the whole flashlight stops working.
This leads me to think that our mind, if it was able to, would live for longer periods of time than out bodies, because you never die of overthinking or your brain never runs out.
Plus, if you take into consideration that you can get shot, crushed, maimed, impaled, ran over, slip into a coma, suffocate, etc., this supports my point that our bodies are the weak point of our being.
In conclusion, our bodies are weak ass shields that protect us. One bullet, or one hundred years can both deteriorate your heart and kill you. Basically, once we find out how to make our bodies last longer, or not experience fatal wounds, we can live longer.
|
|
Clump
X-Treme Gulp
Stop Buggering Me
Posts: 437
|
Post by Clump on Nov 28, 2003 22:25:15 GMT -5
Well David, I think you hit the nail on the head with that one. That is pretty much how it seems and pretty much how I like to think of it.
|
|
Eskimo
Big Gulp
cast in the name of god
Posts: 230
|
Post by Eskimo on Dec 1, 2003 15:39:10 GMT -5
but what about senile old people? doesn't it follow that if your brain was implanted in the body of a sultry 20-yr-old vixen, you would still have the mind of a wrinkly old octegenarian with liver spots and the smell of death wisping from your armpits? Except with none of the death smell or spots or wrinkles; just the brain, I mean. If you flip out and start seeing freakin pink elephants everywhere when you're 90, you won't get cured just 'cause you've got a new ride, ya know? by ride i mean body of course and of course by body I mean a young vibrant one straight from the axlotl tanks of Forever Young , Inc.
|
|
|
|
Post by Liek on Dec 1, 2003 16:47:59 GMT -5
As George Carlin says, "Everyday I beat my own record for the number of consecutive days I've stayed alive."
It all comes down to time, I guess. Our human perception of time is what measures life. So in a matter of time, everybody dies. Fun, I guess.
About things happening without reason, I don't believe that. Everything that happens has to happen, simply because it happens. That may not make sense, but think about it, if nobody died, we'd be so crowded right now... things may happen and seem completly spontaneous and un-provoked, but there's always a reason, even if it's just "wrong place and time."
|
|
|
|
Post by The Wanderer on Dec 1, 2003 17:52:45 GMT -5
things may happen and seem completly spontaneous and un-provoked, but there's always a reason, even if it's just "wrong place and time." That's not really a reason per se. You're basically saying the reason is "because random things happen." Isn't that basically like saying there is no reason? |
|
DarkNightmare
X-Treme Gulp
Well, I dreamed that the world was comin' down, We sat on my back porch, and watched it...
Posts: 475
|
Post by DarkNightmare on Dec 1, 2003 21:53:38 GMT -5
Hey, I read somewhere that every cycle (cycle being a certain length of time that our bodies go through) a certain something (chemical, hormone, etc.) is produced at a declining rate. It is the lack of this THING that causes us to die. Presently, research is being done to produce this THING. If they succeed, you and I can live forever. cool stuff. You can wait until your faith is strong enough for you and then you can die. A bullet'll still kill ya though. Don't know how recent that is, or even if it's all true, but I did read that somewhere, and it wasn't a sci-fi book...
|
|
|
|
Post by Wilshire on Dec 1, 2003 22:15:21 GMT -5
Death exists because we, as biological organisms, eventually stop ticking. Why? Organs grow and develop, and at some point stop developing, and eventually just stop. It probably has to do with chemical balances and such. A heart can stop because it just "wears itself out" so to speak. Its fragile, and its been beating for 80 years, its gonna stop sometime.
There is no predestination. We can't just will to stay alive. Eventually we stop living because its part of our nature, or because we do something that directly causes our death (getting hit by a bus). Death is part of being alive (sort of). Life eventually ends in death, speaking in a biological sense.
|
|
Eskimo
Big Gulp
cast in the name of god
Posts: 230
|
Post by Eskimo on Dec 2, 2003 12:52:51 GMT -5
excellent point. look around, and you will see that death is an integral part of life. so much so, that Freud proposed a 'death instinct', or thanatos (Greek). He used the example of salmon, who return to their place of birth every few years to spawn a new generation...
and die.
indeed, death brings a necessary end, closure if you will, to the experience called living. It ensures that the species will continue moving, growing and inventing; if noone died, then we would have a bunch of 100-thousand-some year old guys running the world, men and women whose talents, ideas, compunctions and compulsions would never be exchanged for the next generation's. Death and birth allow for a cycle of renewing that would not be possible if people lived indefinitely.
And who the hell would want to live forever anyway?
|
|
IamAlia
Wee Gulp
I may be a dork, but my hair knows how to party.
Posts: 84
|
Post by IamAlia on Dec 2, 2003 21:27:13 GMT -5
Hey, I read somewhere that every cycle (cycle being a certain length of time that our bodies go through) a certain something (chemical, hormone, etc.) is produced at a declining rate. It is the lack of this THING that causes us to die. Presently, research is being done to produce this THING. If they succeed, you and I can live forever. cool stuff. You can wait until your faith is strong enough for you and then you can die. A bullet'll still kill ya though. Don't know how recent that is, or even if it's all true, but I did read that somewhere, and it wasn't a sci-fi book... well, science has already discovered a certain manufacturer of this THING Tumors, like cancer, I mean, theoretically speaking you could just turn every bit of tissue in your body into a tumor and you'd live forever, mind you it'd be painful and you'd probably have eyeballs spontaneously generating out of your chest, but hey... |
|
Eskimo
Big Gulp
cast in the name of god
Posts: 230
|
Post by Eskimo on Dec 3, 2003 12:46:56 GMT -5
are you serious? a tumor by definition doesn't do anything, ya know, like think or beat or chew or see...
so you'd be just a blob, and that would suck hard.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Wanderer on Dec 3, 2003 19:11:23 GMT -5
Heh so we've gone from whether death is destined or random to the attempt to live forever by turning yourself into a giant tumor...all in just over ten posts!
Fun stuff.
As far as avoiding death...I don't know. I'm just not going to think about. All it does is hinder your ability to live. I'm going to go non-stop, with no worries and no regrets until the moment I drop dead. Then I'll be back for more of course...
|
|
|
|
Post by Mark617 on Dec 3, 2003 19:16:38 GMT -5
very true loki, life cant be lived by constantly looking over your shoulder trying to avoid death. i dont think that death is destined, everything has free-will (not necessarily in a religious way, just that we can do whatever we want) and those choices can lead to death at one time or another, but it is not set in stone
|
|
Eskimo
Big Gulp
cast in the name of god
Posts: 230
|
Post by Eskimo on Dec 4, 2003 12:47:18 GMT -5
does it even matter?
wether your death is destined or not, you can never know what it will be, therefore you will percieve your life as being controlled solely by your own actions, regardless of wether or not that is true
|
|
