We will all die

[matt_mcl]

Someone: Well, why have you made your will and planned your funeral? That’s kind of weird.
Me: Because I’m going to die.
Someone: looks at me in horror
Me: Not right now!

[panamajack]

@Idlewild

When I get in a “we’re all going to die after all” mood, I like to listen to Do You Realize, by the Flaming Lips. It’s the happiest “we’re all going to die after all” song ever. I highly recommend it to the morbidly brooding sort.

Hi Everybody!
(I thought of that song as well.)

[Anne_Neville]

@Autolycus

Someday you know, we’re all going to die. Being in a morbid mood, I just felt like pointing that out. It’s obvious obviously, but I mean, it really makes you think.

And the sun will burn out, too.

[Achren]

@hotflungwok

When you reach 30 or so, you’ve already hit your peak, and probably don’t know it. From there, your eyesight will dim, your hearing will worsen, your memory will fade, your digestive tract will become less tolerant, your joints will stiffen, your muscles will hurt more, and all those injuries bad enough to scar you will make themselves known again. Your body will slowly deteriorate until this process kills you. You’ve had the ride, it’s all downhill from here.

I asked my doctor one day about how my night vision wasn’t so good anymore. His was response was ‘Well, you’re getting old.’ I was appalled. Old? I was only 30. Not even half my life expectancy!. You mean that was it? That back there, that was the best my body will ever be? Oh shit, that’s seriously fucked up. I’m not taking this aging thing well.

My Psych of Aging class was easily the most depressing class for this very reason.

[Autumn_Almanac]

Am I the only one who finds this fact oddly comforting? Whenever I make a mistake, embarrass myself, or disappoint someone, it’s somehow reassuring to think that in 100 years no one will care because I and everyone I know will be dead.

[TroubleAgain]

We will all die

Yeah, but how many of us are really living? (I know I’m doing my best!)

[pizzabrat]

@Antinor01

Yes, we will all die. But then again, so what? For some reason that concept has never bothered me at all.

Ditto. I can’t figure out those who are freaked out by the idea.

[Quiddity_Glomfuster]

@hotflungwok

When you reach 30 or so, you’ve already hit your peak, and probably don’t know it. From there, your eyesight will dim, your hearing will worsen, your memory will fade, your digestive tract will become less tolerant, your joints will stiffen, your muscles will hurt more, and all those injuries bad enough to scar you will make themselves known again. Your body will slowly deteriorate until this process kills you. You’ve had the ride, it’s all downhill from here.

Fah. I am past 30 and since then, my boobs grew, my hair got curly, and my eyes improved.

Heck, when I was younger I often felt utterly wretched when I got up in the morning. I think I had a lot of anxiety attacks in my late teens and early twenties. Now they are very rare and I can deal with them and cut them short.

Fitness means a lot - haven’t you seen those studies where people who have been exercising are in better physical shape than their younger peers? I almost never eat meat and I exercise regularly (though not as much as I should) and I feel pretty darn good.

I don’t mind the idea of dying, but there are quite a few things I’d like to do before I go. It is, however, good to remind yourself that life is short - it’s too easy to let time go by and not get around to doing the things you really want to do. At least for me it has been. I have several things on my Life List crossed off but I have a few to add and I really need to get more of them done.

[CalMeacham]

Fah. I am past 30 and since then, my boobs grew, my hair got curly, and my eyes improved.

The problem is, these can happen to guys after 30, too.

[Heffalump_and_Roo]

@Autolycus

Someday you know, we’re all going to die. Being in a morbid mood, I just felt like pointing that out. It’s obvious obviously, but I mean, it really makes you think.

Autolycus, if this is just a passing mood, fine. But if this is depression, please pick up the phone and call your doctor. And only you know the difference.

I just made a post yesterday claiming that we weren’t encouraging your depressive, self-destructive behavior. Please don’t make me regret it.

[Autolycus]

@Heffalump and Roo

Autolycus, if this is just a passing mood, fine. But if this is depression, please pick up the phone and call your doctor. And only you know the difference.

I just made a post yesterday claiming that we weren’t encouraging your depressive, self-destructive behavior. Please don’t make me regret it.

I’m not depressed nor self-destructing. Can’t a guy contemplate his own mortality once in a while? Sheesh.

[Anne_Neville]

@Autumn Almanac

Am I the only one who finds this fact oddly comforting? Whenever I make a mistake, embarrass myself, or disappoint someone, it’s somehow reassuring to think that in 100 years no one will care because I and everyone I know will be dead.

And it really won’t matter once the sun goes red giant a few billion years from now. Astronomy can be reassuring, in its way…

You might also find Lazlo’s Chinese Relativity Axiom reassuring:

No matter how great your triumphs, or tragic your defeats, approximately one billion Chinese couldn’t care less.

[Antinor01]

@Autolycus

I’m not depressed nor self-destructing. Can’t a guy contemplate his own mortality once in a while? Sheesh.

Oh come on, you’re not new here. Dontcha know that everything you say will be picked apart and analyzed?

(I don’t think you sounded depressed, morbid moments can be fun in their way)

[Heffalump_and_Roo]

@Autolycus

I’m not depressed nor self-destructing. Can’t a guy contemplate his own mortality once in a while? Sheesh.

A random guy can ponder anything he likes. You, on the other hand, have had enough written by you and about you that this thread throws up red flags. If you want me to link to said writings, let me know.

[Kythereia]

@Anne Neville

And it really won’t matter once the sun goes red giant a few billion years from now. Astronomy can be reassuring, in its way…

I’m not sure, but I think we’re also scheduled for a dust-up with the Andromeda galaxy about that time, too.

Just in case, you know, it mattered after the sun blew up.

[Anne_Neville]

@Kythereia

I’m not sure, but I think we’re also scheduled for a dust-up with the Andromeda galaxy about that time, too.

Just in case, you know, it mattered after the sun blew up.

Yeah, but stars are far enough apart that colliding with the Andromeda galaxy probably won’t affect us nearly as much as the sun blowing up.

[Dunawake]

@Captain_C

Dead guy: “I was kind of expecting my life to flash before my eyes or something.”

Death: “YES, THAT IS WHAT YOU JUST DID FOR THE LAST 35 YEARS.”

Dead guy: “oh”

Yeah, the first thing that occurred to me with this thread were Discworld Death quotes

[Quiddity_Glomfuster]

@CalMeacham

@Quiddity Glomfuster

Fah. I am past 30 and since then, my boobs grew, my hair got curly, and my eyes improved.

The problem is, these can happen to guys after 30, too.The problem is, these can happen to guys after 30, too.

I just bought some new bras. I can recommend a brand if you like

[xanthous]

here’s the thing that freaks me out sometimes about dying: the idea that one day I will. not. exist. anymore. The things I think about, the things that make me who I am, the fact that I love mint chocolate chip above all else. It’ll all just be gone. I hate the idea that one day I won’t be me anymore. I won’t be anything. Done. That kinda sucks sometimes.
Carry on!

[Nancarrow]

Richard Dawkins starts out “Unweaving The Rainbow” with this (paraphrased from memory):

“We are all going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most of us are never going to die, because most of us have never been born.”

I find that a remarkably comforting affirmation of the miracles of life and sentience, made all the more potent by coming from a totally secular viewpoint.
(I should also point out that I do not intend to die for at least another million years, as I’m going to become a swarm of resilient distributed-consciousness nanomachines. I just haven’t worked out all the details yet.)